Tom Sawyer Didn't Paint the Fence...Beth Did

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Returning from his vacation (he was on vacation while we were moving - smart man), Brian began work on the fences at the front and west side of the house. First up, purchase twenty four 12 foot 1x6s and deliver them to his garage down on ninth street about a mile away. Second up, convince Beth that she could stain them all and that it made better sense than him doing it. He was, of course, successful. 

Over the course of four days I stained the boards, back and an edge, then the next day the front and other edge. It took me a day, but I realized rolling the stain first and then lightly back brushing allowed for maximum coverage in the shortest amount of time.

The following week we started on the fence boards for the courtyard area above the retaining wall. I spent another fours days down at the garage staining all four sides of forty eight 18 foot 2x2 fence boards, three 18 foot 2x6's for the rail caps and stained the fence posts in place.

The fence will be double-sided and have LED lights embedded into the top cap. When lit at night the courtyard fence will glow like a lantern. Below, dry-fitting the not-yet stained rail cap before the interior fence boards are in place. 

All in all I stained all four sides of approximately twelve hundred feet of fence boards over two weeks. And I think I even gave Brian an apple. 

Hello Blog, It's Been Awhile...

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We did it! On Friday, August 23rd at 4 pm we had running water in the house. At 6 pm we brought our final bags over and spent the night. It was a long slog to get to this point and life still seems to be running in overdrive, but we're here.

The previous weekend we mustered the troops, daughter Jeanette, her partner Jarrett, son Scott and brother John to help us empty the contents of our 10x10 storage unit in Portland. We also picked up the sofa, ottoman and chair at the upholsterer in Tigard. Everything was moved into the house at 464 and then we had deli sandwiches from Gaetano's. (Because that's what you do, right?) The following week Scott and I moved the rest of our belongings from the condo to the house by MINI. "Sure!" we said. "We can do this without movers!" We are not in our forties anymore. Thankfully, this is our last move...ever.

The City noted two mechanical items to be remedied before the mechanical inspection passed - a bollard in front of the water heater in the garage; and extended condensation pipe from the bedroom mini-split at the back exterior of the house. These items were remedied shortly after the inspection so we were ready to go! Waking up the first morning in our new home was awesome. The river view in the morning from the bedroom is sublime.

Meanwhile the concrete contractors worked on the retaining wall for the courtyard in the front of the house. We had specified a board-formed finish on the exterior of the retaining wall, not really understanding what that entailed. Seriously, it seemed to take forever for the forms to go up and then they brought in new 2x6 boards that they had power washed to raise the grain.

The boards were hand selected and inspected so the best grain was facing in. The corner was mitered so the final finished corner would be even and present the best finish to the exterior. Meanwhile, Brian installed the post-on-pole fence posts so the poles would be embedded in the concrete. It all seemed very backwards.

Rebar was placed between the forms and Fiberglass pins were used instead of wire. In the following photo you can see the pins at the interior form wall. When the forms come down the fiberglass is trimmed to the wall and we won't have little lines of rust running down our wall.

Also in this photo you can see Pom Pom Baguette, the self proclaimed Queen of the Jerome Avenue, judging me. She lives across the street, but is rumored to keep an eye on all the goings on in the neighborhood, outside and inside homes.

Concrete was poured on August 29th and the forms were removed after the Labor Day holiday on September 4th. That is some good looking concrete!

Next up, Tom Sawyer talks yours truly into painting a fence!