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This post is from from my other blog here

Amazing stuff. When we finished our deck, which is made of IPE it was smack in the middle of the rainy season so we never got it oiled.  Then, the time to do it just never seemed to come up.  I finally got out the pressure washer and got it and the house cleaned.  This is what happens in the Pacific Northwest.

You really have to keep up on the moss growth.  In the winter the deck gets too slippery to use. The pressure washer works great but it really hard on the wood.  I had to do some sanding before I oiled it.  You can really see the contrast here where the decking had already turned gray the oil brought back all the beautiful colors. IPE is basically red but has greens and purples and even some yellow in it.  It is very hard wood.

I started putting the oil on with a roller which was one of the suggestions but really it worked best when I put it on by hand with a wool pad.

Now the wood looks like it did when it was new and with the slippery moss cleaned up the deck is way more usable.

I used one gallon and got the floor and some of the railing done.  I need one more gallon to finish the steps.  It really was not all that tough to do and took about an hour to put down once the cleaning was done.

This post is from from my other blog here

I can't believe we are heading in to fall and I don't really feel like I accomplished anything this summer.

I wanted to take a few minutes to talk about the details involved in building your own house that are so easily overlooked when the process gets going.

It's very exciting when you decide to build you own home.  Our house plans went through a lot of changes before we got started.  We were lucky as we had a family member drawing our plans up for us so it didn't cost us an arm and a leg every time we decided to add a window or change a wall.  Those are pretty major things though, I am talking about the little stuff cable outlets, location of wall outlets types of lighting etc.

First off lighting.  It's like buying a printer.......make sure to see how much the bulbs are before you get set on lighting. 

I love this track lighting.  I of course bought it on the clearance tables.  I think it was ten bucks at final clearance and I bought two of them and a round one that matches that we put in the kitchen.

Each one takes 4 halogen 50 bulbs at eight bucks each.  Let me to the math for you.....thats $32 every time I have to change out the tracks.  Three 4 bulb units will run me just under a hundred bucks to fill with bulbs.  I have done that twice now since they have been installed.  They now sit empty because I am not gonna do it again.  So I am looking for track that takes a "regular" bulb and preferably one I can put a compact fluorescent in.  Sometimes a bargain is not a bargain if it costs you so much to keep it going.

In floor outlets.  I'm gonna get some grief for this one but when the house building is in full swing there are about a million things going on at once.  I had to pick the location of where those outlets would go in our living room.

Now I am not one of those people that arrange the furniture and it never moves for 20 years.  I rearrange it constantly.  I tried to imagine all the ways in which I would have it and where best to put the outlets.  I remember when I was making this decision I was doing a bunch of other stuff and really I should have spent more time on it.  They are really too far from the fireplace which is where I do tend to center the living room furniture although I have had the dining room table over there.  I really only use them when I put the couch there with a table behind it for lamps.  Otherwise they are covered with a rug.

We put up our own electrical boxes.  When you are doing that try to imagine what it will look like with drywall over it.  I have one light switch in my living room smack in the middle of a wall and that switch is for the stairwell lighting to the garage.  It was near the edge of the wall until we decided to extend the wall.  We forgot to move it before the drywall went up.  It's a three way switch and we usually leave it on all the time so now there is a picture hanging over it.

These are for speakers.  Not only are they not level, they are not centered on the wall.

If I had thought about it I would have also moved that light switch for the closet light inside the closet door.

You can't assume your dry waller will know everything.  We have these big lovely beams in our great room.  They should have finished off the raw edges with a special piece made just for that.

Then it would have had a rounded edge just like our windows.  Once someone told us this was how it was done, it was too late.  It will eventually get trim but it would have been nice to just have it finished off.

So, what I am saying is if you are planning your own home and building it yourself don't get caught up totally in the building 24/7 and take time to sit in each room and really imagine how you will use it and how it's gonna look finished.  These are all pretty minor things but they can bug you when you know it would have taking a minute or two do change it.

This post is from from my other blog here

Yes.  Sort of.  I have just finished the last white room in the house.  I finally painted my office/rec room.  I will expand on it tomorrow with pictures I just needed to prime the pump and get back in here and start posting.

I have also gotten set up to finally finish tiling my kitchen back splash.  I have had a a tile saw set up in my living room longer than I care to remember.  The last two tiling projects are the kitchen and the stairs to the third floor. 

We have had an awesome summer, our river float ended up being on the hottest day of the summer and was great.  It's been cool and raining just about ever since.

Dave, Howard and Marshall win the prize for most creative float.  They were the Titanic band, the Unsinkable Ti-Tones.  Dave worked for a week making a piano and a double bass out of Styrofoam and plywood.

The amazing thing is they floated too!

It was pretty funny.

It feels good to be back here.  Promise, I won't be a stranger.

This post is from from my other blog here

Hey!? Who has been lurking on my site?  Dave!  Yes, we did start to install our gate this past weekend.  It is one of the final tasks in this very long project of getting this fence replaced.  We also set a few more posts in concrete.  We are just about ready to stretch the rest of the fence.

We looked at gates and boy are they expensive. Some are in the thousands of dollars. After looking around at gates we chose the Adjust-a-gate and it's a kit where you buy and put the metal frame together and add the wood and facing yourself.  My Dad got us an automatic gate opener too so we are just about set.

The hinges are really hefty and screwed into our 6" x 6" pressure treated posts.

We got the largest gate they make and that has three rails of 2" x 4" pressure treated boards.

It took a couple of hours to put together and get level.  We really needed a line level but couldn't find it of course.  So I made one using zip ties.  I love zip ties.

Here is the finished frame.

I think we are going to use the same green lattice that we are using for our arbors for the face of the gate for now.  It will match our arbors, be affordable and then later we can take it off and do something more fancy if we want.

For  now, we need to dig a trench for the power to the gate opener, install the gate opener, attach the lattice and level and pour concrete under the gate-so not this weekend but soon, soon we should have a gate and an enclosed yard.

This post is from from my other blog here

I R the new gat.  I prety much put mysef up lst weakened.  Dave didn't hep at al.  Not really mich to sey abut it.  Not rely worth pixtures.  dah dah dha.

OK maybe you figured out this is just post bait.  In less than 15 minutes the angry she bear will come by, see that someone has messed with her den and then ... watch out.  But being a compulsive editor she will not be able to leave those mis-speiled words alone.

I gotta run while I still can.

This post is from from my other blog here

Thursday was my birthday.  My husband always manages to pull off some sort of surprise and he out did himself this year.  My day started at 7:30 am with the first of 6 numbered envelopes with addresses for the GPS inside and a clue on the outside.

My first destination was breakfast with my folks at the Maltby Cafe.  A destination here, and impossible to get in to on the weekend.  They are famous for their huge cinnamon rolls.

After breakfast, I got my second envelope with an unknown address and my Dad and husband headed for home while my Mom and I followed the voice on the GPS, or Molly as we call her. 

She directed us to the Oasis Spa where I was in for a real treat.  He got my friends to chip in and "sponsor" a treatment there.  I got a much needed hair cut and color from my friend Linda, my nails were courtesy of my Father in law and my friend Amy.

   

I had an unfortunate coppery red hair color problem when I colored my hair myself a week or so before. In my attempt to fix it, it got worse so I had to leave it before it all fell out. 

The stylist at Oasis put a lovely shade of reddish brown with subtle highlights and the cut took all the dry crispy hair off so it feels and looks great.

After

Our next destination was home where Dave had made a nice lunch for me and my Mom.

   

My next envelope took us to our outlet mall where I got to purchase a new wardrobe at my very favorite store, Coldwater Creek.  It was a whirl wind of excitement.  I just don't buy nice things for myself.  I can hardly remember when I had "new" clothes to wear so it was a real treat.  There are a few more pictues here  of our adventure.

Shopping for shoes with Dave.

I got so many new outfits and some really cool boots but the adventure was not over yet.

One the way home we stooped at the drug store so I could get new makeup and perfume.

It was nice to get some "girly" stuff this year and while I love my pressure washer and the mower and the shelving I have gotten in the past, (and I asked for and really wanted them) those were really for the house........nice to get a gift for me.

My last envelope brought us to a local Mexican Restaurant where all my friends were waiting.........I was TOTALLY surprised.  It's a birthday I will not soon forget.

   

Oh, and all those clues on the envelopes?  It took a while but I figured it out.

This post is from from my other blog here

We worked in the yard this past weekend and got some landscaping done and set some more fence posts in concrete.  I put up wire lattice on each of the three sections between the garage doors.

Planted honeysuckle here.  It's a pink and yellow variety.  Should be pretty and have a nice fragrance. 

In the middle I put a climbing rose that I bought at the farmers market.  It smells just wonderful, exactly like what you would expect a rose to smell like.

Last year I got Clematis planted on the far left and it has grown nicely.

We also started work on our entry arbor.  We set pressure treated posts in concrete and sized them so a sheet of lattice will fit, I have to do some cutting but it will arch over the top and the Golden Chain trees will be trained over the arch.

This will be the first of three arbors like that along the path to the house.  I will plant different climbing, flowering vines on each one.

Nothing happened today as it was raining cats and dogs all day so we hiked the Narbeck wetlands area and I got some great photos.

I cannot believe how many frogs are in the ponds around there.

I got a picture of these baby mallards, they were about 4 or 5 days old.

We also saw Hooded Merganser babies but they were too fast for the camera.

Green-winged Teal

On the way home I stopped traffic to let two Canada goose families cross a busy street.

They all scooted under the fence to a pond.

This post is from from my other blog here

Are you tired of coming here and finding I have not posted?  Me too.  I'm not sure why, guess I needed a break.  I have completely torn my kitchen apart so I can finally tile my back splash.  I have cardboard down and tile saws set up so next week I should get some tiling done.  There has been a tiling workbench sitting on my landing for well over a year now...........I am tired of it being there so the only way to get rid of it and the stacks of slate tile is to finish the project so I am highly motivated.

Our gate arrived Thursday for the driveway and we have two more rolls of fence to get up so this weekend will be fence weekend.

Here are a few of my latest photos in the meantime.

Common Merganser in breeding plumage.

Black-headed Grosbeak Male.  This is one of the feeders that has to go.

I'm afraid rats have discovered the feeders and are competing with the chickens for the seed that gets dropped.  I am taking down all but one feeder and I'll be building a large catch tray for the one that I'll leave up.

Excuse me?  The squirrel feeder has to go too. 

Pip.  I had to move the thistle feeder away from the fence too.

This post is from from my other blog here

As my house building and remodeling friends know, sometimes you can get overwhelmed with the details of projects.  Especially when you are working hard to get an occupancy permit, you always mean to get back to it and finish up but other projects get in the way and you forget.

This is how we left the hose connection on our deck.

As you can see, it needs a collar there to stabilize it and block off the opening.

Why is this a bad thing?  It is an open door to all sorts of critters.

Here is the other side under my kitchen sink.

There is a nice little opening there as well that gets them right into the cabinets and since the baseboard is not under the cabinets yet, into the kitchen.

This is my silverware drawer, busy little buggers.

They moved all that in one night. 

So, now this project gets moved to the top of the list whether there is time for it or not.  It's time for a trip to the hardware store for some supplies. 

The cabinets will have to all be cleaned as it seems they have been in every one.  I have taken all the stuff out of them and left the doors open so the cat can let everyone know it's time to find other living quarters.  I have a few live traps too so I can help them in their relocation. 

This post is from from my other blog here

As you know by the pictures I post I am into bird watching just about as much as I am into house building. 

Here is a little Spotted Towhee (formerly know as Rufous sided).  The great thing about the zoom on this camera is you can capture the bird without them even knowing you are looking at them.  They are more relaxed and doing ordinary bird things rather than being concerened about you. 

Since I am at my computer most of the time I can't tell you how excited I am about a new tool-bar that ID's birds.  You can find the link here .  It is based on the whatbird website and is just awesome to have right on the tool-bar for easy reference when I see a new bird out my window.

Back to my camera. I love the way my camera makes the water look when I take pics of ducks and geese. Here is a pair of Gadwall that I spotted on Greenlake.

American Wigeon

This camera also has an awesome macro lens.

This little mushroom is only about 1/4" tall. 

This is frost on some seaweed at Ruby Beach.  The best part is that it is all automatic.

The lens was about 2" from this bird nest.