I’ve always been observant. Sometimes selectively so, but specifically concerning the physical world around me. On car trips when I was young my eyes would be peeled to the backseat window, watching the buildings turn into farmhouses and the pattern of the trees or shadows, always internally mapping the route, mile by mile. If I did nap, I could quickly decipher our whereabouts upon waking. Even in the houses of family members and friends, no matter the length of time between visits, I was quick to notice the things that had changed: slight furniture rearrangements, a new rug here, a favorite knick-knack missing there. Tracy, in her education-lingo says I am a visual-spatial learner. To name a few qualities, it means I think primarily in pictures instead of words, that I relate well to space rather than time, see the big picture and may miss the details, read maps well, must visualize words to spell them, create unique methods of organization (is this where putting things into stacks rather than putting things away come in?), have good long-term visual memory rather than short-term auditory memory, and may be a late bloomer. I think I subscribe to all of these, some more than others. While they may not all apply, it is comforting to see similarities in my personality and to be, for lack of a better term, labelled. Anyway, while I do have a good visual memory, I still feel the urge somehow archive a moment as best I can. Enter, photography. I like to take photos that don’t necessarily document the entire experience, but ones that would jog my memory to a certain emotion or experience. I have a fear of forgetting and it makes sense to me that photography is a simple way to record a day’s activities…”a picture is worth a thousand words.” That said, sometimes, and more recently, I have reminded myself to put down the camera in order to visually record the moment; to enjoy it fully without one eye looking through the view finder. It helps to make the moment more meaningful. After all, what good are thousands of photos saved as digital bytes, archived on hard drives, if you don’t look at them periodically? Oh right, I am a hoarder. But really, maybe it goes back to my learning, processing and application traits: storing away memories (in this case digitally), no matter how insignificant to others, as a way to remove the burdon of having to remember them offhand. If only it was as easy as using a pensieve (so maybe we had a HP marathon last weekend, so what?)

Right. So join me now on how I view the world around me with my walk / ride / walk to school this morning. We have had remarkably beautiful weather here in Portland. Nice and chilly but with plenty of sun and blue skies in a time where we are supposed to be saturated with dreary grey gloom. While a lot of the photos are above eye level, maybe it will encourage you to #lookupandshootapic every now and then. Thus proceeds an architectural-visual walking tour of downtown Portland from the South Park Blocks to Oldtown.

Happy New Year!

We didn’t do much partying on New Year’s Eve, but we did enjoy a few movies and indulge in some to-be-unnamed fried food items, junk foods and champagne… To remedy this, Tracy and I started off our New Year by taking a hike up into the West Hills. It’s not much of a “nature hike” but it does provide some incredible views of our beloved city and the landscape beyond.

From our apartment, we just follow the South Park Blocks southwest, across I-405 and up the steep climb into the hills. There are many homes here, either dug into the earth or set out on stilts, each with a unique, albeit expensive view. And between a few of them are public stairs and nature walks, taking you up to the top. Further northwest, there is the expansive Forest Park, a huge forested park (aptly named) inside Portland city limits which we have unfortunately yet to experience. Until then, this convenient path will do.

Click here for an amateur panorama of the city and mountains. After the link opens, you can click the image for a larger view and scroll left and right. This is looking north and east across downtown Portland, the Wilamette River, East Portland and the hills. To the left, beyond downtown you can see Mount St. Helens way out in Washington and further to the right, you can see Mount Hood. The line of trees you see running into downtown is the South Park Blocks and is where we live…

Right. So, sorry for our absence. It has been quite a month here at D&B HQ. Tracy’s parents were kind enough to visit the week before Thanksgiving; we were able to visit Multnomah Falls (photos coming soon) and a few new eateries around town. Then we had a great Thanksgiving Dinner Potluck with my studiomates. And then it was nose-to-the-grindstone, pushing towards final review week and project deadlines. Tracy too had a stressful work load, on top of her getting strep throat  :(  But we made it and have finally gotten the chance to breathe this past week…

…only to get caught up with the Christmas rush. Tracy and I printed, stuffed, addressed, sealed and stamped our Christmas cards. We think we got one out to everyone but sorry if we missed you.

Between shopping for gifts, visiting with a few friends, seeing the ballet today (The Nutcracker, of course!), preparing for our flight to Houston for a week, and even taking a “Christmas Portrait” of us, we are surely on top of things!

Merry Christmas!

Please disregard that the wee-hour time of this posting…and to all a goodnight!

Hello there.

As is tradition, Christmastime begins immediately after the Thanksgiving feast-digestion and necessary napping. It is at this time, and only this time, that holiday music becomes appropriate for listening and festive trees ready for lighting. I am always annoyed by the hurriedness of businesses to shove aside Fall / Thanksgiving and even Halloween decor and skip straight to Christmas, just to try to outmatch their competitor. Every season and every time deserves its just celebration. Four weeks is plenty time to begin / finish shopping. Why the rush?

Anyway, the very day after Thanksgiving, it was tree time. We have had natural trees for Christmas the past two years (see previous blog posts of 2009, 2010) but paid an incredible amount of money for them as the noble and fraser fir trees were shipped-in to Texas. Pine trees were offered, but they are pretty terrible looking – basically a pine bush shaved into a cone. But now we have the benefit of living in the Christmas tree capital of the country, where you can get a 6-ft tree for $30! INCREDIBLE. We did our research and chose Parry’s Tree Farm for their affordable prices. They also allow you to cut down your own tree! Yes, please.

It was a little bit of a drive, but a nice one. Oregon does not disappoint in the scenery department. Especially in its rolling hills and pastoral farmlands. It was also a nice day, with just a light fog.

After arriving at the farm, we grabbed our carpet pad and hand-saw and set off to find the winning tree. We decided to choose a noble fir, instead of a douglas fir who is more dense and figured our small apartment didn’t need the competition of an imposing intruder. There were thousands of trees from which to choose, all of different sizes and shapes. We took our time to find the perfect one, a relatively small tree, whom we’ve named Colette. Below are a few Instagram shots recording the adventure:

Of course, we had to record the cut.

She’s only about 6ish-ft tall (compared to our nearly 9 ft one we could handle in the past) but looks great anyway.

Lulu is unique as she doesn’t have the urge to scale and topple Christmas trees, much to our sanity.

Decorating the tree is one of my favorite Christmas past-times. My OCD tendencies really flourish this time of year, especially when lighting and arranging ornaments. Lights must be white, with a yellow glow. None of this LED-blue business. Too sterile. The light strands must wrap up and down every tree branch so as to adequately and perfectly illuminate the tree, inside and out. Colette proved a little more difficult than trees I’ve handled in the past as noble firs have significant gaps vertically, but I am satisfied with our compromises  :)

We’ve had a busy few weeks, with school wrapping up and Tracy working, but the tree does well to invite us home, light up the the room and set the mood for the celebration of Christmas.

Contrary to popular belief, some places really have an autumn. I’ve been amazed / kind of a tree nerd, the past few weeks as the trees are changing colors, and not just to brown, but reds, pinks, purples, oranges and yellows.  This is a new concept for me, and I like it.

Enjoy a few snippets of Portland in November.

For those of you concerned that we might have taken Charlie Brown’s Great Pumpkin, no worries, we were just in search for a perfect pumpkin of our own. The Great Pumpkin will still be coming by with treats tomorrow.

We recently made a little trip to THE pumpkin patch. It was beginning to feel like fall around here and we just couldn’t resist getting a few pumpkins to bring the fall indoors. I was probably a little more excited than normal for a 24 year old, but then again, it’s me!

We hooked up with another couple we’ve met through Jacob’s school, Liz and Brian, and carpooled to Sauvie Island to meet up with others from Jacob’s studio class at the location of the infamous Oregon Pumpkin Patch. It was a big place full of families picking out their fall pumpkins.

You could go out to the patch and pick your pumpkins fresh off the vine, or you could choose from the wide selection they had near and in the market and barns that were closer to the parking area. Naturally we set out for the patch and the full experience.

Trudging through the mud we saw tons of pumpkins and finally made our selection on two tall beauties. After cutting our precious treasure off the vine we kept going to help our friends find their loot of the day. Before we got out of the pumpkin patch we ended seeing two more irresistible pumpkins, so we grabbed those also and began the walk back to the bustling area to pay for our prizes.

Once we got the pumpkins paid for and in a cart to haul to the car, we began collecting pumpkins for the activity I was going to be doing with my Camp Fire kindergarteners and 1st graders the next week. We got an additional 10 medium sized pumpkins, which would be de-seeded and slaughtered later that week.

Of course we had to check out the barn full of fruits, veggies and other amazing fall things.

At this point we were all starting to get a little hungry, but the flower designer in me couldn’t resist the You-Pick flowers. So we quickly paid for a bucket ($12) and went off to the flower picking area.

We made off with some statice, scabiosa, zinnias, straw flowers and sunflowers. It was quite a loot! We finally got back to the car and packed everything in the back with our stomachs rumbling. We ended the trip with a visit to a little taqueria.

The rest of the day we spent organizing and arranging the flowers and pumpkins throughout our quaint space.

The Pumpkin Patch looks like a Portland Fall tradition that we will be enjoying next year.

As much as it will no doubt miss our food scraps, I am happy to report that we are no longer dining on our couch. Our eatery table is finally complete. It was quite a process considering we don’t have access to a garage or workspace complete with power sanders and planers. Also, as we are still without a vehicle, all materials transportation (and the many trips to ACE Hardware) had to be done on foot or bike. We knew what we wanted: a rugged reclaimed wood tabletop with hairpin legs.

So, about three weeks ago, from a tip by fellow Texas-Transplant, Will Bryant we headed out to The Rebuilding Center to take a look around. It’s this incredibly huge warehouse(s) full of used building materials and a friendly staff of volunteers. Reclaimed windows and doors, kitchen and bathroom tile, light fixtures, and a vast lumber yard (where we spent most of our time). It took awhile to find the wood we needed. Most of the reclaimed members were upwards of 6 feet in length, and they don’t cut it down to your size, unfortunately. We were looking for 2×4′s and 2×6′s that were roughly 42 inches long. Once we found what we needed, we told a staffer our sad story – that we don’t have a car, rode the bus over here, don’t have access to a wood shop, just need it cut down to 42 inches, etc. He kindly cut it down for us with his power saw (our alternative was to use a manual saw – which I did try, but I would’ve been there all night). Anyway, after a lesson in shrink-wrap and $10 later (yep, a table on the cheap!) we were happily on our way home with our treasures.

We later ordered the hairpin legs online and got to work sanding the wood. We worked outside while serenading our neighbors who face the inner-courtyard with the sweet sounds of sanding. Quite a task, but it gave us a chance to get to know the pieces of this tabletop really well. We began with 100-grit paper and will later finish it off with 220-grit and a few coats of polyurethane. For assembly, we found a nice 1×1 strut piece that is used to hold the tabletop together and then the hairpin legs screwed into the bottom super easily. Done and done.

Above are the progress shots via Instagram.

If you have the app and aren’t already following us, our profile names are “jacobspence” and “themodernmrs”.

The finished table looks really great in our small space. It’s about 40×33 inches and 29 inches off the floor. I love the juxtaposition of the reclaimed, who-knows-how-old-or-what-it-was-used-for, wood with the modern hairpin legs below. Exactly what we were looking for. Now we just need to find the right chairs for the sitting. Currently we’re using some old favorites, a JEFF and a SNILLE, which are great…but we’re hoping to get something a little more matchy-matchy. More on that later.

Its definitely not perfect. Party due to the nature of the very affordable wood we chose and partly due to my limited (but growing!) woodworking skills. But it should serve us well for the next few years! It’s also perfectly sized for a dinner of 4…so feel free to stop by!

Here are a few shots around our apartment as it is now. Lots has happened around here, but there’s still a bit to do, ie. getting rid of the remaining junk. The storage closet is organized, but pretty much stuffed to the brim. And I still need to deal with the nightstand situation, in that I need to build it. Our dining table is nearly complete, so get excited about seeing that here shortly. And we finally have art on the walls! A few prints, a postcard from our road trip and a couple thrifted photographs (the one on the bottom is actually a crowd at a UT football game – I liked it more for the nostalgic-Texas enthusiasm, not the patriotism to the other team). Tracy also brings the outside in with some dried flowers she saved from Dallas, plus a few new acquisitions.

Our apartment is really starting to come together. It has been the biggest challenge trying to fit all of our things in this small space. In Dallas, we had 1000 sq ft in which to spread out, with a large kitchen, full closet, and huge storage room (where everything got thrown). Here, we have just about 450 sq ft and it has been a struggle. But with such progress as above, our spirits are lifted to continue on.

Let’s start at the bottom. We’ve had this EIVOR rug for a couple years but adds a nice graphic touch over the wood floors. The incredible dresser / credenza was snatched up for a mere $145 at Lounge Lizard on Hawthorne. It’s walnut and the drawer handles somewhat relate to the bed frame (which you can see a little bit of here). It’s a really great piece.

Above all this is the crowning jewel: a 1950s schoolhouse wall map! We found it on Etsy for a great deal. It includes 7 detailed maps full of data and color. Behind it is our TV, mounted to the wall. You can see the sneaky cord covers below. Yes, I painted the cord covers and the actual cords you could see to match the wall color. Nearly invisible. We can’t claim this hiding-the-TV-behind-a-gorgeous-wall-map idea as our own. We first saw this at Adam & Alicia’s (of Bows & Arrows) home in Dallas and knew we had to imitiate.

I was pretty squeamish about the idea of mounting both a TV to the wall and a map to the ceiling. This 1930s apartment has proven to be a pain when it comes to mounting anything to the wall. Good news, I have become pretty familiar with lath & plaster wall construction. And after 61 pre-drills and a lot of ear-to-wall sonar tapping (stud finders are pretty much useless on these), the 30lb TV (it’s not that big) is safely and securely affixed to the wall. The map was a little less challenging but I also am fairly confident it wont be falling down.

We have a few projects left to complete around the place, after which we can post more revealing photos. Stay tuned.

From the limited pictures we had seen of our apartment before moving in, the walls looked to be a fresh shade of white. There would be no need to change it as white makes everything look better. However, upon entry, the white was more like chalky-pink. An off-white, to be sure, but not a shade we would ever have decided upon. Even the light bulbs were against us as they were the cheap, “blue light special” fluorescents that made the apartment feel like a sterile operating room. We changed the bulbs to the warmer, yellowy fluorescents and lived with it for a month or so but enough was enough. We decided that a fresh coat of paint would be the best way to make our apartment feel more like home.

Since we only intended to paint the main room and to leave the others as is, we chose a nice warm grey. Specifically, BM AF-675 “Fusion”. It was in the brown-grey family which we figured would go nicely with our newly acquired furniture and bedding (which you can see bits of below)

So, being such a small space, painting was a snap. Hence the limited progress shots. Excuse our mess…

See, isn’t that better? It really makes the existing woodwork and trim pop.

The best part of course is pulling off the blue tap. So liberating. Instant gratification.