#greenthumbmatt

This photo is actually from a few weeks back when I left a pillow we were getting rid of sitting on the back porch.  It pretty much sums up the past week of good dogs doing bad (or maybe just doggy) things. 

Maybe it's the rain that seems to never go away as we here in Seattle endure one of the wettest Junes on record.  Maybe it's the arrival of Emmett and the consequence that the two human parents' top priority is no longer the dog babies but the actual baby? Maybe it all started with that damn pillow?  Who knows?  It's been mostly comical so here's the recount:

Just the other day I was sitting at my desk working away while Kelly and a friend were taking Emmett for a walk and the dogs were exiled to the back yard.  Fortunately I had the window open and heard a whine in the yard.  I darted back there thinking one of Sonny or Max were hurt or in danger. 

As I run outside I see Max, perched at the back gate, and Sonny, nowhere in sight.  Forgetting that just 30 minutes prior I had yelled out to Sonny to quit digging at the fence, I start towards the open back door to the garage thinking Sonny's probably stuck under a pile of tools, ladders, and baby apparel in the disaster I call my garage.  Before I get there, I realize there's a reason Max is at the back gate.  Sure enough, there's a dog sized excavation underneath the fence not far from Max and exactly where Sonny was having such a great time digging shortly beforehand.  Long story short, I and Max run out the back gate and Sonny is nowhere in sight.  Thankfully, after shouting a query to my neighbor about whether he'd seen a Brittany, to which he promptly replied with something like "just the one right in front of you," and I thought "geez, thanks buddy," I fortunately turned around to see Sonny high-tailing it down the sidewalk about 200 yards down the street heading for "Who Knows Where."  Somewhat amazingly, Sonny heard me and thankfully came sprinting back. 

After praising him for coming back, we made it back into our backyard and I promptly gave him a little bit of a "what for" while reacquainting him with his escape route.  Then I dropped a concrete block in the hole, covered it up, and figured this was an aberration and I wouldn't be needing to dig a 300 ft trench around my fence line to fill with razor wire or concrete.  Well, sure enough, today I caught him digging around my concrete block (which was actually fortunate in that I could correct him while he was actually doing the misdeed).  Maybe this time the connection that digging at the fence brings dad's ire?  If he isn't getting the message then I'm going to have a heck of a time figuring out how to electrify a cedar fence given that razor wire and a concrete fence are out of the question :-)

And like a deal on a late night infommercial that includes much more than just the main "can't live without" product, there is more to this story as well.

This afternoon, after taking the dogs to the dog park for some frolicking, ball fetching, swimming, and walking, we return home for dinner, baths, and for some R&R.  Not too much later I look out and see Max's nose covered in dirt and see that he's decided it might be fun to make a new crawl space access for our house!  Do ya think our dogs might need a little more work than they've been getting?

And now the cherry on top.  Tonight we were preparing for our first night out to go see one of Kelly's favorite bands, Mates of State.  Her cousin had just arrived to babysit and the ladies (and me) are going through the Emmett Care Cookbook.  Probably five minutes in, we're enjoying conversing in the living room and I hear the dog door (in the back door to the house/kitchen) open.  Max is already with us so I know our lead hunter, Sonny, is soon to round the corner from the kitchen into the living room since the baby gate that separates the two rooms isn't closed.  That part, Sonny coming excitedly in, dancing about in the exhilaration of another unsuccessful hunt, has been replayed about 365 times in the last year and a half since we've had him.  Of course this has not been a typical week dog-wise. 

Tonight, he rounds the corner, like so many times, and I exclaim "STAY" to theoretically stop him from tracking mud into the living room.  But unlike the other 365 times, tonight he keeps coming.  And in 1/10 of a second my "stay" command turns to "oh hear it comes, $?^#!, #&((!" as I see the unmistakable 5 inch pencil sized floppy tail hanging from the side of his mouth (wherein the mouse is actually hidden) that he's bringing me with the utmost urgency and pride.  Once I had the expletives out of my system and the mouse outside I congratulated him in all earnest for a job well done (sincere thanks to Kelly's cousin for reminding me that he was simply bringing me his treasure he had worked so hard to claim).  

The week is not over so I think the boys will either be in their crates for the next two days or we'll be going to the sporting goods store to purchase a treadmill for the dogs!  The former definitely won't fly; and we'd have to DIY ourselves a new annex to the house to fit a treadmill; so in all likelihood, come tomorrow afternoon, I'll actually be scratching my head trying to figure out how to redirect our mischief makers as I discover the next new behavior they've decided is perfect to unfurl during this "special" week.

Hoop house I built at dusk on a Friday a few weeks ago.  Great way to get the weekend mojo goin'.  It's about 4'x8'.  I drilled the horizontal rails and arches where they intersect and zip-tied them together.  With some pretty rudimentary anchors (rocks) the plastic sheeting hasn't been blown off, even though our tree blew over!  Basil and artichoke in the pots and some beets and parsnip that I haven't cleared out.  I've been keeping our outdoor wireless thermometer inside to keep an eye on the temps.

This is where I've been.  And in the attic; and crawl space; and yard; and garage-- you get the idea.  Last September I was asked to participate in the renovation of our community garden (P-Patch).  The year before, forward looking volunteers at the garden had applied for and received a $20k matching grant from the city.  The "match" part requires that an equivalent amount of volunteer hours and donations must be leveraged to receive the full grant (that's how I understand it anyway). Countless meetings, setting up a Google Site and other information systems, navigating dreams/realities/personalities: now we're finally building.  What you ask?  Permanent paths and edging (my focus), 22 4x8' food bank beds, a bamboo garden, a mushroom garden, a hillside of native plants, a children's garden, a mural, new irrigation, and signage.  I stand in awe what $20k can do with a grippe of willing hands and minds.  

The concept above was created by one of two landscape architects who were hired for the project and who have gone above and beyond their compensation. The LA created the Google SketchUp drawing partly from my team's initial path design (below)

ASIDE: I can't say how helpful the suite of Google products has been (and to be fair, Microsoft's Power Point and Office helped along the way).  But seriously, Google Earth, SketchUp, Sites, Groups, Docs, Spreadsheet/Forms, search, Gmail... Google may be one of several corps taking over the world but as far as this project they're helping ensure they have a better world to take over.

One afternoon I decided to wield my new SketchUp skills (see mantle project (1) and (2) where I developed them) to weigh in on the design of the raised 4'x8' food bank beds (inspired by my own).  The Food Bank team decided to use 2x6 juniper stacked three high for a raised height of 18".  Juniper surfaced as our best alternative for edging the paths and for many of the same reasons it's perfect for the beds.  It is sustainable, economical, beautiful and generally not easy to come by (more info on Juniper here from the Oregon State University Extension Service).

Here's the ~1.25 acres that we're renovating.

I've spent the equivalent of a couple days out surveying the paths.  It's been fun working with others, and by myself, to map out the space.  In the background, with the aid of grant money and donations, several years ago volunteers built the beautiful red timber framed barn and gazebo.  I've learned a ton surveying but will have to expound on that later. 

Far into the planning process, we decided to build a prototype for the edging of the block path concept we envisioned.  24 of the 8' - 6x6" juniper were purchased for hose bib posts.  The rest of the 2x6 and 6x6s were for the first steps we'd take in edging the paths. 

The juniper, especially the 6x6 is gorgeous.  The 2x6s were the last of the lot so they had a lot of character even if too many were not really suitable for our purpose of path edging (the vendor will let us return them and we're ordering about 800 more of them so it's not a big deal).

Last Friday I finished the surveying and the next day 50 volunteers dove into trenching 1000s of feet for new irrigation lines, augering post holes for the hose bibs, and laying polypipe.  I had to bow out after the survey to make sure Kelly and I stay on track with pre-baby projects... we are crazy: two more new circuits down and only one old circuit left to replace.  Productive and enlightening days these are.

There's been a fair bit of the spending lately but I'm happy to report that we're going to be saving on our energy bill, saving (gaining) space in our small ~840 sq. ft house, and be ready for new projects; that is, after we finish the pesky final touches on our just completed ones-- let's not get bogged down in the painful details of holes in the walls and replacing all the new electrical outlets with tamper proof ones (no, we're not insane, Kelly has to do it to pass inspection).  So in the last two weeks we wrapped up the high efficiency gas fireplace/tankless gas water heater project, 80% of the siding caulking (after finishing the siding and soffit projects), majorly rearranged the living room, and finished the bathroom window tiling (which means the shower "wall of plastic sheeting" is gone-- I love you Kelly for getting 'er done!). 

This two year old 58 gallon/6 year electric water heater was decommissioned as soon as the tankless was installed.  I was super stoked when we got rid of it because the lady from Freecycle who took it was only stopping by to pick up some chairs and when i heard she was taking them to the Yakama Nation I offered the heater and a TV to her and she took them too (on a subsequent trip).  Tribe members in White Swan, WA suffered much loss during a major wind storm there this past winter that was made even worse by a consequent fire that consumed multiple homes.

The old water heater supposedly cost us $520 a year!  I guess that doesn't seem so bad for hot showers :-)

Here's the new tankless water heater: a Rinnai.  Estimated annual operational cost of $225-- less than half the cost of operating our old one!  I suppose if I take two hour showers as has been suggested to me then the savings would go up in steam.

What a beautiful machine.  So small yet so powerful.  It sits on the outside of the house and basically gives us a pantry that's twice as big-- say 25 sq. ft extra!  (Sorry for all of the exclamations but recounting our gains is making me giddy.)

A project wouldn't be complete without a hole in the wall now would it?  At least not in our house!

The guys from Handy's Heating (from a fur piece north of us) were great.  We paid a pretty penny for their labor but they knew what they were doing and got the job done fast. I ordered pizza both days they were here (about three months separated their visits while we worked out the plumbing and electrical).  I enjoyed getting to know them and I think they appreciated a little bit of hospitality.  I worked in construction for a few summers growing up and I just want to say I always appreciated working hard for somebody and having them show their appreciation with hospitality and not just cold hard cash (which doesn't hurt either).  I gave them a tip which was nowhere near 10% but if I was in their shoes I would have appreciated any tip-- so that's what I did and I think they left knowing we really appreciated doing business with them.

That's it for now.  The 500 pound guerrilla in the room has me wondering whether my potential painter is in fact going to be our painter.  Finger's crossed because I'm ready to slow down on the projects and get out in the woods and chase my quarry-- elk (and tend to some professional business that really needs to take precedence over projects... not hunting though!)

As far as the blog is concerned, I've basically skipped the siding project.  But fortunately in actual life, the project is coming to a close and the biggest remaining hurdle was how to replace the old soffit.  I'm not sure my solution is actually called soffit; a professional might say it is "wrapping" the rafters of the roof trusses.  To me they're one and the same and I'm going to call it soffit.  Here's how I did it.

4x8 foot 1/2" ACX plywood sheets (the A means that one face is basically free of knots and blemishes whereas the C means there are some knots).  The sheets had a smooth finish.  I primed them with Killz interior/exterior primer.

I made a pair of short scaffolds for working under the eaves from a taller scaffold I had built for working on the gable ends of the house.  I used a circular saw and my siding nail gun to build the scaffolding.  I didn't worry too much about making it look pretty.  That said, the scaffolds needed to support my shifting wait so bracing the legs was important for giving the scaffold shear strength (to not collapse to one side or the other).  Siding nails don't have much shear strength so they're not dependable for weighty applications but I had a lot of them and they were good enough for some ad hoc scaffolding.

I inserted plastic soffit chuting between the rafters and then blocked underneath them.  The former creates a passage for air to flow from the attic to the soffit vent after more insulation is blown into the attic.  The latter, blocking, keeps insulation from moving into the soffit and blocking the soffit vent.

I did the layout by snapping a chalk line 5 inches away from the fascia and pulling the line taught between two nails at either end of the eaves.  Before putting up the plywood and venting, to keep small critters from getting through the vent slots, I stapled 6" screen along my chalk reference line.

You can see there is a pretty big gap between my plywood and the back of the fascia.  This is partly due to waves in the fascia, partly due to my lack of precision, and maybe partly due to harmonics (small waves) setting up the line as it was snapped and bounced off the rafters.  The finished product looks pretty good with caulking and if I were to make it perfect I'd still be working on it.  Definitely important in a project to balance perfection against time investment.  I loosely nailed the first run of plywood near the fascia to make inserting the venting flange under it easy.  I put up all of the plywood by the fascia, then all of the venting, then finished with the plywood near the side of the house.  As I slid the venting in I placed more nails in the first rung of plywood.  After I had all of the plywood up I thoroughly nailed everything with 15 gauge electro-galvanized (or galvanized or stainless--I can't remember but I made sure they were rated for exterior use).

Here's a close-up.  The butt ends of the plywood end at the rafters so they could be securely nailed.  I didn't nail the soffit into the fascia at all because I figure some day I may want to replace the fascia and I don't want to have to redo the soffit when the time comes.

CURRENT STATUS: I still have to finish the caulking.  Since getting the soffit put up I've been learning about painting the exterior of the house by watching YouTube, reading up on the web, and getting some quotes.  I'm going back and forth on whether or not I should save the money and do the painting myself or save the time and have someone else do it.