House Numbers

We chose dark bronze house numbers that match our roof and gutters. They are art-deco in style and a vast improvement over the previous broken wooden numbers. We're unsure of the font name. Guesses?

Gutters and Bioswale Plans

Our dark bronze gutters (seen from above at bottom of photo) match our roof perfectly. We sprung for gutter covers, a good idea given the myriad large trees surrounding our property. Rachael was squeamish about the idea of Justin having to clean the second-story gutters each year.

Three of the four downspouts empty on to the East side (i.e. front) of our property. Our plan is excavate a large portion of the sidewalk-less easement in order to create a natural bioswale into which the stormwater can flow. We've already begun to collect water-loving plants to install in this wetlands-like natural drainage and filtering system. The city offers tax credits for this sort of project due to the prevalence of wintertime Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs). These occur due to Portland's antiquated sewer system; All gray and black water (household water waste) is combined with the runoff from houses and streets into one large system. When the system reaches maximum capacity, surplus is dumped into the Willamette River. This means that, in the rainy months, biological and chemical waste enters the river nearly daily. Diverting the rainwater to permeable locations such as a bioswale helps to reduce the amount of water entering our pipes and, thus, the frequency of CSOs.

Concrete Countertops

Ah, Rude. How could we have done this remodel with out you? (Answer: We couldn't.) Not only are you a tile-laying master, but also a master of concrete. Our countertops and slate backsplash (leftovers from the floor) have turned out even better than we'd imagined.

Basement Bedroom, Repainted

Roy (Rachael's youthful dad) pointed out that dark brown was, perhaps, too dreary for a basement bedroom. We opted to paint the bedroom a warm cream color with two wall segments a pear-green. It really lightened up the room and made it feel more spacious. We may add a few more green accent walls down the line.

Pause...

An apology to our loyal readers: we burnt out. After a year and some change of planning and executing the remodel, we (and our weary bodies) needed a break. We declared August 11th our official "first day of summer break" and have regulated ourselves to optional, not obligatory, projects ever since. This has allowed Rachael to garden, Justin to fine tune, and both of us to enjoy some late-night barbecues, Rachael's 10-year reunion, visits with Luca and Enzo and Zoe and Maraena, some lazy days blueberry picking and, of course, the all-important PDX Adult Soapbox Derby. We're relishing reconnecting with our community, and are off to a great start to the school year. Meanwhile, look for updated posts in the days ahead.

Loose Ends

We're starting to come up on the end of the remodel (at least the major pieces of it, anyway), and a lot of unfinished projects are starting to wrap up. The second half of the rock steps went in tonight with Carlos's help. Now that the stone is in place, Rachael is going to fill in the gaps with rich soil and plant ground cover, which will hopefully help the rocks blend in with the existing dirt and rock walls to either side.

Great Northwest Gutters installed our gutters and downspouts earlier this week and did some excellent work. The stock brown of the gutters matches the roof so well that they're practically invisible against the house. We chose downspout locations so that we can feed water runoff into small bioswales/watersheds instead of into the storm drains in the street.

Chano and crew have been doing a lot of painting, staining and varnishing for us, and it's all really starting to come together now. In this photo you can see the unexpectedly delicious finish of the porch ceiling, which is stained a deep brown and varnished.

Bull Nose

Rude came by and framed in the window and top edge of the bathroom field tile with bull nose pieces. He did a little creative maneuvering and put in a slate windowsill and did some crazy tile cutting work around the window. This photo doesn't do it justice, but if you saw it in person, you'd be excusing yourself more frequently to use the bathroom.

Water Bead

This shot was taken this afternoon. We got a pretty heavy rainstorm last night and the water that hit the deck beaded up on the layer of sealer instead of soaking into the wood.

Freshness Seal

Here's a shot of the deck during the sealing process. There's an unfinished strip running right to left in the center of the photo. The sealer brings out the rich grain and color of the Ipe and helps keep the deck from graying too quickly.

Backbreaking

On Saturday, Stuart and I moved over a ton and a half of rock into place for the lower set of front stairs. We spent a great deal of time shoveling dirt and gravel, too. Add to that a nasty fight or twelve with some tree roots the size of our forearms (or maybe the forearm of Loki, Stu?), and we had ourselves a mammoth day. Rachael kept things interesting when she disturbed a yellow jacket nest and collected three stings, including one right on her eyebrow.

Freakishly coincidentally, the Neander Games were held this past weekend at Rocky Butte in northeast Portland.

The plastic hanging over the porch was to keep falling tree debris off the freshly sealed decking.

Matching Garage

Chano, Leo and Carlos were with us again Saturday, this time putting some fresh paint on the garage to match it to the house.

Power Wash

Last Friday night Justin power washed the deck. Rachael scrubbed it clean with a stiff bristled push broom and some deck cleaner/brightener/conditioner. Then Justin power rinsed it clean. Thanks, Nathan for loaning us your washer. We filled the tank with diesel for you (just kidding!).

Stair Stone

Smith Rock (the stone retailer in Portland, not the climber's destination in Bend) dropped off one and a half tons of gray Oregon basalt curbstone. The average stone is about seven inches high, ten inches wide and twenty inches deep. We'll spend this weekend arranging and setting them in that dirt runout peeking out from behind the pallet. The project will require some excavation to level things out and we'll use 3/4 inch minus to backfill the rock beds.

Black Gold

Rachael and Grimm's Fuel spent a couple of hot hours this afternoon (it reached 104 F in the 'hood today) blowing in four inches of new soil, covering the entire back yard, side yard and some areas in the front yard.

Trim Paint

Chano and Leo pack up after another long evening of painting. Tonight they worked on soffit and trim. The soffit stain is coming out darker than we expected, but we like the look so far.

In case we haven't mentioned it, our neighbors to the north cut down their laurel hedge a few weeks ago, and now our north side is really exposed. They say their plan is to put in a new wooden fence along the property line this summer, which will provide a nice gardening backdrop for the planting strip along the driveway.

Here's a shot from about the same spot before the hedge was cut down.