Magnolia House

Arbor Days

A few weeks ago, we decided to get our white picket fence going by first building our arbor.

I decided that  typcial 4 X 4's just wouldn't look right, so we pulled out 6 X 6's at Lowes and stood them in the aisle. They were HUGE! Cynthia suggested we try 4 X 6's and they were just right. She's knows I always over build...

We choose to include the "dragon mouth" detail that is on our house, so a little tracing and copy-machine magic and I had a scaled version for the cross beams.

 

 

We cranked out all the parts in the back yard and prepainted and predrilled everything for quick assembly. 

 

Out front the neighbors watched as we balanced these heavy beams while I bolted it to the footings and added the cross peices to hold it together...

It was crooked for a week, until I could get back out there to straighten it to to perfect plumb!

 

Remembering the Journey through Garbage

This weekend is Easter weekend. It's also dumpster weekend. I've lost count of the number of dumpsters we've had at our house over the last three years.

We have them in reduced frequency now... the latest is to send away a full year's worth of accumulation. 

I suppose we could hire someone to take all this stuff away, but there's something I like about personally disposing of the debris from our efforts; the memories.

Like the pile of mortar that Cynthia and Sascha chiseled off of the old bricks that became the studio patio. Or the chunks of concrete from the sidewalk we broke out to make way for the new back porch and patio. And then there was all the wood from tearing off the porch, scraps from the new arbor, branches from another large shrub that fell to the chain saw...

Some times we look at our house project and forget from where we have come.

Touching the cast-off's one last time serves as a nice reminder, an opportunity to celebrate our journey.

Here's what the back yard looks like at night now...

 

Cutting back on the grass, baby...

OK, when we tore our lawn out to redo it, our adult kids took exception. Our daughter Laura said "Daddy, it should be all native plantings and pebbles..."

Well, our plans stalled as we gave our front yard due consideration. And this weekend we began laying out a different approach to our big front lawn.

 

 We still have a big pile of rocks from the previous owner who was a rock hound. So we began laying out and creating a dry creek bed. The sourrounding landscape will be decomposed granite and native plantings.

We'll still have lawn, just a lot less, right in front of the house.

 

And I imagine the creek bed will have "pebbles."

A Few Before and After's

I've been neglegent in posting to our blog here, as I've been sharing more on Facebook this last year. Here are some before and afters of what's been going on the last 10 months...

Bed Room

Last summer we had our friends Matt and Carly Cross coming to stay with us for a few months, so we did a quick flip to one of the downstairs bedrooms. We painted the floor, repaired woodwork, painted walls, and added a chandelier. Boom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back Porch

We had a vision of steps cascading down onto a new patio, and we made that happen this last fall. The old porch was sitting on a brick foundation and after 100 years had its share of rot. Sitting on new concrete footings, the new porch has stairs to the side as well as steps off the back. The rails were fun, but the angles... well, in the end I was able to use some engineering skills to get the right angles!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Studio

This ended up being a year in the making, between resurrecting the old shed, laying a brick patio and adding a cover. It's a fully operational pottery studio now!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back Yard

This has been three years in the making, from the initial clean up of Mr. Allmen's rock collection, demo'ing old sidewalks, pulling out pipes set in 2 feet of concrete, acquiring a couple of mature pygmy palms and various other plantings, refinishing a used fountain, running sprinkler lines, and laying a paver patio. We recently added a Jacaranda tree as well. It's starting to feel like an oasis...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sun Room

This room is our absolute favorite in the house. The Allmen's were good to us in closing in this part of the porch. We  live in this room, and so does everyone who visits us. At a party we held, I counted eleven people jammed in here. We replaced the aluminum sliders with french doors, addded flooring and repainted the wood work. We refreshed the windows with lace curtains, and you'll find us here every morning having coffee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Furnace

When we were buying the house, our inspector told us the old furnace had plenty of life left in it since they get used so seldom here. I got excited to sand of the rust and repaint it this fall. We custom fit some shelves and now we have some cubby holes for our shoes and gloves, as well as a more presentable furnace in the back porch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back Door

I couldn't part with the back door, but we didn't need a cat door. I spent a Saturday rebuilding the bottom of the door to install a new panel, refiitted the window, some paint and new hinges and we kept one of our favorite old house features; the sound of an old screen door going "kerslam" when it closes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What's Next?

Well, we've been adding trees. 8 of them. 5 new Magnolias, a Crepe Myrtle, a Tulip Tree and a Jacaranda for the back yard. We tore out the front yard in November, and started to make plans for some water conserving plantings, some grass, and a picket fence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Special thanks to Curtis here, for helping dig all these big holes! Oh, and check out the irrigation tubes for deep watering. Yes, Oregonians, we have to water trees in California! More in another month or so!

 

 

 

 

Roof!

OK, here's what a white translucent roof looks like from our bathroom window.

Bam! There it is.

But underneath the cover it's perfect.

We'll get the kilns set up and we're off and running studio wise.

Next up is an arbor over the "secret garden" and some vines. That will soften the look.

Plus we have a tropical garden to plant in front of it to create the "secret."

While we have a lot of fun doing this work, some times we forget how far we've come.

I go back through this blog every once in a while to keep perspective.

And then I stare at something like the foot of the new bath tub on the new tile floor and I smile.

The simple things in life like fixing up an old house.

 

 

Studio Patio and Cover

It's starting to take shape... The brick patio is in place, and the framework for the cover is there. This weekend we'll add some polycarbonate panels to the roof and set up the ceramic kiln area.

We had so much fun with laying the bricks that we're already starting to plan the big patio and new back porch.

 We did the whole process here...

For the patio, we excavated the area, layed and compacted four inches of gravel, screeded sand to 1" thick, layed the bricks, and compacted them again with joint sand.

The patio cover is set on 12" footings and built to code with 5/8" bolts. I'm pretty sure the posts will withstand an earthquake. Everything else...?

Cynthia bought me two Bird of Paradise to keep me inspired. I'm excited to see some plant life taking root in our tropical/mediteranian back yard.

Studio Patio at Casa Magnolia

The excavation is done for our "studio patio." We'll use the old bricks around the house to make the paver patio, after adding some gravel and sand to the mix.

A patio cover will be added as well and this will become the kiln area. Then we'll be ready for some start to finish ceramics at Casa Magnolia.

As a part of this work comes the installation of the courtyard fountain as well.

The trench is done for the electrical, and a footing is ready to be poured.

We have the old fountain we bought that needs refinishing (what doesn't around here?).

Another four weeks and this should all look like something!

We spent some time yesterday at Embassy Suites taking pictures of their landscaping and it's time to start choosing some plantings.

On a side note, I read an article in the paper yesterday that stated houses with names have a higher resale value.

Hey, our house has a name, we call it "Magnolia House." Cynthia is toying with a change to "Casa Magnolia."

We'll see which one sticks... Not planning on selling anytime soon....

You're breaking the house!!!!

Sometimes the big projects need to fall to the side so a little project can be completed.

The weekend before Thanksgiving I decided it was time to rewire the door bell. When all our electrical was redone, the door bell was left out, transformer who knows where. The old wiring through the wall to the bell needed to be replaced as well.

Well, you know how projects go sometimes... In order to run the new bell wire up through the wall in the kitchen, I ended up with three holes in the hallway wall to get past fire blocks.

The one at the bottom wasn't supposed to be there... I was under the house drilling up through the sole plate into the wall cavity, and my drill got off course.

Miss Cynthia was upstairs screaming "you're breaking the house!" as the spade bit was spitting plaster all over the hall.

Under the house I needed power, so I added a junction box and transformer right near where I've got a jack to raise the house where the floor is very sunken.

That's another story. A few weeks ago, I was under the house with my brand new 12 ton jack. I have a new post and beam where there wasn't one and should have been, I've been planning on jacking the house up 1/8" per month there. All along Cynthia's been saying "you have to stop if anything starts to crack." Right, the floor is sunken and I have a 12 ton jack!

So I was under there with my new jack, marveling at how much my new beam flexed as I tried to lift the house up just that 1/8th of an inch, and then there was a little "pop!"

Next was my lovely wife screaming over and over again "Stop!!! You're breaking the house!!!! You're breaking the house!!!!"

Upstairs there was some paint that popped off of our wainscoting. No biggie, right?

So for the last three weeks she's been trying to get me to promise I won't jack up the house any more. 

"But Honey, I just bought a new 12 ton jack..."

The door bell works.

Blue Tape Marks the Spot

So we spent last weekend polishing the kitchen floor, so we could be happy about our dirty old kitchen until we remodel it in a few months.

We're going to stick with the old range, and elements of design that keep us on the retro side to stay in sync with our old house.

White cabinets, white and chrome appliances, farm style sink...

Cynthia's been dreaming and designing, so I come home each day to a few more elements thought through.

And blue tape marks the spot. Here's what our kitchen looks like this morning...

 

 

 

 

 

 

                  And...

            

 

 

 

It's going to look  great in 2013!

Studio move in ready

It's been a longer road than we thought, as weekend warriors... turning the old shed into a pottery studio.

This is what it looked like at one point. Now it's all tightened up, has power and water, and a new outlook on life.

Things to do include setting up the studio with shelves and work spaces, creating a brick patio area and patio cover, adding an outside sink, and placing the kiln.

Then we move on to back yard landscaping, including a new back porch, a 500 sq. ft. paver patio, a 700 sq. ft. courtyard of decomposed granite, our fountain, and some lush tropical landscape.

When we're done, we hope for a little oasis.

What do you want to bet we don't get that all done before we do the kitchen?