Side Yard Progress

We're making more progress on the side yard on the North side of the house.  Side yards are difficult because of the long narrow shotgun shape.  There were a couple of goals in mind for this project.  First, we wanted to landscape it in a way that would allow us to build up dirt along the foundation of the house.  This should help prevent the foundation from taking in so much water.  Second, we wanted to tie it in with the back yard and give it some elevation change.  We did this by building up the path in areas using fill and landscape rock.  We're going to hold off and landscape this area with woodland plants next year.  This year, we are laying mulch to hold back the weeds until it is planted.

View from the front-yard.  Through this gate is the side yard.

View of the side yard through the gate.  

Picture earlier this year when we started this project.  Here you can see how we've started to build up dirt along the foundation.

Kitchen Pot Rack

We recently completed and installed a new kitchen pot rack.  We spent a good deal of time searching the web looking at other homemade and custom built pot racks.  We ultimately settled on a simple design using materials we already had available.  The 4x4 vertical posts are recycled from a banister railing we picked up.  The remaining lumber is mostly scraps we had laying around.  The brass bars are a Second Use find, and complement the brass we've used throughout the kitchen design.  We built the rack perfectly centered around the light fixture which we just recently installed.

Summertime

Well, it is finally summertime in the Pacific Northwest.  Like clockwork, the rain stopped, the clouds parted, and mother nature switched on the sun.

We haven't posted many blog entries lately, but rest assured we haven't been bored.  Here are some  projects that have been keeping us entertained:


Kitchen Cabinets

 Above: Building and gluing the kitchen counter tops together.  This counter will surround the farm sink we've installed.  The counters are being built from recycled hard maple butcher-block.

 Above: Both the top and the bottom on the counter will be sealed with Waterlox.  Applying Waterlox is a long process that takes 5+ coats over the course of several months. 

Above: Set bolts that are helping to reinforce the glue joins on the newly assembled counter tops.  These will be on the underneath side of the counters.

 Kitchen Pot-Rack

We recently added to our collection of copper pots, and not only do we want to display them, but we want to make them easily accessible in the kitchen.  Having them hang from a rack on the wall just isn't working, since it scars the paint and beats up the drywall.  Therefore, we are designing and building a pot-rack to hang over the island in the kitchen.

Above: Kitchen pot-rack is built from recycled 4x4 timbers from an old banister railing.  Brass bars are something we discovered at Second-Use and just had to have.  Thankfully, we have a purpose for them now.  A set of additional bars will be mounted on the inside for a total of four rows of pot hanging capacity.
Garden Gates

Above: We constructed a fence and garden gate on the North side of the house that matches the one on the South.  I was able to order matching gate hardware from Van Dyke's Restorers.  Next step is to stain the gate and the fence to help preserve the structures.

 Above: It's a fence. 

Above: ... and now it is a gate.  We built this gate to look like a fence panel on the South side of our workshop building.  There is a long strip (30+ feet) that runs alongside our workshop that is perfect to store "stuff".  Now, we can store stuff and we don't have to look at it.  Perfect!

Outdoor Kitchen Dining

This project has been a long time in the making.  This year we hauled in 4 tons and basalt rock, 3 1/2 yards of gravel so that we could finish this project and others.  Now we can step out of our kitchen into our outdoor dining area.  In fact, I'm typing this blog entry sitting at the very table in these photos :-)

 Above: The outdoor kitchen dining area being constructed.  We put in some rock for decoration and a foot bridge over to the orchard area.  We laid underlayment and then put in 5/8 minus gravel.  Unfortunately, we can't use the crushed brick because we can no longer find the product.  Sad.

 Above: Here is the view from our kitchen dining table through the French doors we installed last year. 

Above: The cats seem to approve of the new dining area. 

North-Side of House Landscape

We're building up the dirt against the foundation to help with the drainage problem.  We're installing a path, and building a low area so that the gutter water will have somewhere to go other than into our foundation.  This area will be landscaped with woodland plants sometime next year.

 Above: Lining the path with rock and laying cardboard as weed barrier.

Above: The path raises up almost a foot to create a low spot where water from the gutter can collect during the rain seasons.  I used old broken brick to raise the path height up.  Next step is to pour gravel for the path and mulch the whole area. 

Misc. Other Photos and Projects

 Above: The kitchen potager after one of the coldest Springs on record in the Pacific Northwest.  Not bad.  We won't be getting any tomatoes, but we have more arugula than we know what to do with!

Above: We found this old metal kitchen cabinet that's perfect for our outdoor kitchen.  In the coming weeks we'll be installing the brick patio, install the cabinets and pull the grill down off of the deck.

Above: An arial view of the backyard. 

What kind of spring is it in the Pacific Northwest?

You be the judge.  Picture taken of our Dogwood on May 11th 2011:

From 2011 Landscape

Picture taken of our Dogwood on May 2nd 2010:

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

Conclusion: Our poor little Dogwood is really really trying to bloom.  It's been cold, rainy, and dreary.  The only difference between this year and last year is that February in 2010 was warm unlike this year.  The weathermen keep blaming in on the La Nina.  Pretty much everything in the Pacific Northwest is stuck in first gear.  If mother nature is reading this, would you *PLEASE* demote this La Nina person, cause we're sick of the way she's running the place!!!!

Progress on kitchen cabinetry

Recently installed upper cabinet doors.  Next step is to order glass and install.


Putting the finishing touches on the construction of the upper cabinet that goes over the refrigerator.

Happy Native Plant Appreciation Week

Did you know it was native plant appreciation week in Washington state?  I didn't either until I saw our local Native Plant nursery Woodbrook post it on their Facebook page.  To celebrate, I submitted this years plant order to them and went and picked up the plants today!  We've been working on our native plant landscape for the 3 to 4 years now.  We've done it in phases because one, it is hard work, and two, it costs money.  This year, we're completing our backyard plant landscape.   (Is anything ever really done?)

Over the course of the winter, I put together landscape drawings that take into consideration our light and moisture levels.  There is an awesome resource made available by King County that helped us immensely.  The Northwest Native Plant Guide is an online resource that catalogs native plants in a searchable index.  It also provides sample landscape design plans, which is super helpful.  Hopefully one day Pierce County will provide something as comprehensive.  I found the website particularly useful to print their designs and use them as reference for my own design.  Once I got our design complete, I put together a shopping list of plants with quantities.  This makes getting and identifying what you need a lot easier, or at least it did for us.  I was able to provide this list to Woodbrook, and they pulled all of the plants in advance and had the order ready for us.

We chose native plants for several reasons.  First, they have low to no water requirements, which is a major objective for our landscape.  They also build great habitat, and provide food and shelter for wildlife.  In addition, native plants are in line with the Arts and Crafts design principles - which is to use local materials and design elements whenever possible.

Not all of our landscape is native, nor is that really practical if you are trying to feed yourself.  There are many edibles found in Washington, such as Miners Lettuce, Salmon Berries, etc., but it is our desire to grow a much more diverse edible landscape.  Therefore, I have found mixing lower-maintenance natives with fruit trees and garden annuals and perennials to be particularly useful.

Next up is to start planting, and then sit back and watch it all grow!

Spring Planting

All winter we've been working on the next round of the garden planning.  This weekend we planted numerous edibles, including: 4 blueberry varieties, a crab apple tree, two grape varieties, a new fig tree, golden and Tettnang hops, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries.  This should finalize most of the perennial edibles we plan on planting in our garden.  To plant the hops, we built an arbor that matches the one we built earlier two years ago for the kiwis.  Here is a picture of the final project:

From 2011 Landscape

We're looking forward to seeing this covered with hops in the years to come!