It was with great sadness that I read about the fire that destroyed the house I built on Basin Road in 1980. I built it myself with the help of my friends. Alan Rosenthal came down from Anchorage to frame it, another friend, Michael Peterson, a 24-year-old architectural student, did the major construction, my partner, Bob Roark, and I did all the finish work ourselves. We made handmade wainscoting, we used salvaged doors from St. Ann’s, and a big old cannery window, light fixtures from an historic Seattle building. It took four guys to carry the 6-foot lion-paw bathtub up the 90 stairs. I installed 50,000 little hex tiles in the two bathrooms. The vintage pedestal sinks came from an old house in Auke Bay. I kayaked out to a nearby island with my friend Lewis Schnaper to gather flat stones for the hearth. One kitchen had reclaimed cabinets and a 1950s Tappen gas range, the other side had a Wolfe commercial stove. We got on our hands and knees to install 60 boxes of fine wood flooring — all carried up those stairs by friendly sherpas. “D-8 Dave” Whistler built terraces up the hillside for our veggie gardens. Everything was done with such loving care. Even though I moved away and no longer owned the house, its loss leaves a hole in my heart.
Phyllice Bradner
McMinnville, Oregon
