Sunday, February 27, 2011

The door fence




We're putting a fence across the top of our driveway and replacing the hideous old fences around the back to create a courtyard you can access through the kitchen door. It will also include the new brick paved patio we made last month.

We were going around to salvage yards looking for cool inexpensive wood when we saw all the old doors. The doors are basically a great big solid piece of very old very hard wood that has a cool look. Perfect!

We got a great deal on 26 doors and have found more in trash piles since then. We only need a few more to have enough to complete it.



They'll take a lot of scraping, sanding, painting etc to be ready to weather the next decade outdoors. Marco's been working hard at it.


The first task of construction was to do the front section across the driveway. We needs to dig 2' holes through concrete. Luckily Marco's uncle had a sledge hammer and a post hole digger.


Never again will my mini be parked at the top part of the driveway like that. That part of the driveway is going to be inside the courtyard and the new location of patio furniture and a fire pit!


Of course any project at my house would be incomplete without finding something unexpected. About a foot down in this hole under the driveway he dug up a brick that exactly matches the ones used on my house. Marco put all the posts in last week with the help of our neighbor Louis while I was finishing my stuff for the new Salvage House Pocket Boutique inside Zola's Everyday Vintage.



But once that was done I got to paint and prime the doors and fill in the holes with caulk and foam.


We can't have water seeping in and rotting our doors so we're sealing them up as best we can. After the foam hardened I sliced it off even, put a layer of caulking on, and painted it closed.



And then they finally got around to putting the doors up!!






It still needs a second coat of paint and more doors but it's starting to look great already!!



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Saturday, February 12, 2011

Random things dug up

Add this to the list of unusual items found while doing normal work around the house.






Digging out a hole for a new climbing rose I hit something metal and thought it was a cast iron pipe. It was a cast iron pan buried 6 inches deep about a foot away from the porch.

I LOVE HAVING AN OLD HOUSE. You never know what you'll find next! I need to do a post on all our unexpected finds.

Remember when I discovered a hose faucet under three inches of dirt? The stalinist drawing on the back of a wood panel in the cabinets? Oh, or the buried sidewalk by the back patio! The plastic bags of sod under the grass...
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Friday, February 4, 2011

Chicken Coop Update!







This is about where we left off last time. Since then we only added some paint. Then we didn't do a thing for a few months. Amanda and I both have busy schedules.

Anyway, weekend before last we got together and decided to get the roof on.





We chose clear plastic because we heard chickens like light and the area is already well shaded. We cut the pieces to overlap and screwed them down with these special screws that have smooshy washers that seal the hole that the screw makes.





Finally! Someone took a photo of me! Oh, except you can't tell it's me.





I got the job of cutting the roof because of all my time spent with scissors. It's really tough stuff to cut, always about to crack and split, but I think I did a pretty good job.





They're going to have a great view.






Then we started adding the perches. We made them out of a couple of the many branches taken down recently.





And last but not least, the nesting boxes had to be built inside.











We added decorative bumpy wavy wood at the top of the door opening. It's cute and the door will close against it. (It's supposed to be for the wavy plastic roof but didn't fit right, so we made it purely decorative) We also put it on top of the walls between the nesting boxes. Toby actually really liked the finished interior, sniffing and looking around when I put him in as a joke.

Next is the doors and hinges, as well as the wire fence for their yard. Oh, and the walkway up to their door too.

Amanda named our coop the "Four Seasons Chicken Resort" We'll welcome our first chicken guests in the spring. Can't wait!

Marco said to me in a mocking tone "chicken resort?! Where's the pool?" So I think I'm going to give the chickens a beautifully tiled puddle too. Perhaps this summer for when it gets hot. This is going to be so fun.




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