Another action packed weekend painting the house

More house painting. Will we ever get done? We're beginning to question our decision to start so late in the year. Anyhow... we're 'rounding the corner'. Soon, we'll be on the south side of the house where it's most damaged from the elements.

This week, we're trying a product by MinMax that claims to harden wood so that you can fill it, and then paint over it. We've got some rain/water damage on our window sills in desperate need of repair.

Looks like the blog is going to be pretty boring this summer unless you enjoy endless updates on house painting :-(

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

An arbor in an afternoon

I woke up today and had no idea which project to work on. So, I decided to start a new one that I could finish in a day.

I built this arbor over the main pathway into the backyard that will eventually support vines. Not sure exactly what I'm going to plant, but I'm thinking kiwi and/or hops.

Project supplies:

11 1"x1"x8' for the top grid
2 2"x4"x8' for the side horizontal sections
4 4"x4"x8' vertical posts

I used all pressure treated lumber, but not the stuff with the visible perforations on the surface. I just think that lumber looks bad, but it would probably last longer.

First, I used post-hole diggers to set the poles, and then I attached the horizontal 2x4 members. I cut the ends at an 11 degree angle to give it a craftsman look. Then, I placed the grid members on top. All said and told, it took about 4 hours to complete. Not a bad days work, and it looks great. Can't wait to see if with vines growing on it!

From 2009 Landscape

From 2009 Landscape

Busy Summer

Just because we haven't blogged in two months doesn't mean we haven't accomplished anything this year! Here are a few of the projects we've been working on in June/July...

Repaint the house. Step 1: remove 100 years worth of paint. Not fun.

From 2009 Landscape

From 2009 Landscape

Build a waterfall. We decided to take a day off from working on the house and put together a waterfall for our pond. Turned out okay. It's not done, but here are some pictures in its current state.

From 2009 Landscape

From 2009 Landscape

We mostly finished the Central Park landscaping. I dug the wetland areas, laid culvert pipe, and installed plants. 95% of the plants in Central Park are Washington natives. Some of the plants are: Dogwood, Nootka Rose, Evergreen Huckleberry, Oregon Grape, Vine Maple, Western White Pine, Salal, Redtwig Dogwood, Oceanspray, Indian Plum, and Goats Beard. Non natives include, Contorted Willow and Gunnera. It looks anemic in the pictures, but once this grows in it'll be a forest. In a few years, I'll also layer in more shade tolerant plants such as deer and sword ferns. Once one winter passes and I get a chance to track how the wetlands flood, I'll also be planting cattail.

From 2009 Landscape

In this picture, you're looking at the primary wetland pool, which runs under the bridge and fills the secondary pool. From this pool the water will run into a culvert and out the stream that runs alongside our property.

From 2009 Landscape

And now, the mother of all projects. You may remember the driveway removal project. Well, after two days with a bobcat and a dump truck, most of the concrete is gone. HURRAY!

From 2009 Landscape

This was definitely a project I thought would never end. Now, we've opened 1400 square feet of ground where we'll install a vegetable garden and an orchard. As you can see, I've got a serious amount of gravel to pick up, and then I've got to start building soil. Here comes the sheet mulch!

As you can see it's been a productive summer! Stay tuned for more.

Sometimes a garden requires heavy equipment

Our garden and orchard, both of which we had planned out before we closed on this house, have been languishing under a huge swath of concrete. Today I finally got the bobcat rented and bounced around smash smash smashing it all up.


Let me just say this is possibly the best $400 I've ever spent. Last year I spent most of the summer breaking out two sections of the driveway "Medieval Style" with a big lever and a big hammer. Last fall we got a quote of $3600 to remove the other 60ft and then waffled when the economy tanked. This machine did the work in 5ish hours. Not only was it easy and quick, this thing is like being on a rollercoaster with a 50cal wrecker bar on the front. Completely awesome! I was a little sad when I ran out of driveway.

On the other pile though, we now have a metric buttload of concrete chunks to get rid of. The craigslist ad is up, but I think it could take all summer to get people to take it.

Landscape April 2009 Progress

Before:

If February 2009, we had this pile of dirt delivered. You may recall that the truck got stuck.

From 2009 Landscape

... and, we got some rock delivered.

From 2009 Landscape

After:

Well, a lot can happen in three months, and it's not because the weather has cooperated.

The rock pile now looks a bit smaller.

From 2009 Landscape

The dirt pile isn't so much a pile anymore. The idea for this bridge came to me as I was building out the landscape stage.

From 2009 Landscape

As you can see here, I'm using a lot of the rock to build up retaining walls. Pretty nice considering just two years ago you couldn't iron this space any flatter.

From 2009 Landscape

And for a top down view. This is a picture of the landscape taken from the upstairs window.

From 2009 Landscape

... and a lot more to come! Happy spring.

Workshop Shelves

This is a small side project and involves recycled materials. You may recall that a month ago I built a wood rack which was the beginning of a larger wood workshop re-org project. The wood rack is complete, loaded up, and has proven to be a tremendous tool to help organize the space. Next up, shelving.

The shelving is 12' long, and approximately 22 inches deep. The bottom two rows of shelves we designed to fit storage crates, so they're a bit taller. The upper three shelves will be slightly shorter, and will be designed as "project cubbyholes" to store all the bits and bobs associated with different projects, or that's the idea anyhow.

The framing is made up of 2x4 & 2x3 stick lumber, some of which was salvaged from other projects. For the shelf surfaces, I'm using remnant pieces of oak flooring. Because the flooring is tung and groove, I'm able to use a lot of shorter pieces to stitch the shelves together and build a strong surface

Having a well organized shop is critical. We often have three or more projects going simultaneously, and things can quickly become disheveled. The new shelving should help to keep the work surfaces clear of stuff

Next up after this project, I'll be completing the wall that separates the wood workshop from the clean studio space. I'll be installing a pair of salvaged french-doors as windows to allow some transparency between the two spaces and cross ventilation. Stay tuned!

From House Project Photos

Shelves aren't quite complete in this photo. Still have to install two more upper shelf surfaces.

Building Central Park

When I put the landscape plan on paper in late 07, I assigned each area of focus a name, and the area right in the center of the backyard is "Central Park". Central Park is one of the main focuses over the next few months as we lay the bones.

Inspiration and resources are critical to putting together a plan. One of my favorite resources is the Sukiya Living: The Journal of Japanese Gardening. This magazine is published once every three months and is filled with traditional Japanese truisms.

The Central Park area is "loosely" based on this garden staging concept:

From 2009 Landscape

...and when I say loosely, I mean loosely. This is the particular image I used to get the creative ideas rolling. I particularly like the way the layout conveys the idea of a hill/mountainside. Also, I'm going for a deconstructed rock wall border, because it feels more natural. Nature doesn't tend to stack rocks in perfect walls.

The next step is to turn this...

From 2009 Landscape

...into a picturesque landscape. Now, if I could just get the weather to cooperate!