We poured concrete garden paths to replace the mud around our new porch – just in time for the ash trees to dump all of their leaves at once. Next week, the path bricks go in.
Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson
Tag Archives: House Work
Reusing old, adding new
John and I last changed our garden paths in 2009. While I work in my office in WP668 (our backyard caboose) today, I can see a work crew noisily building forms to pour the new concrete paths and steps for the porch we are constructing.
Our 1930 house is a combination of Spanish Mission, and Arts and Crafts style. We want to make additions and changes look like part of the original house, so we are combining original and new elements. We are lucky that both styles are still popular. Our new porch will feature new tiles from Fireclay and lighting fixtures from Hinkley that go well with what is already in the house.
Our original downstairs light fixtures are black wrought iron Spanish style, while those upstairs are Art Nouveau (both styles being popular in 1930). Our next door neighbor’s house in Willow Glen originally matched ours. Some years ago, he took out all of his original fixtures during a remodel and generously gave them to us. In addition to replacing my son Paul’s garden-side window with two round windows as part of our porch addition, his room is getting a second wall sconce – since he wanted more light and we had a fixture that matched. Even though there are just a few brick paths as they were when we bought the house in 1998, we carefully saved extra old brick for reuse. I will be happy to see the stacks of old brick along our back fence, and the old roofing tiles stored on our driveway back in use.
Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Home & Family
Family Feast
Since our dining room is still full of stuff pushed out of the way by our porch construction, my friend Laura Biche generously welcomed both of our families for Thanksgiving dinner this year. No matter how organized the hostess, potluck dinners are always a little surprising: we ended up with three dishes of baked sweet potatoes and a vast selection of desserts but only enough biscuits for about half of us. Laura’s dog Cassie (who, from the size of her ears, seems to be part bat) was overjoyed with all the friends who came to visit her. She did her best to entertain all of her guests.
Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Home & Family
Happy Thanksgiving!
In between celebrating my brother’s wedding, honoring the first anniversary of my father’s death, trying to finish the apparently-unending construction on the new porch, and starting work at MentorCloud, this has been a busy autumn. Today, we take time to give thanks for our blessings and bounty among family and friends. I hope that you too can pause for this moment to consider and be thankful for the good in your life.
In Willow Glen California, the sycamore, pistache, myrtle, and maple trees are putting on a glorious display of red leaves. I delight in the color, even when raking them up…
Gathering Leaves
Spades take up leaves
No better than spoons,
And bags full of leaves
Are light as balloons.
I make a great noise
Of rustling all day
Like rabbit and deer
Running away.
But the mountains I raise
Elude my embrace,
Flowing over my arms
And into my face.
I may load and unload
Again and again
Till I fill the whole shed,
And what have I then?
Next to nothing for weight,
And since they grew duller
From contact with earth,
Next to nothing for color.
Next to nothing for use.
But a crop is a crop,
And who’s to say where
The harvest shall stop?
by Robert Frost
Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Home & Family, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews
Porch Progress
We have continued to make slow progress on adding our new porch, although yesterday we had a setback. John discovered that the special-order outer window (despite being carefully measured by two experts) turned out to be the wrong size for the heirloom Van Gilder stained glass panel it was made to protect. So we are now waiting to see how long a replacement will take to make. We are also waiting for the test tiles from the special-order mural from Fireclay so that we can check the color. We are about to place the order for the wrought iron railing from Brian’s Welding. The good news is that the two new round windows above the porch in Paul’s room look good. Construction is a slow business. Even though the rainy season just started, we hope to be done by Christmas (this year!).
July 2012:
August 2012:
September 2012:
October 2012:
Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher
Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews
New Porch
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This summer, we have been fixing up our home – doing small construction and repairs, including: refinishing the front door, filling in missing baseboards, refinishing the floor in John’s office, eliminating some dry rot and fixing a floor that shifted out of level in John’s model train room and workshop, adding a side fence and creating a pottery studio for Paul. Our next project is to add a side porch to the house. The contractors poured the concrete foundation yesterday. Months ago, we bought hundreds of old ceramic roof tiles from a neighbor – which match those already on our 1930 Willow Glen house roof. The “new” tiles will go on the porch roof so that it will look like a natural part of the house.
Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews
Metal and Clay
Last weekend, we visited two interesting companies selling the bits which make up our homes:
- Sims Metal Management (1720 Monterey Highway, San Jose, CA)
- Fireclay Tile (495 West Julian Street, San Jose, CA)
At Sims, we were looking for some steel pipe and angle iron for John, although I also came home with a treasure: a 4-shelf wrought iron plant stand for $20 which only needs a little work. Everything at Sims is sold by the pound – kettle drums, lawn chairs, fencing, old farm equipment, rusted bird cages, old iron stoves, and unidentifiable bits of steel. There is even a small section for sculptures.
At Fireclay Tile, we looked for the tiles to pave our new side porch. John and I rooted through the new tile showroom and also the Boneyard in back where excess and nonstandard tiles wait for adoption. We found some likely piazza tiles by Gladding McBean plus a tile mural for the center.
Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews
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