Pergola Assembled

Jeff paid his friend Eric to come help him finish assembling the pergola last month. Sadly, we did not get it finished this past summer and the wood just sat outside getting dirty. Oh well. Once the weather improves, we'll pressure wash it all down and finish staining it. Hopefully this spring we'll find the motivation to do it.

Jeff and Eric cut out the brackets until they got to the curves and then they needed to find help to get them finished. Jeff hired that last cut out on each bracket. Those were cut to the same specs as the house, which I think is pretty neat.

This Time For Sure

I was just interviewed again by American Bungalow. They say the article about our house should be in the next issue.

I've also been working on a few minor projects. I'll try to find the camera and post a few photos later this week.

Going to Print

Well, I have heard from the American Bungalow magazine and our house will be featured in the issue after next, so I guess it's time to find some motivation. There are actually lots of projects I still want to do, but I just haven't felt like it. I'm hoping this latest news will give me the needed kick in the pants I've been lacking.

I've been eyeing that empty frieze in the living room for several weeks now. I think it may be time to try and tackle another stencil project. I got stalled on that one because I had actually had found too many period stencil options and I couldn't pick one.

Last month we FINALLY managed to move our stuff out of storage. (Only took us two extra years beyond the remodel, ha ha.) We spent a day organizing the basement and garage and much of the stuff went in those spaces. Pictures would mostly be piles of boxes, so I think I'll pass this time. It would be nice to get started sorting this stuff, but I'd rather do almost anything else than unpack boxes that include misc. boxes originally thrown together when we moved in 2006! Somedays it's very tempting to just call some charity to come take the pile away. Afterall, these boxes haven't been opened in years. How much do we really need this stuff?

UPDATE: I finally heard back from the writer who worked with me last year. Apparently the chief editor didn't like the article she wrote and so the article has been delayed until they get another article written.... I have no idea when something will be published, but American Bungalow has assured me that since they've paid for photos eventually something will. Oh well.

2013 Project List FAIL

I was amused to run across my list detailing my ambitious plans for 2013. Boy, did we ever fail. We'd spent too many years fixated on this one project and we really needed a break. We did get a couple projects finished:

1. Plan/Install master bedroom closet interiors
2. Plan and build side fence

I am really happy with how both those projects turned out. The fence is in but we still haven't finished staining it. Now that the pergola is started, I am prepared to stain the fence white (as I originally planned).

And we mostly finished building our closet inserts. The cube side of my closet is on hold until we make the final plan of our bathroom remodel. I'd hate to spend a lot of time and expense installing the cubes in my closet and then decide we want to move that wall over 6 inches. So, for now, we're just using portable racks.

We do have some projects we'd like to finish this year, but I'm a little less confident we will actually do them. Here is my current list.

1. Empty storage
2. Plan and build pergola at back patio (started)
3. Clean bricks and install back patio
4. Install backyard path
5. Put in rain barrel behind garage
6. Plan and build raccoon/rat-safe chicken coop
7. Plan master bathroom remodel
8. Prime/Paint/Stain basement bathroom
9. Install flooring/fixtures in basement bathroom

Pergola Progress

We started off the day scrambling to get the boards for the pergola stained. The weather was clear and we got quite a lot of them done. It did seem a tragedy to stain those beautiful clear cedar boards with opaque white stain, but ultimately I decided the stain would look better in a few years than the natural cedar. I didn't believe grayed-cedar would look good with the rest of the house color palette. And, besides, we had the white stain leftover from our fence project shortly after we moved in.

And, as usual for Oregon, our clear weather forecast delivered some sprinkles so we had quite the scramble to get the boards under cover.

The guys continued to assemble the pergola throughout the day.

We didn't get the big posts stained because of yesterday's rain so we'll have to get them finished on the next warm day. The pergola still needs the wood braces and the top layer of 2x2s. We're actually trying to find someone to make the braces for us as we don't have the proper tools to make them ourselves.

We also plan to paint a second coat of stain on the entire structure once it's finished. It got a fair amount of smudges and scratches in the assembly today. Plus, the coverage with the first coat of stain was not totally consistent throughout.

I'm lovin' the end detail. Thanks Jeff!!