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G Little Launches Floating Home

Anticipation has built for several months as we constructed a unique floating home in the Port of Port Townsend. On the day the floating home launched a small crowd gathered to watch the Lift prepare to take the home to the water.

You may have seen a yacht or one of the larger ships in the Shipyard being dropped in the water by the Lift, but it is a rare chance to see it lift a house.

Once the Lift in place and straps were secure, the house was slowly lifted off the concrete blocks  house rested on.

Floating Home on Lift

After the house was lifted, it moved at a slow creep away from a slip in the shipyard to the launch site.

House in Shipyard

It was a delicate process to get the home in right place over the water. There was a small margin for error, with only two inches of space between the sides of the house and the edge of the launch slip.

Floating Home in Lift

The house was deliberately lowered into the water, guided by G Little staff and a crew from the Port of Port Townsend. In the water, the home floated as the steel support beams were lowered deeper into the water.

Floating Home set in Water

The home was guided out of the launch slip with ropes and pulled to a temporary spot on the dock.

Guiding the Floating Home

With the home out of the way the steel support beams were lifted back out of the water.

Steel Cradle

For the next few days, while the home was tied on the dock, our crew continued to work on interior finishes and prepare the house for the upcoming trip to Lake Union in Seattle.

Floating Home on Dock

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Jefferson County Historical Society

In November 2011 we completed construction of the Jefferson Country Historical Society Research Center expansion.

The Jefferson County Historical Society has approximately 500,000 archives, more than 20,000 photographs and 15,000 artifacts. With a robust and growing archive, they had outgrown the research center building that they moved into in 2003.

The ground breaking for the new facility was on February 26, 2011 and final inspection of the completed building was November 15, 2011. The new building has plenty of space to house the historical archives and has proper environmental controls to ensure long term preservation.

We are proud to have been part of an important piece of protecting the history of our community.

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Living Roof

We built a Northwest Modern home that consists almost entirely of four elements; stone, glass, copper, and bamboo. Another unique feature is a vegetated rooftop cover installed over a waterproof membrane, known as a living roof (or green roof). This roof can retain sixty to one hundred percent of incoming rainfall which helps protect the delicate bluff top setting where the house is situated.

The green roof was installed by Xero Flor. Xero Flor is the same company that installed a ten acre green roof at the Ford Motor Company Dearborn Truck Plant which is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest living roof in the world. Xero Flor green roofs consist of sedum, moss, and native perennial vegetation on a flexible textile carrier. Xero Flor pre-vegitatived mats are grown at regional farms across the country to ensure regionally adapted plant communities. The mats are rolled up and installed just like sod.

Xero Flor featured our Northwest Modern home on their website to showcase how a vegetated rooftop can be used on varying roof slopes and unique shapes.

We recently installed a Xero Flor living roof on one of the floating homes we are building in the Port Townsend Shipyard.

You can see many examples of green roofs at the National Geographic’s Green Roof Photo Gallery.

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G. Little Construction First in Washington to Use Exterior Bark Panels

Bob Little holding a Bark House poplar bark shingle

G. Little Construction has always been interested in sustainable (green) building practices. Recently, we were introduced to a building product that is truly green. Or should I say brown?

Bark House, based in North Carolina, began manufacturing poplar bark shingles in 1990. The bark shingles are all-natural, sustainable, reclaimed, maintenance free, and can last up to 80 years.

Bark shingles were originally designed by Henry Bacon, best known for designing the Lincoln Memorial. Bark shingles were first used in Linville, NC in 1895. Bacon’s design was the first to use only bark for shingles rather than slabs of wood with bark still attached.

American Chestnut bark was used due to the abundance of the tree in North Carolina. When a blight devastated the American Chestnut species in the 1940s, bark shingles essentially disappeared.

More than sixty years later, bark shingles are gaining momentum after Bark House reintroduced them to the building industry with poplar bark shingles.

When poplar trees are harvested for furniture and plywood, Bark House is able to save the bark from becoming waste. When the trees are cut, Bark House craftsmen use antique tools to loosen whole cylinders of bark from the trunk. The cylinders are flattened and cut by hand into shingles or panels, placed in a kiln, and dried. The carefully cut shingles and panels are then stored in a climate controlled warehouse until they are ready for use.

Each project using Bark House shingles is unique. The process of designing and creating the shingles or panels to fit an individual structure is an intimate process requiring the builder to work closely with Bark House. The collaboration is what we enjoyed the most.

Exterior Bark Panels installed on a floating home.
Exterior Bark Panels installed on a floating home.

Through the floating home G. Little Construction is building, the ship yard in Port Townsend is connected to the mountain town of Spruce Pine, NC.

Our local culture is connected to the sea and the culture of Spruce Pine is connected to the Blue Ridge Mountains. This project brings the cultures and crafts from two communities, on opposite sides of the country, together to create a beautiful home that will be the first home in Washington State to use poplar bark panels for exterior siding.

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Pink House

The Charles Pink House stands proud and elegant, on the corner of Harrison and Lawrence, in Port Townsend. The Pink House is a prized piece of Port Townsend’s Uptown National Historic District, but it came perilously close to being demolished.

The house was built by Horace Tucker in 1868 and purchased by Charles Pink in 1874. The house remained in the Pink family until 1966.

From 1966, the home passed through a succession of owners until it was purchased by the City of Port Townsend in 1981. The City planned to relocate the house to make way to expand the historic Carnegie Library next door. After years of debate, the City decided to keep the house in place if a tenant could be found willing to renovate the house.

The Pink House had been neglected for so long it was in total disrepair. When a tenant could not be found, demolition seemed likely.

In 1993, Bob Little stepped forward and made the City and offer: lease him the ground for twenty five years and he would restore the house and lease it to commercial tenants.

It took months to work through red tape before the renovation could begin. Construction began by shoring up the house. Then the house was gutted, plumbing was replaced, and new walls were erected. In the process, architectural details were discovered which had been lost in remodels over the past one hundred years.

The old fireplace was brought back to life. Beautiful old archways and plaster details were discovered. Victorian bays added in the late 1880’s were left in place, but the Art and Crafts style porch – added in one of the numerous remodels through the years – was eliminated.

Drawing details from old photos and the Rothschild House (also built by Horace Tucker) as a pattern, the porch was restored, with the porch railings painstakingly reproduced.

The restoration met both Washington State Archaeological and Department of Interior Guidelines. The Jefferson County Historical Society awarded this joint public-private partnership the Mary Johnson Preservation Award for contributing to the architectural heritage of the Port Townsend Area.

The Pink House is special to Port Townsend because of its late Greek Revival architectural style and it is one of the few houses built in the 1860’s that survives in Washington.

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Judge Ralston House

The beautiful Victorian Judge Ralston House on Morgan Hill in Port Townsend was built in 1890 as a farmhouse with outbuildings. Judge John Ralston purchased the home shortly after it was built. He moved his family to the country home to raise goats.

The original house contained two parlors, a dining room, and a kitchen on the first floor and four bedrooms on the second floor. In 1905 the family expanded the house with two major additions. A kitchen wing, sun porch, and pantry were added to the first floor. Two bedrooms and a bathroom added on the second floor. Later renovations included relocating the kitchen to the site of the pantry and converting a small second floor bedroom into a second bathroom.

We became involved with the Judge Ralston House when we built a carriage house on the property to be a historical match to the house. When the house was sold, the new owners embraced the history of the home. They wanted to preserve it as a piece of Port Townsend history.

To maintain the historical integrity of the home, accurate replicas were made including custom light fixtures, doors and windows, custom molding and woodwork. The end result is a home that is well suited to its era, yet conveniently and fashionably tailored for modern living.