This is a view of our front yard from the roof. I forgot to take a before picture, but imagine that there was grass everywhere you see barkdust. I chopped out the grass around the shape my dad drew and then ordered six yards of barkdust to fill in around it. All of this over labor day weekend! The boss man doesn't acknowledge most holidays or weekends as a reason to slack. The best part was all of the people who complimented me as I worked. One guy on his bicycle said when I was done I could come by and do his yard next. Another guy actually slowed down in his car and said, "Nice work!" out his window. And then there were the half dozen people on their way down to the dog park. I had no idea we had such a friendly neighborhood.
These are the beams that we replaced all around this house on 26th in Northwest Portland. There were 26 total. My dad cut the beams and made the front groove with the bandsaw. Then he filled and sanded over all of the blemishes (there were quite a few). Finally, I primed and double coated them with a beautiful dark chocolate color. Then we actually went on site to install them. I went up the ladder once and never went back up. 32 feet in the air on something wobbly that isn't secured to anything was just too much for my nerves. So my dad did all the heavy lifting and walked those beams up the ladder after removing the old rotten ones. I shaped and hammered metal caps on each of the beams to keep them from rotting from water damage like the old ones. We put in a ton of work on replacing these beams and they actually serve no fuction to the house. It is just an embellishment that is supposed to look like it is supporting the overhang of the house. But they are really just for looks!! Crazy. The owner was in the process of having the house painted when we left, so I plan on going back and getting a final shot with the new paint job, which will give the 130 year old house a nice face lift. Side note: I love Northwest Portland. If I had a job downtown I would totally settle in one of those cozy looking apartments off 23rd. I'm almost positive that I would never be able to afford any of the houses in my lifetime, but the ones up on the hill are outstanding.
This is the shot of the roof before we started installing the deck. I wish I would have gotten a shot of the roof before I cleaned it, because the roof and gutters hadn't been cleaned in seven years, and it was quite a transformation. This is the part of the roof closest to our backyard and the window directly ahead will become and entrance point from Sister's bedroom. Eventually we want to extend steps North from the deck so we can use one of the big windows as an entrance.
This is the deck at midpoint, and this is only the first day of production. It took two days for my dad to frame the whole thing, and I've spent half a day installing the floor boards. I'm nailing four boards together at a time with spacers, but I'm not connecting them to the deck at all. The floor boards need to be able to lift up easily for if we need to clean the deck, and the entire frame of the deck was designed to be easily removable for when the roof will eventually need to be replaced. There are really only a couple of boards holding the whole thing up, but because of their angles to the house, it is an amazingly strong structure. Another add on we eventually want to do is a bar and seating area that extends further up the roof. I also want to install a pully system so that we can BBQ on the deck below and send the burgers straight up to the roof! I can't wait for late night star gazing and summer sunbathing on this little outdoor sanctuary. A photo of the finished product is soon to come.
It looks like a boot to me - just like Italy!
ReplyDeleteOh yeah it does!
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