Outside

I should start by reporting that my latest ETA for move in is the end of February.  This is fortunate--since my final date for vacating my rental is the end of February!  We're in the home stretch, but there are lots of details to be attended to.  And to be honest, at this point, another month or two doesn't make a lot of difference.  I just don't want a rushed and stressful move out and in.

While a lot is happening on the inside, things are happening on the outside too.  The folks from Tanglewood in Maryland are here putting up the greenhouse.  It's in a direct axis line from my south patio doors (and actually through the entire house and the fountain outside the front door), and these two trees obliged by framing it nicely.  There will be double doors going through the greenhouse, and raised beds for vegetables on the other side--for the most daytime sunshine.  I'll probably have to surround the whole area with a fence to keep critters out. 

On the east side we're building a dry-stacked wall about three feet high that will provide the transition from the formal lawn outside the living room to the gravel patio outside the kitchen/family room and sunroom.  The best view of it is from the upstairs windows.  The core is cinder blocks, reinforced with rebar and cement, so it will be sturdy, but it should look like an old wall of rubble stone.  In the distance, Mount Hood can be seen through dirty windows.  It's snow-covered now, but was mostly brown a month ago.  You can see we've been having some beautiful sunny December days--between the rain.

There's a pathway between the end of the stone wall and the east patio.  A trellis is going up over the patio now.  It'll be painted the color of the trim and stucco.  A counter with a sink will go on the inside of the low wall--with a built-in barbecue on the long wall.  A Dutch door will open from the kitchen to a small round table and chairs on a brick surface.  I'll probably grow wisteria to cover the trellis.

Here's the only other female on site, Natasha.  She's the cute 20-ish daughter of Victor, the stone mason.  Her brothers helped install the stone, but she did most of the mortar--fearless on scaffolding and ladders.