1900 Farmhouse

Firewood Manger

2009-09-30T13:38:00.000-07:00

Holy Smokes! I can't believe it's been nearly a year since I've touched this blog. I'm surprised I remembered my password to access it. It's not that I've been lazy. Really. Just nothing blog-worthy. However, with the cool rain quickly approaching, I got busy with a little project of building a roof to keep my firewood dry. I also like the cedar shake look - like a cabin in the woods.

Here's the shelter in progressive assembly. It took about four hours and weighed a ton. I don't expect my fence to hold more than a month.

Snow!

2008-12-23T21:37:00.000-08:00

For about a week, Portland got it's share of the winter blast that the rest of the country went through. Though it's a bit of a pain, looking back it was a quite fun. I spent more time on Mt Tabor than ever and even got to snowboard down the east and west face, not to mention the roads! It's always best when it's in your backyard.

Scully got her share of exercise too. Here she is, trudging through the 2 foot drifts. Check out the video of her playing with her neighbor Sophie.

Of course snow is not all fun and games and being on a corner lot, my arms got a bit of a workout. I don't even own a snow shovel.

Christmas Tree

2008-12-07T21:54:00.000-08:00

A couple of years ago, I had the guts to hang icicle lights from my gables, 20'+ from the ground. It looked so cool and I really wanted to do it again this year. Sort of. Mom hinted it wasn't such a great idea now that I'm "pushing 40". Moms are pretty smart. Not only that, it was a reasonable excuse NOT to go to all the trouble.

For this year, I headed out to the Mt Hood National Forest with a friend to cut down my own Christmas tree. At first it seemed so wrong, but upon learning the Forest Service provided permits for $5, I was on board with it.

So here it is....not sure why type. Maybe Hemlock? Spruce? Whatever it is, it smells great!

Dahlquist Art

2008-11-29T22:15:00.000-08:00

My original piece from Chris Dahlquist back from Labor Day 2007 finally got some friends. And just in the nick of time. These are created by a Polaroid print onto a sheet of aluminum, and they stopped making Polaroid film! What a drag for Chris. However, this will surely squeeze out another creative medium from her.

Being on aluminum, these are not exactly easy to photograph so be sure to check out her website to see what these are really supposed to look like.

Pub, Skye

2008-11-28T22:05:00.000-08:00

This picture was done by a friend of mine, a fellow fiddle player, upon her trip to Scotland. She was in a pub in Skye on a pretty dark dismal day, when suddenly the sun broke through the clouds. She immediately got her pastels and created this great picture. I am huge fan of the constrast from sunlight to dark clouds, and the colors work perfect for my den. I was stoked when I got this picture hung. Thanks Andrea!

Picket Fence Paint

2008-09-29T21:13:00.000-07:00

The long awaited chore of painting the picket fence has finally happened. It's only been about 10 years since it's needed a painting...

Here are some before shots:

And a couple of shots after pressure washing:

And the grand finale:

Front Rock Wall Part Three

2008-08-02T20:14:00.000-07:00

The last and easiest part of the rock wall project. Planting. I went to Portland Nursery which I knew was fairly spendy but figured it'd be worth it.

Raspberry Bush

2008-08-02T19:34:00.000-07:00

A friend on mine has a raspberry bush that's growing pretty frantically and offered some cuttings of it to me. Since I'm a huge fan of that berry and transplants always seem to work best, I was all over the offer.

I chose this location in my yard since it was readily close to an existing irrigation system and had lots of sun. Unfortunately, I think was a former driveway or something. Note the pick axe to break through the gravel/soil. Not to worry, I left plenty of growth room.

Front Rock Wall Part Two

2008-07-27T19:38:00.000-07:00

After getting the rock wall established, the next step is to create a foreground which is mostly as a mowing separation from the grass to the wall. Here is a pile of chips that will be place in a concrete/sand mixture, then mortared in.The first step is to dig out about 7" to 8" deep for a gravel base in front of the rock wall: I poured the gravel in place 4" deep, leaving about 3" to 4" for 2" of concrete/sand mix depth plus thickness of the chips:

Deviating from the concrete instruction to wet first then place the rock, I found it worked much better to place the concrete mix dry then place the chips, then wet it. Since the chips were fairly thin, I felt the concrete would hold them a bit better if they were already somewhat sunk in. Completion! Overall it was actually very easy to do. For some reason, I expect anything with concrete or mortar to be a challenge and everytime I work with it, I'm surprised how easy it is.

Front Rock Wall Part One

2008-06-22T21:50:00.000-07:00

There's a house up on the east slope of Mt Tabor (a few blocks from me) that inspired me to take on this summer project of recreating the front landscape. That's the reason for the previous posts of moving the rhodadendrun and butterfly bush, and finishing the front to back separation fence. They told me the crew they hired took most of the summer to build the dry stack landscape wall. Rather than use mortar, the rocks are placed on top of one another and fitted to match the contour of the shape created.

The first step is to create the desired contour using a garden hose:

The hose is flexible enough to bend and such, but also remains at place when it's time to dig out the shape created:

Here is the first layer of rock placed. It was from the original rock wall that I threw together a few years ago. I wish I would have taken before picture because it looked really lame:

Progress so far. There's still a lot to do

The West Fence

2008-06-19T21:29:00.000-07:00

Having a somewhat decent garden in front, with a crazy chocolate labrador retriever that likes to tear it up from time to time with Sophie from across the street, I thought this would be a good opportunity to separate the back from the front. I had the east part of the yard taken care of quite a while ago. This is the west side of the yard

Setting of the posts...

Scully giving an expression of concern realizing upon completion that she won't able to utilize the ENTIRE yard....

This type of fence is so easy to build. I think I got this done in 2 hours.

And the final product, all painted to match the house trim.

Butterly Bush Move

2008-06-13T21:18:00.000-07:00

So now that I have the Rhodie out of the way, it was time to take on the towering butterfly bush. I forgot to take pictures before the move (duh) but here's where it WAS:

This thing was a bear to move and I had already trimmed it down quite bit. I located it on the west side of the yard, with some future ideas in the works for that area. It looks green here but sorry to say, I think it's a goner. Or maybe it's just sleeping? Anyway, I have hopes it will come back because it usually grows like a weed.

Rhodadendrun Move

2008-06-07T20:56:00.000-07:00

In the first week of June, I decided it was time to get back to work on the house. The first project to take on was making the landscape in the front of the house somewhat presentable. But before I could do that, I had to move some pretty large foliage. This Rhodie has never done that great where it's at now, so maybe the move will be a good thing.

Since I am on a corner, I moved the Rhodie to the planting strip to block the incoming headlights to gain a little more privacy. I really wished I would have done this years ago.

Antique Clock

2007-12-05T16:42:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned before in an earlier post, I travelled to St. Louis where my family is based. My mom had gotten this clock when I was just a little kid from an auction, and wanted to pass it along to me. She believes it's from 1843 and made of walnut. I think it looks great in the den. What's interesting is that I had been thinking about getting a clock for this room for some time, but never acted upon it. I even remember thinking as a little kid that this was a pretty cool looking clock. Now, I just need to get it to work.

It will go for about a minute or 2 then just loses it momentum. I'm sure I've winded up to it's max point too. Next stop...clock repair shop.

Wood Stackage

2007-12-01T16:42:00.000-08:00

This rainy and cold afternoon in Portland was spent outside chopping wood to smaller more usable firewood for the woodstove. After being on the road from St. Louis to Portland for 4 days of driving, it felt great to get out and get some exercise. As I write, it's burning away. Well, sort of. It's a little wet.
Here's the remaining part of the half cord of wood that I split with my neighbor:
And here's Scully with her "cousin" Dooley, just moments before she had to spend the next several days on the road. She did great and was quite the trooper.

Leak From The Sink

2007-10-09T07:50:00.000-07:00

On Saturday morning I woke to a fairly large puddle in the downstairs bathroom. Such a drag. Fortunately, I didn't have any solid plans for the day so I was able to tackle the problem quickly. Here is the culprit - the connection point from the galvanized pipe to the copper.

Why they chose to use a 6" galv extension instead of extending the copper, or using longer flex lines to the sink is beyond me. Perhaps they liked the rusty water flavor it provided when not used for several days?

I have little experience with plumbing, so I gathered as much info on my situation on paper and headed for, not Home Depot, but a local plumbing store, George Morlan. They immediately had a much better solution than I had in mind and I was out, back home, hacking off the valve and galv pipe right at the copper line.

All I needed to do was install the valve right at the copper line, using compression fittings so I didn't need to solder. Then I ran the flexible pipe from the valve to the sink and that was it.

After Inspector Scully approved my work, the hideous sink-cabinet was back in place and I was done!

Toilet Fix

2007-10-07T10:15:00.000-07:00

Now that I got this blog up and running again, there's no stopping this next post. After all, this is a house blog, and toilets are a part of the house that sometimes need fixing.

New toilet components:

Old toilet components:

Finally, no more annoying leaky toilets. After a good 4 months of the internal dripping getting progressively worse, I took the initiative - the bull by the horns, if you will - and spent about 45 minutes making the repair.

Aren't you glad you looked at this post?

Maybe tomorrow I'll go into a detailed post of how I scrubbed the kitchen floor. Or how I replaced the paper towel rack!

Labor Day Painting

2007-09-18T08:34:00.000-07:00

Last year at Labor Day, I used the 3 day weekend to paint part of my house. Since house painted is such a daunting task, I decided to break up the painting into sections. Three day sections. Every year in the beginning of September. And this was the 2nd annual Labor Day paint fest with the area of interest being the upper half of the west side of the house. It's not exactly the most enjoyable since I'm up about 15 feet in the air on a ladder, but it's amazing how quick you get used to it

It's really not too much to show, but here it is:

Before:

After:

More Dining Room Art

2007-09-17T08:09:00.000-07:00

While waiting for the paint to dry during the Labor Day project, I took a bike ride downtown to Art in the Pearl, where I had found the "Imagined Forest" piece the prior year. From what I was told, there are 900 applicants to this show and only 90 are chosen, so you can imagine there is some pretty darn good stuff.

One particular artist caught my eye, not because her media was presented on metal and I like shiny things, but because one of her pictures was of trees, similar to the "Imagined Forest" that I just purchased. It turns out she is good friends with the artist of "Imagined Forest", Jim Brown. Not only that, her and her husband were at the University of Kansas the same time I was. And to think I never ran into her in the drab engineering hall...

So here it is. There is no title, but it's of a monastary in New Orleans. I think it compliments the "Fiddler's Light" pretty well, which hangs at the opposite wall in the dining room.

The picture is actually a photo transferred to a polaroid, then split off with heat and attached to a sheet of aluminum, that is raised off of another sheet of aluminum. I liked that extra dimension that gives, so when I hung it, I raised the picture off of the wall, giving it yet another layer. The darker border around the picture is the same aluminum sheet except that it's sandblasted. What's really weird is that the border matches exactly the color of the dining room wall. Though the picture is small for the large wall, I like it for now but I'm thinking this picture would also look great in the upstairs bathroom, with the shiny metal against the dark aubergine walls.

The artist is Chris Dahlquist. She has a lot of other great stuff so check out her website.

Leaky South Window Fix

2007-09-15T21:56:00.000-07:00

For Labor Day I decided to celebrate by being laborious. Actually, the truth is that the wet Portland winter is just around the corner and I really needed to rain proof my picture window in the front of the house that faces south. Though it's not that obvious in the picture below, the ship lap siding above the window is cracked. Water leaks can sometimes be maddening to find, but I'm fairly certain this has got to be the reason. By the way, other than mowing the lawn and general house chores, this is the only work I've taken on with regards to the house since finishing up the dining room remodel. Hence, a stale blog.

I was a little worried that once I got the old boards off, I'd be looking at dead air space (no insulation), but fortunately I uncovered some insulation so the project would continue as planned. One thing I did find was that there is no blocking from the first floor wall to the second floor wall. This is beneficial, I am told, from major damage should a fire break out by slowing the flames from spreading to the second floor from the first. Obviously, it would have been wise to take of this now with the siding off, but there's only so much time.
With the new boards on:
And the final product:

New Chandelier

2007-06-24T11:05:00.000-07:00

The new chandelier from Hubbardton Forge in Vermont arrived yesterday. Based on the comments from my mom, dynochick and one Ted Morgan, the result is a simple cast iron 8-light chandelier. This does it for the dining room remodel for now. There's nothing more and it feels great!

Imagined Forest

2007-06-15T16:00:00.000-07:00

On Labor Day last year, I went down to Art in the Pearl in downtown Portland to support some fellow irish musicians performing there. While having a look at the art, I came across Jim Brown's spot and really liked what he had. The problem was, I didn't really have a place for it at the time. Well, I did but it wouldn't have really fit or looked very good against the beige walls. That is until I painted the den !

Den Revision

2007-06-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

Lately, the focus of the blog has been on the dining room remodel. In fact, that's actually the reason for creating the blog - a means of relaying the remodel accomplishments to my ever so curious family in St. Louis. But since the dining room is just about done (chandelier arrives in a few weeks), and I want to keep this blog alive, here's some work that has been going on in the den, or the front room.

Before, the den had tan colored walls, and with the light carpet, the white canvas uphosltered furniture made the room fairly bland. I decided to give the room a little more kick and painted the walls a greyish-blue, as well as the ceiling a light yellow. I am very happy with how the wall color goes with the new floors. That blank wall in the picture below will soon be filled in with some art that I'm waiting for.

Oh yeah - and I also got a new TV. Since none of my friends come over anymore to watch games because I'm the only one with an outdated TV, I had jump on the HD wagon. Though I'm not a big TV watcher, I'm really liking it.

Here's what the den looked like before:

Fiddler On The Wall

2007-06-01T10:00:00.000-07:00

It's a pretty sure sign that the dining room is close to completion when I start hanging pictures on the wall. But it's actually not quite complete. I have been searching high and low for a chandelier for the last week and haven't quite got there.

I picked up the Fiddler's Light yesterday after work from the neighborhood framer and hung it within 10 minutes of stepping inside. Then rehung it, and rehung it again.

Window and Door Blinds

2007-05-31T08:45:00.000-07:00

Several years ago, I came across Hunter Douglas honeycomb blinds through my friend Chris Berg. I remember how excited he was and he went on and on (which Chris sometimes does) about how great they were. Chris has good taste, so that sold me. Ever since, I've used them whenever I need window coverage. Some of the perks are that when retracted, they hardly take up any space so all the more light can enter. They also have a "top-down" feature (shown below) and has a good insulation factor with the honeycomb design.