The infamous retaining wall - our first big project



[nico] So there were a number of home issues we rationalized as "its an old house" or " its our first house", but one we could not get over was the retaining wall.  The original wall was about 16 ' long and 10' at its highest point and consisted of mortared flagstone (local sandstone).  The entire mass was leaned out towards the driveway. Not a great place for a car (is the earth telling us something?).

Note the original stone retaining wall in the process of failing



cracks in our yard from subsidence

does insurance cover new rebuilt failing wall?

Although the "builders" who flipped the house rebuilt the wall as per our closing agreement, they rebuilt it upside down!  When they"fixed" if for the second time, the wall not only leaned but also bulged. Turns outs they backfilled the new upside down wall with pieces f the original wall. It only took a few Appalachian thunderstorms for the wall to move. Gotta love that WV clay! Cracks also developed across the yard above the wall and along the sidewalk.

Realizing that the wall was going to fail, the city threatened to condemn our new rebuilt wall. Nothing like this sort of incentive to rebuild our wall, our yard, our house...and our life!



some men move gravel; Peter moves boulders

Fully skeptical of the army of shady contractors in Morgantown, we gave up hope on finding someone to help us rebuilf.  Then we met Peter Galik the man and passion behind Rock and Water. Sera mentioned meeting Peter and described him a  Slovakian climber / nature philosopher / precision maker of landscape and I instantly realized that this gift from the landscape gods was, in fact, my old climbing friend Peter. Peter is nothing less than amazing, creating an ecosystem of intent and precision (without the use of a level...or eating...or stopping...ever).

Breakfast with a backhoe

Our first home - dreams of the urban homestead

married

South Beach Oregon, pre-wedding shred 6.20.2009

[sera & nico] Here is the start of a little story beginning with... Sera and I grew up from being the rambling outdoor adventurers to the contributing community members of society. Some tell tale signs of growing up are buying lawn mower, loving your shop vac, wishing for 8 days in the week, and spending days dreaming' about making an amazing home, not just kayaking or surfing.

The most important things we required in a home were the ability to live simply by walking everywhere, and a south-facing yard to grow our own food. After Sera stumbled on a house right across the street from my department, we dove straight into the bizarrely familiar world of house buying/negotiating with all of the expectations and emotions of prepubescent dating.... you just can't want it too badly.

an inspirational book

Not only only was this house right across from the University where we work (Nicolas = professor & Sera = lecturer), we can walk to the grocery, a few cool restaurants, and the climbing gym, AND catch the Personal Rapid Transit (PRT), our local metro that takes us straight into downtown! We find little need for a car in Morgantown... though we could use a few more bike lanes! And, our little dream house had a south/southwest facing yard, perfect for our little urban backyard homestead. 

our 1st house...with failing retaining wall, yucky Yews, a tightline walkway to greet our guests, no insulation, and ... it turns out a falling basement wall.

We immediately put a bid on it before it hit the market, and we closed less than a week after we married.  Par for our course, in 2009 we defended a thesis and dissertation, graduated, moved across country to Almost Heaven from our perfect little life in Oregon, started two new jobs in WV, got married and bought a new fixer-upper. It has taken a while for the dust and confusion to settle..Now its time for changes!

Please join us for this adventure as we create our home and our life that reflect our values and commitment to minimizing our impact on the earth. We hope to learn and share how to live more simply and make best out of a better situation by repurposing and retrofitting our older "urban" home into an efficient and functional living space rather than building something new in a place where you have more cutting trees to build and driving cars to commute.