1995: Home on Shingle Mill Creek, Vashon Island, for Sale by Owner

1995: Home on Shingle Mill Creek, Vashon Island,
for Sale by Owner

Enchanting, absolutely private, 2 story, 2 bedroom, 1 bath, cedar home, oak floors and carpet, skylights, cathedral ceilings, electric baseboard heat along with centrally located wood stove. 1300 sq. ft. on approx. 2.5 acres overlooking Shingle Mill Creek in Cedarhurst Canyon, 1000 sq. ft. of decks with 3 outdoor stereo speakers; small wine/root cellar. Septic tank system. All kitchen appliances and washer/dryer included. Spring fed water supply. 10 minutes from north end ferry.

Detached artist’s studio, 250 sq. ft., water/power, wood stove, insulation/drywall, leaded glass windows; exciting remodel/upgrade potential.

Detached 2 story, one-car garage/workshop, 200 sq. ft., power, insulation/drywall, also with lots of remodel/upgrade potential.

Property is located in a secluded forest, with cedars, firs, alders, fern groves, numerous fresh water springs and, it’s a bird watcher’s paradise. There are no visible neighbors. The main house, artist’s studio, and garage/workshop are in a beautifully landscaped clearing, conspiring to make the Home on Shingle Mill Creek one of the most unique properties on the Island.

Terms: Cash out, possession at closing. (More extensive financing information will be made available to seriously interested buyers.)

1. Taxes: $2021.93/year (good for ‘95 & ‘96).

2. Insurance: $524.00/year (includes earthquake coverage).

3. Asking Price: $189,500.

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2018: Back to present time. Above, I transcribed, word for word, the advertisement that I wrote when Luke and I decided to sell our home on the banks of Shingle Mill Creek on Vashon Island and move to San Diego. I received a full price offer the first day it was on the market and just like that, snap, we had U-Hauled ourselves to a condo in San Diego, 10 minutes from the beach.

But that is just the first part of the story. In May of 2018, Luke and I returned to Vashon Island to visit our friends Peter Criss and Brian Fisher, the famous artist, and while on the Island, Luke and I decided to go visit our first home on Shingle Mill Creek.

We were anxious as we started our drive down to the house on the steep, curvy dirt road, the house and canyon I wrote about in my novel, Dancing on the Cellar Door, after I moved to San Diego.

My skin vibrates when I think about what we discovered last month at the end of the road that led to our house in the canyon - my skin buzzes when I reread the ending of Dancing on the Cellar Door - my skin full on dances when I connect the reality of what happened to the house in the canyon and what I imagined in the novel, the premonition and the magic were always there but the reality was not, until last month.

There will be a Part 2 of this Blog entry, I cannot get it all out at once.

Stay tuned.

2 Responses to “1995: Home on Shingle Mill Creek, Vashon Island, for Sale by Owner”

  1. Patricia Ann Pedersen Says:

    I had the wonderful good fortune to be friends with David and Luke when they lived in the house on Shingle Creek Road. I was familiar with many unique places on the island, which were often a reflection of the artistic and visionary people who chose to live on Vashon. But: the place they lived was magical, maybe haunted, and hidden so well that every time I visited it seemed I’d found a treasure: the cedar hot tub beneath a canopy of magnificent fir trees and stars…the studio where we laughed, struggled, and wrote words we hoped would last, and the house where we juiced, played cards, ate, laughed…memories that changed and chained us to the past and future. The words we wrote, the photographs that documented the joys and life lived there…capturing in pictures the cats who had a network that tracked the way to a safe haven: hidden in the snow, Zelda and Scott, and the literary luminaries that followed: Ernest, Lillian HIllman…Well…let David continue this story!

  2. Patricia Ann Pedersen Says:

    I meant to say..the photographs by Luke!

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