It’s been a minute since we showed you what’s happening on the premises, and today we’re closing the gap. As with most renovations, we really didn’t plan on going too far when we bought the property (“It’s a fun fix,” they said. “We’ll do most of it ourselves,” they said.) claimed). At times it felt like more than we could chew, and as we watched how much we ate, we shoved it all into our mouths and pinched our noses with her fingers. decided to end her with We figured that instead of years of muddy construction, we’d just have to remove one big band-aid. And as we get closer to the end, we’re obviously so happy and grateful that we made it through. So today’s post is meant to get you up close and show you where the backyard is (as of last week), and then detail in separate posts as all the pieces come together. Speaking of which, spring is here and the weather in the Northwest is incredible. Folks, Oregon can’t be beaten right now. Brian and I love almost every aspect of life here.
Just an update: we hired almost 3 years ago studio campo Hired to design a “farm” native northwest Worked as a landscaping contractor (Mr. Danl, Mr. Scott and his team for doing this work on many, many rainy days with two fairly impatient clients in-house. I am very grateful to ). Construction started last August (I believe) and the scope continued to grow, so the project was taking far longer than any of us expected and yes, It cost us a lot more than we would like to admit out loud. Maybe I’ll add it up someday (I feel like I blogged about the loss of the Portland project years later), but for now I feel comfortable staying in denial and just enjoying and appreciating it all. I will try to
We did a lot!! Paving stones, irrigation, plants, soak pools, ‘greenhouses’, split rail fences, smaller sports courts and new driveways.this is many – And we are equally grateful to be in this position and to have this as our home, and are thrilled that the work is done and we can enjoy it. As of this summer, the front edge of the sports court and the edge of the patio will be completed.
Does that mean there will be a Phase 2 as well? In some areas it does (orchards need help getting the trees overgrown), but I really hope it doesn’t. The 0.5 acre lot is full of blackberries and then lots of dense ivy/weeds/overgrown pockets, but those aren’t areas we need to use, so we’ll spend some time until we decide what we’re going to do with it. No intention or resources out there. More than enough as it stands…maintenance too – EEEEKK.
Evolution of the “backyard”
Four years ago, when we were still previewing this home before we purchased it, it looked like this.
It was pretty sweet. It’s their dog, Bear. We spent 3 hours together while falling instantly in love with this property (and him). A large bush was now in front of the back porch leading to the backyard.
This is a better shot. This was when I removed and repaired some vintage windows just before the demo (to prevent demo staff from accidentally breaking them). But this will give you a better understanding of that space/property.
A month later, during a demo, we visited. It was our naivety to think that all the plants could be saved and transplanted or the bricks could be reused. Many of you will say how possible it is, but it wasn’t the advice given to us or our skill set. We tried it and the advice we got was that it would cost a lot more to try and it wouldn’t work anyway. They said the same thing about the windows, but we all agreed it was worth trying to save and reuse, even if it cost more than replacing (it was about the same, by the way) .
Moving week! ! !
This is what it looked like when we moved. It looked like dirt on a sunny day, but as you can imagine, it quickly turned to mud. I didn’t take many pictures of the mud. It’s like writing a diary only about your problems. But I found some things that give me an idea of what things were like last year.
But as most renovations come to an end, it’s easy to forget some of the tougher challenges. Reconstructive amnesia, I believe, is a psychological tool that our brains use to do it all over again. I’m still processing some of what I learned (which usually falls into the personal growth category for me). This is because I wasn’t the best version of myself for part of this period.
Almost done – as of 2 weeks ago
It’s a sheer change, and it’s incredibly satisfying to watch (even more so to spend each day). The grass has been mowed, the plants have been planted (they were small at first, but now they are growing exponentially), and the paving stones around the house are almost complete. Anyone who has done a landscaping project in the past knows that it will take him 2-4 years to come to fruition as intended, but let’s be honest from where we started: This seems amazing. We want the property to look natural and as if it’s always been there, but the whole thing needs to be graded to make sure it’s properly drained and then some fresh small plants are planted. In some cases, it is all difficult. So at the moment it looks more professionally landscaped than a natural farm, but we hope that vision (two summers from now) will come true. I was urged to create a small hill/mound (or clover lawn) in my lawn, but there were many reasons given by the experts not to do so, so I didn’t. I think the whole space becomes very soft when a lot of wildflowers and ornamental grasses come out.
The soak pool is almost finished, just in time for summer. I’ll give you a breakdown of the process in a moment, but basically our native Northwest staff were working on the whole site with lots of moving parts, so even though we put it in the ground in February, I had a lot of other things to do (and I wasn’t going to use it surrounded by dirt anyway). Therefore, I believe it will be completed by next week. Since this photo was taken the hardscape is almost complete and the pool motor/cover/filter/heater is in the process of being completed. Gar!!!
Since taking these pics, I’ve noticed it also has a split rail fence in it (which makes a big difference) = instant charm.
That’s our ‘greenhouse’, but obviously it’s not a small greenhouse, it’s really a ‘pool house’. I have a lot to tell you. For example, why did you build it? (to hide the pool mechanics and take advantage of additional windows). Why is the door lower than the window? (Funny story, changing) How big is it? what are you going to do with it? How much does it cost to add a structure like this? Do you have air conditioning, plumbing, electrical? We’ll figure it all out, I promise.
Eventually the ground cover between the paving stones will cover the mulch and make the whole look more natural. The green on the lawn looks almost fake, but folks, after a year of being covered in mud back here, we couldn’t love the green part more. Danl and his team did a great job preparing, leveling and mixing the soil and sand so that even after several days of heavy rain the water was not soggy and drained beautifully (Brian can’t help but talk about this) – he’s a proud grass daddy now). Special credit to anyone who noticed the front well house/back shed gutter was down… Speaking of the well, we got the well back up and repaired, so soon Well water will be used for irrigation. Useful in the summer for a property of this size. We’ve had a lot of rain this winter, so everything is very green, but you can’t plant that many new plants without proper irrigation. Otherwise it will dry out. So I am very grateful to be able to tie it to the well and finally offset the cost of repairing the well (it wasn’t cheap). If the roots are strong enough, watering should be kept to a minimum.
Imagine having a split rail fence between the sports court and the “pool house” and pool area. Pea gravel, plantings (mainly wildflowers and meadows), and garden flowerbeds are installed.
That’s our project manager Scott (Caitlin caught us in the middle of a meeting) so we realized we had put our future split rail fence too close to the paving stones (book a fence guy and it’s our fault for not updating it) plan). It’s been fixed now and it looks really nice. There are many moving parts.
Here are some satisfying precedents:
progress!
Just to be clear, this is after we demoed the OG sport coat (which wasn’t originally planned, but it was so cracked and so run down that we had to bottom). Then I re-poured the pickleball size.
Same angle as this…
It’s been a blast watching Cali, Dan’l and our vision come to life. It was very difficult to make this highly refurbished property look ‘natural’ and ‘natural’ as if it was there (well, I know there is a plunge pool). To be honest, we were very worried halfway through that it would look too suburban and well maintained. Perfect and professionally done, thank you very much. Time will tell how natural it will look once everything fits in. I am very happy to be nearing completion, but I cannot express it in words.
Brian and I are not the type to wait until things are over and invite people over, so don’t worry. We have already spent many afternoons with friends and family on the sports courts here. We are currently planning a summer pickleball tournament.
More details to come soon, but we are grateful for the help we clearly needed to do something we could never have done on our own. This summer will be very different from last year, and we decided over dinner last night to suspend construction of other buildings until (at the earliest) the fall. The garage has collapsed, and his old 1850s house on the property is, well, all. But after his three years on this project, we’re ready to just sit back and enjoy ourselves for a few months, rest our checkbooks, and spend some quiet time here with the kids this summer ( Besides, our alpacas are not going to) adopt themselves :))
*Designed by Emily Henderson (me!), studio campoand native northwest
** Considerable progress Photo credit Kaitlyn Green
