PH Balanced

Who knew that testing soil could be this fun?!?  Perfect acidity for Blueberries!

Redo! : Another take at our fence

After you build and design something you then realize that things could be better.  They could always be better, right?  Well in this case, it can definitely be made better. 

I realized how difficult it was to move from our front of the house to the private backyard with no entrance planned.  I knew this would be an issue, but since I didn't have the know how on creating a door, using hinges, or anything like this I just skipped the thought of a door. Who needs a door?  We have a back door to the yard but we access that from the other side of the house. Problem was, that since all the heavy gardening thus far has been in the back yard, everytime I brought a haul of dirt, compost or plants home it had to be thrown over the 8' tall fence. Not good on the back let me tell ya.


Back to the drawing board. This time I took a few weeks to think it out and sketch some ideas, then it came to me; a dry day anyway.  I took a stab at a rough sketch and then just jumped into it.

If you don't remember here is the first fence that we were left from the previous owners. Boring, and cut the possible yard in two.  Ick.

 And here was the revision in process and the final look completed this past spring.

This was when I still was trying to reuse the old wood, not such a cohesive look.

The way it looked this past spring.

Gotta love the planters!  

And all done.  Not bad.  Covered the old driveway at least.

So here is the new pass through.  At the point I took this picture, I actually only had reused the old wood from the fence and planters I had already constructed.  Not to shabby on reduce, reuse and recycle, eh?  Here I was beginning to contemplate the door.  God, how was I going to make a door on (1) uneven ground (2) with functioning hinges (3) a lock and (4) didn't look all Janklers (i.e, all ugly....thanks for expanding my vocabulary Casey!)

Somehow I did it. Without using too many trees, I made a door that if you notice is quite even at the top, and at the bottom, despite the concrete sloping southbound (to the left of the picture). Plus, all my plants that were in one planter are now nicely spread between two!  Life is so much better. Now, of course, this leads me to the next few projects this fall. Retaining wall in the back yard to extend our grassy play area as well as to allow a better planting space for our shade loving plants like Rhubarb and lettuce; building new planters in the back yard for next years killer Tomatoes; and of course the best project of them all....our nursery!  It has been a year in the making but finally we are on the adoption list and ready for a munchkin. We are spending tomorrow afternoon slapping some paint up and getting the room ready.  More about that later.  I will leave you with a picture of this past years Tomatoes! This is one load of many.  Next year will be the year of the Marinara and Salsa!

Shut the Front Door

So my mom and sister were on the way for a visit and I had a few minutes to do some extra cleaning around the house for their first visit.  What to do?  I had recently been thinking about the front door, so why not lightly sand the door and add some oil to make it look nice and rich!(after all I now have an orbital sander since I had to do the kitchen cabinets)  The 60 year old door didn't look that great since it had white paint marks and lots of deep gouges, but a light sand and oil would certainly help, right? Ha

What I didn't know was that my solid wood door, was only a slight veneer of wood over a plywood door! I didn't realize that the door would have been so delicate.  Grrr. I exposed the plywood underneath with a slight sanding and now it looked bad right before a visit.  Take a look.

Tools of the crime

Mid Sand where I realized that it was not all wood!

I applied the oil to the door and now you can really see the plywood starting to come through especially down on the bottom left.

Closeup of the Yuckiness

Well, only one solution until I learn how to re-veneer a door!

SOOOOOOOO, I filled the holes, sanded, filled, sanded, and sanded again, and then put on about 5 coats of paint.  I feel it is a bit Kelly Wearstler Palm Springs Modern.  The color is pretty cool, but definitely I want my wood back.  Oh well.  Good for now.  Still love the brass hardware!  Be warned of starting new projects without knowing what you are working with.

GRAY: Lead Pencil Studio's Non-Sign

This is awesome!  I have to go see this! This is a cool post from my friends new blog.  Check out both the article and the blog, Gray! Design blog for the NW and beyond!

GRAY: Lead Pencil Studio's Non-Sign: Image: Courtesy DesignBoom


Some of you may be trucking it across the U.S.–Canada border this summer on a road trip, and while you do, ...

Cookin' up a new Kitchen

The past two weeks have been some hard work.  I have been working on my kitchen and have mashed a few styles together in order to come up with a somewhat compromised look and something that can be a bit more affordable.

The people we bought the house from installed an Ikea kitchen which is just fine, it was just a bit too woody.  Wood for days, fake wood for days actually.  Priority one, break it up.

We went to Ikea and priced out some new doors and it seemed like everything we liked was just out of budget since we have a perfectly good kitchen.  So, the compromise turned out being a partial replacement and a partial painting of the cabinet fronts.  I have been nervous about painting these cabinets since I was unsure how they will hold up.  But, I did ask several expert opinions, especially from the local Benjamin Moore paint store down on 4th Ave South.

With these fakey-laminate wood fronts, I would have to sand them, clean them, prime them twice and then paint them with 3 coats.  A lot of work for sure, but well worth changing the look.  It took a few days of removing the doors and hard ware and then painting, plus a couple of weeks of food on the counters.  Now that it is wrapping up, it is really coming together. Take a look!

Here is the before. It is actually great, but I couldn't handle the colors

 And here is the after.  We are keeping the Teal walls for now, but we may tone them down now that we painted the cabinets.  The Teal was more of a temporary solution to get rid of the pukey light green and ruddy-orange.  You can't say the kitchen isn't happy!

The bottom cabinets are all painted and the upper ones are a bit more complex right now. 

 I really like the colors better than the wood tones that it was before. 

 The shelving above is a new addition at Ikea and I think they are a lot of fun.

So here is something that I need to think about.  They didn't have the cabinets available I wanted (the ones on the left with white glass and aluminum trim) for the sized cabinets on the right.  At least they match colors but Bob and I are still not 100% on the mix yet.  At least I have 90 days to have a second guess on my purchases!

This was a last minute thought on my part to get the Microwave off the counter . I think I need to do something else with this one, but I am going to sit with it for a little while to see if changing it again will help or not.  I really like the exposed beans and grains above and our Soda Stream maker below!

Here is the last quandry right now.  A large closet that has a metal shelf inside for use as a Pantry.  Not efficient, and I think one day it will solve my microwave question.  This will take a bit more thought for now, but for now, it seems like we have an all new kitchen.  :)

Long Break, but now I am back

So it has been a busy summer.  Work, trip to Italy, getting married, pre-adoption meetings.  Geeze.  Thought I would quickly post my latest project before I catch up with all my recent exploits. 

Bob and I went to Ikea to start planning what we would like to see in both a guest room and our baby room(exciting) and we stumbled on a good thought for our desk!  We put a small desk in our living room so we can put our I-Mac there and watch some TV every once in a while on Hulu.   We have been looking at lots of options for desks and here is what inspired us for awhile and we just weren't sure what to do.

Life Magazine

 So I really liked this one I stumbled on when I Googled Wall Mounted Desks.  I really like this look and it would look great in our mid-century home.  I didn't see anything like this on Ebay, and certainly not in any vintage stores.  I assumed I would have to build this, and I don't think I have the skill set for this quite yet. Ha. The next image I found in the NYTimes.

I will have to go back and check out whose house this is, but I really loved the desk.  There is definitely something to hanging a desk in a public area and then be able to close it off.  I love all the wood and the beautiful hardware that allows the writing surface.  I had a friend give me a quick quote for a simple hanging surface in our living room, but the cost was still around $400 for something quite simple and clean.  Then we stumbled on this at Ikea!

 This is supposed to be for DVD storage, but really! It could be so much more.  I am surprised they dont take it one step further.

The price really made me want to make this work.  It is the same gloss white lacquer that we want to use on our kitchen cabinets when we can afford that step. I googled the Besta Burs to see if anyone had the same idea, and sure enough, Ikea Hacker had already discovered the potential.

So Monday rolled around and here we go.  Of course after I bought the cabinet I realized I had plaster walls, ugh!

So this is the way it looked. Ha.  The old desk will finally be out of here.  I found this in a parking garage for free, so I will probably find a new home for this one. Since we have the plaster, I called our install guys who did a great job on the install!

Now we just need to figure out the cord situation.  One thing at a time for now. :)

Memorial Day Weekend Blast

Some friends and I drove all night after work on Saturday to Smith Rock in Bend Oregon, which is close to Mt. Hood.  Smith Rock is a very cool Geological feature in the middle of an alpine desert.

Here is Wikipedia's take on it: "In addition to the world-famous rock climbing, Smith Rock State Park is host to many hiking trails, the meandering Crooked River and views of the volcanic peaks of Oregon's Cascade Range. Much of the 1994 film adaptation of the 1976 book Even Cowgirls Get The Blues was filmed within view of Smith Rock. Partial filming for the 1997 feature The Postman took place on location, while it additionally appeared in Swordfish in following years. Several westerns have been filmed here, including the John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn film Rooster Cogburn. The Rockhard building at the park entrance was built as a movie set for this film, portrayed as "Kates Saloon"".

On the last climb of the trip!

Cleaning Route on the last Climb of the day!

 On the backside of Smith Rock, getting close to the famous Monkey Face.

 And here is Monkey Face!  Wonder why they call it this? Ha, guess not.  Check out the climbers going up the Monkey's neck.  See climbers in the Monkey's mouth further down.

 On top of one of the mountains in the range before descending the other side.

Fun was had by all! 

Belaying Christy while Brian snacks

First climb of the trip!

Getting ready to climb again.

Racing Brian up on bordering paths. Of course I think he is setting the route, meaning he is taking the rope with him.  I think I was already secured in to the rock.  It is certainly easier to know you don't have far to fall, so I am probably a bit faster on this climb.

Heading down!

Job well done.  All climbers safe!