Home – Riveted

More on the Remodeling Project

Laura Domela — Fri, 01 Nov 2013 14:52:42 +0000

You may have noticed we've been a bit behind on our blogging these days. I know I mentioned before that we're at home right now doing a very big remodel project on (mostly) the exterior of our home (trying to make it as cool as our Airstream). It's going well! I'm waiting to take the final photos after we've got all the Ts crossed and such, but for now, here are a couple details:

Aluminum, backlit house numbers on cedar:

New dwarf maple in planter by the front door (it's called a Sharp's Pygmy, cultivated in Oregon in the 1980s):

Downstairs office windows:

Deck railing, lit with LED strip embedded in a groove in the cedar handrail:

Plants (the tall, skinny, Seuss tree is a sequoia that our contractor gave us, and I love it!):

I really love this whole remodeling thing and will be sad to see everyone move on to their next job. We have the most amazing team, and after about three months of 6 days a week they really feel like family. Plus, I love the sound of progress (and chop saws, and blowers, and pressure washers, and cement trucks) around here!

More photos as more things are finished!

More hiking, more gorgeous trees

Laura Domela — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 15:50:51 +0000

So fortunate to live so close to these trails!

Fall in Portland

Laura Domela — Mon, 14 Oct 2013 22:14:39 +0000

I love Fall. Here are a few snaps from our daily hike in the arboretum:

The Redwood trail:

Japanese Maple (Sango kaku):

Underneath the Sugar Maple:

This is one of my favorite times of year in Portland. We were in the Florida Keys this time last year. Remember?

We're making great progress on the exterior house remodel. I can't wait to show you guys the before/after photos! We're lucky that we had a pretty good starting point, but whoa…it's going to be like a whole different house on the outside!

Stairs of Rock

Laura Domela — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 13:13:01 +0000

The new rock stairway leading to the deck is almost finished:

I know, I'm really not being very fast-flowing with photos of the house remodel. It's because I'm saving up to do some cool before and after shots (it'll be more dramatic that way, I promise.)

We’re Remodeling!

Laura Domela — Sun, 29 Sep 2013 18:40:23 +0000

Okay I know I said I'd post some photos of what we're doing around home these days, so here's a start. We're remodeling a bit (mostly on the outside) and taking care of some much needed upgrades to our house in Portland. In the category of "much needed upgrades": a new roof and a new retaining wall.

The new roof is awesome, but makes for a boring photograph, so here's the new wall:

SO much better than the old railroad ties there were there before. I'm not sure if you can see 'em, but there are two spots where the wall "splits" to make some flat areas that will be perfect for planting something nice (or, in my case…asking Carlos to please plant something nice, since I've got a bit of a black thumb).

There's more rock wall like this around the side of the house, and there will be some rock steps leading up from the downstairs patio to the new deck, but I'm going to wait to post "before" and "after" photos until I have some good "after" photos.

In the meantime, we're planning our next long trip! We're thinking of heading slowly south down the west coast in January, then turning left and driving across the country to the other coast, then as it warms up, we'll head north to take care of some of those blank states in the NE. We could do a big lap of the US! What d'ya think?

The Continuing Saga of the Baby Chipmunks

Laura Domela — Sun, 23 Jun 2013 15:51:13 +0000

Okay so I mentioned before that we had chipmunks in our car. Turns out the car you leave at home when out gallavanting all over the place in the Airstream can turn into a cozy home for small woodland creatures.

Anyway.

Yesterday morning we decided to do a nice Portland hike…part of the Wildwood trail that goes from Lower Macleay Park to Pittock Mansion. 5-6 miles, moderately hard, gorgeous day…perfect. Looks like this most of the way, and it's about two minutes from our house. Ridiculous that we don't do it more often:

We got to the car and there was a baby chipmunk on the back seat. Here he is, hiding next to one of my fold-up portable photo backgrounds in its case:

Okay then. We successfully shooed him out of the car. It looked at first like he scurried over under the truck, but we're pretty sure he just went and climbed right back up into the Camry. We decided it was time to get serious about this chipmunk business, and we figured out how to remove the fan underneath the passenger side dash to get to the air filter. Then we removed the glove box, and hey what d'ya know? A cozy chipmunk nest!

Here's the fan, next to some of the moss and shredded air filter paper that had fallen into it from the nest:

And here's the air filter/chipmunk condo:

And here's what we found behind the glove box:

So we thoroughly cleaned everything out, saw no more sign of chipmunks, and decided we'd reinstall the fan and move the car over by the garage (and away from all the foliage, sort of) while we drove the truck to the trailhead for our hike. (Maybe we'd gotten them all out?)

This hike is gorgeous. The trailhead is right by the street we used to live on over in NW Portland, at Lower Macleay Park. Macleay Park has some interesting and colorful history:

Danford Balch was the original owner and settler of this area. He arrived in Oregon in 1847 and settled his donation land claim in 1850, carving out a space in the forest for a large cabin for himself, his wife, and their nine children. A nearby claim was taken by the Stump family. The two families did not care for each other. In true Shakespearean fashion, Mortimer Stump, the eldest son of the clan, began courting Anna, the oldest of the Balch daughters. Danford, a peaceful man, warned Mortimer to stay away from his fifteen-year-old daughter, but Mortimer paid no heed. When Anna turned sixteen, she and Mortimer ran away to Vancouver, Washington, where they eloped. Two weeks later, Danford took his shotgun and met members of the Stump family, including his new son-in-law, at the Stark Street Ferry. As the ferry was loading, Danford shot both barrels into Mortimer, who died instantly. Danford claimed the shooting was an accident, but was taken to jail, where he waited until the next spring to be tried. The jail being flimsy, he was able to break out. He hid out in the west hills near his farm until July, when he was re-arrested. In August, he was tried and convicted of the murder. On October 17, 1859 he was hanged at a public gallows in front of over 500 witnesses. The creek that runs through the property bears his name because for years after his hanging people still referred to the area as the Old Balch Place. (From Portland Parks & Rec)

We started on the Lower Macleay Trail and connected up to the Wildwood Trail and hiked up to Pittock Mansion (which is actually right down the street from our house). Gorgeous day, gorgeous hike, gorgeous view from Pittock Mansion:

The gardens up there are so pretty and you can wander around or sit on a bench and take in the city view. The Pittock Mansion was built in the early 1900s and is a gorgeous property! You can tour the inside for about 8 bucks, but we've already done that so we just hung out in the garden, got a drink of water, and headed back to the trail (yay! downhill! finally!) The hike is maybe 6 miles or so total, with quite a bit of uphill switchbacks to get to the top of the crest.

Structure back on the Lower Macleay Trail:

We stopped for lunch before heading back home, and as we pulled into our driveway…oh hey lookie what's on the driver's side dashboard of the Camry:

We opened the door and the chipmunk ran to the back seat. We were able to shoo this one out too, but same thing as earlier…he just found his way right back in from underneath.

We got the flashlight (well, the flashlight app on my iPhone) and we shined it into the exposed area behind the glovebox, and we could see one (and then two?) little chipmunks climbing around in there. Mostly we just saw one, with quick glimpses of another poking his head out from the sidelines), as he hopped down onto the fan that we reinstalled, sniffed around, and then climbed back up into the dash…probably wondering where the heck his home went. I recommended to Kevin we remove the fan again and see if we could get this guy out during the "hop down to the fan" stage of his circuit. Fan removed. Perfect…the chipmunk came right out to see what was going on. I got a shoe box and we managed to corral him into said shoebox. Ta da! Get another box! Unforunately, Chipmunk No. 1 must have been the boldest, because the other two (we've now confirmed at least three) didn't come back out or make any noise for quite a while as we waited. (Or maybe they left? Hah. No.) In the meantime, Chipmunk No. 1 was scratching and moving around like crazy in the shoebox. We got a handful of the moss from the nest we removed from the dash and stuck it in the box and he calmed down immediately. Seriously…like 30 seconds later I opened the box and he was curled up with his eyes closed, all cuddled in the moss. SO CUTE.

(Sometime in here I called the Audubon Society to find out what time they opened this morning since it was after 6pm when we got the first chipmunk — 9am — they've got a wildlife care center and I knew they'd either take them in or give me info about what to do with 'em. )

Okay now, back to Chipmunks No. 2 and 3. Hey I know! The moss/nest calmed No. 1 so we put the air filter nest with moss into the second shoebox to see if that would lure the others out (smells like home!). Nothing happened for a while so we went inside. I gave Chipmunk No. 1 a little ramekin with water, and some sunflower seeds and some oats (after googling "What do baby chipmunks eat?). After a bit I went back out to the car, opened the door quietly, and waited a few minutes. Pretty soon I heard a quiet "plop" and saw Chipmunk No. 2 in the box. I quickly grabbed the lid, got him covered, and took him over to join his sibling in the other box and when I peeked a minute later, they were both curled up together in the moss. Awwww.

Back at the car, 5 minutes later, another quiet "plop" into the box. Chipmunk No. 3 joined up with Nos. 1 and 2. All three, curled up in the moss sleeping, like nothing happened. I woke 'em up to take this photo:

We thought that was likely all of them, but we left the box with the filter/nest in the car below the dash just in case there were any shy stragglers. A few more times in the evening I went out to check and there were no more chipmunks and no more sounds.

Meanwhile, I had a Bogs boot box with a bunch of moss and three tiny chipmunks to hang onto until morning. I didn't want predators to get them, so I opened up the sliding door on the Traeger on the deck and put the box in there.

Here are a few more shots from this morning. I cut up some cucumber to see if they'd eat that (it was on the list), but so far they prefer the oats.

They just snuggle up all lumped together and they're adorable. I really wish there was a way to reunite them with their mother, but since they came from the car there's no burrow or anything that I can put them near so their mom could find them (and we can't have them just go back to the car!)

At about 9:30am this morning I took them over to the Audubon Society (right near where we were hiking yesterday) and into the Wildlife Care Center. I filled out a form, donated $20 bucks (since this is the second bit of wildlife they are helping us with and I LOVE that they're there). Once they had a chance to look at the little chipmunks, they told me they were just about old enough to go out on their own, and said that if there was a way to place this box exactly as-is but with a little hole cut in it (and a heated bottle in there for warmth) that the mom would likely find them, and if they were warm they wouldn't seek other shelter.

I heated the bottle of liquid that they gave me and put it in next to the moss…

…and cut a little doorway in the end of the box…

…and I found a nice sheltered spot just up the hill a little from where the car was originally parked to place the box.

Fingers crossed!! (I do think I heard the mom chirping (a lot) out there this morning really early (5:30am or so…I recorded it):

Listen to ChipmunkChirp

There's another crazy animal (probably a bird) sound in there intermittently along with the chipmunk chirps (along with the sound of the rain). Anyone know what that is?

What Happens When We Aren’t Home

Laura Domela — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:35:59 +0000

This post is not about our Airstream, exactly.

When we're out traveling in the Airstream for a bit and not at home, our Toyota Camry Hybrid sits parked in our driveway. And by "driveway" I mean "clearing in the forest, surrounded by giant trees and wild plants and vines." It's a beautiful setting, and the forest creatures are plentiful (coyotes, deer, squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons…etc.). While we're away, our Toyota Camry Hybrid (and its cozy air ducts) apparently seem like a nice high-tech condo for small forest creatures.

We arrived home from a couple of weeks on the road on Monday evening, worked all day on Tuesday, then headed over to my studio for a shoot early Tuesday evening. I was driving, and I heard an unfamiliar sound.

Me: Did you just make a weird sqeaking sound?

Kevin: No, I did not just make a weird squeaking sound.

A few minutes later, same sqeaking sound, now sounding like it was coming from the center console air vents. Then again in another minute or so. Quiet, squeak-like. Kevin got a phone call and never heard anything the whole way over to my studio, but I heard it about a dozen times. (Here's us: Every time I heard the squeak while Kevin was on the phone, I pointed at the air vent, and then he shook his head no. Bah!)

Crap. We must have mice in the air ducts. Again. This happened while we were on our four month trip at the end of last year and it was highly annoying (I think they had babies in there!) There's apparently no way to stop them from getting in if they want to, and they just make a mess and can do a lot of damage if they start chewing wires and stuff. In this case, it was just the mess. We had our filter replaced and the ducts cleaned out, and they put some kind of deoderizer thing in there that they say usually helps deter them from coming back.

I (of course) was picturing crazy little fast-moving mice falling down onto my feet and running up my legs, scaring the crap out of me as I drove, but it didn't happen. Just the quiet squeaking from the air vent.

We got to the studio early and I realized I'd forgotten a few things at home (I know, totally pro, huh?) and so Kevin, being the awesome husband and assistant that he is, offered to go back for them while I set up the equipment. My clients start showing up, we chat and catch up a little, joke about mice in the car air ducts, etc., while organizing wardrobe and lighting.

Kevin comes back and holds his phone out to show me this photo:

That's the driver's side floor of the Camry. Would you just LOOK at how CUTE that tiny TINY chipmunk is!! (Totally relieved it's not mice, again….though I'm sure chipmunks could chew just as many wires and make just as much mess. It's a conceptual thing.)

Kevin says that on the way back to the studio he started hearing the squeak, only this time it was more like a squeal–louder and louder squeals and shuffling in the air vents.

While he was just a couple blocks away from the studio, he felt a soft "plop" onto his shin, then a little bit of scurrying down his leg and over his shoe, and as he looked down he saw this little chipmunk jump on the floor next to his shoe. (Oh holy hell I'm glad that happened to him and not me!)

He snapped a photo and then tried to get it to jump out of the car, but instead it went back from where it came…back up into the air ducts. Awesome. But when we got back in the car to drive to dinner and then home, no sign of little guy. No sounds, no scurrying (I sat indian style on the passenger seat, just in case.) Apparently we relocated the poor thing from the forest over to the hood of Northeast Portland. Sorry little dude.