Wednesday, December 29, 2010

2011 Gardening Plan

I've posted the 2011 garden plan to the blog.  Full details can be found by clicking the Landscape link under Features in the left-side navigation or by clicking here.

This year I've been using an online program called GrowVeg.com to build garden plans.  This software allows you to easily draw on various plant varieties, and it will automatically calculate the number of plants in a specific area.  I have found that it does not follow bio-intensive plant densities, which I generally use.  I have found using bio-intensive planting useful to reduce weeds.  In addition, the program allows for successive garden planing and much more.  A friend of mine and co-blogger at GrowingAppetite.com has been collaborating with me on a seed and plant order list using Google Docs, which is another great garden planning tool.  Using Google Docs, we can complete our plant list, and then decide who should start what what since greenhouse/coldframe/windowsill space is limited.


2011 Landscape Plans
All new 2011 landscape plans.

Potager kitchen garden plan.  Click here to see a larger version.

Click here to see a list of plant varieties we're planning to use.  All seeds and vegetable plant starts are ordered from Territorial Seed Company.  Edible fruits are through Raintree Nursery.  PNW natives are through Woodbrook Nursery.  This list will continue to be edited throughout the next couple of months.  Check back for more details.

Orchard garden plan.  Click here to see a larger version.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Kitchen Progress

It's been awhile since we've posted.  We're busy at work finishing up the kitchen remodel.  We're 2 years into this project, and will be very happy when it's done.  This has been a part-time endeavor, as many other projects have taken precedence and prevented us from completing this project.

We finished the drywall sanding and the next step is to prime and paint, which with any luck that will be happening this week.  Take a look:

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

After months of deliberating on colors, etc. we finally decided on the final pallet.  The solid color to the left (Hubbard Squash @ SW) is the base wall color, and the paper is a border from Bradbury & Bradbury Art Wallpapers that we plan to use around the dining area of the kitchen.

Other kitchen news:


  • No more knob and tube wiring.
  • We've decided to paint the cabinets as opposed to trying to refinish them (they're pickled oak).  More on that soon.
  • We're making room for a wall of ovens (double oven + a separate microwave).
  • We're looking into having gas installed for the cooktop.
  • We've acquired hard maple countertops that we'll be installing.
There is a lot happening in this room.  It's definitely at a turning point where things should start coming together much faster.  I already like using it more and it's not even finished!  That might have something to do with the professional series copper color KitchenAid mixer I bought us for Christmas :-)

Sunday, October 31, 2010

2010 Projects in Retrospect

Each year we share a list of all the projects we've worked on as a reminder of what we've accomplished. For me, the end of the year is signaled by the steady rains here in the Pacific Northwest, and by the falling leaves. For us life takes on a slower pace this time of year; one that makes more room for relaxing, enjoying classical music, eating hardy foods, and enjoying our home.

The following are highlights of our major accomplishments in 2010:



 Orchard

We started constructing the Orchard in the fall of 2009. In the spring of this year, we figured out we were going to have to raise the beds to prevent our fruit trees from floating away. The 9 fruit trees we planted this year are all doing great! We hope to have our first mini-harvest next year. Trees include: peach, pear, apricot, apple, plum, cherry, fig, almond and mulberry.

Before:




After:

From 2010 Landscape

Potager

Project: convert the former driveway into a kitchen garden. In 2009 we removed the driveway, and this year we cleared and installed hardscaping and fences. In 2011 we will install raised beds and plant. This was one HUGE project, and we're excited to almost have this complete!

Before:

From The Making of a Craftsman Home


From The Making of a Craftsman Home


After:

From 2010 Landscape


From 2010 Landscape


House Painting

This is perhaps the largest house project we've ever taken on. We started this in 2009, worked on it throughout this year, and plan to finish the job next year. We've got all but the rafter tails and underneath the eaves painted. We're SO CLOSE!

Before:

From The Making of a Craftsman Home


From The Making of a Craftsman Home


After:

From The Making of a Craftsman Home


From The Making of a Craftsman Home


Kitchen French Doors

The master plan for our craftsman home is to bring the indoors out. To do that, we're incorporating rooms into the landscape. Off the kitchen, we installed a set of french doors that will open out onto the outdoor dining room.

Before:

From The Making of a Craftsman Home


From The Making of a Craftsman Home


After:

From The Making of a Craftsman Home


From The Making of a Craftsman Home

Pond Expansion

Water is a powerful landscaping focal point. We enjoyed our first pond so much that we decided to add a second and join the two together!

Before:

From 2010 Landscape


From 2010 Landscape


After:

From 2010 Landscape


Native Landscaping

We brought in 100+ individual plants that we added to the backyard landscape, all of which are Pacific Northwest Native. Plants include: Deer Fern, Sword Fern, Ninebark, Spirea, Flowering Currant, Columbine, Bullrush, Cattail, Snowberry, Serviceberry, Coastal Strawberry, Oregon Ash, Cascara, Bald Hip Rose, Lupine, Slough Sedge, Bald Hip Rose, Rhododendron.

Before:

From 2010 Landscape


From The Making of a Craftsman Home


After:

From 2010 Landscape


From 2010 Landscape


From 2010 Landscape


In Reflection

The outdoor landscape plan really started to take form this year. Our plans are very ambitious, and the work we've put in is paying off! We've got a long ways to go before we're done, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm excited about the mix of Northwest Natives and edibles we planted this year. Once the fruit trees, kiwis, blueberries and other edibles we planted get established, we should start seeing a nice bounty of fruits and vegetables. The work we've done to integrate the house into the surrounding landscape seems to be taking shape.

Our indoor house plans are coming along, albeit a bit slower than what we had hoped for. The kitchen remodel is entering a significant phase now that much of the drywall is finished. Getting the plumbing and electrical work finished has slowed the process down a bit, but we're making good progress.


What's Next?

This winter we'll be focusing a lot of our attention on finishing the kitchen. We'll have more progress photos to post of that project soon.  In the coming months we'll start figuring out what projects are going to make the 2011 list. Next year is going to be the frosting on the cake for much of the landscape plan. We're also working on the plans for a very cool work/art studio addition to the front of our workshop. We'll be posting a rendering of our design plan, and hope to start getting bids for the project next year. 2011 should be another action packed year!

Friday, October 22, 2010

Matching Door Lintels

Craftsman homes always have a handful of special details that make them stand out. On our house, each door, window and porch is decorated with a custom lintel. We like to refer to them as the door/window eyebrows. We've added a couple different sets of custom doors, and we have a lot more custom work to do. It's important to us to preserve the original details of the house, and to do so, we first had to find matching trim stock. After paging through catalogs of trim stock at McClendons, we identified identical trim. That's good news, because if we didn't find it, we were going to have to custom build it ourselves, or have someone else match it and cut it for us.

The top lintel looks like this:

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

Pictured on the right is an example of the original. The is made up of three pieces: the flat stock, the trim, and the top cap that is beveled to shed water away from the house. The one of the left is the replica built to surround the french doors we added in the kitchen earlier this year.

The finished product after installation:

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

It makes such a huge difference having these details carried on throughout the house. Eventually, we'll be adding these details to the workshop windows and the other set of french doors we installed off the library. Now that this proof on concept is complete, we're confident we can build these and make them match the house exactly!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Pond progress

This weekend I completed joining the two ponds together into one larger pond.

From 2010 Landscape


To join the ponds, I dug a section between the two, laid a new piece of liner, and fused the pieces together using an EPDM pond liner joining kit.

From 2010 Landscape


Shown here is one section of the two EPDM pond liners, with one piece braced to a 2x6 ready to be joined together.

From 2010 Landscape


Right after the sections were joined, and the water level was brought up. The connector section will be covered with a plank style bridge, so the two sections won't look so obviously joined together once complete.

From 2010 Landscape

Once the plank bridge and landscape rock is in place, I'll upload the final pictures.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Remembering the Luzon




It was one year ago today that Tacoma lost a significant piece of its architectural past, the Luzon building, designed by Daniel Burnham and John Root. The building fell into disrepair, and became a public hazard. Despite efforts to save it, the building was demolished.

Let's remember the significant pieces of our architectural heritage , and the important work that preservationists do here in Tacoma to keep them with us.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

More pond progress

Made more progress on the pond this weekend. Got the skimmer attached to the liner, so that part of the project is now complete.

From 2010 Landscape


Started to drain our original pond into the new pond to bring the water-level down enough to allow me to fuse the liners together.

From 2010 Landscape


Next, we have to fuse the liner pieces together, install the bridge over the channel connecting the two ponds, and then trim the liner, fix the edging, and fill the remainder with water. Once all that is complete I can move the pump from the old pond into the new pond, and connect it to the new water lines running to the waterfall that I installed earlier in the year.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Pond 2.0 continued...

I started out this year with great expectations. I think I got a little carried away because here I am at the end of the season with a bunch of projects to try and finish. I made some progress getting the second pond installed, which I'm hoping to partially complete before the end of the season. I originally wrote about this project a few months back.

I got the rest of the pond dug, the skimmer installed and the underlayment laid down. Next up is the install the liner and to begin building the inside walls of the pond using landscaping basalt rock. We already have a lot of rock for the project, but I suspect I may need to bring more in.

Here are some photos of the progress:

From 2010 Landscape


Pond is approx. 16" deep at the deepest point. This pond is intentionally more shallow than our original pond so that we'll be able to see the fish easier.

From 2010 Landscape


Underlayment installed. Next up, install EPDM liner.

From 2010 Landscape


Installed skimmer. This will house the pump, and will help to remove debris off the surface of the water.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Rose Hip harvest

From Drop Box

Rose Hips we harvested from our Nootka Rose plants in an effort to make tea.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Out with the season

Summer is quickly slipping out of our fingers. From the look of things, this fall is going to be a cool wet one in the Pacific Northwest. Sometimes we can skate through till late October without much rain, but that's not likely to happen this year. We're frantically trying to finish up the many projects we started this summer.

House Painting

We're determined to finish painting the house event if it means taking a couple of shortcuts. It just doesn't seem right to let this project stretch into its third year.
From The Making of a Craftsman Home
We still have a bit of work to do on the front of the house, namely the eves and the very top peak.

From The Making of a Craftsman Home
We're near complete on the second peak on the South side of the house. This side of the house was in the worst condition, and therefore has received the most attention.

From The Making of a Craftsman Home
Finishing up the window trim on the south side. Tomorrow, I'll paint the inner window frames to finish up the job.

Potager

We're making progress on the Potager. Finished the fence trim, and have hauled dirt in to level it out.

From 2010 Landscape
Next up is to build the first raised bed. I'd really like to get at least one of the beds in this season, but we're really fighting against the clock on this project.

Mulching and Prepping Beds for Spring

Brought in a half yard of mulch to cover some of the beds I put in this year. I topped this bed with out 3-4" of mulch, covered with newspaper, and then topped with straw. Hopefully this bed will be more fertile come next year.

From 2010 Landscape

Soon we'll be moving indoors where we've really got our work cut out this year. We're going to try very hard to finish the kitchen within reason. That means installing the remaining walls, tiling, installing upper cabinets, and installing counter tops.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Fence installed

This weekend I made more progress on the potager. I installed appox. 38' section of fence that borders the south property line. Next up is to finish the fence trim and begin building raised vegetable beds. Hopefully I'll get at least a few of the beds in before the rain season starts. That'll help me get started with the 2011 growing season as early as possible.

From 2010 Landscape

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Potager paths and patio are in!

It's been one of the hottest weekends of the year so far. Nonetheless, I was able to finish the brick work for the paths and patio through the potager garden. That's one project I can now mark off my list!

Photo of the final product:
From 2010 Landscape

Next up is to build the arbors over the paths and haul in dirt to fill the space so that it's all the same level as the paths and patio. Maybe I'll do that once it cools down a bit.