Hey, we won an award!

We are excited to say that last night we won “The Golden Prybar” award given by the DeCon ’13 Conference – sponsored by BMRA (Building Materials Reuse Association). The award was for Best of Show in presentation of projects showcasing the use of salvaged materials. It was one award among many, given to people who work in the deconstruction industry. It was fascinating to see the dedication of the individuals who work in this field.

Here’s our presentation board featuring some of our favorite projects using salvaged materials:

Here’s us winning the award:

Here’s us with that enviable Golden Prybar:

Here’s Monica drinking a beer:

And here’s Mary Jean wishing everyone peace:

A very cool side benefit was that the ceremony took place at the greenest building in the world – The Bullitt Center. We didn’t have the full tour, but snapped some pictures of the some of the interesting architectural features. It is an amazing building that we are lucky to have here in Seattle.

Stair surrounded by windows, looking down. Bullitt Center.

Bullitt Center, exterior.

Construction progress display, Buillitt Center.

Underside of solar panelled roof overhang, Bullitt Center.

Exposed pipes, stairway landing, Bullitt Center.

Detail of exposed pipes, stairway landing, Bullitt Center.

Wow. I hope someone knew what they were doing.

All pipes are labelled.

Compostable toilet, using reclaimed water.

Orchid at stair landing, nice concrete wall, Bullitt Center.

“Red List”, a listing of all yucky things not allowed in building materials at the Bullitt Center.

“The Living Building Challenge” Red List.

Detail of floor latch on sliding wood door, Bullitt Center.

Sliding wood door, Bullitt Center

Detail of solar roof overhang, Bullitt Center.

Stair landing, Bullitt Center.

Peek at green roof from stairs, Bullitt Center.

Green roof, Bullitt Center.

Underside of stairs, Bullitt Center.

Fence Design

We keep noticing beautifully designed fences, arbors and outdoor space screens around our town. We see plenty of badly designed ones too, but thought you’d be more interested in the goodies!

Keep your eyes peeled for additions to this series as we discover more while we collect supplies for our next project.

We’d love to hear your opinions too. Don’t be shy

Posted February 25, 2013

You know those fabulous slabs of tree you’ve squirreled away in your basement? I know some of you have them (and I am jealous). Here’s an idea to inspire your creative side – check this out! The wine garden fence designed by Marenakos Rock Center for the Seattle Flower and Garden Show 2013.

A Wood and Stone Fence

A powerful statement at 10-15 feet tall! Just to the right of this was the entry gate:

Arbor

I love the design concept of getting lighter (visually), and more wild as the fence/arbor/entry goes up and the contrast between warm, polished wood against hewn, cold stone. Lighting was used to great effect, which my flash washed out (dang!), but you can still get a sense of it. The plants add softness and depth by being both in front of and behind the fence, tapping into our impulsive nature to spy inside. Isn’t it great?!

Spam of the Week

Everyone gets spam on their blogs, but because of the low volume of real mail on our blog, we actually read our spam. Because they are often hilarious, we are going to start sharing some of the more unusual/odd and sometimes inappropriate with you.

Discovered March 22, 2013  “No matter if some one searches for his vital thing, thus he/she needs to be available that in detail, therefore that thing is maintained over here.” (There is something profound hidden in this message, just not sure what it is.)

Guest Post at Northwest Home Magazine

We are happy to say that we’ve been asked to post some of our favorite diy projects on Northwest Home Magazine. Go check out our first post – “Sign of the Times“.

Seattle Handy (Wo)man Service

A few weeks ago at the Phinney Neighborhood Home Fair, we met Amy, of “AmyWorks“. Amy is a licensed contractor in Seattle and she and her crew offer a variety of home maintenance/repair services – bathroom & kitchen remodels, painting, decks, tiling, and on and on.

Two services Amy offers we thought were extra helpful:

• She will fix something AND teach you how to fix something.

• She offers workshops on a variety of topics. Amy said that if you have a group of 5 or so, she would lead a workshop in any topic you choose. Cool!

So much to learn, so little time.

Pillows

Monica had quite a few yards of beautiful, roughly woven, natural, cotton fabric which she inherited from her seamstress/weaver great-aunt. She kept this in her basement waiting for inspiration to strike.

In an unrelated post a while back, we wrote about some cool brass stencils we found at Earthwise. They were originally from an old granary in eastern Washington. Monica talked about waiting for inspiration to strike before doing something with them.

Inspiration did indeed strike Monica, genius that she is, and she put the two together and came up with the idea of making stenciled pillow shams.

Gift Ideas – 11 Artists We Love

We spent an afternoon cruising the aisles of the Urban Craft Uprising in Seattle last weekend.

It was inspiring to meet so many talented people and to see their amazingly creative work. Plus we had some holiday shopping to do and there is nothing like handmade and/or local to counteract the frenzy going on all around this time of year.

Visit their sites by clicking on the photo, and even order some things if you likey, too . We vouch for the quality of all that we’ve included in this post. Have fun surfing…we did.

Visit us at IKEA Hack!

Today we’re guest posting over at IKEA Hack – a fun site we’ve recently discovered. Come visit! Who hasn’t thought about tweaking their IKEA stuff…

Other IKEA hacky stuff:

You Can Find Us at Mod Podge Rocks Today!

We are thrilled to be guest posting over at Mod Podge Rocks today. Come check it out and maybe get inspired to start some of those holiday gift ideas dancing about in your head

Gone Fishing

We are having a hard time keeping up our regular posting schedule during the summer. There is family, vacations, soccer, swimming, popsicles, raspberries, awesome weather and heck, we are in the pacific northwest…we gotta get out there when the getting is good! We’ll be back to our old selves when school swings back into session in September.

We hope you are having a good summer, too.