Changing fence plans

Came across this fence design in a landscape book, and it solves the dilemma of trying to get vines to grow up to the upper trellis supports. Do you see how there is a bit of trellis between the two fence sections? I think that is what I'm going to do. This will give vines a chance to grow up to the upper support.

If you look carefully, you'll notice a bit of trellis between the two fence panels. I built a bit of trellis this morning as a prototype with the leftover sections of fence board that remain after I cut the two narrow slots for the fence panels.

I figure this is a good way to put next to 100% of the wood to use without having a lot of waste from the project. I'm not sure how I feel about the trellis section that I built. Part of me thinks the lattice boards should be a greater width.

Craftsman Artisan Inspiration...

Looking for craftsman artisans? Do you like to purchase hand made goods directly from the artist that created them?

The Style 1900 website has a links page to a number of artisan websites.

Custom fence panels

I've walked the isles of many hardware stores, but the prefab fence panels I've seen just aren't doing it for me. I want something more, even if I means fabricating the panels myself. That's exactly what I've decided to do. As I often do, I spent an afternoon driving around the Seattle area looking at fences and determining which qualities I like, and which I don't like. I don't want a privacy fence that is so private that it blocks 100% of the view. The fence needs to do a couple of things. First, it needs to provide a boundary, but it also needs to add to the aesthetic appeal of the house. I came up with the following design:

Each panel will be hung between a set of 10' poles, and 18" above each panel will be a lentil that supports an arbor type structure (more pictures soon, as it is hard to describe in words). I decided on this panel structure based on the design of the siding on our house, which follows the same wide/skinny/skinny/wide horizontal format. This panel creates a boundary, but does not block 100% of the view. It also allows for air flow, which is helpful for the plants that reside near the perimeter of the fence. In Washington, once or twice a year we get a wind storm that throws 60-100 MPH gusts our way. I've seen many fences blown over as a result of high winds, and I'm hoping this fence will allow enough air flow to prevent that.

My south property line needs about 200 feet of fence, but i'm only likely to get about 50 feet built this year.

Enough obsessing about fence. On to the next thing...

Winter wonderland...

Our home had its first snow (that we've been here for at least).

Enjoy ~

Bricks!

I admit, I'm addicted to bricks. I like em old, and I like lots of

them. I scour Craigslist for them all the time. When I find them for
free, I jump. I don't even necessarily have to have a project in mind
to collect them, but I know I'll use them for something, eventually.

Free bricks don't seem to show up as often on Craigslist in the South
Sound. Maybe that's just a bias I've developed over the past few
months. Nonetheless, I did recently find a large pile of bricks
(around 900 bricks) that I actually paid money for (about 10 cents a
brick). These 1920s era beauties will be great as a path, a patio, or
as the skirt for the porches we're going to build eventually. Bricks
-- collect them! You never know when you'll need them.

This is the first load. We we're almost done with unloading them. I
always sucker a friend or two into helping.

Here is a partial pile. By the time we got all the bricks moved, the pile was about 4 times this high. That'll be a good quantity of bricks to do some fun projects. Best of all, we're reusing material that would otherwise end up in a landfill.

And finally, the almost finished pile.

Two recent furniture aquisitions

Okay, I've been a little Craigslist crazy lately. I found these two fantastic pieces of furniture online. The mission style chair is going to require a lot of work (gluing, clamping, reupholstering, etc.), but the price was right.

This bench isn't the most comfortable piece of furniture, but I have always believed comfort is secondary when it comes to furniture. I'd rather be in pain and look stylish :-) That must be a sign of a true furniture addiction!

Out with the closet

Our upstairs room is the entire length of the house. However two thirds of it are closet storage. We've decided to pull out the center closet for an office space. Note the lovely dry brush technique paint job on the wall I'm removing.

Now we have a small cozy movie theater and an office space. There are still plenty of things to fix up here but it's definitely low on our list. The closet removal of course gives us the brilliant idea to add a dormer on this side. A chain reaction of new projects.










Here is our newly enlarged space. This shows off the white stick on linoleum squares perfectly. Note the ceiling fan blades at eye level and some of the ivy stencil the lady of the house was so fond of.