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!

 

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!

 

 

 

 

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....

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?

Backyard War-Zone. Last Dumpster (I think)

Once again, we have used the side yard of our house as a junk yard, as debris from the latest clean-up and refurbish has accumulated. I think this is the last one for a long while.

This is mostly rotted and termite eaten wood from the shed, and some of its contents (old shelves and the like).

So now our yard it pretty close to being a blank slate, and the landscaping can begin in months to come.

We still have a pile of rocks that are all pretty cool from Mr. Almen's rock-hounding days (the previous owner), and a stack of used bricks.

We'll figure out how to incorporate them in the yard somehow. In the mean time, visitors enjoy the opportunity to dig through the rock pile for treasures.

Our friends Wade and Jenn visited last night, and their three boys left with a couple of bucket fulls of cool rocks.

The pile in the middle of the back yard is a three tiered fountain that will be one of our features in what will be a garden and patio oasis. Needs a little rework, but what hasn't?

The new back fence was painted by our roomie Sascha. She endearingly refers to it as "my fence." She did a great job.

 

West Wall and Gate

Here's Miss Cynthia putting the finishing touches on the rebuilt west wall of her studio. Upper portion is original. Bottom portion not.

This next weekend we're going after the south wall, then we'll be closing in on completion. Cynthia's ready to move in and I'm, like, "in another four weeks..." And she says "I want to start throwing pottery now!"

Patience...

 

Here's what the wall looked like at Lowes...

Oh, and here's our new back gate...

 

New Side Yard Fence and Gate

This weekend, I finished up the fence and gate for the side yard (it still needs paint).

The old fence and gate were at the back corner of the house, and there was a delightful little hidden garden beyond it on the path to the front yard (the path that used to be covered with a hedge).

So as I've been settings posts and building fences I've been practicing on this little one.

I had to reset the post after my first try, because it was too loose. The ground is very soft here, making for easy post hole digging (unlike the clay in Portland). The draw back is the holes have to be deep and use lot of concrete (remember those poles I took out last year that went to China and had 200 pounds of concrete on them?

So here's that space reclaimed to the back yard. Everything about the fence is custom cut and fit.

From the post on the wall of the house, to the connection to the existing fence, to the fence boards around the tree that is on both sides of the fence. Lots of cutting and fitting.

Cynthia calls it artsy. I call it a whole weekend. Well, OK, I spent 12 hours on it, and didn't get to the back fence gates. Those will have to wait.

August will bring the completion of the back fence, and more importantly, the studio, after my back heals up a bit more. Post holes and bags of concrete are tough on an old guy,,,

 

Best Looking Alley on the Block...

Here's the studio north wall all painted...

Remember that fence that fell down? Here's a new one...

I'm

pooped!

 

 

My son Chris kidded me that we will have the best looking alley on the block.

I'm not sure about that, but, it's getting better!