October 10, 2007
Painting the Cedar Deck
Painting our deck had become a matter of life and death judging by the heavy sighs David and I would voice every time we would pull into the driveway lately. People told us they loved the rough cedar, but we have never felt like it jived with the mid-century themes of the home. Like everything else, we knew it was a simple do-it-yourself job, but we also never had the time for it, especially not with a baby and new business. So, we finally caved and hired a crew to come out and powerwash and paint the posts as well as stain and seal the Cumaroo deck beams.
BEFORE
DURING
AFTER
What a HUGE difference it made! I suppose it had to wait. We were told by a few contractors that you have to let cedar age a little or it won't take the paint (and its natural resin might even bleed through). It looks so good now, I don't know what to do with myself.
I have great plans for landscaping, but first we have a project that requires some planning. As you can probably see, our deck doesn't actually provide any cover for the area underneath... including our front door. Heavy rains drip directly through the deck beams and form a lake right in front of the picture window. We are going to have to build some kind of under-cover, provide a gutter to redirect the runoff, and then grade the soil so that the water won't collect in one spot. Only then can we finish the concrete screen fence under the deck and landscape that area.
I've been saying that Erwin House was completed in August of 2006, but I suppose a house is never really done, eh? ;-)
Posted by Christiane at 11:44 AM | Comments (4)
October 04, 2007
Block-Heads Unite
People ask us why we "went up" with the house, building on a second story when we could have just added a room onto the back. There are lots of different reasons... and one of them was because we didn't want to lose the yard.
Our lot is a strange triangle with the acute angle in the back. We quickly realized after moving in that most of the yard is in the front whether we saved the backyard or not. And the front yard lines a busy street. If we were going to enjoy soccer scrimmages and frisbee tosses, we were going to have to build a barrier between the people who regularly ignore the speed limit and us.
Hence, the hunt for the perfect fence material.
David and I had long admired the Modern Phoenix homes.
We so admire the creative and often elegant use of concrete screen blocks to privatize or decorate the home and landscaping. But we also appreciated the iconic nature of the screen block. The varying types of screen blocks used throughout the 50's and 60's symbolized a new age of mass production that could manipulate materials decoratively and affordably in ways not previously possible.
Unfortunately, decorative concrete screen block is as difficult to find as a retro front door. We searched and searched, finally asking Amy's Ice Cream to tell us where they had procured the blocks for their concrete wall at the Burnet Road location. They pointed us to Featherlite, a concrete company with a location just north of Austin in Round Rock.
My first phone call to Featherlite was a bust. They told me flat out that they didn't make these blocks anymore--Amy's had special ordered them from El Paso. So, I began to try to hunt down another distributor.
We caught a blurb in the summer issue of Atomic Ranch
I tried Lowe's; one of their commercial sales reps was very kind but couldn't find anyone to help. We called every landscaping company in the county, but again no luck.
I called Featherlite again. This time I spoke in more detail with a sales guy, asking him if he could check if there were any leftover blocks from the Amy's job. Lo and behold, he said they had a few left onsite and we could come take a look and grab what was left.
David and I made a trip up to their McNeil lot on Friday. They didn't bring us the Amy's block... they brought us the mother of all atomic-age designs. And we instantly bought 68 of them to fill in the gaps in the cedar fence David had been working on all summer.
You should have seen the look on their faces when we started plotzing over the blocks. They thought we were out of our minds. We told them about Atomic Ranch
So, house renovators, mid-century advocates, and modern houselovers, we ask thee to go forth and prosper with the new knowledge you have of concrete screen blocks. Don't let iconic architecture die with the end of the 20th century. Demand retro and contemporary designs to be fabricated regularly and abundantly. Block-heads unite!
Posted by Christiane at 04:06 PM | Comments (5)
May 21, 2007
Neglected Lawn
Our poor yard. Ever since that big, ugly purple monster moved in, the whole plat has gone to heck. First there was the dead grass killed by the dumpster and the storage pod. Then there was the havoc that was wreaked by the driveway installation. Now there is plain old neglect to deal with.
In a fit of inspiration, we bought a cordless electric mower (Homelite -- Home Depot was having a sale). It did most of our thick, moist, weedy lawn and needed to be recharged overnight to finish up the last patch. We gave it a thumbs up.
In a fit of desperation, we began to build a fence for the front yard. We live on a very busy street and we have two highly energetic boys as well as a spastic puppy and curious kitty.
Then we were deluged with door orders. The lawn is starting to look a little like it did a few weeks ago in the above photo once again. I'm thinking we take all of the damaged goods we've been stockpiling in our guest bedroom and pile them in the front yard, creating both an effective barrier as well as a no-holds-barred advertising campaign all in one. What are your thoughts? ;-)
Posted by Christiane at 02:17 PM | Comments (0)
March 13, 2007
Spring is about to sprung.
A year ago, I was busily cataloging information about landscaping and green building. I was hoping we would have the opportunity to do a bit more green building than we did. I can count an incredible increase in energy efficiency among our successes, but we're still in the process of making room for basics like solar panels and a rainwater/greywater storage tank.
Still, the driveway is in, as is the new sidewalk, and the rain has started to rejuvenate our lawn. I can't help but look at our plot as a blank slate which daily begs, "Now what?!"
I've been playing around in Photoshop, trying to figure out what should go where. Today was the first day for breakthroughs in landscaping discussion. Never you mind that we have no time whatsoever to actually get on our knees and plant anything, especially with the Violet Crown Festival in the works and practically around the corner (we're chairing this year!) and a new business to babysit.
I'm loving on Laurie's landscaping and the pics over at Stone and Cobble. A trip to Gardens may be in order...
Posted by Christiane at 01:57 PM | Comments (3)
August 27, 2006
Productivity Strikes Again
The punch list grows smaller.
The big event of last week was the removal of the old driveway. I think it took longer than they had expected. The driveway was original to the house and was a solid 6 or so inches of concrete through and through. No rebar, no clay foundation. They had to score each section twice and remove it with a bulldozer (a real treat for the younger boy).
It dramatically improved the face of the house in my eyes. It shifted the focus of the automotive section of the home to the backyard and it left plenty of room for the crepe myrtles I plan to plant in front of each post (once they are painted white, ahem).
Ace's guys also hung the shutters and awnings, so now all we need are the screens on the front of the house, and we're going to be close to perfection.
There was much ado about storage this weekend. Financial considerations made us cut the driveway, carport, and outdoor storage/garage from the original plans. That meant that, for the past few weeks, our guest bedroom became the garage and was piled to the brim with boxes, tools, and whatnots.
Realizing that it might be a while before we get a garage built, and seeing as we have company coming for Labor Day weekend, David bought a little shed to put together.
Who knew it would be such a project! Luckily, he had helpers :-)
In the meantime, I organized all the schtuff and tried to put it in piles that could be moved--to the storage shed, to the attic, to somebody else's house. By sundown today, David had cleared out the guest bedroom of all the miscellany and set up the bed and shades. A few curtains, and The Official Justin and Edie Wolfe Suite will be complete.
This coming week we are hoping to get things squared away with our bank. We met with our loan officer on Friday and, well, let's just say that he didn't seem to have ever read through our loan paperwork. David is keeping a list of things they have royally screwed up, and I think that one meeting added three or four new items to the list. Can't wait to see what they do next. In theory, they should have the construction loan ready to rollover to a mortgage within the next week or so. Then the ball is back in our court.
Posted by Christiane at 08:53 PM | Comments (10)