Fridge Update

Here is a picture a little further back from the fridge showing the rough cut bonnet top just set on top. There will be a similar piece on the back and some trim that goes around the whole edge.

Deck Spindles have Arrived

We decided that we liked the turned spindles better than the square. So, after a quick online order we now have more spindles then we know what to do with. Here is about 85 of them all piled up.

Now all we have to do is paint, sand, paint and cut all the spindles to the correct length and taper on the bottom. Here is a quick drawing of what the railing will look like as well as a cut view of the railing. You can see the taper of the bottom piece to prevent rail from accumulating. All of the rails and spindles will be out of painted cedar.

Fridge Update

We have still been trying different colors. Here is the fridge front with four different colors. Which one do you like the most? Please comment and let us know.....

Tyler has been working hard on the fridge. In the design, there are three finials on the bonnet top so he worked on turning those today. He started by gluing together four pieces of wood.

Then the whole thing is chucked into the lathe and turned into a cylinder.


He then marked the areas where there are major transitions in the shape on the cylinder.


Then each one of these points was brought to the rough depth using the cutoff tool and a pair of calipers.



Here is the turning after most of the extra material is taken away with the roughing gouge.Almost finished...


The wrench is used to make the bottom peg 3/4 inch.And the finished turning! It still needs the bottom to be trimmed and a base made.

Plum Tree Trimming

There is one ornamental plum tree that is located on the property line of our house and our neighbors. It had a bunch of new water shoots coming out as well as one water shoot that had grow into a branch. These were all trimmed which made the tree look a little better and more uniform.

Update on the Fridge

We have been working hard on stuff outside and in the dinning room so the fridge has only slowly been coming along. This last weekend the front top bonnet piece was cut (no picture yet) and the two larger front doors were constructed. Like the other doors they are just a frame and panel construction. Here is a picture of the frames and panels prior to assembly.

We are still trying to determine the best color to paint the fridge. We liked the darker brown but felt that being all one color it was a little hard to see all of the panel and bead detail. So, we are now looking at using a brown glaze over a base color. Here are some of the samples that we have tried out on the two bottom panels. In the last picture you can also see the size of the main door panel behind the bottom door panels.

Volt the Hunter

It was very warm outside today so we had the windows and doors open. Volt thought this was a great idea - it gave him tons of flies to hunt!

I know this isn't house related so just look at the house in the background of the video so it will fit into our "house" blog.

Generalized Clutter

For anyone who thinks were living the high life in our remodeling phase - here are some pictures of the living room to remind you of what our house looks like every day. It's not fun to live in but we are hopeful that it will all be worth it a few years from now when we have a beautifully renovated home.

Pantry Door Frame and Trim

We worked on building the inside of the pantry trim and finally put some handles on the doors so they are easier to open. It all still needs paint and sanding - a project for another weekend.

Finishing up the Dining Room

We spent this weekend caulking around all the trim and finishing building the door trim for the dining room. The walls all got another couple coats of paint as well as the ceiling. Hopefully we can work on doing a little each night and finally have one room completely finished before long.

Deck Spindles

This summer, we were hoping to add some spindles to the railing to make it look more finished. The turned ones shown were ordered online and we like them enough that I think we will go with them. This project is set for sometime in the future...

Front Yard Tree Planting - Not to Be!

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We were hoping to plant some plum trees in our front yard between the sidewalk and the street. This is done all around us on almost every street in the neighborhood and looks fantastic. Trees are planted like this across the street from us but none are on our side of the street. We decided to look into planting some and had the utilities marked. There ended up being a sewer line underneath the grass strip, meaning no trees for us. We figured there was a reason we didn't have any but it's nice to confirm that's why.

Front Hose Hanger

When we moved into the house, there was a cheap plastic hanger for the hose. It broke after a few uses so we decided to put up a new one. The trim around the front of the house had never been finished so first Tyler put up a board. Then we painted it and hung our new hose holder. We bought a matching one for the backyard too but have not installed it yet.

Garden Update - April

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The entire garden is now planted and things are starting to come up. We are still waiting for the appearance of any green beans, celery, cucumbers, squash, and watermelon, but everything else is starting to grow. The garlic has taken off amazingly. Sprouted so far are: lettuce, carrots, potatoes, peas, swiss chard, beets, broccoli, kale, asparagus, rhubarb, artichokes, green pepper, tomato, chives, garlic, and basil. We have started to thin out the lettuce and had a wonderful salad already from the culled leaves.

In our compost pile, we planted some giant sunflowers (supposed to grow to 16ft) and the squash and watermelon. We'll see if it all grows - a few sunflowers have started!!

Tulip Time!

Made a quick Easter trip to the tulip fields - a NW tradition for us. Lots of great blooms this year.

Hanging Baskets

We're home from Florida now and have slowly started working again. We planted a few hanging baskets that we are going to let grow in the bright sun for awhile before hanging them on the porch.