Garden box o' leftovers [mostly]

On a hot summer day, we decided to build another planter box for the front yard. In our ever-growing need to expand our garden, we're always hunting around for nice designs that satisfy a few requirements:

• Pleasant to look at
• Pleasant to work with
• Holds dirt, won't rot quickly
• Good drainage
  
• Above doggie pee height
• Uses up some leftover building materials
  

It was a perfect day to take out the tools (table saw, miter saw, skill saw, drills and hardware) and use a bit more of our cedar woodpile. The rosewood stain and Trex decking make everything nice colors. The Trex top also makes a great bench, making a fun place to hang out while chatting with neighbors or just plucking weeds. We hope to have something popping up in about 3 weeks.

Hanmi came up with this design last year and it's held up well. The oil keeps it from rotting.

Here are some peechurs!

The staples can come out... they were a quick way to hold the end framing together prior to assembling the box. Also, the triangle braces for the Trex are the leftover miter cuts from the end frames. Overall we had very little waste.

Here you can see the original "prototype" for the planter on the left. It has been supplying us with lettuce, garlic, mustard & kale greens all spring. Next season crop is already on the way: pumpkins and soybeans! The only difference is the prototype was made with 3/4" plywood leftovers [the first box was made entirely of scraps].

Being fresh out of 3/4" ply, we got some 1"x6"x6' cedar fence boards and used those full length. The end panels were made with leftover 1/2 plywood framed with a leftover 2x6 that had been ripped in half.

words by Jim, photos by Hanmi

Details, Details!

Joe has installed the countertop, but we're still waiting for the back splash, doors, drawers, cubbies, and shelves... At this point I have my doubts they will be installed before we leave.

We were able to install the sink, however, and Jobe temporarily put the faucet trim on so Jim and I can now brush our teeth in the bathroom. Interestingly, the new plumbing makes the water taste better in the bathroom than it does in the kitchen. Yay! No more midnight trips downstairs for a glass of water!! Wish there was an easy way to clean out the pipes/faucet... I replaced the aerator on the kitchen tap recently, but it made no difference in taste [I'm sure the water is cleaner, as far as bugs/mold goes, as the old one was disgusting!]

And due to the wildly popular response to the last round of 'action' photos [okay, so it was just one person...], here are a few more, plus the so-close-to-being-finished-it-is-killing-me vanity.

Paint, tile, and the joys of bathing at home

Okay remodel fans, we are in the home stretch. Last week our lovely friends Jane and Karen took care of all our painting needs. Karen traded a couple gallons of Yolo paint for one of my photos [though she hasn't decided which one yet!] and Jane took care of the painting, also in exchange for a photo. Barter rocks!

Joe has started to install the vanity, and as soon as the countertop and sink are in place we can finish up the plumbing.


And most importantly, we can now bathe in our own home! YAY! Last week I extolled the virtues of our new tub, but now I can confirm them. The material and it's heat holding capabilities are divine! Our first bath lasted nearly 90 minutes, and not once did we need to warm up the water. In fact, for a while we were too hot, having become accustomed to our old steel tub that had an instant cooling effect on water. We both had plenty of room, and I giggled with delight at the fact that I was able to submerge myself completely, up to my chin without resorting to contortions. Our one complaint is the durability of the toe-tap drain... A sideways bump is apparently all it takes to break off a piece and render it useless. Luckily they include an old fashioned stopper on a chain, so we were able to change it out painlessly. But having a chain in the tub with you is less than ideal, so I'm hoping the company will replace the broken part. Well, I just phoned and without even being placed on hold or transfered once, they are shipping a replacement part out today! Wonderful!!!


As we are fast approaching our trip to Chile [we leave Saturday], we're in a mad rush to get things wrapped up so our friend Susan can house sit and not be inconvenienced by a partially functional bathroom. We've had little trouble in terms of ideas working out up till now, but it became abundantly clear that our plan to use glass or Lumicor as a full shower surround was going to be prohibitively expensive. I also didn't like that we would have had to use a flavor of Lumicor that would at most contain 25% recycled content. So I opted to research my other lead and met with Marilyn Farrier, the owner of AMDEC Recycled Glass Tile. She works out of her home and uses large kilns to fuse 100% post industrial waste into gorgeous glass tiles. And her pricing simply cannot be beat. But more than that, from the first time I contacted her she has been very quick to respond, super friendly, and just has that something that makes you want to do business with her. After getting the grand tour of her production facility [her garage!], we packed up a few samples for me to share with Jim to narrow down our color choice. We selected Robin's Egg Blue with Green Apple accents in a 4x4" field tile. And better still, we found a great tiler, who will get it done for us as soon as the tile is ready!


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More photos from the Great Bathroom Remodel...

With the rain pouring down in buckets here and not quite having enough time to do the floor before the drywall squad returns to sand on Monday, we're taking a day off... So I've done some more digging and found/taken some more photos to post.

The new toilet went in yesterday, the tub is in place, though not yet connected to the drain, and the tile backer is ready for the floor heater and slate tile.

V+A "Nice" tub. As in the city in France... though it is very nice indeed

The room with natural lighting, on a dark and stormy day.

As we've mentioned previously, we're doing our best to be as "green" as possible. And while that's a very in vogue concept, it's actually still a bit difficult to find reliable, comprehensive resources for specifying materials and products. As such, the biggest pain has been in the amount of time it takes to figure out whether or not something is truly green, or just jumping on the bandwagon and using buzzwords to sell more garbage.

UltraTouch Recycled Cotton Insulation

Our lovely new toilet: dual flush with either a .9 gallon or 1.6 gallon flush, a HUGE improvement over the 1973 7 gallon per flush predecessor.

Then again, since I am blissfully under-employed, I've had the time to really dig in and have made some great finds. Here's our "green list" [subject to updates, as it's unlikely I'll remember everything in one go!]:

• PaperStone vanity top and shelf surfaces
• FSC certified wood cabinets built locally
• Cabinets finished with very low VOC water-based acrylic finish
• Toto Aquia Dual flush toilet
• YOLO Colorhouse paint
• Velux venting skylight with ComfortPlus glazing
• UltraTouch Recycled cotton insulation
• Caroma Leda Vasque semi-recessed lavatory
• Radiant floor heating by Warmly Yours
• Panasonic Whisper Green fan with motion sensor
• Low voltage halogen task lighting with dimmer [hoping to switch these to LED bulbs someday and/or solar or wind power]
• Flourescent vanity lighting
• Paperless Drywall: GP Dens Armour Plus and Dens Shield tile backer
  

There are a few areas that are woefully barren of green products... among them bathtubs and faucet fixtures. Our decision to use the Victoria+Albert tub was based on aesthetics, yes, but also on its durability, size, and material. The size is such that two people can comfortably bath together, thereby conserving water. The material is a solid surface with the marketing label "Englishcast". Made from volcanic limestone and resin, the material is cast into one of their many tub styles. This creates a tub that is as strong as cast iron but at half the weight with the bonus of being renewable, easy to clean without chemicals, and keeping the bathwater warm longer than other materials. We have yet to bathe in it, but we love the tub so much that if we ever move, I'd be really tempted to take it with us...

Other materials we are still considering are AMDEC Recycled glass tile and/or Lumicor panels for the tub/shower surround. Both are Northwest based companies with local manufacturing from recycled materials.

Later this week we will be trading artwork for labor and materials when the painting party starts. We have some pretty awesome friends. :)