hola, isabel

Dear Mr. Cantlookmeintheeyes*:

Hello. It was good to spend some time with you in the house yesterday. I hope I didn’t freak you out (too much) with my tears. I guess being pregnant adds to my emotions. Sorry.

Anyway, I really felt like I wanted to share some things with you yesterday but just couldn’t compose myself enough to do so. There are a few specific things that were extra important/special to me that I wanted to make sure you knew about.

I am not sure if this matters to you at all or not, but it was important to us that no work was ever done on the house on Sunday. We are pretty religious and this was something we choose early on in the project. And it also guaranteed that we would have one day off a week from working on the house.

Another thing that was important for me to share with you was the story of that darn railing around the top floor. Sure it looks awesome now, but it took me a long time to get it that way. The railing was “my project” and I worked on that bad boy all the time. It has about 5 coats of paint on it (because after I had started the first few coats I decided I wanted a to use a different kind of paint). I swear to you that I spent the better part of the last 2 years painting that thing. It was my nemesis. (That goes for all the trim as well.)

The house has good karma and will be a great place for you. It was built by The King and I with nothing but love. The King, myself, and his Dad worked on it every single night and every Saturday for about a year and then we moved into it (we had been living in a studio apartment up on Capital Hill). After we moved in, we still had a lot of work to do. We worked on it every Saturday while we lived there. Finally finishing it up the Saturday of the first Open House. That means a lot of the trim and doors are essentially brand new.

I am including some pictures we took during the construction of the house. I thought you might like to see them.

Thanks for choosing this house and for being so excited about it. It makes it easier knowing that someone who will love it bought it.

May it bring you many years of happiness and joy.

*not his real name

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Updated to show the response from Mr. Cantlookmeintheeyes:

Hi Isabel,

Before meeting you folks, I had been looking at homes for about 5 months. I was so excited after stumbling upon the listing on craigslist. Meeting The King and viewing the house sealed it – I was sold. In talking with The King, it was obvious that every detail had been thoughtfully designed and built. I’ll think of you every time I climb those stairs.

It takes tons of vision, patience and hard work to build your own home. I did some construction while in college – a mix of general labor, framing and foundation work. It was always sad to move onto the next gig, leaving behind a physical structure that I had helped build. I can’t imagine how hard it would be to move from *insert address of house* It’s such a great home.

Thank you so much for sharing the history of your home. I’ll do my best to honor the traditions you and The King have started. Congrats on the baby and best of the luck with the new project in West Seattle. Please do stop by if you’re in the neighborhood. Hopefully, my crazy dad will be around. He can tell you about the trees in Hawaii.

Take care,
- Mr. Cantlookmeintheeyes