Fiddler's Light

A few years ago, I came across this photograph and instantly loved it. I love the beam of light, the two gents laughing in the back, and the irish pub feel with the abandoned glasses on the piano. When I decided to take on the dining room remodel, this photograph came to mind that it would need to go on one of the walls.

While I was getting my floors refinished, I needed to be out of the house. Since it was spanning over a weekend, I took advantage of some time off and a good plane fare to New York City to explore the streets, subway, and feel the beat of that great city. I had been in contact with the photographer of "Fiddler's Light", Jill Freedman and was proceeding with the order and 'ship to' address when it occured to me, that with her New Yorker accent, she was probably IN New York. Duh. That's when I bagged the shipping idea and met with her. She's a wonderfully fun person with a great wit to her and very kind. If you get a chance, check out her photo website. Jill's got some fantastic photos.

Floor Refinish In Entry Room

In the front door entry section of the house, there is an oak parquet floor. This turned out great with the floor refinish because the parquet is made up of various species of oak and shows different colors. Of course, you can't really see it in the after photo, so you'll just have to take my word.

Floor Refinish In Office

In continuing the floor 'before and after' series, the office floor probably saw the most effort in the refinishing of the floors. This is because half of this room didn't exist when the house was first built so there was a completely different floor on the north side that had to be completely removed. To get the new boards to match, reclaimed floor boards from another building in town were needed, since old growth has a much different look than new growth Douglas Fir.

David at Boardwalk Floors explained that he had to use several thicknesses of plywood below in order to shim to get the floor level. My neighbor also explained that David was there before she left in the morning, and worked well into the evening. I highly recommend him, if you're in Portland.

This is a little closet in the office:


Yesterday, I came across this post, which made my day.

Floor Refinish In Den

Here are some more before and after pictures from the floor refinishing, but this time of the den/front room/family room:



Last Wednesday after the floors had the first sanding, I was able to stop in and take a look. It was looking great with only a few small issues, the biggest being this stain which happens to be the first thing seen after walking in the front door. Fortunately, it sanded out the second time around and is hardly noticable now. It is believed that the stain is actually lamp oil due to how the color changed after the first coat.

Can you see the "hill" on the floor?

Floor Refinish In Dining Room

This last weekend and part of the week before, the dining room had a big jump in progress. I had the floors refinished by David of Boardwalk Floors. He did a great job and I highly recommend him.

See for yourself.

Before:

And after:

Exterior Painting Complete

With the dry weather this past weekend, I was able to complete the exterior painting for the dining room section. I had it primed and caulked to protect from the weather shortly after the door was installed, but somehow, someway, I wasn't able to finish the actual painting part of it. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that I dread painting. I better get over that dread because I've got a lot of interior painting ahead of me.

Here's the door view from before

And the after....

Gettin' the Garden Mo

This past week I took full advantage of the good spring weather and got my garden, landscaping, and yard off to a good start. Check it, yo:

Chimney Base Cover

It's frightning to think that my 20' high brick chimney is supported by this wood frame work, but it must be doing the job correctly, since it's supported it for over a hundred years.


One of the last details is figuring out how to cover this. I can't use drywall or any other combusible material, so I decided to use leftover tin ceiling material, particularly the filler since it's a simple design pattern that shouldn't be too distracting.

Here it is after being primed and installed. Hopefully it won't look as stiff as is it does in this picture after I get it painted. Incidently, just today I obtained several paint samples to decide on the final paint color for the dining room.

Country Cat

Ever since the opening of Bipartisan, the local coffee place in the little business district just 2 blocks from my house, there seems to have been a buzz about all the new stores and restaurants opening up. One restaurant that has particularly made a big buzz with lots of interesting rumors is the "Country Cat". It's taken them quite awhile to convert the old Dickson drugstore into the restaurant, and I began to wonder if it really was going to materialize. However, within the last few weeks it's been budding out as if it was just waiting for spring. Suddenly, a new brick wall facade appeared, a new sidewalk awning, new mosaic, and the most exciting- a big new sign. Last Friday, I noticed several people standing outside and as I worked in the yard, there seemed to be a lot more people walking by my corner. This was an exciting evening. The Montavilla Business District has come a LONG way in the 12 years that I've lived here.

I ate there tonight and was most impressed with the service, decor, and a most tasty pork chop. They have been surprised by the amount of business they've been getting within the last week. I hope it keeps up.

Here are some related articles:

Portland Food and Drink
Portland Mercury
Portland Food
A Neighbor's Blog

Willamette Week

Portland Food and Drink

Oregon Wine Press (thanks, Hilary!)

Jumbo Peoneas

Kaboom!

This is a great plant that was in the garden prior to me living here. Peoneas are fairly common in Portland and grow well (like most things in Oregon other than cactii). This particular one is unique and blooms much earlier than the more common peoneas and the flowers are HUGE.

First Coat of White Paint

This is definately a delayed post since the first coat of white paint was put on the panel wainscoting well over a week ago but I figured I better keep the blog moving along. I'm just going to paint one coat for the time being until the floors are redone.

The door in the middle of the room is from a purchase awhile ago and it's getting it's share of paint. I'm using Behr, the Home Depot brand mainly because I had left overs, and that's what I started painting the trim with back in 1998. I actually like Behr because it's nice and thick, but I have a feeling I'll still need to apply 3 coats.

Two Dogwoods

For the past five years or so, I've been wanting to add something to my planting strip that is a little more interesting than grass. This year I finally made it happen. On Sunday I headed to the local Seven Dees nursery and purchased a couple of dogwoods. The first one (below) is a tri-colored with white flowers, and I've been told this tree looks most dramatic in the fall. The second one is the typical pink dogwood is the more common variety.

There's something very fufilling about planting a tree. I think I figured it out - the fact that the tree will be there 50+ years after you place it in the ground. However, after I told a few people about the new plantings, they asked if I got a permit. I didn't realize a permit was needed so I now need to look into it. I know there is a suggested list for tree plantings and since the dogwoods won't grow more than 20' tall, I should be okay.

Priming the Panel Wainscoting

This past week I have been priming and caulking the panel wainscoting in the dining room. It's not much to post, but there has been progress. I'm taking my time since I have a few weeks before the floors are going to be refinished, but I know it'll be here before I know it.

So here's the first few stages of the priming:

I even primed my dog, Scully. Actually, she just sat on a drop cloth.

Making Feet

From my earlier post, I mentioned that I am designing the feet for my table that I'm having made out of reclaimed timber. To make it easier on everyone involved in the table building, I thought I'd create a template of the foot.

I drew up the idea on AutoCAD of what I wanted then printed it on 1 to 1 scale. Hopefully, my fellow coworkers who may be reading this blog won't report me to the appropriate corporate authorities for using work related tools for fun house crafting projects. Anyway, I cut out the shape on paper, as shown here.I then traced the outline of the shape of the table's feet from the paper to 1/4" plywood, which came as support in the shipment of the tin ceiling panels.
Putting my $20 jigsaw to use.
And the final template....
I actually have to modify this template (or redo it) a bit to make it work with the reclaimed timber that is available, which is just decreasing the height by 1/4". Since the table top is so heavy, Dennis (the table maker) also felt making it a few inches wider would be a smart thing.

The Table Top

On Saturday I met with Dennis at Brave New Wood to discuss the 'new' dining room table design and to take a look at the top for the table which was completed recently. I am having a dining room table custom made out of reclaimed timber, which is old growth douglas fir probably from some old building in Portland. My intent is to get a thick sturdy table that has a 100 year old feel, but without having to find exactly what I'm looking for in an antique store.

I really like what I see so far. There is plenty of character with the knot holes and bolt holes, etc. It will be 'roughed' up slightly, as well as oiled so it will lose that slightly butcher block look.

The next step is to design the feet for this massive top, which is really heavy. I worked with Dennis on ideas to "engineer" a base, as it will definately need it. He's a great guy to work with and I highly recommend him.

Cherry Tree - Mid Bloom

Here's that cherry tree I mentioned in a previous post. I'm not sure if it's at it's peak bloom point, but fairly close. Since it's raining a lot lately here in Portland, I wanted to take these shots during some sun breaks. After looking at these pictures, I realize how immense this tree really is and I wonder if I should consider getting a professional to prune it properly.

Oak Tree Tile Trim Complete

The oak tree tile trim pieces finally were ready last Monday and came out surpisingly okay, so this past week has been spent installing them. I just got done grouting them last night, so a little bit of clean up is needed. Other than that, I'd say another chunk of the dining room remodel is complete.

It wasn't a cut and dry install as the surface I was working on wasn't exactly level. In the picture below, it shows how the cap would have looked if I just used 1/4" spacers under each piece. This was fairly hideous, obviously, so I ended up using all different thickness of spacers to get it all level.

Wisteria

This trellis was built nearly 6 years ago, along with the planting of the wisteria. It took about 4 years for the wisteria to finally start budding. That first year it budded, it almost didn't because I almost ripped it out thinking it was defunct. Fortunately, my neighbor informed me these take awhile to take hold. Hopefully, it'll go nuts this spring because I'm getting tired of looking at that bare trellis.

Apple-Gruyere Open Faced Sandwich

This is a slightly different twist to a "house blog", but I just had to share. This last weekend I had no idea what I wanted for lunch. Nothing really sounded good and I wasn't starved but needed something. Then I had this idea of using up some fridge contents and for whatever reason, the thought of apple and cheese sounded really good. I came up with this little diddy - the apple-gruyere open faced sandwich.

I thinly sliced a red apple and placed it on slightly toasted Como bread (italian chewy crunchy sandwich type bread), covered it with sliced gruyere cheese and broiled it in a toaster oven until the cheese was melted. A dollop of chutney was then placed on top (I'd probably lighten up on the chutney next time). But it was... So. Good.