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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Rose Hip harvest

From Drop Box

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