Billie's Folly

As we skid into Christmas, and conclude month nine of building, I'm feeling great about where we are.  My long and arduous planning has finally produced a house.  Because of the imminent rain, they have most of the roof on and have buttoned up as much as possible.  The windows and doors are a couple months out--later than they should be--due to our change to steel. This is the view as you drive up.  There's still a mound of topsoil in front that will be used for back-fill around the base.  The second hole from the right on the lower level is actually a fireplace--not sure why it's cut out.  The cement is a wall around a small patio that will have a built-in barbecue.  The deck is off my bedroom. As you keep driving, you come to the front entry.  You can circle to park in front, or continue around to the right to the garages.  In front of the center opening (which will house the front door) there will be the greenhouse porch.  This...

One of the first photos I took after I purchased the property, was of this handsome fellow.  I rounded the bend of the driveway, and there he was.  Not terribly alarmed, he posed for a while.  Since then I've seen many deer wandering the property and beyond. When it came time to pick a weather vane for the cupola on my cottage, I had many thoughts--and it's astounding how many choices there are!  A horse is a classic subject.  But since I'm not a horse person, it seemed like false appropriation.  The iconic French rooster sounded fun, but then it really isn't relevant to my life either.  Then I thought a beagle would be perfect--after all, one dominates many of my waking hours!  But that didn't seem generic enough.  What if I got a different breed of dog at some point--it would be so unfair!  And the next owners probably wouldn't want a beagle representing their home.  I finally decided this white-tail deer was an appropriate...

It's been a while since I checked in.  I've been waiting for substantial progress on the upstairs--and now we have it!  This is the front entrance, with three windows into the upstairs hall.  On the left is the living room with a bedroom above.  On the right is the dining room and another bedroom. Here are those three windows--facing North--looking down on the driveway and a field with big maples.  There will be narrow bookshelves between the windows with cabinets below, and the horizontal board in the lower half, is where part of the stair railing will be. Here are another three windows--facing East--in the upstairs hall.  This will be a small sitting area.  You can see the edge of Mt. Hood, mostly hidden by a tree, in the center window.  I'm happy to report, in a quid pro quo with my future neighbors, the tree will soon disappear, along with two of mine.   I'm thankful for those of you who check in occasionally, and ...

Tanglewood is the company in Maryland that is fabricating my greenhouse and other glassed-in areas.  It all started with the greenhouse-style structure at the entry, an idea I got from an English greenhouse/conservatory company's advertisement.  In reality it was probably off the rear of the house, but I thought it was a unique way to come in from the weather before hitting the front door.  We refer to it as the conservatory--but I like to think of it as something much more casual.  Then there's the breezeway, a transition hall from the family room to the garage and the southern garden.  It has a slanted glass roof and greenhouse-like doors at each end.  And finally a glass-covered patio that will still be open-air between the 6 foot walls and the glass ceiling. It's funny to me that from California I envisioned Oregon as being dark and gloomy in the rainy season.  I grew up in Seattle and never felt that true, so I don't know why I projected that on...

Today marks a significant transition from hole in the ground, with cement and some horizontal boards, to something resembling a house.  Most important from my point of view, the plywood on the main floor, and back-filling up to the foundation walls--both of which meant I could enter the structure and get a sense of the rooms. Here it was before any back-fill.  That's the garage, which will be entered from the far side. Today in the sunshine, I was able to step into my house and feel, what up to now I'd only known in my imagination.  Not all exterior walls are up, but enough of the main floor interior walls are, to make it all feel familiar and comfortable and like the beginning of the home I've spent so much time dreaming of and planning.    Standing at the front door, this will be my view of the cottage.  Looking out the front window of the dining room. Entering the front door is the framed entry wall with a powder room behind, and a h...

It was not the best time to be leaving the country, I had a few things happening at the house, my Palo Alto house was in contract with minor complications, and my daughter's horse, Zoe, would suddenly take a turn for the worse.  But this trip had been planned for months, and when is a good time? I learned about this Brocante (vintage & antiques) Tour from the one blog I follow: My French Country Home.  Sharon Santoni takes gorgeous photographs and writes a refreshingly unpretentious blog.  She writes modestly of her life and observations, uses flowers from her garden to create beautiful arrangements, and shares recipes she makes for her family.  She exposes her followers to an authentic French lifestyle, lesser known places in France, and local artisans.  I should add, she's written two books, publishes a bi-monthly magazine, and curates quarterly boxes of French goods, crafts and antiques.  I don't know how she finds time to also host several tours ...

It's amazing how fast the framing goes.  The cottage is starting to look like a feasible dwelling.  I can walk through the framed rooms and look out the window openings.  As generous as I know it is, the spaces feel small to me.  But the builders assure me that it goes in phases--at certain stages (framing) spaces can feel small, in others (drywall) they often feel large.  But the structure itself, sitting alone on the corner of the lot, looks substantial.

Best day yet!  The work has been steady since spring, and the weather has been extremely accommodating, so I can't complain about the progress so far.  But today I saw the first signs that I might someday actually have a house to call home! This is the cottage.  It will continue to be a step ahead of the house.  First there was a basement, then a floor, then the walls were built horizontally on top of the floor. And today was like a modern day version of a barn raising--making use of equipment and manpower.  There was lifting, leveling, bracing, attaching--over and over*--amazing and impressive.  They even blew away the sawdust beforehand, so there wouldn't be dirt in my walls. The real milestone will be when the same happens with the house.  But today was pretty great! * A footnote to say I learned a lesson today--too late--since I don't expect to ever plan and build another house.  As I've said, I naively began the plan...

I'm very pleased with the revised elevations showing the steel windows.  I mentioned that the window panes were enlarged--initially to reduce the amount of steel (and thus cost)--but it ends up I'm much happier with the less busy look.  I think during the planning stage I wanted more traditional sized panes.  But with the stone exterior and conservatory addition, fewer panes give a cleaner look.  Here's a comparison of the original versus the new. The difference is especially noticeable with the sets of doors and windows at the sunroom and the master above.  We re-sized the overall spaces to create more consistency and alignment.  I think it will really open up the view.  (The following views don't show the breezeway and garage.) And finally the West side.  The process of going to steel was an opportunity to make slight (3") changes, to make the windows more uniform in shape and size.  I tried not to alter the openin...