New Bedroom Furniture

My furniture was delivered today. I had to ditch the boxspring or it looked really bad. We have a really thick mattress. This furniture is actually cherry with maple panels, but it's hard to tell because the cherry is still so light. It will darken over time.

This was a silly purchase, but I had a spendthrift summer and ordered it from a local furniture maker and it's too late to change my mind. LOL It's nice that I can finally clean up this bedroom.

Basement Furnishings

I spent the day shopping for basement furnishings. We'd been planning to replace the old rugs and buy a sofa with a drop-down table for movie time. But now that Jeff has started working again, he needs a quiet place to work so we changed the plan to include a workstation in the theater side of the room.

With the desk added, though, we don't have room for a sofa. I spent a couple hours shopping around online and found a few options until I finally decided it would make the most sense to just relocate our Stressless chairs downstairs from the main floor. It's not like I'll spend much time sitting around once I get my long arm machine next month.

That still left floor coverings. I gave away the old rugs, so we do actually need new rugs. I spent several days agonizing over some hand-knotted rugs that are on sale, but they're still pretty expensive. I'm not sure I can justify more than $3K for the basement family room. 

So I was astonished today when I found some polypropylene rugs that I really liked. I don't normally go for plastic rugs, but the pattern seems period and they're super cheap. And if the basement leaks water again they should survive. Despite my reservations, I ordered a set of the Unique Loom Carnation Edinburgh Geometric Area Rugs from Overstock.com while they're on sale for President's Day. At Jeff's request, I ordered the black ones.

And because I clearly spend too much time in Electric Quilt, I thought it would be fun to try and design a quilt that coordinates with them. This is my first attempt. I will no doubt try a couple more versions before I actually settle on one.

Magnolia Dreams Quilt

Making Speaker Shelves

Since we are refinishing our basement, I had expected Jeff would want to replace his home theater gear. It's getting pretty old—most of it was bought before we moved into this house—but he decided he was still happy enough with it. We don't really watch much TV anymore. But since we'll be doing all this work in the basement, we are going to actually install the TV and speaker system so there aren't ugly wires hanging everywhere. 

We plan to hang the TV up on the wall with an adjustable wall mount.

Also, I decided to make some little shelves for the speakers so we could place them around the room correctly. I saw a cute photo the other day of small shelves made with pipe fittings and decided to make some of my own. I used galvanized pipes because I like the finish better.

I'll go dig through our douglas fir scraps soon and cut some small shelves so I can stain them with the rest of the wood.

Finally, we'll be taking the time to install cord raceways/concealers, but we haven't chosen one yet. It's tempting to order them now during the holiday sales, but I think it would be better to wait until we're ready to install them so we'll know better what size we need.

Basement Work Scheduled

We have a start date for our basement project. Tim Austin is currently on a job and believes he'll be ready to start our basement project on Dec 15!! So, I guess it's time to get serious about this! I am not excited about emptying out the basement, but it needs to be done so I scheduled another storage space and we'll start moving stuff over as we pack.

We have a fairly simple "remodel" planned; it's not really going to be more finished than it is now but Tim will be bracing the house to the foundation and then installing a steel framework around the perimeter of the space which should provide further support. This is an example photo he sent me of another job he worked on.

Then Tim is going to level the floor as much as he can within the framed sections. We're not going for full-on level; that's not possible with our horrible floor without more effort than we're willing to pay for. This is another photo he sent as an example.

Once leveled, the floor is going to be finished with one of the Lifeproof plastic floors, probably in the Crosbyton Oak color. Tim assures us this flooring is one of the best options for an occasionally damp space. Even though our water infiltration problems went away once Jeff installed the French drain on the side of the house, it surely is better to plan for some future water seepage.

For the ceiling, I had originally wanted to install a dropped ceiling but it is already too low. With a dropped ceiling, we would lose several more inches so Tim persuaded me to replace the current sheetrock with new sheetrock after the wiring is finished. We will take good photos and dimensions to document the space once it is open so hopefully we'll have less destruction when we have future work to do.

This floor plan is roughly what we are hoping for once the space is finished. Really, the only change from the existing space is the addition of two closets and better lighting. We have made some minor changes since I did this SketchUp file, but they're not important enough for me to take the time to update SketchUp.

A couple days ago, I discovered some great wall-mounted arms to install Jeff's computer gear, so we'll be putting those in once the walls are up. Right now the computer gear is in the center of the room clamped to a table and looks so untidy so I'm really looking forward to this change.

LX Wall Monitor Arm

LX Wall Keyboard Arm

We have so much to do in the next couple of weeks. I guess I'd better get started tomorrow!

Range Rant

Do you guys remember this drama from last May? Our BlueStar range started on fire and we called out the fire department to put it out. (Jeff thought the gas line was burning and couldn't reach to get it turned off.)

We went back to BASCO in May and ordered a new range but we decided to try an induction range from Ilve that came in emerald green. Boy, was that ever a mistake. It was originally scheduled to come in mid-August, but it didn't. Then they gave us a revised date of the end of October. Well, I spoke to BASCO again yesterday, and now they're saying we won't get our range yet and they don't want to give any delivery date. 

I am so frustrated. First, BASCO sucks at communication. They basically ignore the situation until I call in looking for my range and then they have to figure out what's happening. And two, what was I thinking ordering a semi-custom range during a pandemic? Sigh.

Anyway, it's not actually clear whether we'll have a range by Thanksgiving. Finally, now BASCO will let me cancel the order (I put down a 50% non-refundable deposit) but do I really want to get in the back of the line for a new appliance?

So, I may start looking around and see if there is anything else that can be found. The space is 36" and most hardware store ranges are only 30" so I doubt we can walk into Lowes or Home Depot and just buy something off the floor.

On the bright side, Jeff has gotten quite good at cooking with the Instant Pot and toaster oven. He's been amazing dealing with our kitchen situation, but I am past ready for it to end, so I need to get on the phone and start calling around and see if I can find a different option.

Electrical Fire

Yesterday evening, we had a bit of excitement. Jeff put on a pot to boil for dinner and the range started on fire. He didn't notice immediately because he had left the room. After a few minutes, the kitchen filled with smoke and all the smoke alarms started going off. 

Jeff thought it was perhaps a leak in the gas line that was burning, but we couldn't find the shutoff to the range and when we couldn't figure out how to turn off the gas to the house, I called the Fire Dept. They came within five minutes of the call and finally extinguished the last of the fire in the range and turned off our gas for us. Our Blue Star Range is kaput, poor thing.

This is likely where the fire started. Apparently, it was an electrical fire.

I am so thankful we only lost the range. While it was happening, I had visions of our whole house bursting into flames. Beyond the range, the only "damage" is a fine layer of soot on everything the smoke touched. Jeff and I have spent a couple hours cleaning up the soot, but there is still plenty left to clean.

Today, obviously, I was compelled to do some shopping for a replacement range. We've been talking about getting an induction range for "the next house." This obviously, gives us the chance. If I was not picky, I could have bought a Wolf 36" Transitional Induction Range and it would be installed by the end of the week. But, alas, I am picky. Very picky. I just don't want a stainless steel range in this kitchen.

When I discovered the Ilve Majestic II 36" Range had an option for induction burners and came in Emerald Green, we had to track one down to take a look. 

Unfortunately, it will take up to 14 WEEKS to arrive. Despite the horrific wait time, Jeff and I decided to order this range so there is a good chance we will not have an operating range in our kitchen until the end of August. I guess there will be no canning this summer.

Luckily, Jeff does a lot of cooking with the Instant Pot. And perhaps we'll finally get some use out of our new-last-year BBQ.

Another Santa Rosa Gardens Order

Last summer, I discovered a wonderful online nursery, Santa Rosa Gardens, and bought a TON of plants from them. Many were deeply discounted and virtually all of them survived. I was really satisfied with the experience.

Last fall, though, I was disappointed when I received an email from them telling me they were discontinuing the single plant sales. If I wanted to buy plants from them, I would have to purchase a whole flat (usually about 72 plants); that wasn't going to happen. But in March when I cruised by their website I discovered they'd resumed selling a limited selection of plants in three-packs!

I thought it would be nice to get another batch of heuchera for the new areas we're planting, so I placed a new order last month. They were about $4/each, including the shipping, which is a really deep discount over buying them locally. I received the order this evening.

The box I received was way smaller than last year. They now ship heuchera in tiny plugs but they looked really healthy and they were still moist despite being in transit for three days.

I decided to repot them into 3.5" pots so we don't have to rush to get them in the ground.

Secret Garden Growers

Anyone who has followed our blog for a while knows that I obsess about things. My latest obsession was about a silly evergreen maidenhair fern, the Adiantum x tracyi. I've been looking for them at our local nurseries since January when I realized how pretty they looked over the winter.

I found them online a while ago at a nursery in Canby, Secret Garden Growers, but I successfully talked myself out of driving there. But on Friday, when they advertised a 10% off sale at their Facebook page, I could no longer resist. And I figured I may as well go to the grocery store too.

It was a nice little nursery. I bought a few more plants beside the Tracy's Maidenhair ferns. Plus, I bought another Ribes x gordonianum, this one a 2-year old plant and MUCH bigger (and nearly the same price as the little one). I wish I'd found it before I bought the little one, but I did not.

This larger plant has the advantage of being more likely to survive the ravages of our dog children. We put the smaller plant in the front yard where the girls are less likely to stumble over it.

I need to be done plant shopping now, at least until it's safer to venture outside of the house again.

Bareroot Bleeding Hearts

In January, I placed an order from Easy to Grow Bulbs for bareroot bleeding hearts and a few other flowers. The order finally came today.

I placed the order primarily because I found they were carrying yellow bleeding hearts and I really wanted them. I ordered two of them. Out of the package, they looked pretty sad. There was no sign of life, but I soaked them for an hour and then planted them. I'm crossing my fingers they make it.

The white bleeding hearts looked considerably better. The roots looked bigger and healthier and they both had a bit of new growth at the crown.

Even though it was raining today, I got all the plants in the ground and I'll be watching for any signs of life in the coming weeks. I really hope they make it.

Planting Bed Surprise

Our beautiful weather last week tempted us to our local nurseries. I've been eager to finish planting the bed under the black walnut.

Most of these plants from Xera Plants are for the planting bed beneath the black walnut.

Portland Nursery had these for $2.50 so we bought some to spread around the yard.

I tried to plant them on Saturday and had an unexpected surprise when I started digging down into the soil. About four inches down I hit something hard. I was surprised to find cement that had been buried under the soil. Obviously, Jeff and Aaron hadn't double dug this area last year or it would have already been found and removed.

These concrete chunks are really thick. I assume they were put in place to make the driveway wider, but we almost never pull into the driveway beyond the porte cochère and I'd rather have the space for plants.

This bed is going to need a little more work before we can get the plants in the ground.

Bareroot Hostas

I've never had hostas before, but I constantly see them in photos of shade gardens and when I learned they survive fine under black walnuts I decided I should probably add them to our plant shopping list.

A couple of weeks ago when I was working on my plant layout for the hidden garden I ran across this deal: Hosta Bumper Crop Mix (10) for $10 plus shipping. Having learned from my past experience with fraudulent online sellers, before I considered ordering I looked them up on Dave's Garden and they had acceptable reviews. I don't expect every company to be perfect, but I do expect them to fix their mistakes.

Anyway, I ended up spending $28 on 20 bareroot hostas. Since most of the hostas I see at nurseries are at least $6, I figured if at least 5 of them lived I'd be ahead. LOL  They arrived a couple of days after I ordered them.

They were packed in bags with moist sawdust which still had some moisture when they arrived.

They looked healthy enough. At least they looked alive.

One thing I did badly when I ordered is I forgot to consider my pot situation. I was almost out of gallon pots. So, when these came, I had to cram most of them into deep 4" pots, which some of them clearly didn't like.

Over the past week it was obvious which weren't going to make it in the little pots and we've put those in the ground and they're doing well now. (I'm not including photos of all of the hosta in the ground.)

And the rest in the pots, only about 10 days after I planted them.

I don't know my hosta varieties, but it does look like I only got two different kinds. It would have been nice to have more variety, but if you don't care what kind you get, this particular deal was a great bargain.

Update later: Got them all in gallon pots and it looks like there might be 3 varieties. I hope to get all these in the ground in September, once we have the black walnut tree pruned.

More Plants

In my never-ending quest for color palette perfection, I dragged Jeff to a couple of nurseries somewhat outside of Portland this weekend.

Loen Nursery was having an end-of-season sale so we went on Saturday to get our Japanese maple. My plan called for an Acer palmatum 'Sherwood Flame' because all my research told me it maxed out at 15' and was burgundy in the summer and red in the fall. But, the 'Sherwood Flame' Loen had in stock was neither burgundy nor red. It was green, which would not do. So, right then, I ditched the plan and instead bought an Acer palmatum 'Wolfe', called Emperor I. Its mature height is a little taller than the Sherwood Flame, but it is at least burgundy/red.

We also picked out several perennials, which were 50% off. And we bought a tray of plants for groundcover.

On Sunday, we drove out to Blooming Junction in Cornelius because they have an online inventory and it looked like they carried a few plants I'd been looking for for a while. They, unfortunately, were not having a sale, but we did get a couple of plants I'd had trouble locating. And, of course, we brought home a few spontaneous purchases. It's hard to pass up beautiful blooming plants.

So, now we've got most of the plants for the Hidden Garden here, lined up and ready to go in the ground when we're ready. I'll probably re-pot most of the 4" pots into gallon pots to survive the August heat. The rest of the plants not yet purchased are just not available right now, so I'll have to wait. (I hate waiting.)

We are getting quite the fern collection. It seems like every time we see a fern we don't already have in our yard, we pick up at least one.

Last month, Jeff spread some leftover crimson clover seeds and has been watering the area. I think he is trying to bring up the mint and blackberry so he can remove them, and to amend the soil by turning under the clover in a few weeks when they're ready to dig in soil amendments.

I finally got primer for my vintage patio set, so I plan to start working on that tomorrow.

Santa Rosa Gardens Order

After the Wholesale Nursery debacle, I had pretty much sworn off of buying plants from online nurseries. But this year, when I wanted very specific plants for my particular color scheme, I began thinking it would probably be okay to order from nurseries in Oregon because at least the plants wouldn't have to travel as far.

While I was poking around doing searches for the heuchera in the specific colors I wanted, I found all of them on clearance for $5.99 and $2.99 at the Santa Rosa Gardens website. Then I found some columbines in good colors for $2.99; those would be perfect for the backyard rain garden. And the more I looked, the more I found that I had to have. Honestly, I got a little shopping cart happy when I was perusing their clearance plants. Even though I was reluctant to order from them, I had a moment of weakness and clicked the order button.

At the time, I thought they were located in California, which seemed not so much further than Oregon. At least it's on the west coast. But I learned after I placed the order that they're actually in Florida! Oops.

Anyway, my order arrived today, just three days after I placed it. This time, my result was MUCH different.

Wow, each plant was individually wrapped

The boxes come with these neat little trays designed to hold the pots perfectly

When you pick the pots up you can feel a little of the dirt has been knocked out of the pot. If you support the netting, you can shake most of the loose dirt back into the pot.

Each plant has this little net thing on it to hold the dirt.

They recommend you cut off the netting from the bottom and pull it off from the top so you don't bust stems/branches.

The columbines were looking a little parched, and there were a few broken stems here and there, but they're looking pretty good—and alive—which is a nice change.

Here they are! A little bedraggled, but mostly looking healthy.

Some of these plants were ordered for the backyard Hidden Garden, which isn't ready yet. So, those will get repotted into gallon pots and we'll keep them on the back patio until we're ready to plant them in a month or two.

Update: They just sent me a 50% off coupon for the holiday if anyone is interested. The discount is off the clearance prices.

November Update

Most years Jeff and I don't take advantage of Black Friday sales but, with the move, this year was an exception. Our current dryer went kaput after only 8 years. (Which is a rant, I'll spare you.) We've also been having problems with the washing machine, but it is still limping along. So, yesterday, I ordered a new washer and dryer (and freezer and microwave).

I don't know about you guys, but I have had a dilemma about which brand to buy. Basically, there are no laundry machine brands that are designed to last and all are likely to fail within the first decade. So, given that, I decided to go with a lower budget line of machines. I figure if they make them to fail, then I'm going to spend less on them. Though, I still haven't figured out why anyone would want WiFi laundry machines.

I actually ordered them to be delivered to the new house in Prineville, so it should be interesting. Little stuff we'll continue to wash here in Portland and hang dry. We'll bring the huge stuff, like sheets and quilts, to Prineville and wash them there. LOL

In the afternoon, we found ourselves back at Portland Direct Tile & Marble. I often find myself perusing their tile pictures online and their staff are super helpful about bringing out pieces for you to look at. Yesterday, I found a room in the back I had never seen before where they had a ton of discontinued borders to choose from. I was super excited to find some that I thought would look good with the soapstone. Green is really not in style this year. Also, I am not excited about this year's encaustic tile trend. We have always tried to avoid trendy kitchen materials because we don't want to "date" our remodels.

We finally made a commitment on the border when we found they had enough remaining of this one.