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[ambient music]

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TIM PFEIFFER: The work that I do
is so much about home building,

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about creating place.

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How does every little thing that
lands inside of an environment

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feel like it belongs there?

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It has its own little story.

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Creating an environment where
anybody walks in the door

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and they get a sense of
comfort and safety and warmth.

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It's a wonderful thing to
be able to give people.

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That was that nice
one to give myself.

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Jackpot, you ready for a walk?

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Come on, buddy.

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It doesn't ever get old.

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Every morning, I come down
here and as equally refreshed.

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It's a pretty great spot.

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It's not the prettiest
beach in the world, but it

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the relics of time, for sure.

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All of these little
piers and everything

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used to be operational, and now,
I see them as beach sculpture,

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which is interesting.

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All right.

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[music playing]

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My beach cottage is located a
little bit South of Seattle.

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We're on Dockton,
which is a point

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in the middle of Quartermaster
Harbor on Maury Island.

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It's one of the bigger
islands in the Puget Sound.

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I think from 1900
until 1930, this

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was like the largest wooden
building location in the world.

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So it shifted from
being a fisherman's

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place to a shipbuilding place.

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And they had dry docks out
in the middle of the harbor.

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So it has this kind of amazing
history of an industrial place.

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So my full-time
home is in Seattle.

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My life in the city can
be relatively chaotic.

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I have two businesses.

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I've got an architecture and
interiors firm and then a

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big home store and art gallery.

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It's 100% non-stop.

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On a very good day, it could
be an hour and 15, an hour

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and 20 minutes to get from
my place on Capitol Hill

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to Maury Island.

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The ferry becomes
your meditation space.

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And then as soon as you
roll on to the island,

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it becomes this very
lush and beautiful,

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really magical kind of place.

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One of the key reasons
for having this house

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was, of course, for personal
escape for me because, I mean,

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I love the water.

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And I always wanted
a waterfront place

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that was like easy access.

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When I first got here,
it felt pretty grungy.

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There was this
little one-car garage

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that was like
probably 100 years old

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that was just kind of
sloping down the hill.

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There had been a
1960s wrap-over porch

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that had been put on in these
weird connection points.

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Second you stepped inside and
you just saw through everywhere

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out to the water.

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That was pretty much
a singed pin for me.

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But what really drew
me to Maury Island

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was this kind of romantic
notion in my head of looking out

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the window as a kid
and thinking like,

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that's the place I would really
love to have a house someday.

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As an adult, the
beach houses that I

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grew up with had gone away.

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And it was almost
like a generation

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had passed where there wasn't
a fight for family beach house.

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Picking this place up and
starting to create life here

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was the destination point
for my family to all gather,

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which makes it really
sweet, given how

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crazy everybody's lives are.

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So when I first arrived here,
where the garage is sitting,

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there was this kind
of falling down

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singular-shed-shaped structure
that had a woodshed next to it.

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So the garage itself
was a footprint

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that I got to work with.

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My little workshop
is kind of in there.

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More or less, it's
just a fun place space.

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This just all ramped
down the hill.

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So there wasn't
any of what we're

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seeing in this kind of built
up terraced garden space.

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I like to garden over
plant, as you're going

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to see as we move through here.

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[laughs]

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The house interior is
probably about 1900,

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almost 2000 square feet.

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So it's pretty small.

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[music playing]

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It does have three bedrooms,
and it has a sleeping loft.

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And that has two full baths.

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We didn't have a
dining room, really

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a place for a dining table.

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So this was one of the more
monumental aspects of the shift

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for the house itself-- to
connect these two parts

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and also to create
a dining space.

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Dining room table
that my dad and I

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built for 2000 for
an old farmhouse

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that I had when we didn't have
something for Thanksgiving.

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The kitchen probably
was a little bit

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of a challenge for the
house, but I pretty much

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want it to stay where it was.

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Also, there are so
many people in here

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often when cooking, that this
big pass through, actually,

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has been super beneficial.

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If I could snap my fingers
and make something bigger,

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it would be the island
because five people will

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hang out here all the time.

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As you come into this room,
the ceiling was short.

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And this wall of
bookcases didn't exist.

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I love books, and
I love reading.

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So there's loads of books
with great storytelling

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from all generations.

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And then just parts and pieces
that I'd pick up at the state

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sales and from artists.

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This room is more of like
the quiet space in the house.

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But obviously, any
day of the year,

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it's just like this
really pretty vista.

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This was what you looked
out of these windows

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and saw, if you can imagine.

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It was a monster big ship
building from here all the way

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to the south.

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And they were building
ships that looked like that.

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Look at the scale of these guys.

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See Dockton.

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I think a good way to kind of
describe the vibe of this place

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is really casual,
slightly nautical

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spin on an old beach house.

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I knew that it was a
ship captain's house--

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that was a real thing--
which was fun to work with,

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because I've always
been just fascinated

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with the shipbuilding
concept of this neighborhood.

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So when I started diving
into the history of it,

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I got more excited about how
I wanted to live with it.

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I am kind of this slightly
compulsive collector guy.

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You'll kind of see
that in the house, too.

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It's like I see things,
I bring things home.

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Been the treasure hunter
since I was a little kid.

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I, occasionally, will
put together stuff that's

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been captured off the beach.

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There is those elements
mixed with sort

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of a Northern California vibe.

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Then I just started accumulating
things that fell in line.

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I found this crazy
orange leather chair.

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I was like, that
is the most perfect

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comfortable-looking chair, and
it's exactly in my storyline.

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I like older stuff,
probably, for the way

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it has frozen a moment in time.

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What was it about, and
why was it captured?

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And what was that story about?

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Our memories are oral
history of our lives

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and of our family's lives.

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And I think that's what
gets to happen here.

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So this room was kind
of like the first room

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that I completed.

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This was my parents' room.

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This is a cute picture
of mid-stream when

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we were in the process of--

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that was in the mudroom.

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My mom always had these
great beach houses.

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That was a cycle of
our summer lives.

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We would spend the
summers at the beach.

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Having found out that she
had stage four cancer,

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I thought it would be so amazing
to have a family house again.

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My mother was like the
formidable person in the family

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and powerhouse, super
athletic, took the lead

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on everything in our lives.

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And surprisingly, she
got catastrophically ill.

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There was a huge
transition to move through.

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And this place was
just a little sanctuary

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during that period of time.

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We were lucky to have three
more years of family hang, so.

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You made it!

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Good work.

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You want to come down, too?

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Always.

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Always.

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You guys have stuff?

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Jackpot, get out of the water.

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When people arrive
by boat, they usually

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just come straight
on in and just beach

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it because it's a
little bit rocky.

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But it's not terrible.

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Are you wet?

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A little bit.

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I'll survive.

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How are you?

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Good.

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Jackpot.

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Look at him.

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He's nuts.

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TIM PFEIFFER: There's
been nine years now of big

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huge family 4th of July's.

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And I'm lucky enough
to have family,

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a couple of my siblings, and
tons of my aunts and uncles

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and cousins all live in
and around Puget Sound.

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Cheers!

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- Thank you.
- Cheers.

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Woo-hoo.

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- Thanks for letting me bartend.
- Yeah!

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[laughter]

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You're welcome.

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And so people come and
hang surprisingly, when

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you wouldn't anticipate them.

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A boat is honking out
front, and you're like,

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I don't recognize these people.

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And all of a sudden,
you're like, oh, right,

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that's my cousin so and so.

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That's been a very fun, like
a really cool part of exactly

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where I am because
it makes it really

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easy for my self sound family
to participate in this place.

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Copper River
salmon right here.

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- Yay!
- Yeah.

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- Ooh-wee.
- Oh, my god.

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All right.
Bon appetit.

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So beautiful.

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Bon appetit.

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Oh, my god.

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Every day that I come
here, I open the door.

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And I'm like, lucky.

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Don't get me crying because
I'm really good at it.

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I think, I feel particularly
lucky because of all

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the connections
that I have here,

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to be able to have landed
this simple place with

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the connectivity of my family.

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I feel lucky to have
been able to have this,

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and I could be really happy to
just sit down here and stay.

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[music playing]