A Moment of Silence for Fallen Oaks

Yesterday was a day of rather mixed emotions. We had the trees trimmed, which implies a lighter hand than the method used. To be fair, our trees were wildly overgrown, had tons of dead undergrowth, were hanging much too far over the house or growing into power lines and probably hadn't been properly addressed in several decades.

I spent the hour before starting work scurrying around the house watching. It was so interesting to see how they were doing things, and how fast the machinery made the job go. The 50-foot-tall magnolia went from standing to disappearing in about 20 minutes. Timber, chop, mulch, poof. It was fascinating. Also, I love heavy machinery and watching it fairly up close was super fun.

This is the backyard, crew in progress yesterday.

And the side driveway. It looked like the yard got hit by a tornado. The crew of seven guys brought five trucks, one stump grinder and a mulcher and and generated something like five cubic yards of mulch. That is A LOT of mulch.

This is a Stump Grinder 2400-4. I want one for Christmas. It's remote controlled and rips through stumps like nobody's business.

 Even that giant shrub outside my office door was no match for those teeth.

 And here, sadly, is all that remains of the oak.

Don't get me wrong, it had to go. This is what happened to one of the limbs when it fell. (It cracked on impact, if you can't tell.) The joint that branched off over the roof was full of tunnels the diameter of my thumb, a honeycomb, the tree guy said. (Side note, you can kind of see how smoky and gross it is here in that picture above, in the background. UGH.)

Still sad, though. It sort of feels like an old friend is missing from the back of the house. And startling that something so strong that took so many years to grow (50? 100? More?) could be leveled in a few short moments. It's weird; there haven't been a lot of sad moments in the course of our remodeling projects here. It's usually filled with joy as we watch the transformation. It's such a pity that tree was neglected for so many years that it couldn't be saved.

This is the backyard, where the magnolia was. They ground out both that stump and the cedar from several years ago that our neighbor's buddy cut down. 

The backyard looks kind of awful right now, honestly, and we were both depressed last night about cutting down the oak. The fact that the sky is completely overcast with smoke from a bunch of raging forest fires definitely isn't helping the overall mood. Neither is the dead grass in back, or our neighbors' dying shrubs.

There is some good news, though. 

• Grinding the cedar stump generated a ton of lovely-smelling mulch, which I can put in the garden
• The magnolia will no longer be a menace to the pool
• Taking out the oak lets a ton more light into the back of the house
• The dying shrubs will be replaced with a new fence soon
• When the oak seasons, we will have tons of great firewood
• We might get to rent a log splitter to split up the oak (!!)

The trees elsewhere in the front look tons better. I don't think you can capture it really well in a picture, but they all looks like they got a haircut. 

Project Report

I've had a few projects in the hopper for the downstairs bathroom the last couple of weekends. Of course, we painted it white a few weeks after we moved back. The ice blue had lost its appeal for both of us, plus the crown and ceiling had always needed at least one more coat of paint, so we did it all one color (Behr Swiss Coffee in semigloss). Minimized taping, which was great.

Unfortunately, the paint ended up really gloppy and drippy and kind of looks awful in spots. I haven't yet tried fixing it. I have, however, tried distracting from it. So far, it's working! Here's what it looked like before...

and after. Much better. I haven't finalized the shelves, still messing with styling and art and whatnot, but love the distraction from the crapped up paint. But wait, it gets even better than that... 

 Because here's another before...

And after! (I pulled down the sconces to paint them. Don't worry, they'll be back soon for more pictures.) Mirror is framed!

 In the process of that project, we discovered that our bathroom wall curves in as it goes up. You can see it if you look closely on the left side of the mirror. This makes it extremely difficult to hang a frame so it looks level. Even when it is level, it looks a bit wonky. Seven unnecessary holes in the wall later, voila. 

My original plan of staining ended up not working, when the wood filler I got stained a very different color from the wood, and then the wood took the stain unevenly. Top and bottom were different shades than the sides. I sprayed it brown and then used some blackish glaze so it didn't look like my mirror was framed with Hershey bars. It actually blends unbelievably well with the walnut from the vanity. I wish I was talented enough to plan these sorts of things, but it was a happy coincidence. 

There's another project I finished, oh, probably two months ago now: the headboard. I upholstered one for our house in Bend in navy blue canvas, and it worked really well in our oatmeal-colored room. Here, not so much. Plus almost as soon as I finished that one, I realized I love tufting and should have done that. 

 So I did. This was not a super-fun project. It was hot upstairs. I went the nuts and bolts route, which meant very sore fingers for jamming 57 bolts through 57 holes and screwing on 57 nuts. But I'm really happy with it. Not a perfect tufting job, but for a first try, not too bad.

 I'm still working on figuring out what to hang above the bed for art. Thinking maybe five or six square frames with TBD images. Also still trying to figure out what to do about bedding. The navy blanket is functional, but we're kind of feeling some yellow and orange as accents. I've been into quatrefoil and trellis patterns for a while, but haven't found anything yet I want to invest in.

 The lamp on the dresser is going to get switched out eventually, once I find something else. In that corner on the right of the image above, I've ordered...ugh...I can't even believe I'm saying this...a fake palm tree.

 I've killed one palm tree so far, and have another that's not hanging on by much in rehab out on the patio. Steady diet of sunshine and Miracle Grow is doing it wonders. Anyway, the corner needs some greenery. The room's not quite big enough to hang art on every wall; it just gets too cluttered. We both like the palm tree, but not the investment of buying a new one every three months. Hopefully this doesn't look like complete crap. I'll report back soon.

Lastly, for the bedroom roundup, are the Ikea Ritva curtains from a month or two ago. You can see them better a few pictures back, but this gives a better sense of their length. Like, 105 inches or something for a very reasonable $60. Awesome. Our ceilings are 98 inches, so no standard curtains now that I've adopted the high-n-wide method of hanging. It really classes up the room.

Surprisingly, they're linen and rather lovely. They diffuse the light nicely in the morning without making it darker than it is already (the blue absorbs a lot of light). Oh, one other thing... THE FLOORS. We had the floors finished in the bedroom and it looks great. Once the kitchen/laundry room are done, it'll be all wood downstairs, except for marble in the bathroom). Three different kinds of wood, but still.

And tomorrow, the tree guys come. We're sad to be losing the oak on the left, one of the two large branches of which is rotted. The guy said, "it could be like this for another 40 years, or it could fall on your house tomorrow." We decided against taking our changes, but cutting down a big tree is pretty much always sad.

Unless it's a stupid magnolia (right) that drops leaves every day of the year, smothers flower beds and craps up the pool. Then you can't get rid of it fast enough.

Trimming trees is decidedly not among the more fun ways I've come up with to spend a couple grand, so I'm hoping that all the other trees look really good after they've been shaped up. We have five other huge old oaks, a large cedar, another magnolia in the front and a mimosa. And some weird tree we don't know the name of, also in front. They're all getting ridiculously long-overdue haircuts tomorrow. Progress :)

Todd's Office Has Drywall!

So long, fiberboard and crappy old insulation. Hello, sheetrock!

Old windows, your days are numbered.

Notes From the Garden

First real garden pickins of the year. Basil and the first cucumber. 

There are a handful of tomatoes that will be ripening this week: a few cherries, Santiam and an Early Girl. I'm pretty sure the Santiam is going to beat out the EG. Peppers are coming along and dahlias will be in full bloom soon. 

Just as the dark was falling, I put nine little black-eyed susan starts in the ground in the bed in front of the pool. I hacked at the now-unruly honeysuckle vines this afternoon. They're going to need more work and a bigger trellis to take over, but things are under control for the moment. 

We got a ton done yesterday. Mowing the lawn is an hour+ investment, and I'm not sure me zigzagging around only mowing down weeds really saved me much time. The grass is dead now. I refuse to water until we have a sprinkler system and nice lawn. Todd dismantled my black widow wood pile and relocated it to the back of the garden along the neighbors' fence. The wood's been seasoning for three years and I am SUPER EXCITED to dig into my stash of extra-dry oak, cedar and magnolia. 

I spent two hours ripping bermudagrass out of the edge of the garden. I probably shouldn't have bothered, but I just hate it so much. Most of it is gone now and I'll poison whatever's left. No mercy. That stuff is tenacious.

Last night we sipped pear cider from Growler King with Tim while he worked on laying out the kitchen, mudroom and half bath. I'm not sure I've looked forward so much to any other project in this house being done. Oh, it will be a glorious day. And on that note, the activities of the last two days have caught up to me and it's time for bed.

Upstairs Update

Along with the bathroom, the rest of the upstairs is getting there. Demolition is scheduled for Todd's office:

Crappy fiberboard walls, old windows and old insulation, out. New drywall, new windows and extra-fluffy insulation, in. We also hope we're done with the fly infestation. Flypaper and this battery-operated flyswatter have helped with that problem. Theory is that a rat died in the attic somewhere and a fly laid eggs in it. It was like the plague in Egypt (Moses, Pharaoh, Exodus...stick with me here). So. Many. Flies.

Anyway, they're mostly dead now, which is its own problem. But it's preferable to having them alive. I really hope there's no more eggs that will be hatching.

Moving on... here's the guest room, which is overflow for everything that currently doesn't have a home and the contents of Todd's office, which is going to be demoed soon. Floors look good though, huh?

 Just focus on the floors.

Ok, they don't look that great in this shot, which is the top of the stairs, but they do need to be cleaned. The picture's really orangey, which isn't how they look. The upstairs is still mostly a construction area, so we're not being too hyper about them right now.

This one's a bit better. Thinking the railing is going to get a coat of glossy black someday. 

 Down the stairs... this actually looks really crappy. The floor does not look crappy. It's not perfect, but it's such a vast improvement over what it was that it seems ungrateful to be anything other than thrilled. We had Mr. Sandless do them, which uses some kind of polymer finish instead of polyurethane, so it's all green and non-toxic.

 Lastly, so much promise in the middle of the chaos. That chimney makes my heart sing. This is the fun part, where it's all starting to come together, and the vision we had in the beginning is starting to bleed into reality.

Upstairs Bathroom Almost Done!

"Almost" is somewhat relative around here, and that probably goes for most renovations. But when all you're missing is a door (pfft, optional), some baseboard, a light fixture and something to cover the attic access, then my friend, I believe you're at "almost."

Anyway, here's what the upstairs bathroom, a project a year and a half in the making, looks like now.

 The gorgeous tub with a lovely view.

Two-story cubbies for necessary items.

 That'd be the attic access that I'd like to build a shelf insert for, but again, priorities. Right now, just a door would be fine.

 I suppose we'll have to figure out how to provide some privacy, since that window is huge.

And here's the vanity and sink, finally installed!!!! (There aren't enough exclamation points in the world to make this glorious development.) I'm so happy with how it came out. The vanity is from Faucets Direct and it's pretty solid. The glides seem a bit cheap, but they won't be getting tons of use.

It was literally the only cheapish vanity I could find that looked even remotely close to the freestanding furniture look I wanted. The alternative (in an alternate universe) was a $1600 Kohler model, which was lovely, but painfully priced. Hours of digging turned up this gem, and I'm very happy with it.

The sink is also from Faucets Direct. It makes a bit of gurgling noise when it drains, but it looks gorgeous. So glad we went with a vessel for upstairs; it's a very understated statement piece. (Yep, I know what I just wrote.)

To make the faucet handles high enough, Trevor built a box out of the same slate the vanity's topped with. It sits on top of that. We could have positioned them on the outside of the sink bowl, but I think that looks kind of weird, or would have for this setup.

One more :)

These are the vanity pullouts. I'm not sure how I feel about them from a storage standpoint, but again...guest bathroom...don't have to use it...whatever.

This is the wall facing the vanity. The roof slopes down, but at least you don't almost hit your head (anymore) when you get up from the toilet.

Yep, plenty of headroom there. You'll note we're still missing the actual door to the room (details) and a transition piece, which I need to make out of salvaged wood from elsewhere in the house.

I love how clean and modern it came out. We've considered moving upstairs when it's finished because we like it so much, but then I think about the actual moving part, and how we would probably not hire movers to do any of it for us, and .... I reconsider. 

Incidentally, just to remind you what this bathroom used to look like, I'll leave you with this. Keep in mind that this house somehow photographs a million times better than how it actually looks, which in this case, was dreadful. You can read more about the old upstairs bathroom if you dare. 

Does this look cramped to you? That's because my back was against the wall and it was the widest shot I could get...this bathroom was meant for hobbits and designed by idiots.

Not that I'm bitter. If it wasn't such a demented layout in the first place, I never would have ended up with that dream you saw earlier!

What's New, Part II

Since there was plenty of light to still take some decent pictures, this is a much better update. Starting downstairs, with the dining room... I'm thrilled that the dining room table is finally cleared off and everything is put away. Some of it ended up "put away" in the guest room (more on that later) but at least I'm not walking past it 10 times a day.

Side note: love having trash dresser (the white one, behind the dining room table) downstairs so I can see it. I thought we wouldn't have space and it would have to live in the guest room, but it doesn't!

 The dining room is far from perfect, though. There's still this situation. Three things wrong with this picture: 1) burnt out lightbulb, 2) paint job, 3) THAT THIS ABOMINATION OF A LIGHT FIXTURE IS STILL IN MY HOUSE.

 I also put the books back in place a few weeks ago.

 I read somewhere that there's nothing like moving a book collection to make you rethink having it in the first place. So true. But they do look good.

 This is in the living room. It's one of the first pieces of art I've hung, which is kind of a big deal because I had hardly any art, period, when we last lived here, and very little actually hung. Paint needs to be touched up below the picture. It's a stolen sketch from One Kings Lane; I saved the image, turned it into a vector graphic and blew it up to the perfect size for the $3 clearance frame it's in. Stolen art is so satisfying.

Lastly, for this post, these are some of the colors I'm considering...

For this closet off my office, in which I've stuffed my decrepit stairclimber. (Bad light, bad pic, whatever.) Obviously this is where I work out, and I think it'd be fun to paint it a super-energetic color. I love purple on walls, but fuchsia or tangerine would complement the navy in the office proper. We shall see. I have plenty of other priorities at the moment.

Reincarnation of the picnic table

New cedar and a coat of deck stain. The patio is looking spiffier by the day!

What's New, Round I

So this is a motley assortment of very ugly photos, but I need to start somewhere because we've been doing SO much since we moved back about seven weeks ago. And it's dark outside now, so I can't take anything out there right now.

Sunday afternoon, I decided to tackle this mess (clarification: that's the CLOSET, not the booze):

 It's a closet in our dining room that somehow became an ideal dumping ground for paint supplies when we moved in four and a half years ago. From the ground up, that's an old rug in a trash bag, second shelf is mostly old paint and also an old towel, more paint, painting stuff (rollers, including three used (??) ones, miscellaneous crap, then the top shelf had a roasting pan, a set of dishes (boxed from when we moved from Pasadena five years ago), our wallpaper steamer and...a lot of dust.

I found three open containers of spackle: small, medium and large size. Two open and rock-hard tubes of silicon caulk. SIX paint rollers. Why?

Cleaning this closet also revealed uncapped wires in a box in the ceiling. I don't know if they're live or not, but have no reason to believe they aren't. So that's cool.

Anyway, I threw away all the stuff and got it into much better shape. Unfortunately, the following image doesn't really showcase all my work that well. You'll have to trust me; 1.5 garbage bags and half a roll of paper towels later, it's much better.

After years of driving me nuts, I finally replaced the retro 60s-era hardware on the built-ins in our hallway. Martha, ya done good (they're from her line at Home Depot). These were about $4 each, so it's not turning out to be a particularly cheap project at six in the hallway and another six in our bedroom for the built-in dresser, but it makes me happy every day to walk by non-ugly, non-retro hardware.

In the way of other updates, we had a garage sale, probably a month ago, and ditched a bunch of furniture and excess junk. And we went to the dump. Oh, the glorious dump, where you can throw away an entire full-size pickup truck load of trash for $21. I love the dump. So there's been a lot of paring down, and it has felt fantastic.

We've also done some painting, some replacing of hideous light fixtures and old outlets and some gardening. I redid my headboard (tufted, it's fab), hung curtains and plotted the kitchen remodel. The downstairs bedroom floor was refinished. The upstairs floor was refinished, too, and the bathroom is complete except for baseboard and a door covering the attic access. Todd's office upstairs is in the crosshairs for demolition and new drywall and insulation. Half the beds are mulched and the driveways got sealcoated by likely a fly-by-night operation, but that's a story for another post.

Clearly, there are a lot of overdue blog posts. But we're not going anywhere for a while, and I'm going to write them all. We're home. We finally have some traction here and stuff's getting done. It feels great.