fences part five; pretty much done!

Well, it was a back breaking 3 weekend project but it is pretty much at a stopping point until better weather shows up in Seattle.  The sun will peak for about 30 minutes, long enough for me to peek out the door with a bucket of nails and a pail of stain and then rain clouds roll in.  Such is PacNW existence. Let me know what you guys think!

Somehow, everything fit in a Ford Focus.  It took a few trips, but it was my little pickup!

From the inside of the side yard, turned private yard!  The dimensions changed from the original drawings so that I could punch fewer holes into the concrete.  The way we built it there were only 3 posts that had to be set into the concrete.  The wood is all Western Red Cedar which would have grayed out naturally, but since the last fence was gray and didn't look so sharp, I took the chance in staining.  The stain is a medium brown which matches the eaves of the house.  I need to take some nice pictures of the eaves because they are so beautiful.

 I love that the Japanese Maple is now on this side along with the rocks.  They look great.  Now we are going to work on some of the planting around the fence and restore some grass where you see the gravel in the foreground.

 From across the street.  Really looks great.  The guy walking the dog to the right stopped me to tell me how much he liked the end result.  Honestly, there is more finishing work to do (which is easy to miss from this angle, but I am pretty proud of this).

Still looks good close up! Ha.  If you see to the far right, my neighbor next door also got the bug to build a fence.  He put this fence up last weekend, and it went a lot quicker than mine, but then again, he had a post digger, no concrete and a pretty simple design.  He also had a huge van that come carry all the supplies in one trip.  I went over to introduce myself to him when we were both working on the fence last Sunday but found out he doesn't know any English.  I guess we will communicate with smiling, as he seems nice enough.

Scene in Seattle

I thought this was pretty cool.  Only two miles from downtown and about a half of a mile from our house and I very well could be out in the Georgia Countryside.  Crazy how endless the shot seems.

Unique Planter

I found this great idea over on Modish Blog for a cool way of making an old filing cabinet work as a planter.  Hmmmmm.  Ultimate recycling project here:

And here is what it could look like, as shown on Design Sponge. This totally looks like a great project for the future.  Wonder how it holds up?!?

fences part four; first phase

So I tried to reuse the wood from the old fence in my first attempt at building this thing.  That didn't work out so hot.

From the front corner of the lot.  Not so intrusive.

Here is its, obviously with the old wood mixed in and the new wood is pretty in your face.  I took this picture after finishing the planter box. It took me an hour of digging to fill part of the box with dirt and then 12 bags of topsoil.  Crazy big. It is 3' deep in the front and it extends under the fence another foot.  I plan on putting ornamental screening plants in the front and veggies in the back portion.

From across the street. You can really see the mix of the two woods and how that doesn't quite work.  At least I tried to upcycle the wood.  I ended up giving it up to the sweet guy across the street. Can't wait to see what he does with it.

You can see where the fence was as it ran along the edge of the concrete.  The side yard is now pretty huge.  I took this at the end of the day.  This was last weekend.  This weekend I changed out the wood on the fence and added the top 'trellis' and stained it.  I have to get out there tomorrow and finish staining it and then I will take some pictures to share.  I stained it the same color as the wood that covers the eaves.  I need to take pictures of the eaves because that is one of the features that sold us on the house. 

Hopefully more pictures of the 'final' product in the next day or two.  I have plans to add a bit more to the fence in the future but not sure it will be right away.  I got inspired by the James Hotel in NewYork which I saw on Remodelista just recently. Here is a hint at the look I am going for.

I think the pictures above are not exactly what will happen but it has the feeling of what I want. More to come soon. Thanks for reading and thanks for Casey for sharing the cool images attached from the James Hotel!

fences part three; the design

So, after some debate, here is the basic design we came up with.  We took a bit of all the great design elements from each fence and threw them into a blender and here is what it looks like.

I hope the drawing shows up online since it is sketched on white paper......oh well. Ha. So I didn't want the fence to seem overwhelming in the yard.  I am a big fan of blending in with the neighborhood and not being so closed off.  This fence has some visibility through it and is also the perfect support for growing vines! (Now I need to figure out what plantings work in Seattle)

So I also decided to make the fence into a step forward pattern from the house to minimize it's presense. The front two panels of the fence will be up against the side walk while the rest are firmly in the side yard. Also, along the first three or four panels closest to the house, we have the existing driveway to deal with.  This starts the debate of rip up the concrete, all of it, or do we somehow work with the concrete.  Huge debate with the boyfriend. I don't think either of us feels like it will be too easy ripping everything up and disposing of it. 

The fence as it is drawn takes into account the driveway and all we have to do is punch three holes in the concrete to put posts into the found.  Not too bad (we think!).  Time will tell.  Now it is time to measure more fully, price the materials and fine tune the design!  Not sure my back is going to make it through this one. (In fact, since I writing this post after the fact, I can tell you it actually doesnt make it all the way through in tip top shape.  Meh!)

Dream House in the San Juan Islands, Washington

I just stumbled on this house that just got published in Architectural Digest that was done by local Seattle Architects Heliotrope for NBBJ Seattle Partner Rysia Suchecka as blogged by Shaun Minne over at Design House Blog.  I love the simplicity and openness of the house.  Our shop had the very smallest hand in some of the interiors, and am very happy that it turned out so well!

I could certainly move right in, especially with the beautiful kitchen shelving and display!

We helped with the sofas and they turned out so beautifully!

Remodelista Local Market in Georgetown!

Reblogged from Remodelista's website:

"on April 30, we're hosting our second Local Market in Seattle at henrybuilt's Georgetown location. On offer will be an array of goods from some of our favorite Seattle artisans, with an emphasis on wares for the home (as well as a dash of fashion); for good measure, we've imported a few of our favorite Northern California vendors. We look forward to seeing you there; and at our upcoming markets in Portland, Los Angeles, and San Francisco."

Awesome idea but to bad I will be working that day.  Be sure to go and visit if you are in the area!

Date & Time: April 30, 11 am to 4 pm.

Location: Henrybuilt in Georgetown, 4634 Ohio Avenue South, Seattle, 98134.

Hosted by henrybuilt: participating vendors include Bitters Co., Bainbridge Blues, Goods from the Hood, Gallant & Jones, glassybaby, Hattie Bird, Heidi Swanson, Iacoli &McAllister, Ladies & Gentlemen, Mato Creative, Marie Veronique Organics, Red Ticking, Rough Linen, Studio Patro, Sefte Living, Seabold Vintage Market, Twiggypop, Urbancase, and more.

fences part two

So here is what we(probably mostly me) had been thinking.  Obviously, the old fence was pretty bad, off the shelf Home Depot variety, and wasn't holding up very well.  Not only that, but it cut the only chance for a decent yard for us and any future kids happiness in half. We wanted a modern fence but nothing too pretentious or out of place.  Here is a short list of all the contenders that we contemplated.

OK, so this one isn't exactly what anybody had in mind, but if you notice we do have this same patterned concrete block in the back of the house.  Why not carry it on out to the front?  Well, we shot this idea down instantly once we found out that code dictates a permit to lay a concrete foundation for walls.  This was just not a fun prospect since neither of us really wants to learn about permits at this point.

So these three are all awesome. Simple wood choices and some cool designs.  First one was a bit problematic since there was no airiness between the inside and the outside.  We thought since the fence would be almost to the street, it should be airier.  The second one above was just to flimsy looking and the last one was very awesome, but pretty expensive if you looked to price that sucker out.  The more boards you get, the more money, so.....thicker boards are definitely the direction to go.

So these two are our (my) top two choices.  The first one is from design blogger The Brick House's own home and it is pretty much to die for.  Especially the way she carried the fence over and made it a feature on the front porch.  Also love the richness of the wood. Again, it is a bit too closed off, but again they have plenty of a front yard that makes it not seem so severe.

The second fence is a bit closer to home in Leshi, a neighborhood in Seattle. It takes into account hills, which we have plenty of in Seattle, including a slight grade in our own yard.  I reallylike the openness and if you notice there is a second series of slats inside that aide to more privacy without it seeming closed off. Since that would double the amount of wood needed, we definitely would not do this right away.  We could always add that at a later time.

So after looking at all of those, and pics of our house, what do you think would work well?  Let me know your thoughts.  Also, thanks to Hillary, Casey and Quinn for helping out with some ideas at work!! Thanks guys,

Fences

Fences are really hard to figure out.  We really wanted to build a fence to finish off our side yard for a bit of privacy. Do we want vertical or horizontal wood, do we want it higher, wood or metal, etc. Really, I could only choose wood, but what will it look like and what will look good with the house? Also, almost the whole yard is paved which really will make gardening hard.  I have been outside the last few weekends working on the deconstruction of the old fence and putting up the new one. Here is the way the yard came.  I will put up the ideas we were tossing around before deciding on a design.  Super excited about our design we came up with and think it will turn out great! More to come.

ahhhhhhhhhh

Fresh off the internet.  I love that the city keeps all these old records!

I love the floor plan the city has for their records.  I hope this isn't the same plan the architect had to work with!  They are missing the entire basement on this one, but the gi-normous basement stretches the length of the entire house!  Storage, Storage, Storage!  Now I need a label maker for all the boxes and bins I will soon have all over the place!

The even have an image of the next door house that is so adorable!  When my parents finally visit this summer I will try to convince them they want to move in here so they can babysit our kid!  Come on Ma, you know you want to be Nana, right here!

Beacon Hill Farmland

One last gem I will leave you with today, is this pic taken in the late 1800's just a couple of blocks from our house!  I dont know how they figured out where this image was taken but it is just down the street and it was the original homesteader for this area.  After the area was logged away in the mid 1800's, it became what "God intended" for the white man. Manifest Destiny Farmland. Such a bucolic setting to build a farm on.  If you were to look off in the distance today, you would see the downtown Seattle skyline 3 miles North, to the West(left side of shot) you would see parts of Elliott Bay and the Olympic Mountains, and to the right, you would see the top of Beacon Hill. We live on one of the ridges of Beacon Hill, sort of a plateau, but definitely not the top. Just ask Bobcat(my BF) how it is to bike up.

red fin lust

It all started one day in October of 2010, that my boyfriend and I started lusting for a house.  Me for projects to work on, and he to shut me up about projects to work on.  We started looking at duplexes with some friends of ours but those plans fell through (quite literally, the duplex we bid on was about to fall straight through the foundation and in shaky earthquake prone Seattle that is just not acceptable).

We put the search off for a few weeks while we enjoyed the Christmas holidays and Snowboarding up near Stephen's pass, and start fresh in January.  We dabbled until then going to a few open houses and thinking about what we wanted out of a house and settled on a few criteria: enough space for ourselves and a kid, something that needed just a little TLC, enough yard to have a small 'urban farm' and something that just felt good, in terms of a community.  We looked in the outlaying downtown Seattle areas of the Central District, Capitol Hill, Madison Park, Ballard, Greenwood, Ravenna and for some reason saved Beacon Hill for last. Neither of us really new much about Beacon Hill but what we soon found and would continue to find was pretty great.

Didn't take long for our obsession to grab hold on a house. We first saw the house on Red Fin on Jan 1st, drove by it Jan 2nd, made an offer on it Jan 3rd, and had an accepted offer by Jan 7th!  It was a whirlwind of days.  We had been looking at small craftsman homes mostly, and then we stumbled on this rambling beauty.  I grew up in a brick ranch style home in Virginia and remembered how great it was to live in.  The outside sold us and the inside pretty much sealed the deal, although whomever staged the house for sell lacked a touch of appropriateness for the house, (but I guess it did work!).

the living room! great start to our house tour, but the hydrangeas seem a bit out of place, ha. 

We closed on the house by the 7th of February and had a few back breaking days of moving, but luckily we had some great movers that we use to move fine furniture at work( more on my work another day).

The future "Rec Room".  I immediately wanted to paint that fireplace white and make it look like a Kelly Wearstler take on the Viceroy or Jonathan Adler's Parker Hotel (see below)

viceroy, palm springs

parker, palm springs. God I love this eclecticism. You have to check out his book

                              

eclectic spaces design

  

This shot above I originally saw in one of the very first Domino Magazines and I always have gone back to this shot in my head over and over! Also, since I am a first time blogger and no nothing about web-design, I do not know how to make this one picture line up with the rest.  This will bug me to no end, but I will just let this one be floating over to the left until I have time to go back and fix it! Ha.

The kitchen on the otherhand, was not very mid-century at all.  Looks like the last owner ripped the old kitchen out (I wonder if it was really cool?) and put in a brand new Ikea kitchen.  Good thing is, this is exactly the working kitchen I would have put in!  Bad thing is, this is exactly the wrong look for all of the finishings for the house and for the look I want!  I couldn't stand the very dreary Seattle colors chosen.

View from the dining room.  Awesome layout to cook!

Oh yeah! A bar, and my own built in "appliance garage" to the left.  The perfect place to put everything a kitchen needs but out of sight!  I really have to change these $10 hardware store lights.  They look like gigantic marblized breasts from a Greek ruin.

Alas, there are some details that are original left to build on.  In the dining room pic above you will see a bamboo curtain in a fir lined box on the ceiling.  Imagine the olden days when the ladies would be retired to the living room fireplace for cocktails and ciggies and the men would smoke their stogies in the dining room while trading war stories or playing cards. Hmmmm, very Mad Men indeed. Also left behind was this....................

the green and pink lady lav. 

This bathroom is pristine! The tiles are beautifully laid, they are straight, the grout is clean white, it smells like fresh bleach.........ahhh.  Really awesome.  The wood work needs a fresh coat of oil or something, and the vanity lights need a redo, but this bathroom is Gorgina(sorry, this is a word picked up from my old boss meaning 'feminine beauty').  I wish it was a big wider so two people could easily navigate, but one plus is that the hand rails are already up for when we are old and gray and I need a nice Epsom Salt Bath!

Master Bedroom.  This is the biggest bedroom I have ever had in my life!  I feel like a grown-up finally.  The other two bedrooms are a little smaller, but they are perfect.  One will be the guest room and the other is perfect for the future bambino.  Not sure if I should paint the room blue or pink yet, so neutral white will have to do.

Last but not least, one of the old other qualifications on the list not addressed yet.  Urban Garden. Here is the Garden of Eden,.......not!

Side yard acting like a back yard.  Pavement is not my first choice for a garden, but there is always dirt underneath or clever solutions above.  Lots of work ahead in order to have any chickens in this space!

So I didn't plan on having a cracked concrete yard.  Not even good enough for a basketball court for a game of horse! I already have plans on this little space.  Gotta love the starburst cement blocks.  If anything about this yard screams mid-century it is this super fence!  I hope I can borrow a cup of sugar from the neighbors over this fence.  Right now, the wall is a bit mossy and aged, but I think a good power washing will clean that right up, or maybe one day a coat of white paint to go a bit more glam Palm Springs.  Hmmmmm.  Time will tell and suggestions are always appreciated.

georgia on my mind

After 7 years since last owning a home, I finally took the plunge again. The lure of home projects, the smell of fresh latex paint rife with VOC and putting my hands in the dirt was pulling at my heart strings.  I went from 800 square feet in hot and dry rural Georgia to 2600 square feet in wet semi-cloudy Seattle.

Why start a blog? Mostly for myself to start a record of domestic bliss, but also to share with my friends and family, especially those separated by 3000 miles, what is happening in my world. My head is often swarming with thoughts of interior design, and RE-interior design, and "What if I change this around, or add this element" which is why I am making the blog public as well, because most people who look at these blogs are voyeuristic and love looking inside O.P.P.(other peoples projects). I have spent many hours looking on RedFin and Zillow enjoying the real estate images of all the interior spaces and yards and secretly tempted to pull some of these images to share with other people for all their mistakes! I can't believe that people still use doilies on the back of a sofa! I also hope to put other points of interest on here as well like highlights of Seattle life, the process of adoption my partner and I are working through and whatever seems post worthy to remember years down the row.

What a change, but definitely one my often sore back will have to get used to. Only been here for 2 1/2 months so far,  and have already changed a few things so far; mostly cosmetic and not to back breaking. I hope to catch people up with where things are and what is new and hopefully, get some great ideas on what to do as I start putting potential projects out there in cyberspace. 

To all my fams and friends in Georgia, wish you were here but I guess this will have to take the place for now.