Chris, lighting extraordinaire!

I think that I have mentioned my awesome friend Chris before but not sure.  Anyways, I lived with Chris when I first moved to Oregon 5 years ago.  I had just finished grad-school and needed a place to live just before Steve and I got married (he moved up before me and was living in his bro's already full house (it was a gorgeous bungalow on 12th and Taylor in SE that Sally Struthers lived in way back when--just picture all original stain, and Englenook and need for lots of TLC by non-renters)).
       Steve's brother had this friend Chris who wanted a short-term roomie and, well, it just worked.  So I arrived and Chris happened to be at Steve and his bro's house and that's how we met.  Been friends ever since.  Lived with him until our (Steve & mine) house closed one month before Steve and I got married.
       And Chris loves old houses and all things old just as much more than I.  In fact, he worked at Rejuvenation for years and quit just when I met him in order to start his own business.  While Chris primarily sells on ebay (look him up-Hard to Find Houseparts), he also does house consults and will look for hard to find things if you need it.  He has done pretty much all of our house lighting and then some for us and he is A-Mazing!  He also has his own little blog about old photos.
I swear I have a point in this blog post.
Well, last Saturday was the Division Street Street Fair.  In conjunction, Bret from Old Portland Hardware on 40th and Division (you should totally check this place out if you haven't because it is truly awesome & also houses the store Portland Vintage Plumbing) put on a salvage & vintage parking lot sale.  Well, Chris, my sis-in-law and friend and me shared a booth.  I was able to sell a few vintage wares that I just have not used (yea-more things purged).  Chris sold tons of super cool things (I should have taken pictures) but I fell in love with a really cool craftsman light that he had.  I texted Steve a picture despite pretty much already buying it.
  The light fixture came re-wired with cloth wire by Chris himself and ready to hang bare (bulbed that is).  However, he agreed to find me some cool fitters and shades and I hope to put it up in our hallway, replacing our currently pretty cool but not as cool as I'd like halophane (sp?) shade light.  Here's the terrible pix of it that I texted Steve on Saturday but hopefully there will be some better pix of it all hung up soon :)

I realize that this light is all square and the rest of the lights in our home are circular but I love it none-the-less and had to have it & P.S. don't u just love hate that creepy velvet painting of the cat-ish thing on the bottom left?-ha!  makes me laugh and want to run in fear all at the same time)

I hope to post soon about some of the cool lights he has put together for us.

*Stain*

It's been awhile since I've posted but all for good reason.  We took a little vacation to Cali to enjoy my family and some beach time

Ben with his great grandma who is amazing at 92; of course he visited with all his uncles, auntie and grandma and grandpa as well

think he likes the beach?

Steve loves diggin holes

and Ben loves standing in them

and have been actually trying to enjoy the awesome summers in the Pacific NW.  This weekend we did some house work but also hit up the Division Street Fair on Saturday, hit up some local parks, took part in biking Sunday Parkways NW (Ben is so into riding in the bike trailer these days) and spent some time letting Ben romp in the water and climb the falls at Jameson park in the Pearl.  It was awesome!  We were going to go berry picking as well but that will just have to wait a bit.  

Anyways, enough of our lovely summer and Ben cuteness and onto house work-sigh!

While Ben and I went down to Cali a few days before Ben (you know, someone needs to bring home the bacon), Steve spent pretty much a whole weekend staining and I plan to sort of detail the steps and extremely time-consuming yet worthwhile (coming from the mouth of someone who only put in about 2 hours of labor BUT Steve thinks it was worthwhile as well).

We decided on using a product recommended by Custom Cedar Products where we purchased our fencing wood.  We liked the product because it was environmentally friendly, lasts 4 years before needing a re-coat, protects the wood and the Timber Tek UV store on Burnside and 22nd gives free color samples which is a plus.  Plus (again), we also got contractor pricing because we had bought our cedar from custom cedar products.  They did the math for us an figured that we needed 3 gallons which was pretty much precise with us having about  1/16 of a 3 gallon bucket left over after putting 2 coats on all the cedar except the lattice.

1. wash with clean and brite.  Also a product sold at the same store.  We used just a 1/2 gallon and were able to sell the other half to our friends who are about to stain their new cedar fence.  This product was awesome as there was already many water stains and a lot of dirt on our fence.  We also had a small amount of mildew which came right off.   In addition, it helps brighten the wood a bit (that is remove mild greying of the wood which we were already beginning to see after just a couple months).  You follow the directions on the can which basically tell you to dilute the product, scrub it on (Steve used a hard bristle scrub brush) and rinse.  This took a good portion of Steve's Saturday after he had taken us to the airport and went to buy the cleaner and stain.

2. allow to dry well

3. Start the staining process.  We opted for Walnut color after sampling 4 different colors (wish I had a pix of the samples color board we created).  Steve informed me that this step takes a great deal of time (as in he worked from 9-9 on Sunday to put two coats on pretty much every thing except the lattice).   What a trooper!  For him, he found that the process was a little bit harder with just one person.  He switched between rolling on the stain with a regular old paint roller and brushing it out with a large brush and spraying it on with an old spray bottle and brushing it out.  He opted not to use a hose sprayer due to the mess it would have created and that it may have stained our concrete as well as gotten all over our organic veggie garden.  Not much to report on which was easier for him.  You let the first coat dry and then apply the second. 

as you can see, the temp needs to be just right, bot too cold or too hot-the product (as with all stains) will get sticky if it is too hot and sunny out

 The process got a bit harrier with the lattice.  Yes, we love the lattice but it was a pain in the butt to stain.  This is where I actually helped out.  We decided not to spray on the stain as it is super messy and would have involved one person holding up a board or cardboard to block the stain from getting everywhere and the other person spraying and the spreading with a paint brush.  Just decided that did not seem to be the best use of man person power.

partially stained...the large vertical boards stained

It involved taking sponge brushes and just dabbing it on-we got the first coat on (doesn't seem to need a second as water is beading just fine) in a couple hours of both of us working.  Here is a terrible video of what it entailed.  You also had to make sure that you did not get any stain on the other side of the fence as you would have to run around the fence and spread that blob out so it did not leave a big spot of darker stain later on. 

4. Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy! 

we love the darker, non-orange color and how it repels water

the upfront side is stained but not the back side-can you see the greying on the back side?

Bamboo

We got some bamboo!  and we really like it!  We are friend's with the couple over at Swanky & Chiang and after reading my post about researching bamboo, she e-mailed to say that they had loads (literally, over a truck load) of bamboo that they were looking to get rid of (or trying to off load on others).  So a couple weekends ago, Steve went off to their house (I stayed home as Ben was napping and boy, was a sad to miss that project) and helped Joe dig out all their short bamboo from the backyard as well as a portion of their tall bamboo from the front.  Wish I could tell you the variety but I have no idea, however, they are both clumping varieties, work for us and for the price of free-ninety-nine, the price is definitely right.  Well, Joe & Steve ended up having to saw-zaw the roots of the tall bamboo out while hacking at it with a shovel.  They got it out and Steve and I got to hack at a little more to fit the clumps into our pots (we decided that pots would work well just in case the bamboo decided that it wanted to take over our yard.  And, then we can move it around if we decide we don't care for it. 

the rig all loaded with bamboo coming back from the Swanky-Chiang house

pot placement in the back of the house-also provides a little window privacy & the window above happens to belong to Steve and my bedroom

I think this needs some compost to help out that fill dirt

again the area just below our window-Steve transplants some ferns from the side of our house here too; they are happy here with the exception of our Porter pup trampling them often

upside down, oops!  the other side of the deck-Steve sifting rocks out of the dirt in prep to put in the pots

south side of the deck

north side

leaning-gotta prop that up somehow

some of this bamboo does not look too happy but we'll see what happens-can you tell what Steve is working on-paint stripping!!!! o so fun!

 

 

 

 

 

short bamboo in the new Ben Pen on the south side of the house

camping at Timothy Lake last weekend

happy man gettin to work with his hammer!

happy 4th of July!