Shadow boxes

When we moved in to our current house, the previous owner left two pictures on the brick wall next to the fire place. Turns out that the frames hid two square holes in the wall. Today, after ignoring the holes for a few years, I decided to build shadow boxes to fill the holes and make the wall purtier.

To compliment the aspen trees painted on the dining room wall, I am going to cut smaller trees out and make a 3D diorama for the two boxes. We will also store the Pacific and Atlantic water in the boxes.

Before painting. I used old plywood that looked pretty rough. Always hate painting wood, but unless I wanted to shell out for nicer grain, this had to be painted. The photo makes the wood look better than the real thing.

Up and I painted (above) and the final, painted and ready to go is below.

The patio is finished

The patio is finished. Who hoo! We swept the first coat of sand in on Memorial day and re-purposed the Christmas lights into romantic ambiance lights and phase one of the backyard is complete. Only twenty more phases to go.

The calm befor the storm

This weekend, we had quite a hails storm. It was late at night, but earlier in the evening, I snapped the following photos. Below those photos is a sample of the two inch hail. Boy howdy it was loud.

Adding a personal touch to our house

Before going inside the house, the gas line sticks up a foot in the flower bed out back. I decided to add this postcard sized plaque able the line. Yes, it's unnecessary, but its a neat way to personalize the house.

Back patio progress

The hole is dug (too deep, I had to buy more mortar and concrete sand than expected.

First border bricks laid in. I am using used bricks but wanted the larger (more stable?) bricks around the edge. Had to buy those.

The outside is 2/3 complete. I am leaving the last side open until I have all the sand screeded.

This first design looks very nice. but with the cutting of so many bricks it would take too long to made 28 of them. Will make one in each outer corner and call it macaroni.

Another shot of the square.

The Great Trans-continental Christensen Family Summer Vacation

Last summer we loaded up the van and transversely the continental United States from home to Virginia and the D.C. Area, back home and then the the left coast, Disneyland and the annual SigGraph annual conference. We collected water from both oceans, but it has sat in two plastic water bottles until recently. Below is a photo of the water now, transferred into labelled glass jars where it will sit in a shadowbox in the living room. (As soon as I build the boxes)