Jenn, Callista and I went for a walk on Alki this morning.  We saw a Sea otter and a couple of seals out feeding in Elliot Bay.  Sadly we also saw a dead sea otter washed up on shore.  I could resist taking a few pictures with my phone.  I felt a bit morbid, oh well.

We hoped that he/she was just sleeping but it never came up for air.

Popularity: 86% [?]

I have the luxury of living next to West Seattle’s Big Dig.  Here are some pictures of the crane going up.  They started at the ripe hour of 5am this morning.  I will lead off with a shot taken in the middle of the assembly just cause it is my favorite:

Notice the other crane in the background?  That is for the Mural building being built on the former Petco parking lot.  The amount of building in West Seattle is just amazing.  I think that it is going to be great for the local businesses, as long as they are able to hold out against rising rents.

Popularity: 72% [?]

Moving into a town home in Seattle can be challenging.  Tight corners and stairwells coupled with a three or four story layout. As the density of our city increases, the number of town homes will inevitably increase, for several reasons to be discussed later. My wife and I live in a 1200sqft town home in the Alaska Junction neighborhood in West Seattle.  It is by far one of the coolest areas in Seattle.  We walk to everything.  Some of the cities best restaurants and cafe’s are within just a couple of blocks.

However getting furniture into our home was a challenge and is for most town home owners.  We bought a 9ft long sofa, it is soft and fuffy, but it wont fit through our stair well.  For about a year we converted our first floor bedroom into a “TV” room and avoided moving it into our “living” room on the second floor.  Recently we are expecting our first child and need to move our “office” from a third floor bedroom down to the first floor.  How to get the huge sofa up stairs to make room for the office?

Being an avid rock climber and mountaineer, ropes and rigging are my thing.  Check out this great system to get a couch to the middle floor in a typical West Seattle town home.  A little hoist and pull using a three to one pulley system and after removing the second story balcony.

We even have a little video of the final stages:

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Popularity: 96% [?]