Port Townshend (East Jefferson Habitat for Humanity)

Port Townshend (East Jefferson County) HfH

The plan.  Finish up our work day in Bellingham on Saturday.  Sunday, we pack up and head to Port Townshend where we set up and start work Tuesday.  It seemed like such a good plan … but you know what they say about the best laid plans going astray. I picked up another virus and not only spent my last workday in Bellingham burrowed under blankets in bed with a fever but I missed our entire first work week in Port Townshend.  Martin even took me to the ER one night and our team of care-a-vanners tracked us down to make sure I was ok and see if we needed anything.  🩷  Despite our (my) rough start at Port Townshend,  we really loved our time there. 

Port Townshend is on a corner of the Olympic peninsula just across the Sound from Whidbey and a smattering of other islands.  It is a vibrant mix of artists, retirees and blue collar workers with a large dose of summer tourists all trying to live in harmony with the wilderness and climate of the Olympic peninsula and the indigenous peoples of the area. The East Jefferson County HfH (Port Townshend) was well organized and a great group of caring people to work with. But the best part, for me at least, was that it wasn't as hot! Here we were, outside, building, in July and only a few days were uncomfortably warm. We spent our time working with the three paid staff,  homeowners-to-be and many loyal local volunteers on a project of six single family homes that were being built semi-concurrently on a plot of land in a neighborhood. While we were there, we worked on houses 3, 4, 5 and 6 and the ground was prepped for the slab of house 2.

On to pics:

Main street in Port Townshend runs parallel to the sound with several of the buildings opening up with decks or porches in the back. Another main street goes up over a high bluff at one end of town and there is a long set of stairs, like over 100, that connect the upper and lower streets.  

Views about town.

Boats in the harbor 

an old cannery

many of the older buildings are of Victorian vintage

 and flowers abound

the opposite end from the ferry is the boat club

there are many outdoor venues for music, food and beverages which are even better when shared with family ❤️

(Stephanie, Peggy, Kelly, Martin and Ethan)

They had weekly music on the dock concerts

and people just hung out, danced and celebrated summer 

One weekend we went to a farmers market 

mushrooms growing in a bag

onions and garlic 

artisan bread

But, we were there to build houses, not just have fun.

There are many deer in the area and they are treated with complete respect and essentially have free reign so the deer feel quite at home just about anywhere. (Of course, people's gardens all have a minimum of a  6’ fence around them)

Visitors at the worksite

Love the velvet covered antlers 

They clearly wanted to keep an eye on us to make sure we were doing it right. Haha

Here's our crew from our second two weeks there. Bob and Sue are from Oregon, Dienska is from northern California and Julie from Central California. 

While Bellingham was all about framing, wall and roof building, and nail guns, Port Townshend was all about waterproofing, caulking all seams and painting all raw edges, measuring and using the different saws. I can now use a chop saw, a table saw and a skill saw, although I question my level of “skill” or maybe it's my arm strength with the skillsaw. Haha

Martin working with Larry, a care-a-vanner from our first two week build.

Dienska and I manhandling a giant sheet of osb board on the table saw 

It seems that one of the things we end up doing the most is moving stuff: 2x4, 2x6, osb boards, trim,  wood, insulation, scaffolding. You name it. We moved it, usually multiple times!

Sue and I making backer boards that went around windows, doors and along the bottom that the insulation is attached to.

Hey! Who's this handsome guy?

Here I am with the skill saw cutting the blueboard (insulation). 

Dienska and I work with the table saw. Houses 3-6 in the background. 

Yum! Look what I found in the snack box at break time!

House 6. 

We used a cement siding called hardie board. It was heavy! It also required all the seams to be caulked, but was a good choice for a wet environment. 

This is how it looked at the end of our first two week build.

And the end of our 2nd two week build. All the siding is on, batten is up covering the seams, trim is up

and inside … sheet rock up, mudding and texturing done.  It's a really nice space. Pic taken from kitchen. Two bedrooms in the back.

House 5.

I had to paint giant numbers on the houses because I kept mixing up which house they wanted us to work on. Haha.

At the beginning of our work here there weren't even any roof trusses up. But by the end of our first two weeks,  the roof was started.

And by the end of our second two weeks,  roof was on, windows and doors in and blueboard insulation about half up.

House 4. 

This was primarily contracted out to professionals,  but we caulked all the inside and outside seams and painted the raw edges of the osb board.

House 3 got windows, doors and trim for the blue board


Marrowstone Winery on Marrowstone island concerts on Friday nights turned out to be a great way to relax after work.

And they had gorgious flowers. This area grows the most beautiful dahlias.

poppies

These were pretty, I'm just not sure what they were. 

more dahlias 

Each day before we go to work, HfH care-a-vanners have devotions. We always end by standing in a circle holding hands  moving our hands into the circle and then raising our arms up as we say “Habitat’s not a handout,  it's a hand up!” ❤️


Next blog: Seattle summer 2025

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