Fence Half Finished

I have to be honest, I am not too pleased with Rick's right now. They did a fine job installing our fence, but their quote was for only half the fence and I didn't realize it. We had a long conversation about wanting both sides, along with the details about height and extras. I'd made a lot of compromises from the earlier quote, i.e. shorter overall height, skipping the post caps, trellis only in the section next to the house, so I wasn't surprised when the overall total was quite a bit lower. But, it turns out, they didn't quote out the whole fence. 

They finished this side of the fence then sent the final invoice and I was confused and asked when they'd be installing the rest....

Clearly, I should have looked a lot more closely at the bid and compared the total linear feet, but I was distracted and rushed to make a decision. Sigh.

Anyway, given that they only gave us a bid for half the fence, they were by far the most expensive of our quotes. So, when we do the other side after the roof and gutters are finished, we'll be going to one of the other companies.

At the last minute, we decided to dispose of the old fence ourselves. It saved us $250 and we got to pick through for the parts worth reusing.

New Fence Install Day 1

Rick's Custom Fencing and Decking started our project today. They are actually starting by doing one side this week because our neighbor was really anxious for it to be finished in time for a party, then they'll come back in a week to two to finish the other side of the yard. As a reminder, this is the style of fence we're getting for the most visible portions. 

They made short work of the old fence and had it removed in about an hour. They basically cut it into sections and then chopped the posts off at the dirt line if they didn't easily pull out.

Today they finished setting the posts in cement. Tomorrow, they'll be back to install the slats between.

We'll spend a couple hours digging through the wood pile tomorrow for portions we want to keep. I sort of like playing with salvaged wood. If we make another round of garden benches, we'll pass them onto friends.

Projects This Summer

We haven't been posting lately because we haven't been doing any house-related projects. But, starting next week, we're finally kicking off some projects. Starting on Tuesday, we are finally getting our Interlock Roof installed. Given the astronomical cost of their roofs, it's rather surprising their backlog is so long. I'm sure LeafGuard Gutters will be happy to finally get our job off their books.

This past winter, our fence fell over in high winds. (I really wish I'd remembered to take a photo.) Right now, it's propped up with boards and our neighbor is anxious about getting it replaced. I wanted a fence that looked like this but we got a quote for it and it was more than $20,000! LOL This fence is apparently $86/linear foot.

So, instead we decided to compromise and get something less expensive. The most-visible parts will have lattice, the rest won't and we decided to skip the expense of post caps. It will be about half the cost of the other. If we weren't already spending so much on the roof and gutters, we probably would get the more expensive fence, but there are limits on how much we can absorb in a year.

Drip System Install

Conserva Irrigation is installing our drip system this week. We've had a few plant casualties from the trenching and channel drilling but overall the plants that survive will appreciate the reliable summer water. And once the installation is finished, I have a few more native plants to add to the yard.

Lots of New Projects

I really should be posting more frequently. We have been doing stuff. Or at least we have been hiring people to do stuff. LOL

Shortly after my last post, we discovered our roof has to be replaced. The shingles are fine, but they didn't install them correctly and there are areas with no plywood underlayment. It is VERY FRUSTRATING as I spent a long time trying to find a reputable roofer to do the installation. But since it has been more than 10 years since the installation we can't actually go after the roofer, in the unlikely event they are still in business. (Apparently, many of them set up a business, work for 10 years, then shut down the business so they don't have to deal with installation issues. Then they start up a new business with a new name. And repeat the pattern. It's really dishonest and I don't understand how they continue to get away with it.)  Rather than let it continue to rot out the roof framework we made the difficult decision to just replace the roof again.

Anyway, we decided to get an Interlock Metal Roof. The company has been in business for a really long time and I can't find bad reviews or evidence of dishonesty. With any luck, their claims that you never need another roof are true. We probably won't be here long enough to have to worry about it in any case. Unfortunately, it's late enough in the season that we may have to wait until spring before they'll be able to put it on. (They don't install roofs when it's raining.)

We also are buying LeafGuard Gutters. We had them long ago when we lived in Forest Grove and we really liked that we never had to clean them so we're getting them again. They'll be installed after the new roof is put on so we have to deal with the bad rain situation for another winter.

We also hired Conserva Irrigation to install drip irrigation for us. We've been wanting to put it in ourselves for the past several years, but it is clear we just are not motivated to do it. The new system will be installed to code and there will be a controller and we should be able to program it to run on a schedule, unlike the original plan to just attach it to hoses to make it work. They'll be starting that work in a couple of weeks.

Finally, I hope the last thing, we hired Pride and Joy Landscape, to help us get the yard back into shape.  They took away two trailers full of yard waste and everything is looking much tidier. But, I'll be honest, they did remove several plants I would have preferred they leave, but that is my fault for not marking them better, or doing a better job communicating which plants I wanted to save. After the irrigation is put in, they're going to come back out and help us spread mulch for the winter. And I'll probably move some plants around into better locations once we'll be able to water them more easily.

Before the clean up, it was hard to see but we could no longer find the path,
and many plants were growing over each other.

The columnar apple tree in front of the house had gotten a little out of control
and it was also full of wisteria vines.

I don't have a good before photo of this bed. Generally, the plants
reached the bottom branches of the apple tree and the apple tree
had many lower branches so this space is opened up quite a lot now.

So, yeah, that's a lot of upcoming work. We're spending way too much money on this house again. I haven't even added it all up and I'm sure I don't want to. But at least Jeff is working again so it won't all be coming out of savings.

Stair Railing Progress

Our forecast calls for nice cool weather for several days so it seems like a good time to finally get this railing installed. We made good progress this afternoon. 

We have a couple more hours of work to install the outer boards and the flat upper portion. Then I'll have to touch up the paint.

We also still need to route the edges of the board that goes flat on top, but it will be nice to have most of it finished by the end of the weekend.

Back Stair Decking

I don't remember what kind of wood CDR used for the back stairs—it was something tropical—but it looked really nice when they finished the project. I really regret we didn't finish it sooner. The nine years of weathering did not improve the appearance of wood and my several hours of sanding didn't do enough to remove the weathered wood.

Yesterday, I finally finished applying the Cabot Australian Timber Oil. I like the finish. Too bad I didn't do it sooner. =)

The boards next to the door are covered by a roof overhang so they look the best.

All the sawn balusters and railings are painted. I just need to finish prepping the newells (sanding and painting) and we can finish this project. 

It has gotten crazy hot in Portland—we have a forecast for something like 112℉ on Saturday—so it likely won't happen for a couple of weeks. I am really hoping this hot weather doesn't last the summer.

Railings Painted

For the past couple of weeks, I've been slowly plugging away at painting the railing for the back stairs. We didn't have enough sawhorses to paint everything at once so I've had to paint everything in two batches. It was a little painful to put paint on this beautiful clear cedar, but I've learned the hard way that it won't look so beautiful after a couple years of weathering.

First I did the batch of balusters inside the garage. I applied a coat of exterior primer on all four edges and then I did the same with a good quality exterior paint.

All finished and ready to be installed

Then, once we had the tablesaw moved into the garage, I set up the rails outside under the porte cochiere. They're getting their last edge painted later today, then Jeff will finally get his parking space back.

I had hoped to finish this stair railing project before summer arrived, but in March I decided I would rather finish my closet first because I was tired of the disarray in the bedrooms. Then, by the time that project was finished, it had started to rain. A lot. 

I figured it made the most sense to sand and finish the stair decking before we installed the rails which will require a week of clear weather when it's not-too-crazy hot. I'm crossing my fingers it will happen soon because I'm eager to get this wood out of the way in the garage. I have some other projects I would like to work on.

More Native Plants

One of our favorite nurseries, Echo Valley Natives, has lost their lease and will be closing at their current location so it gave me an excuse to go and visit. (They may reopen in a new location if they can find one.)

In March 2020, I planted a Lonicera ciliosa (orange honeysuckle) but it died pretty quickly. I've been hoping to find a replacement because I really want one of these plants for our hummingbirds. I figured it would be worth checking with Echo Valley before they closed in July. They had two little orange honeysuckles and they also had the Lonicera hispidula (pink honeysuckle) and I purchased a couple of those as well. I'm hoping between the four plants at least one of them will survive and thrive.

Of course, since I was there, I found it hard to resist getting a few unplanned natives. I got a couple Dicentra formosa (bleeding hearts), Oxalis oregana (wood sorrel) and three Lupinus polyphyllus (bigleaf lupine). Other than the honeysuckle, we don't really have room for these plants so I'll just plant them in the beds with the other plants and they can do their best to compete for space.

We have been enjoying our yard so very much this year. A little more rain would be nice as we're already feeling compelled to do some watering, but it is worth it.

The Parking Strip.

The flower bed under the black walnut.

The view of the hidden garden from the back patio.

When I was poking around my photos, I was reminded this is what the area behind the garage looked like just two years ago.

More Garden Benches

When we were cleaning up for our holiday BBQ, Jeff made a snarky comment about our junk pile of wood on the side of the house. He was right, it looked bad. This is roughly how it looked over there, though the wood was stacked next to the house, not spread out all over the driveway. (This is a photo from last fall, I didn't think to take a recent one.)

It finally prompted me to use up the last of the good pieces of scrap wood. Since we were planning to have a BBQ, I thought it would be helpful to have more seating, and because we still had some short pieces of pressure-treated 4x4, I was able to reuse my plans from last year.

Jeff and I quickly sifted through the wood and found we had enough pressure-treated 4x4 to make two more benches and once we confirmed we could find enough long pieces, we spent about an hour cutting everything out. (We used whatever kind of wood was handy, without regard to the species, though most of what we had lying around was cedar and fir scraps from our fence and shed projects.)

Then I spent the next few days staining everything.

These benches went together pretty quickly. We decided to use fewer slats on the top this time around because we are hoping it will be easier to clean the seeds/leaves out of the gaps.

The old white bench was also partially disassembled/cleaned and restained with the green stain. I'm not sure how durable the finish will be since we applied green opaque stain over the top of the white opaque stain, but we won't be putting it back under the maple tree so hopefully, it won't need as much scrubbing.

The rest of the weathered wood I didn't think I would ever use went off to the dumps before the BBQ. So, while the side of the house still looks a little junky, it is better. I do hope we'll get the last of this stuff cleaned up this summer.

Holiday BBQ

We are really happy to be vaccinated! Jeff scheduled a BBQ for this past weekend so we spent the last couple of weeks sifting and cleaning the many piles of junk that had built up over the past year of being quarantined. I didn't really take much in the way of photos because the room themselves have not really changed; they're just cleaner.

We took two loads of trash/recycling to the dumps and dropped off one load at the charity shop. I still have one big pile of textile recycling building up on the front porch. I still have to finish sifting before I call them to pick up the pile.

We've had some wonderful weather and it was great to be able to entertain out in the backyard over the weekend. The hidden garden has been lovely and we got lots of compliments from friends that had never seen it.

We'll likely spend quite a bit of the summer visiting friends we have missed for the past year and doing day trips throughout this lovely state. The pandemic really helped us appreciate the ability to get out of the house.

Outdoor Cooking

With no range in the kitchen, Jeff was motivated to pull our old camp cooker out of the shed. It was a lovely day to do some outdoor cooking.

This past week, he also finished gluing up the small stools we made out of scrap shiplap siding last fall. 

It was originally delayed because we were trying to figure out how to make them more durable than the original stools which were simply nailed together into end-grain. Then we got distracted (as so often happens). Finally, Jeff decided to cut some small pieces to go into the corners so he could screw into both edges.

We found some neat clamping straps to use during glue-up.

Finally, another project checked off the ToDo list. Now I just need to get the motivation to finish the back stairs. LOL