northcrestmodern

The Big Pour - Part 1 - Starting the Concrete Floor

2011-10-24T06:43:00.000-04:00

So I finally got back out to work on the space under my deck. For those ready who haven't been following, I started digging out the dirt under my deck to utilize the space - this was earlier this year in April and the digging part extended into about mid-May. Now, 5 1/2 months later I'm finally starting to shape up the floor. My current plan (and things are always subject to change) is to pour a pad along the length and put a retaining wall before back filling. So to start things off I worked on the corner to put in a thick pad (it's about 7-8" - those are decking boards I used for the form). I did this first to establish the height, plus I wanted the pad to slope away from the house. Since it's in a corner this first pour slopes two ways.

Things are really tight in there so I'm mixing the bags of QuickCrete one bag at a time. The reason the pad is so think is due to the 60 gallon compressor I'm mounting above - I want the pad to be able to absorb and vibration. Here's a view from above:

So the plan:

Pour a footing to support a temp post to hold the weight of the stairs - this will be in front of that current post you see in the back.
Remove the old post and extend the pad to the full width of the space.
Dig out about 4 inches for a pad to extend to the front of the opening.
Dig away the width of block for the retaining wall to the right of the pad, extending down for a footing and drain.
Build a wall of cinder blocks to the height of the dirt, capping to support two metal posts
The metal posts will support a beam that's inline with the beam above in the roof, supporting a new deck.

That's where I am so far. Here's the initial pour:

I broomed off the surface then edged it for a neat joint.The rest of the pad won't be as thick so not as much work (I hope) - backbreaking stuff here. I did a bag at a time due to space constraints and this took 8 bags. I may buy a mixer for the rest but I'm not sure if I can even get it into the space - it's really cramped.

-- John

The Great Dig - Part 4 - Finishing the Dig

2011-05-11T10:10:00.000-04:00

So about mid-week I was able to go out and dig a bit, making it to within about a cubic yard, maybe a yard and a half of the wall.

I also added a 4x4 temporary support as the concrete for the outside edge has begun to undermine, probably due to the rain and changes in temperature. The post is screwed at the top and sitting on a cinder block at the bottom.

With this close-up you can see how far I got - I think in the end I was still cleaning up tools at 9:00 PM or so.

By Saturday (2011.05.07) I was once again able to do some digging - this time my friend Allen from across the street felt pity for me and volunteered to help me dig - we managed to make it to the wall.

I also added a second temporary post to the back edge by the stairs - as a little added security.

Here you'll see the end game, the actual wall exposed beneath the Georgia Power meter.

I'm taking a break from this while we prepare for the Northcrest Neighborhood Yard Sale. Next steps are to pour a partial floor so I can add temps supported by the concrete. I'll then remove the existing posts and pour a footing, to support either a block wall or pour a concrete wall. I've got some salvage metal posts I'll be using for supports for the beam I'm adding. Stay tuned.

-- John

Spring Blooms - April 23, 20011

2011-04-29T09:05:00.000-04:00

To get us all in the mood for the up coming Northcrest Tour of Homes and Gardens tomorrow, I thought I would post some images from our own gardens. This year the peonies and rhododendrons in particular were spectacular, probably due to the abundant rains. I think we got almost double the blooms we usually see - even the very spindly rhodies in the the front yard exhibited abundant blooms.

Behind the patio

Peonies going wild!

First Bloom!

Rhodie in the back yard

Purple Rhodie in the front yard

Fuscias in the front yard

Anyway, with all the excitement going on this weekend I'm not sure I'll have any time to dig, but I have made some progress on the SketchUp drawing. This is where I am currently:

Experimenting with an Eames-ish orange for the front door.

-- John

The Great Dig - Part 3 - Mid Week Progress

2011-04-26T11:40:00.000-04:00

I finally had a chance to get out and dig some more yesterday before it rained - actually it did shower a couple of times while I was digging but it wasn't much so I just kept at it. I removed about a cubic yard, maybe a bit more. Now that I'm getting towards the back of the house there's a lot more dirt (the ground slows up). I'm about 2/3rds of the way to the back wall from where I started but the going is much slower as there's a lot more dirt to remove.

I've also been spending my time putting together a 3D model of the house and yard in SketchUp - this is where I am so far:

The carport is done excapt for the supporting poles - I still need to add the door to the front and work out the windows and then I can move to the side. The outside walls are up but no windows have been added to the side or back and I still have to render the roof. In all it's coming along nicely. I posted earlier about taking measurements - the only way to get this to work is to take some relatively accurate measurements fo the various features so you'll know where to place them - even so I find myself going out a lot to make sure I have some of the details right, or to capture a measurement that I had missed. I think all this work will pay off nicely as I'll be able to extend the measurements to the interior to for potential changes to the kitchen, etc.

-- John

The Great Dig - Part 2 - Weekend Progress

2011-04-20T11:04:00.000-04:00

I was able to get out and continue digging over the weekend - only a couple of hours on Saturday as I also cleaned up the yard. As you can see in the photos below it was mostly removing egg rock from the stairs and pushing the removed dirt into depressions in the front yard. We had an engagement Saturday evening so I didn't get very far - removing the rock and cleaning it for re-use is a real time killer.

Starting to establish the entry "floor"

Some dirt and root removal

Egg rock removed as of Saturday

Sunday I was able to get out and work on the dig around noon, and continued until about 6 PM or so - these photos I took today (haven't done anything this week yet - I had an interview early Monday morning and worked on the rental property yesterday - will also be out in Pine Lake today so I'll pick up tomorrow providing the weather holds). As you can see I've removed enough dirt to define the boundaries of the retaining wall - I'm actually going to back cut at an angle and dig down deeper, both to add a foundation drain and to provide for deeper footings for the wall. This is just to define the space - I'll have to temp up the supports before adding the wall and I want to have a floor poured so the supports will have the concrete to rest upon.

The goal is that far wall

Top view looking down

So this is what I've removed so far - the container of Egg rock and several short landscape timbers from the stairs; a tarp with more Egg rock and a pile of dirt - I've run out of obvious areas to fill (there are more but I haven't taken the time to find them) - I'm sure the pile will be gone by the time I'm done. I think I'm about 1/3rd of the way being completed with the digging.

Hopefully it won't rain too heavily and I'll be able to commence tomorrow. I have a couple of small tasks to perform but at this point it's a "wait and see"...

-- John

The Great Dig - Part 1 - An introduction and Some Beams

2011-04-19T10:02:00.000-04:00

So I have this grandiose plan to expand the rear deck of my house so it cascades in steps from the bedroom deck to the exposed aggregate patio. I've been thinking about this for a while as it would provide additional space for outdoor entertaining, a place for more seating, etc. I also don't care too much for all the stuff going on with the current areas - the surfaces dive down-slope from the patio then upward along stairs to a small, relatively useless current deck from the bedroom, or downward on landscape timbers as stairs to the back yard. I'm not sure what the previous owners were thinking but the arrangement is really haphazard. Along with this project I've had two others "back-burnered" - the first is to build a small out-building to store yard tools and flammables (good idea to get those away from the house); and second, we've also wanted to change the front walk (there currently is NO PATH from the road or drive to the front concrete stoop). The problem with building the out-building is that I wanted to tie it in architecturally with the rest of the house - to do so I would need beams of a similar size (3 1/2" wide by 12" tall), ideally in Douglas Fir like the existing. So for the last 2-3 years I've been on a quest for said beams to get the building started.

FINALLY, my search panned out a few weeks ago when I bought this:

This stack is made of old growth Douglas Fir from the Washington state area. They are 13" wide, 3 1/2" thick and various lengths: the two on top are 8 feet long, the next four are 14 feet long, then the bottom two are about 26 feet in length. There's also a 2" thick board about 8 feet long that was thrown in laying on top. The guy who had them was a home builder who built cabin-type homes in North Georgia and these were some he had saved to use in his own home. Due to the economy he was moving to Boston and didn't want to pay to have these moved. The asking price for the stack was $300 - but he accepted an offer of $250. We (previous owner and myself) moved all of these by hand from being stored in a basement - it was quite a task as they are quite heavy. It was really too much weight for my little HF fold-up 4'x8' trailer - at one point when I went over some RR tracks next to Buford Hwy the trailer came off the hitch and I had to stop and re-hitch - not something I want to experience again as the pucker factor was quite high.

In any case, now that I have way more than I actually need to build the out-building, I thought these could be useful in my design for the rear deck - my thought is to lay these beams in parallel to the existing beams of the house, extending the ends from the back wall to past the deck surface - it would be both period appropriate (may similar designs in my stack of Sunset Books) and tie the deck design back into the house. I would also incorporate some metal pole supports to match the look of other Northcrest Homes - I've already done a bit of replacement work so I've got a source to order the posts locally. Or I may just go with wood supports to match the carport - decisions, decisions...

But hold on - when I approached Cindi on the idea of using them on the back deck, her comment was "first you need to finish the front path" - my original thought on this was to use concrete sono-tubes to make round concrete risers for the whole path leading to an Ipe stoop. A lot of work but it would be spectacular when done. However Cindi has convinced me that a raised wood deck, floating across the front would be easier to build, beautiful and easier to maintain so that's where I'm going. I still need to do some SketchUp plans so we can visualize how this would look - my initial thought is to raise the deck the thickness of pressure-treated 4"x6" timbers, supporting the front where the land slopes so they also parallel the beams on the house. It would neatly wrap-up both front and rear areas for a consistent design. More images to follow as I finish up the SketchUp design (am also doing same for rear deck).

Since it does take some time to finalize the design, I decided to take advantage of the mild weather we've been having (and my current lack of employment), to begin The Dig under my current deck. Since I want the deck to stretch all the way to the back wall of the house, I needed to provide access for Georgia Power to the meter (my current deck has an awkward cut to the deck so you can see the meter from above). My intent is to pour a slab of concrete under the first deck section (up to the first, highest beam), add a retaining wall and dry-in the ceiling above. The space would also allow me to mount a vertical-stack compressor (which is now in the carport) and possibly add a generator down-the-road with a cut-over for when we have those inconvenient outages. Here are the images of "Day 1" - note that I'm slowly removing the existing stairs (made with landscape timbers and egg-rock) and digging into the dirt for the retaining wall.

Rocks removed from first two steps

Start of dig under deck

Lots buried under there!

Goal is the far wall under the meter!

So the process I've been following is to remove as much of the rock as possible, cleaning off the dirt using a bucket of water before depositing on a tarp in the side yard. All the dirt from the first day was then wheelbarrowed to areas in the front yard that are small sink-holes from lost trees and plantings (as the roots rot the holes get larger, so the fill will smooth out the landscape). I spent about 2-3 hours on this first day and this is where I got (doesn't look like much but as Lao-tsu said "The journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one's feet.").

More photos of day 2 and 3 soon.

-- John

Fantastic Guide to Remodeling a Mid-Century Modern Home

2011-04-14T09:21:00.000-04:00

I found this posted on the Lotta Living Forums - wow what a terrific post for information on remodeling a MCM home!

http://blog.buildllc.com/2011/04/a-guide-to-updating-mid-century-modern-homes/

I particularly like all the considerations towards the original design aesthetics. The only caveat I have is that it's possible to go too far (what I mean by that is you can completely gut the feel of an MCM and end up with something very sterile) so keep in mind that simpler is often better, IMHO.

-- John

Atlanta Magazine Article: 2011.03.01 Neighborhood Spotlight

2011-03-07T19:57:00.000-05:00

Here's a recent article regarding Northcrest from Atlanta Magazine (not sure if this is an online only article or if it's also in the print version).

Brian Robboy's Home on Heartwood Lane

http://www.atlantamagazine.com/homeandgarden/Story.aspx?ID=1372635

-- John

A Snowy Northcrest January 2011

2011-03-03T09:14:00.000-05:00

I came across these few images that I took on 2011.01.10 - it shows some of the snow fall we received earlier this year and will perhaps serve as a reminder of cooler weather as it starts to heat up this spring.

Back Patio

More Patio

Car Port Light

Front Yard Feeder with Cardinal

Rear Deck and Yard

That's it for now - see you in the humid spring!

-- John

Northcrest Homes in "Living in a Fallout Shelter"

2011-01-05T04:51:00.001-05:00

This is something unusual - I was contacted by a fan of the site who lives in Palm Springs who noticed that he had seen some of the Northcrest rooflines in a Public Service video regarding Fallout -

"While looking at your website I realized that I had seen some of your Northcrest rooflines before. Are you aware your neighborhood appears in a vintage movie about fallout shelters? If I'm telling you something you already know, my apologies."

Since I hadn't heard that reference, I asked for a link and was given this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_Zgyp4HgNU

If you look at 2:21 and 2:38 you'll see two homes on Northcrest Drive (the A-Frame at 3636 is especially noticable)...

I don't recognize the other scenes in the movie (there are a total of 5 parts, all available on YouTube) so I'm not sure if only the homes were shot here. Interesting though - I believe the movie was from the 60s.

-- John

Snowpocalypse 2010

2010-12-27T09:34:00.001-05:00

Here are some photos from my house looking out into the yard on 2010.12.26 - this is the aftermath of the snow from Christmas evening.

Back Patio

View of Bedroom Deck

From the Front Window looking North

Looking North-West

The roads weren't bad at all - hit a few sales (Crate and Barrel to buy some ice tongs, Ikea to look at some shelving, etc).

-- John

Holiday Decorations 2010

2010-12-25T13:16:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd share our Holiday Decorations with everyone - I try to hang these lighted balls every year - I love the way the light reflects in the clerestory windows. Enjoy!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

-- John

Surprise! An Original P&H Realty Business Card

2010-12-10T11:25:00.000-05:00

Cindi was cleaning out the planter near the carport door (the planter is elevated atop a low wall, that provides some protection to the opening for the floating staircase that leads to the finished portion of our basement. When we purchased the home it was filled with very dusty fake plants, now long removed.) and the wood panel at the bottom was pried up so we could clean out all the detritus that had fallen between the cracks over the years. Low and behold she found this:

I think it was common for business people to make small quotes on the back of business cards which would explain the reverse text. I'm curious to know if the $6 was a credit or something else - I guess we'll never know. I believe this is the first card to ever surface from P&H - now to find one for Howard Hardrath and Tom Longino - one can only hope!

-- John

Replacing the Front Door

2010-11-10T06:54:00.000-05:00

When we purchased our current house in 2002 we were extremely happy. The house was our favorite in the neighborhood - we originally found it and met the previous owners while doing our neighborhood power walk (something we used to do several times a week - now were lucky to get one in once per month due to time constraints). During our walks we would go up Eaglerock from the Eastern end, up over the hill then cut over on Northlake Way, pick up Northlake Dr to Summitridge then cut across Archwood to get us back towards the front of the neighborhood (I'm calling the Eastern-most edge along Northcrest the front as that's where the main neighborhood sign is located and I believe that's also considered the main neighborhood entrance). One day we randomly decided to go down a street we hadn't before, Lori Lane. That's when our current house came into view - we were floored!

Through a series of events, we became the owners of our current house and sold our previous on Thornewood to Bo and Rebecca Beaven who I believe are very happy there. If you haven't met them you may occasionally see them walking pretty much the same path we used to walk when we had more time - cute couple. I should also mention for those of you who have alarm systems or are thinking of installing, that Bo's company, Safeguard Protection Systems has become our new monitoring service and it's been a fantastic experience. We were previously with Ackerman and not too happy with the way they handled issues we were having due to a nearby lightening strike - SPS came to the rescue and besides being expert installers, they allowed us to upgrade several of our systems (smoke and fire monitoring with a new sensor, a second keypad and wireless system for the phone so we don't have to worry about a cut line) within a reasonable budget - it was actually less to upgrade with them than it would have been for Ackerman to just fix the old system. But I digress...

When we purchased this home we loved the design elements and materials, we loved the sunk-in living room, the fireplace, the clerestory windows and many of the features. We continue to upgrade the systems and make changes to improve the house, as the downside of purchasing was there were many features that had suffered some neglect due to deferred maintenance (the HVAC and Water Heater come to mind - both now replaced) and one element that had always bugged us - the front door. The door as found on the house was a half-lit (meaning it had a window for half of the surface) solid-core door with two side lights (thin windows on either side). I don't know if that would have bothered us so much, but he panels in the bottom of the door always looked out-of-place on the house. Also, there's a planter to one side of the landing once you walk in (the landing is elevated as the living room is sunk in two steps) that didn't align with the window. From a design perspective it just didn't work.

Door Appearance in 2002

We always knew we would want to replace the door - I'm sure that the original was probably hollow-core and smooth - and knew that there was probably a single light to the left where the planter lines the landing so we were pretty sure we wanted something similar. In all the paperwork we received from the estate we found the original price of the Pella-make door - it was purchased at Home Depot (special order) sometime in the 80's. There was also an interesting sketch - I'm not sure if it was of the original door or what they were looking to get - that showed a french-style double-door opening with left-side light. The panels were shown to be 24" wide each and the knobs where the deep offset, one on each side. It looked wonderful so we went down the trail of using that same plan. The problem was that the original hardware was missing and finding a french-door set with the 5 1/2" offset wasn't very practical (I don't know of any company that's currently making that size, although there are still some old-store-stock sets available - fairly expensive due to rarity). Also the door itself would need to be custom built and the bids to do so started to escalate into the thousands.

Door from December 2004

I had taken a photo in 2002 of the door (it was so I could remember where the lighted balls we hang during the holidays should go) and we used it as a template to explore other possibilities. We would overlay pieces of paper cut into door shapes over the same image, ultimately holding those same templates up in the front yard to see how various designs would look on the house. Using a typical 36" wide door, the side light was the same size as the wall to the left which caused three vertical shapes all about the same size that looked incredibly awkward. The only solution was to widen the door which suddenly made the design workable. The next size up is 42" so we started pricing a wooden, solid core door - my preference was quartersawn beech and my intent was to build the frame myself, ordering the glass and doing all the work. We looked at getting a contractor out and got some bids on building the whole thing - once again in the thousands.

This is where Cindi stepped in and made me see the light - did I really want to continually do maintenance on a wood, natural finish door? At some point everyone ends up either painting or replacing it as it goes through the usual decomposition due to exposure to the elements. Our front door is particularly susceptible as the awning overhead is so high above, providing exceptional exposure to nature. So while pricing out a 42" metal (may has well be metal since it would be painted - it also has the lowest maintenance costs and we wouldn't have to worry about it sagging, warping, etc) door and the glass and materials, we ended up getting a bid on the design directly from a building supply. It ended up costing much less than any of the bids we received, and I pulled the old door and installed the new myself. This is the result...

New door installed 2009

What you see above is is the new door with just primer in the brick mould. I finished the exterior to be paint-ready - the interior took me an extra year (yea the procrastination bug hit me and I never had time to custom cut the inside trim - quite a bit of work to get it ripped down to size and fitted against the wall). The glass is called something like "rain glass" and has a vertical texture - we wanted something you don't typically see that still obscured the view inside from nosy solicitors, but also let in the maximum amount of light. We had originally talked about painting it red, but it's funny how that color grows on you. I think we like it better the same color as the marble block, but will probably end up painting the door itself a bright color - it's a project for the spring.

Another shot from 2002

Shot from summer of 2010

In all the project was quite do-able. The door was a bear to set - took quite a few tries to get it to balance in the old rough opening. There's been some settling so the opening isn't quite square. Extended frames can be tough even in a square opening - I think I worked on getting this in over the course of several hours while several of my friends came over and made suggestions - it wasn't until everyone left so I could concentrate on the problem that I figured it out and get it in. I was in a wedding the same afternoon so there was a high degree of stress involved into completing the project - at one point I almost gave up and put the old door back in. Just make sure you plan as much as you can, taking lots of measurements and making sketches of everything. Even if you use a contractor it will help you to get on the same page with everyone involved.

I put the old door on Craigslist and managed to sell it for $150 - the buyer was so happy she sent me a photo of my old door installed on her house. I'm so happy it was able to be recycled and recommend that if anyone else does a similar project, you also sell your old door (if it isn't too trashed). It's a karma thing - giving back and not being wasteful.

-- John

Mailbox Post - this one on Lynnray

2010-06-09T06:03:00.000-04:00

I've had this image since early March and thought I would post - this is another very good example of a homemade "tubafor" construction mailbox post that seems very appropriate for our neighborhood. It's really amazing what can be accomplished that's both well proportioned and pleasing to the eye, using inexpensive materials - the variations seem endless. This one has vertical symmetry and a tasteful base of stones and a couple of natural boulders.

-- John

Northcrest Tour of Homes 2010

2010-05-09T10:02:00.003-04:00

Northcrest Tour 2010
(click for more photos)

On May 3rd Northcrest's Hoe 'n' Hope Garden Club had their yearly Tour of Homes for 2010. The garden club does this to help promote the neighborhood, highlight unusual or original homes and gardens, and raise money for the maintenance of the main entry planter (beneath the Northcrest sign) - this year donations from the tour will go towards a new sign (the current sign was all but demolished late New Years Eve by an errant carload of celebrants - there will be a follow-up post with links and details for both the rules for the new sign contest and also how to make contributions).

Before going on, I need to apologize for a few things:

These photos aren't of the normal quality I try to accomplish - my camera seems to be on its last leg. I had to discard about half of the photos as blurry, under/over exposed garbage - as such some of the images that I have posted aren't quite all there either.
To add insult to injury, the power supply for my scanner seems to be dead - I usually scan the brochure but this year the cover image is directly from the digital copy (thus it's on a white background instead of the printed yellow paper background - thanks to Brian Robboy for providing the digital file).
The lack of some images and use of some stock images (stuff I'd taken previously and already posted) - since I was helping on the Wollnick's residence as a host I was rushed and wasn't able to make it to all locations.
The lateness of this post - trying to get my camera and scanner resolved has made me very late on several posts, across all my blogs - once again, my apologies.

This 2010 tour featured 3 homes, 1 landscape garden and the Northcrest Swim & Tennis Club:
3431 Heartwood Lane
3712 Eaglerock Drive
3386 Lynnray Drive
3224 Lynnray Drive
3524 Bowling Green Way

To view photos of each along with snaps I took of the interiors and exterior gardens, click the tour brochure image. Here's the text from the Tour brochure:

3431 Heartwood Lane – Kevin Gnewikow and Brian Robboy

Brian and Kevin have worked hard to balance their penchant for techno-toys with their home’s mid-century roots. Their recently (finally?) completed addition, designed by architect Mo Heidari, features a two-car garage/workshop, a second-floor master suite, and a third-floor loft. Hardwood floors throughout were laced-in seamlessly with the original bedroom floors.

The kitchen was reconfigured to get more fullsized appliances and workspace into its original footprint. A two-sided, 36”x72” Corian prep area allows several people to work comfortably, and an in-wall pantry maximizes storage.

The lower-level family room and glass sunroom serve as office space for Brian’s graphic design business, with an additional bedroom/bath suite, laundry and storage directly behind.

Technology upgrades include network wiring, Z-wave automated scene lighting, digital phone system, electronic shower controls in the master bath, and central vacuum throughout with automatic dustpans in the kitchen and basement.

Their eclectic furniture collection includes a Danish Modern dining table and chairs, china cabinet and bar originally brought to the US by a neighbor who served in Spain in the 1960s. A CADO wall unit in the living room showcases Brian's “interesting” collection of vintage mixers, blenders and toasters. Also prominent are paintings, ceramic pieces and a mid-century-inspired wall mural by local artist Matthew Craven. Exterior lighting and the one-of-a-kind kitchen chandelier are RETRO by Remcraft.

3712 Eaglerock Drive – Larry and Stephanie Hart

BONUS — GARDEN TOUR!

Larry and Stephanie Hart are pleased to share their years of hard work with friends and neighbors, and invite you to tour their home’s beautiful outdoor gardens.

For 37 years, Larry and Stephanie have considered their yard a work in progress. Even though they will be moving this summer, Stephanie still

couldn’t resist putting some touches of color in her yard for the next owner.

With their heavily treed lot, the Harts learned early on that grass just wouldn’t make it - but they just couldn’t bear to cut those pines and oaks down with all of the shade (not to mention lower air conditioning bills!) they provided.
So, they installed pathways through the front and back yards; added two ponds with waterfalls; and planted MORE trees! Today, the pathways are lined with azaleas, perennials, and annuals, as well as native plants wherever Stephanie could place them. Stephanie also notes that this natural habitat has a hidden benefit — no raking of fall leaves!
A few years ago, the Harts’ property was certified as a Backyard Wildlife Habitat by the Atlanta Audubon Society. While enjoying the gardens’ serene atmosphere and beautiful foliage, visitors find it hard to believe that the property backs up to Pleasantdale Road.

3386 Lynnray Drive – Lukas and Petra Vilimec

When Petra and Lukas first saw Northcrest, they fell in love with its open airiness and unique, mid-century architecture. When the time came to buy a home, they immediately thought of Northcrest — purchasing this 1968 P&H split-level with pickled tongue-andgroove ceilings, dark-stained exposed beams, and coveted white crushed-marble brick.

The lower-level family room is open from front to back, maximizing natural light and space. Initially, the lower family room level was unusable: wet-bar ripped out, fireplace plastered over, and wild paint colors. Petra and Lukas have since restored the wet bar and fireplace, and remodeled the bathroom.

Upstairs is an awesome collection of vintage and modern furniture and accessories, including Danish Modern wall unit, credenza, dining table and chairs; Lane Acclaim dovetail coffee and side tables; and a master bedroom furnished entirely in Broyhill's 1960s Brasilia line.

Outside, their landscaping plan is based on native plants and sustainability, and is inspired by vintage Better Homes and Gardens magazines and Sunset books. The backyard features a woodland garden, spacious deck and an area for a firepit.

“Our house is a work in progress — there is always something we want to do: updating our kitchen and upstairs bathrooms and putting hardwoods on the main level. We love that so many of our friends and neighbors share our passion for Northcrest."

3224 Lynnray Drive – Rick and Amanda Wollnick

Amanda and Rick have always been into different, quirky things. When it came to finding a home, they knew they would need something extra special. They had looked at 53 homes in Atlanta before finding their eventual nest on Lynnray Drive. And not a moment too soon, according to Rick, who jokes “I was starting to think that our Realtor® was ready to choke us!”

When Rick and Amanda first met up with their Realtor to check out the house, it was love at first sight. “We knew right then this would become our new home. The listing was only 3 hours old, and the sellers were still taking pictures for the listing. Knowing that the moment these pictures were available, the home would have multiple offers, we immediately made our bid. The rest is history.”

The last owners, Mitch and Daniel, did a great job remodeling the kitchen and putting down bamboo flooring, while keeping the simple, time appropriate, mid-century feel lovingly intact. Building on that success, Rick and Amanda have already come across a few choice pieces of mid-century furniture.

Their future projects include remodeling the downstairs family room and bathroom, and reinstalling the wet bar removed long ago by a previous owner.

“We know that restoring our home back to its original ‘cocktail-party-ready’ status will be hard work, but entirely worth the effort.”

Northcrest Swim and Tennis Club

3524 Bowling Green Way

PICK UP A NORTHCREST FLAG

WHILE THEY LAST – JUST $35.O0!

or order online at http://www.northcrestclub.com/

We invite you make Northcrest Swim and Tennis Club the last stop on your tour. Gather with friends and neighbors to chat about the homes you've seen, enjoy complimentary refreshments, and learn why the Club is truly a neighborhood landmark. Founded in 1962 by original Northcrest homeowners, the Club quickly became a hub of Northcrest living. Today, you'll find an affordable, enjoyable, resort-like experience — reminiscent of a 1960s country club — with its modern trapezoid-shaped pool, Tiki Hut snack bar, two lighted tennis courts, event pavilion with built-in party-sized barbecue grill, multipurpose athletic field and children’s play court, all situated within in a 3.5 acre park setting.

A packed social calendar features themed dinner events every two weeks throughout the summer. On most Friday nights, you'll find members firing up the grill for a relaxed, informal poolside “bring-your-own” dinner party.

Best of all, the Club is managed and maintained entirely through the efforts of volunteer members and neighbors who recognize that the Club is a vital neighborhood asset — reinforcing that it truly is a "neighborhood destination."

Ready to join? Call (404) 592-3381 or visit our web site at http://www.northcrestclub.com/ for details.

-- John

Carpenter Bee Traps

2010-04-27T07:00:00.001-04:00

I finally had a chance to mount up some Carpenter Bee traps that I purchased as part of a neighborhood group buy - these came from a discussion on the Northcrest i-neighbors group (if you haven't heard about this group, it's a web-based community hosted by the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania an is free with no advertising. There are about 200 Northcrest neighbors signed up and it's used to communicate neighborhood issues, etc., especially by the Neighborhood Watch and other associations. Links at the bottom of this post). In any case, Chris Sommovigo posted this site (http://www.carpenterbeesolutions.com/) and after viewing the videos about 10 of us got together and purchased the Carpenter Bee traps and "Bee Butter" (order was put together by Marty Levine - you can see the original post on i-neighbors here: http://www.i-neighbors.org/discussion_thread.php?id=167751).

So I got two of these traps and mounted them on the Southern eave of my roof (I had sprayed the front, back and carport last year and they were still holding up well - the Southern eave is above a slope that cants down and left so it's harder to place a ladder so I was slack about spraying that end - this year there were bees everywhere, but that end got riddled with holes).

So this is what the trap looks like mounted - I used two short galvanized finishing nails (one on each side) - the website suggest covering one of the bee holes so I found one that looked active in the middle of about a dozen. I put one trap on each side of the eave, about 10 feet from the ends.

The first day I didn't see anything in there, nor the second so I stopped watching. Towards the end of the week I noticed somehing in one but it was hard to see how many were caught. This past weekend I got out the ladder and this is what was in the bottle:

So 11 bees - not bad for a test run. These were in the trap near the back of the house - the other trap got bupkis. These look soggy as it had rained - I drilled a couple of holes in the bottom of the trap (as suggested by the video so yes, you should also do this if you're going to use them).

In all not a bad idea and it works for sure.

To join Northcrest i-neighbors: http://www.i-neighbors.org/30340/Northcrest

-- John

2010 Northcrest Hoe 'N Hope Garden Club Tour

2010-04-23T15:05:00.000-04:00

Date has been posted: Sunday 2010.05.02 (that's May 2nd, 2010) from 2-5 PM. See you there!

-- John

Snow in March - Seems to be a Regular Thing

2010-03-03T13:18:00.000-05:00

For the second year in a row, snow fell onNorthcrest. This time we got about 2 inches of snow (yesterday 2010.03.02) with hardly any accumulation due to the temperature pretty much staying above freezing. Here are a couple of shots from my living room window:

This shot is from the dining room window overlooking the back yard:

-- John

Replacing Metal Carport Posts

2010-01-28T12:39:00.002-05:00

Here's a cross-link to my ModusModern blog describing a technique to replacing rotted metal carport posts...

http://modusmodern.blogspot.com/2010/01/restoring-metal-carport-posts.html

-- John

Mail Box Post - A Fine Homemade Example

2009-12-28T10:35:00.000-05:00

Here we have a refinement of a commercially available mailbox. Allen really liked the simplistic and modern design of a mailbox offered by Design Within Reach - the Premier Mailbox and Post, however it's difficult to justify the $480 price of the unit (that's $200 for the box and $280 for the post) - taking his cue from his dad (who does metal fabrication and CAD/CNC design work for Delta Airlines), Allen worked to fashion his own version in Stainless Steel and Oak. The result is a nice modernist box with an enhanced, oak post (the original is a stainless steel tube).

By expanding the size and materials of the post Allen was able to mount these attractive house numbers - something one can't do with the DWR designed box. One change to be made - the screws used weren't stainless and they've started to rust - those will be replaced soon.

Installing a Tankless Water Heater Part 2

2009-12-26T16:32:00.001-05:00

Continuing from the previous post...

http://modusmodern.blogspot.com/2009/12/installing-tankless-water-heater-part-2.html

-- John

Installing a Tankless Water Heater Part 1

2009-12-17T13:43:00.001-05:00

I just posted this on my ModusModern blog - figured my neighbors would be interested.

http://modusmodern.blogspot.com/2009/12/installing-tankless-water-heater-part-1.html

-- John

The Quest for P&H Homebuilders - Part 1

2009-12-11T11:53:00.003-05:00

My next series of posts will be about P&H Homebuilders - the company that developed and built most of the homes in Northcrest. I had heard many stories about the builders - named Paul Edwards (the "P" in P&H) and Howard Hardrath (the "H" in P&H) over the years. From original homeowners I learned that they were a dynamic pair of gentlemen who somehow came from the car business ("they were these car salesman...") and that they started out by building homes over near Chamblee in Drew Valley and Northwoods. Anecdotally I learned that Paul was quite the good looking guy who would often charm the wives (never hurts in sales I guess) of couples buying in the neighborhood. I had also heard that there might have been a third partner in the very beginning but no one I talked to remembered his name. I was given some materials gathered by Chuck Hunt and his wife (Chuck has been the president of the Northcrest Neighborhood Association which most people probably don't know about - it's actually a loose group of homeowners who have gotten together in the past to provide support and action against potential zoning problems, or other neighborhood concerns like the addition of hte speed humps on some of the streets.), like an alternate version of the neighborhood brochure and a few old published newsletters.

My next bit of information came from the son of an original homeowner who grew up in the neighborhood - Chris Bowen, who's family lived on Hartwood Lane (in the front of the neighborhood - he also told me that he has some photos of himself taken by his dad when the street was still gravel so this was pretty much in the very beginning of the development). When he mentioned that there may have been a third partner to his dad, he was told:

After talking with my Dad, he told me that the original corporation developing the subdivision was "THE, Inc."

The partners were:
A man by the last name of Talley
Howard Hardrath
Paul Edwards

According to Daddy, they were equal partners. I'm not sure when they became "P&H".

Another bit of history....as far as the P&H houses that were built...
Local framing contractors were used for the basic framing but...he roof system, the 4x8 beams and the 2x6 "V" groove, tongue and groove decking was all done by a family business out of North Carolina or Tennessee....
Supposedly they had a sawmill operation and they did a turnkey operation and took care of all the houses in the neighborhood.

If our memory serves us right, we gave you a map of the neighborhood from 1964 or 1968. You may recall that I told you that my father drew this to keep records of the memberships at the swim and tennis community since he was a committee member of during those times. The other residents of the neighborhood that we have given this to seem to have gotten a kick out of it, and we're happy to provide it."

That map was a rather interesting diagram of the streets and lots in the front of the neighborhood (before Hidden Acres and lots East were developed). The lots are mostly labeled by the current - 1962 or so - owner's with phone numbers. There are also numbers indicating membership order and larger numbers for funds commitment. The diagram I believe was used to gather money to fund the pool.

Based on the info I had I started to add it to the NorthcrestModern website, indicating that much was word-of-mouth or speculative. The website stated to garner some interest in the local papers and eventually by national periodicals like Dwell - also Mitch and Daniel's house on Lynnray managed to get into Atomic Ranch. Later in 2008 Brian Robboy and Doug Thornburg put together a feature article for Atomic Ranch - that's when I was first contacted by Ray Edwards (Paul Edwards' son) and Dorothy Hardrath (who wrote "Howard Hardrath was a double first cousin of my husband's. We've been friends for many years.") - she also provided Howard's phone number - but I felt a bit awkward calling him up "out of the blue" as it were.

Ray and his wife came to the house and we sipped wine while he reminisced about the neighborhood - Ray grew up during much of the development and actually helped out doing tasks around the neighborhood. He told me that his dad and Howard own matching A-frame houses at Lake Lanier and that his dad still lived there. As an aside, he also told me that many of the homes in Northcrest East (the old name, the entire development is now referred to as Northcrest-Pleasantdale but in the past the homes from Lynnray and to the east were part of Northcrest East) were actually built by Howard's brother, Bud "Buddy" Hardrath. He also volunteered to get into contact with his dad and try to track down some additional records and info if they still exist. I'm still following up with this lead.

In the meanwhile, Cindi was contacted by Sam Troutman who is married to Sue Hardrath, daughter of Bud Hardrath (still living) who invited us to come to Howard's home and speak with him. Dorothy Hardrath told Sam and the family in Atlanta about the Atomic Ranch article and they were all excited to meet us. Included would be Lori Hardrath (who incidentally was the source for Lori Lane!). How exciting! More to come in part 2!

-- John

Restoring an Original Kitchen Sink Base Cabinet

2009-12-07T10:05:00.000-05:00

I did a little write-up about how to effectively replace the floor of a kitchen base cabinet - the same technique could be use for any base cabinet or vanity. Since I did this in a Northcrest home I thought it only appropriate to share:

http://modusmodern.blogspot.com/2009/12/restoring-original-kitchen-sink-base.html

-- John

Another Awesome Mailbox Post

2009-12-04T10:47:00.000-05:00

Now this is one of my favorites - local artist Brian Dettmer has done a fantastic job presenting this useful, stainless steel locking mail box. It's both very appropriate, practical and very appealing - kudos!

For more info on Brian's work, check here:

http://centripetalnotion.com/2007/09/13/13:26:26/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/briandettmer/sets/72157614223058009/

Mail Box Post - Two More Good Examples

2009-10-14T12:38:00.002-04:00

Example 1:

Continuing with my dialog on good mail box post designs are the following two examples. The first is rather "classic" using 2x4" elements for a simple patterned, modernistic design. I like this one due to its simplicity, interesting patterning and inexpensive materials usage. One doesn't have to spend a lot to get a good looking post.

Example 2:

The next box I like for completely different reasons. This one done by Hartmut Jordan exemplifies good, modernistic design by incorporating the mailbox itself as a design element. The problem with finding a good mailbox post is that often one is stuck with the shape, color and materials of the mailbox itself and so can only focus on the post. What Hartmet did was to use a brushed stainless "classic shaped" mailbox and contrast it with color and the parallel lines of the cedar slatting. He then integrated the shape into the post design by extending the slatting further back, so the box cantilevers from the post, making the whole unit a single structure. You'll find several, poorly executed copies of his design in the neighborhood - the copies don't work well for various reasons (one has a "bulge" that rings below the post that's ackward, the other extends slatting straight down so the box produces a rather phallic shape - sorry to digress about those but neither work for me). I like everything Hartmut has done on his mailbox and hope others use it for inspiration on their own mailboxes and posts.

More to come soon.

-- John

Northcrest Tour 2009

2009-08-23T22:17:00.015-04:00

Northcrest Tour 2009
(click for more photos)

On April 26th Northcrest's Hoe 'n' Hope Garden Club had their yearly Tour of Homes for 2009. The garden club does this to help promote the neighborhood, highlight unusual or original homes and gardens, and raise money for the maintenance of the main entry planter (beneath the Northcrest sign). This year the tour featured 3 homes and the Northcrest Swim & Tennis Club:

3636 Northlake Drive
3433 Archwood Drive
3378 Regalwoods Drive
3524 Bowling Green Way

To view photos of each along with snaps I took of the interiors and exterior gardens, click the tour brochure image. Here's the text from the Tour brochure:

3636 Northlake Drive
(click for more photos)

3636 Northlake Drive - Owners Phil and Lora Buonpastore
Phil and Lora's 1963 A-Frame was featured in an early 1960s full-color spread in the Atlanta Journal, and again in the Winter issue of Atomic Ranch magazine. It retains many of its original features - yellow exterior, hardwood floors, mint-green Jack & Jill bath, and the colorful, mid-century "beach ball" pendant light fixture in the living room.

This home is also one of the few in Northcrest with five levels - including a full basement, and is also the only A-Frame with a complete "A" structure (others stop on the right side of the roof line).

Phil and Lora have made a number of improvements, installing energy-efficient windows and doors, replacing the roof, and updating the 1980s Poggenpohl kitchen (won by the original owners in a contest) with quartz countertops.

An avid DIY couple, Phil and Lora embarked on an adventurous basement renovation in 2006, and have completed 85% of the work on their own. Formerly located off the laundry room at the rear of the house, the basement is now accessible from the family room, thanks to some invasive and inventive concrete work. The new basement features plenty of living/entertaining space and significant additional storage. The updated family room features new drywall and insulation, and an under-stairs storage area with a door constructed primarily of wine corks.

Exhausted from the two-year project, Phil relaxes in the new basement, while Lora designs a plan for the upcoming renovation of their Jack & Jill bath.

3433 Archwood Drive
(click for more photos)

3433 Archwood Drive – Owners Scott and Heather Markle
The Markles almost moved out of Northcrest...

They loved the neighborhood and their home, but missed some fo the amenities found in newer homes. More than anything, they wanted a real master suite with a proper tub and shower. Before Scott persuaded her to get married and move in with him, Heather had an apartment with a garden tub - and she missed it terribly. The Markles even met with a Realtor. Reminding them how great the neighborhood and their home are, it was actually the Realtor who convinced them to stay on and simply add the things they were missing.

So the Markles found a great contractor (it helps to have on in the family), and set about creating their dream home. They extended the house with a two-=story addition in back. The top half is a new master suite including a sitting room, two-sided fireplace, and master bath with walk-in shower and Jacuzzi bathtub. Their old bathroom is now a walk-in closet. The Markles also focused on improving the energy efficiency of the home with a new insulated metal roof, HardiPlank siding on the addition, and new double-paned windows and doors throughout.

With this renovation, the Markles strove to maintain all of the things they love about Northcrest, while also incorporating many contemporary features. The result is a home that mixes the best of mod and modern. And the Markles are happy to have created their perfect home.

3378 Regalwoods Dr

3378 Regalwoods Drive – Owner Matt Keller
Matt Keller's love for mid-century modern homes began three years ago, when he drove through Northcrest one afternoon to avoid rush-hour traffic. Looking to purchase his first home two years later, Matt wanted a bargain-priced midcentury home, near 85/285, in need of serious restoration. It wasn't until he'd seen a few homes in Northcrest that Matt realized he'd been here before.

He definitely found what he was looking for. Years of neglect forced a complete gut job - yielding six dumpsters of plumbing, wiring, drywall, insulation, flooring, and a perfectly preserved possum.

Working with a friend full-time, Matt renovated with the home's midcentury style in mind, updating and adding his own personal style - modern, earth-friendly and organic. Lowering and removing walls created an even more open floor plan, while many of the original framing materials were re-used to create interesting new features - a built-in desk, bedroom closet, and a reinvented Hollywood-style walk-in shower. Materials from a poorly-constructed addition were recycled into chunky, angled chairs.

Other unique features include modern, industrial lighting and a bomb shelter original to the house.

From the ground up - insulation, flooring, drywall, trim, even re-staining the tongue-and-groove ceiling - this renovation should be 85% complete for the tour. Matt has definitely turned this former potential tear-down into a neighborhood gem!

3524 Bowling Green Way
(click for more photos)

3524 Bowling Green Way – Northcrest Swim and Tennis Club
We invite you to make the Northcrest Swim and Tennis Club the last stop on your tour. Gather with friends and neighbors to chat about the homes you've seen, enjoy complimentary refreshments, and learn why the Club is truly a neighborhood landmark.

Founded in 1962 by original Northcrest homeowners, the Club quickly became a hub of Northcrest living, with an award-winning swim team and social and recreational activities for both kids and adults.

Today, you'll find an affordable, enjoyable, resort-like experience - reminiscent of a 1960s country club - with its modern trapezoid-shaped pool, Tiki Hut snack bar, two lighted tennis courts, event pavilion with built-in party-sized barbeque grill, multipurpose athletic field and children's play court, all situated within a 3.5 acre park setting.

A packed social calendar features twice-monthly themed dinner parties and social events throughout the season. On most Friday nights, you'll find members firing up the grill for a relaxed, informal poolside "bring-your-own" dinner party.

In the last few years, the Board of Trustees has successfully implemented a "grass-roots" operating plan (nearly every aspect of the Club's day-to-day operation is handled by volunteer members), securing the Club's future as a valuable neighborhood asset.

Ready to join? Call (404) 592-3381 or visit our web site at www.northcrestclub.com for details.

Northcrest Color Brochure Page 1

2009-08-04T19:58:00.001-04:00

Color Brochure Page 1
Originally uploaded by johnnyapollo

Have all four pages scanned and uploaded to flickr...

Snow in March? A Cooling Treat for July!

2009-07-14T11:25:00.009-04:00

Something to help cool everyone off this hot July

I thought I would post some images that I've been remiss in posting over the past year or so. We had a special treat this year - on March 1st Mother Nature provided us with an unusual, heavy snowfall (I know you northerners will look at this and wave it off as nothing, but for Atlanta, especially in the spring, this is very unusual). I don't remember anything like this in previous years - when we first moved to Northcrest in 1998 (at 3401 Thornewood Dr) we got hit by an Ice Storm late in the year - I don't remember what year exactly but around 1999 give or take. That one was bad due to all the rain we got for about the month prior - then the ice hit, expanding all the wet pines. My next door neighbor at the time was from Mobile and he had never seen anything like it - he was out on the back deck when a limb came crashing down to break his collar bone. In any case, this "snowstorm" started out as a light snow - unusual in March, so I took some snaps. These images are from about 2:00 PM - and I'm showing them progressively so you'll see it started to get heavy:

The next set I took between 2:30 and 2:40 - it really started to come down and was sticking good at this point - you can see the accumulation on our patio furniture. The flakes were gigantic and fantastic to behold...

The next photos were taken a bit later - between 6PM and 6:30PM (note the state of the full-bloom camilias - they look like giant octopoda!) - we decided to get out in it. By then the temperature came up a bit so the snow was getting really slushy and it's starting to melt on the streets - it was interesting walking beneath the trees - stuff was falling hard and it really pelted the hoods of our jackets.

That snowman ended up lasting a couple of days - sort of a reminder of what once was...

-- John

Mail Box Post - Modern Solution

2009-04-19T13:12:00.007-04:00

I wanted to start a series of posts about mail box posts - I've been asked in the past about what type of post would be appropriate for these great modern homes where we live in Northcrest. It's really easier to describe those that aren't appropriate, but I'll leave that for later. What I'd like to talk about are basic design elements that work well with modernism.

If you look at our homes you'll see a lot of parallel lines - most of our homes have horizontal windows original to the house that are level and the houses stretch wide - to me from a design esthetic I would try to also do some parallel lines, either vertically or preferable horizontally, on any mail box post for one of our homes. That's not to say that there's anything wrong with simplicity - a single post, either round (as in metal pipe) or square (like a 4x4" pressure treated or cedar post) would be more than appropriate. The important thing is to simplify the lines and keep ornamentation at either a minimum or within the reason (parallel lines again). Now I'm not expert, and I'm not a professional designer by trade - so I'll keep my comments directed towards actual examples. What I mean is, if you're into a big showy mail box with ornamentation, bright colors, etc. then by all means go ahead - it's all about personal preference. My intent is to provide some examples and guidelines that work with modern design, not tell you what's right or wrong, or tasteful or ugly.

So to start, this is a post I found rather in keeping with our modern homes - it's made from several cedar 1x6es (they look like they might have used some extra fence boards) using some ornamentation via the stacked, parallel boards.

I particularly like the floating stainless steel numbers - I purchased some similar for my house but need to figure out a way to drill through the stone to attach them. More to come soon.

-- John

Updates 2009.02.15

2009-02-15T08:52:00.004-05:00

I've been rather remiss in updating both the site and blog and hope to rectify that beginning with this post. I've got lots of news I'll be posting in the next few days and weeks. First I'm placing new images and pages of resident homes. Here's a list of updates - these photos were taken in the fall of 2007 (yeah I've been that slack!):

3335 Archwood Dr
3360 Archwood Dr
3551 Beach Hill Dr
3556 Beachhill Dr
3546 Bowling Green Way
3547 Eaglerock Dr
3611 Eaglerock Dr
3612 Eaglerock Dr
3632 Eaglerock Dr
3637 Eaglerock Dr
3645 Eaglerock Dr
3648 Eaglerock Dr
3656 Eaglerock Dr
3368 Regalwoods Dr
3400 Regalwoods Dr
3401 Regalwoods Dr
3457 Regalwoods Dr
3473 Regalwoods Dr
3478 Regalwoods Dr

-- John

Northcrest Tour 2008

2008-05-25T10:54:00.010-04:00

NorthcrestTour2008

On April 27th Northcrest's Hoe 'n' Hope Garden Club had their yearly Tour of Homes. The garden club does this to help promote the neighborhood, highlight unusual or original homes, and raise money for the maintenance of the main entry planter (beneath the Northcrest sign). This year the tour featured 4 homes:

3368 Regalwoods Dr
3508 Bowling Green Way
3414 Lori Lane
3194 Lynnray Drive

To view photos of each along with snaps I took of the interiors and exterior gardens, click the tour brochure image. Here's the text from the Tour brochure:

3368 Regalwoods Dr
(click for more photos)

3368 Regalwoods Dr - Owner Bebe Forehand
Bebe Forehand, a native of Belgium, has been a popular Northcrest fixture for 47 years. Her four-bedroom, three-bath, split-level home is one of only a few ith this unusual floorplan in Northcrest.

Bebe's estranged (very strange, she says) architect ex-husband did not design the home - but did add a few custom features after the home was built: a walk-in closet and dressing room off the master bedroom, and the huge stone fireplace (which replaced one of the soaring two-story windows in the living room). He also credited with designing our own Northcrest Swim & Tennis Club facility.

This home features an unusual and very open floorplan with a number of unique mid-century features: a double staircase leading from the entryway to the bedrooms upstairs and the living room below, the second-level hallway open to the living room below, and towering floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room. The lower level features several rooms and a kitchenette - and since the children have long since left the nest, it makes a perfect "mother-in-law" suite.

Bebe has installed new hardwood floors in the foyer and kitchen, and says that if she were 30 years younger, she would probably replace the living room’s wall-to-wall carpeting with hardwoods to match.

Visitors to Bebe’s home often comment that is reminds them of the “Brady Bunch” house.

3508 Bowling Green Way
(click for more photos)

3508 Bowling Green Way – Owner Tim Robertson
After living in his home for eleven years, Tim Robertson decided it was time to renovate.

A complete redesign of the kitchen included new cabinets, industrial-grade Viking appliances, Brazilian quartz countertops, and a farmer’s sink with Kohler hardware.

The bedroom and bathroom wing also saw major changes: Three smaller bedroom closets were reconfigured into two generous walk-ins, making more wall space available as well. Both bathrooms were gutted and redesigned with new tile, Kohler fixtures, and new windows and walls. The master bath was fitted with new cabinets, a matching beveled glass door, and a large Kohler bathtub. Sleek new contemporary lighting fixtures provide a spectacular finishing touch.

Other interior changes include new flooring and overhead lighting throughout the house, new solid wood interior doors, and stripping and restoration of the original wood trim.

By extending the walls of the den area out into the sun porch, Tim created a grand, open-plan living area that ties in beautifully with the eat-in kitchen. The end result: five more feet of living space for Tim, five less feet of sun porch for his two dogs.

Tim does have a few more projects in mind, but currently plans to kick back and enjoy the house for a while without the hassle of contractors coming and going.

3414 Lori Lane
(click for more photos)

3414 Lori Lane – Owner Robin Preis
When presented with an opportunity to buy the house next door and restore its Northcrest charm, Robin jumped in with both feet. It’s clear that she has paid much attention to detail in bringing this former rental back to neighborhood standards This was not a “Flip This House” project, but a carefully planned renovation motivated by the desire to keep Northcrest at its best.

The tour begins on the main level with new hardwood floors and skylight. A new kitchen, complete with Kraftmaid cabinets, stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops completes the main level.

Upstairs, the original hardwood floors have been refinished to match the new ones downstairs, and the bathrooms are all-new, including a new shower with jetted shower panel.

On the lower level, you’ll find new carpeting and a brand-new carport roof. The downstairs bath is also new, but still retains its original bathtub.

New air conditioning and updated furnace add to the interior comforts of this now spectacular home.

Adding a curb appeal are a new living room window, exterior doors, and carport roof. A new driveway and sidewalk are to be completed by the end of April. The 336 square-foot, all-wood deck is the perfect oasis for family barbecues and just relaxing outdoors.

Construction should be 95% complete for the tour.

3194 Lynnray Drive
(click for more photos)

3194 Lynnray Drive – Owners Pete and Amy Dosik
Amy and Pete Dosik bought their home in April 2007, and did a complete mid-century modern makeover (with the help of a small army of contractors) in less than two months.

On the main floor, a new IKEA kitchen with a large center island and four floor-to-ceiling pantries suits their love of cooking. In the basement, a tiki bar with boomerang Formica showcases their growing collection of tiki décor. All three bathrooms feature new IKEA fixtures and glass mosaic tile, with a spacious walk-in shower and glass-block window in the master bath. New paint inside and out, modern ceiling fans and new lighting completed the renovation. A mix of new vintage midcentury furniture and décor is comfortable as well as stylish.

Amy and Pet sought environmentally friendly choices – such as the bamboo and cork floors – and Pete’s favorite new feature, dual-flush toilets (push one button to flush a little, two buttons to flush a lot…you get the picture), is especially appropriate during Georgia’s drought.

The Dosik’s home, like others built in Northcrest’s final phase, is several feet wider than others, allowing for two full bathrooms upstairs (instead of the Hollywood bath-and-a-half), as well as one of America’s greatest inventions:: the walk-in closet.

Their dogs Scarlett (a Bichon Frise) and Oliver (a Maltese) enjoy the fenced yard and dog-door access from the basement bedroom.

Snow in Northcrest 2008.01.19

2008-01-30T08:47:00.000-05:00

Here's something you don't see every day - actually it's something you don't see much of at all in the South - snow!

It came down pretty "hard" meaning a lot of large flakes very fast, but didn't stick to the roads. I think it lasted for a day or two with about 1/2 to 1 inch on the shrubs and yard. The funny thing was that there was this big weather watch advisory so everyone stayed home, scared of some blizzard. It was actually very disappointing in my opinion, after all the hype. Some of my early blooming camellias were already going off, so the cold snap effectively killed those buds - hopefully my other camellias won't be affected. The second photo shows some blooms with snow - an unusual image I thought.

-- John

Source for Replacement Globe Lights

2007-11-28T22:33:00.001-05:00

I was asked via email about a source for exterior globe lights. This company has them available in multiple sizes (6" - 36"):

http://www.primelite-mfg.com/commercial.htm
You'll want the plastic globes for exterior (the polycarbonate are clear) and glass for interior. If you tell them the cord lengh they'll either supply it or I believe wire it custom.

-- John

Best Finish for a Natural Wood Door

2007-11-25T14:33:00.001-05:00

This is a post from one of my woodworking forums - the discussion was on finishes for a natural wood door and how they never last. This post is about an alternative to using spar varnish and the like and I thought I would share it because I thought it was quite good:

Posted by Jim Kull:

"As a preface, allow me to set the stage. Almost daily there is a posting about clear, exterior finishes for doors, chairs, signs and such. Responses run the gamut from diehard marine finishes to apply a coat of primer and then paint. Each of these has a bit of a problem. Marine finishes are not always the easiest to find and it grieves me to think of a lovely oak, teak, mahogany, fir, redwood or similar nice wood door painted in mauve goop.

Bob from Florida inspired me with his continuing and accurate statements about the failings of a clear coat and the advantages of a good quality exterior paint. I decided after lots of reflection that he really was right but there was always the picture of mauve in my mind. Sooooooooo, how could one take advantage of his advice and yet capitalize on the beauty of a nice wood.
I began to reflect on the characteristics of paint. Now, comes the boredom.

There were several things I knew about paint. Exterior paints contain a mildewcide and a fungicide that a varnish does not. The best quality paints will contain a UV protectorant and trans-oxide pigments in very high percentages. Almost all paint is custom mixed by the store. The retailer maintains a large supply of base products that are used to achieve the desired color. There are generally 4 base products and the specific one for your paint is determined by your color choice. These base products are either named or numbered. They are named pastel, deep, tint and neutral. If numbered it is cleverly 1, 2, 3 and 4 with the exception of Olympic who numbers 1, 2, 3 and 5. Olympic is unaware that 4 comes before 5. Pastel and/or 1 is virtually a pure white and used for the lightest of colors. The others are slightly color altered from white and more translucent than pastel. These are used for succeedingly deeper colors. All of this comes to neutral, 4 and/or 5. These are clear and used for the darkest colors. In the can they are somewhat opaque but dry more or less clear.

Now comes the testing. I bought 4 oak exterior doors. Each door was given one coat of the same MinWax Stain. On 3 of the doors, I applied 2 coats of "paint" to the 6 sides of each door (3 coats on the top and bottom edges). Each of these three doors had a different type of exterior neutral, 4 or 5 base. The fourth door was finished with a common spar varnish from my local friendly paint/hardware store. The bases for the 3 painted doors were an exterior semi-gloss acrylic, an exterior semi-gloss oilbased polyurethane floor paint and a semi-gloss oilbased trim and siding paint.

The doors were set up, slightly inclined, in mostly direct sunlight under a pecan tree in the backyard. My wife just loved that one. Daily, the sprinklers managed to hit the doors. The birds in the pecan tree used the doors for target practice. And, yes Steve, the dogs did anoint the doors on a regular basis. My blonde Cocker, Zazu, was particularly enamored with the doors. Over the course of the test the doors experienced lots of Texas sunlight, rain and snow. The temperature went from below freezing to over 100. The advantage to the inclined position of the doors was the snow, ice, water from the sprinklers and the rain tended to collect in the raised panel areas. I feel these doors were subjected to far more severe environmental conditions than would be expected from normal use.

The results were interesting. The spar varnish looked fabulous but after about 2 weeks it began to develop small cracks. In rapid order the door began to turn black, started to mold and the smell was enough to knock a buzzard off of a manure wagon. The waterbased acrylic is milky in the can like a waterbased poly. It dried to a more or less water clear surface but was a bit cloudy. It tended to wash out the stain a bit. Over time it became cloudier and ultimately become almost white. But, it remained solid and protected the wood. The oilbased bases are also a bit opaque in the can but dried to a clear finish that is almost identical to a spar varnish - they added an amber tone to the doors. Both the poly floor paint and the trim and siding paint remained "clear" over the entire test period.

The testing came to an end with a bit of encouragement. My wife said something clever like, "Get those damned doors out of the backyard!". She does not understand science. The floor poly had some minor checking and a thinned coat of the same base over the surface made that disappear. The door with the oilbased trim and siding paint was perfect other than it had lost a bit of the gloss.

So, I am with Bob - paint the door. My preference is the oilbased products. If you are predisposed to a waterbased use an acrylic rather than latex.

One thing you will find when you go out shopping for your product is a lack of knowledge on the part of the salesperson. Not many of these folk are aware that their neutral or 4 base will dry clear. If you want to have some fun, spring it on them. They will suggest you are full of Donkey Dust. Ask them to shake a can and put some on a stir stick. Dry it and voila, it is clear."

The Sherwin-Williams # is 6403-25767(gallon).
I have found that thinning helps a lot. Test on some scraps before hand.
I have been happy with the results.

End of copied post. John

Frank Lloyd Wright's Auldbrass

2007-11-14T09:44:00.001-05:00

I posted some info about my most recent trip to Auldbrass on my ModusModern blog:
http://modusmodern.blogspot.com/2007/11/visit-to-frank-lloyd-wrights-auldbrass.html

Direct link to images here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14338634@N02/sets/72157603003163021/

-- John

Northcrest and the Development of the Ranch House

2007-08-23T10:04:00.000-04:00

There was some mention of Northcrest in the recent DOCOMOMO "Consider the Ranch" lecture held at DWR in Buckhead on the 14th. I posted some notes on the Modusmodern blog:

http://modusmodern.blogspot.com/2007/08/review-on-consider-ranch-lecture.html

-- John

Manage your Recycle-ables!

2007-08-02T10:34:00.000-04:00

Since doing the talk about composting with the garden club (see previous post), I thought I would hit on some other, similar topics. The idea here is to do things that are environmentally friendly and at the same time easy and/or fun to do. I think we all have at least a vague idea about doing things that aren't harmful to the environment, and some of us take this to the extreme - I think that as with anything, "if it's a pain in the ass to do, it probably won't get done" (we'll call that John's Postulate of Maximum Resistance - JPMR - basically if it takes a lot of effort you'll never have time to do it). In our household we do the following:

Composting - placing organic materials (i.e. table scraps and lawn clippings) into piles outside to allow them to decompose into dirt (added benefit of making good humus to append the garden and flower beds).
Recycling - collecting materials that are normally thrown in the rubbish bin and allowing Dekalb County to collect them for reprocessing. This has the huge benefit of minimizing what goes into landfills
Rain Barrel - collecting the gutter runoff into a barrel (or barrels) and using the water in flower beds.
Unused item donation - we periodically amass items that are no longer of use and place them into two piles: 1. Yard sale items and 2. Donation items (often the yard sale items turn into donation items if they don't sell). Better items we've been putting on Craigslist for a small recovery on the initial amount spent to purchase - I've also had very good success in getting rid of unwanted items by posting them as "free" on Craislist - it's amazing the number of responses one gets.

When I read back over the list, it seems like a lot of work (back to JPMR!) but it's all about the way you organize yourself and how you approach it from and attitude and mindset. You have to make things easy or John's Postulate will kick in over and over again and you'll never have time to do it. So how do we make it easy?

Composting - there are really two components that come into play here - when you're preparing food it's so much easier to just pitch the scraps into the garbage or garbage disposal - so how do you make this convenient enough that you'll save the scraps? My solution is to keep a small covered bid on the counter next to the sink - it holds about 1/2 gallon of material and has a hinged lid - found it at Big Lots for a couple of dollars. You keep adding stuff to it until it's full and then take it out to the compost pile - I put all vegetable clippings, coffee grounds and filters, and used paper towels (provided they don't have any chemicals in there) - try to keep out stuff that won't break down and no proteins (eggshells are good though).
Recycling - believe it or not, Dekalb actually has one of the better programs in Atlanta - it took them a few years to figure it out, but it's very good and they both recycle more than most programs and they also do much of the sorting. So here, as with composting, you have to make things easy. I keep a small plastic garbage can next to the main garbage can - whenever i finish a bottle I do a quick rinse and add it to the recycling can - do this with any plastic container, newspapers, junk mail and just about anything - you do need to know what they'll take and what they wont - short list is all paper, all cardboard, all glass, all plastic, Styrofoam and metal cans (both aluminum and steel). Once your inside can is full, take it to bins you have outside - you should have at least two, one for paper/cardboard and the other for everything else (glass, metal, plastic). Every week or two, you'll have enough to warrant a pickup, which is on Wednesdays in Northcrest. Dekalb responds to blue bins or bags (you can either buy them from Dekalb or someplace else) - if they see a big blue pile they'll pick it up on recycling day. They further sort things in their processing plant.
Rain Barrel - I've been experimenting with a commercially purchased barrel that's 80 gallons - cost me about $200 shipped to the house. You can actually go on the cheap and pick up one or more of those smurf blue containers that the local bottlers use to transport soda syrup - they're usually only a couple of dollars. You then cut a hole in the top and build an overflow catch-basin on top (the basin should have some rocks on a screen, so the trash gets filtered out - an overflow pipe diverts the water when the container gets full - put this right under your downspout or at the end of your drain tile (connected to your downspout). Place a spigot near the bottom of the barrel and attach a short length of hose to fill watering cans.
Unused Item Donation - we keep adding items we don't want to an area under the stairs - when it gets too full (like you can't put anything else in there) we look it over and decide if it's yards ale or donation time (most items get donated). You want a spot that's out of the way, but still seen regularly - so it's not forgotten. Clothing recycling (especially shoes since they take so long to break down) helps the environment by keeping items out of landfills - if you aren't really using an item it's just taking up space -get rid of it!! Once you have enough items you can call up one of several groups for a free pickup - I generally schedule the pickup and leave the stuff at the end of the carport. It's gone when I get home.

I hope the above will give everyone some ideas on how to make less trash and be greener, environmentally conscious, better neighbors. Nothing I've talked about takes too much effort and the good feeling you get from participating is worth it's weight in gold (it certainly keeps JPMR at bay!). Contact me if you want more information or have additional ideas or comments.

--- John

Composting Guide

2007-07-30T22:15:00.000-04:00

I was asked by the Northcrest Hoe 'n Hope Garden Club to speak to the group about composting - I assembled this guide for them and hope that others might find it useful - note that I scabbed most of the images and information from various web sources and don't claim most of the content - I do think it's very accurate, however.

Composting

Composting is the decomposition of plant remains and other once-living materials to make an earthy, dark, crumbly substance that is excellent for adding to houseplants or enriching garden soil. It is the way to recycle your yard and kitchen wastes, and is a critical step in reducing the volume of garbage needlessly sent to landfills for disposal. It's easy to learn how to compost.

Technically speaking, composting is the process of producing compost through aerobic decomposition of biodegradable organic matter (basically, mixing vegetable and other materials with air and water so they break-down into humus) – this is the controlled decomposition of organic matter. Rather than allowing nature to take its slow course, a composter provides the best environment for composting to occur. To encourage the most active microbes, a compost pile needs the correct mix of the following ingredients:

Carbon (“brown” materials – see below)

Nitrogen (“green” materials – see below)

Oxygen (in the case of aerobic composting)

Water

Decomposition happens even in the absence of some of these ingredients, but not as quickly or as pleasantly. (For example, vegetables in a plastic bag will decompose, but the lack of air encourages the growth of anaerobic microbes, which produce foul odors.

The goal of a composting system
The goal in a composting system is to provide a healthy environment and nutrition for bacteria (the rapid decomposers). The most rapid composting occurs with the ideal carbon to nitrogen ratio of between 25 and 30 to 1 by dry chemical weight. In other words, the ingredients placed in the pile should contain 25 to 30 times as much carbon as nitrogen. For example, grass clippings average about 19-to-1 and dry autumn leaves average about 55-to-1. Mixing equal parts by volume approximates the ideal range. Commercial-grade composting operations pay strict attention to this ratio. For backyard composters, however, the charts of carbon and nitrogen ratios in various ingredients and the calculations required to get the ideal mixture can be intimidating, so many rules of thumb exist to guide composters in approximating this mixture. My favorite is to alternate a 6 inch layer of Carbon or “brown” materials with a 6 inch layer of Nitrogen or “green” materials – give it a drink and a little “shake” and you’re done.

Materials for composting
Given enough time to die, all biodegradable material will compost. However, not all compost materials are appropriate for backyard composting. Most backyard systems will not reach high enough temperatures to kill pathogens and deter vermin, so pet droppings, non-vegetarian animal manure, meat scraps, and dairy products are best left out of the pile.

High-carbon sources provide the cellulose needed by the composting bacteria for conversion to sugars and heat, while high-nitrogen sources provide the most concentrated protein, which allow the compost bacteria to thrive.

Some ingredients with higher carbon content (“brown” materials):

Dry, straw-type material, such as hosta stems

Autumn leaves

Sawdust and wood chips

Some paper and cardboard (such as corrugated cardboard or newsprint with soy-based inks)

Some ingredients with higher nitrogen content (“green” materials):

Green plant material (fresh or wilted) such as crop residues, hay, grass clippings, weeds

Animal manures (choose vegetarian horse manure, cow manure, llama manure, etc.)

Fruit and vegetable trimmings

Seaweeds

Used Coffee grounds

Mixing the materials as they are added increases the rate of decomposition, but it can be easier to place the materials in alternating layers, approximately 6 inches thick, to help estimate the quantities. Keeping carbon and nitrogen sources separated in the pile can slow down the process, but decomposition will occur in any event.

Greasy food waste and wastes from meat, dairy products, and eggs should not be used in household compost because they tend to attract unwanted vermin and they do not appropriately decompose in the time required. However, eggshells are a good source of nutrients for the compost pile and the soil although they typically take more than one year to decompose.

The Compost Pile

There are several different methods of composting – I’ll focus on the simplest - backyard composting by creating a compost “pile”. It’s called a pile because in its simplest form, you can stack materials in a pile, much like a hay pile, and left on its own (provided there is regular rain to “water” it) it will eventually decompose and become compost. Even if you contain the pile (by fencing it in with wood or chicken wire, or buying commercial containers), you are still “piling” materials, so calling it a compost pile is still appropriate. The essentials to a good pile, is to place it where the sun can get to it at least part of the day or in full exposure. The sun helps to heat the pile and activate the microbes that are doing the work – even without sun, the material will eventually decompose, but the warmth makes it happen much faster, especially in winter (a good pile will actually generate its own heat as the microbes turn the materials into humus).
For a good, fast, working pile, you need to consider the following:

Air
Composting microbes are aerobic -- they can't do their work well unless they are provided with air. Without air, anaerobic (non-air needing) microbes take over the pile. They do cause slow decomposition, but tend to smell like putrefying garbage! For this reason, it's important to make sure that there are plenty of air passageways into your compost pile. Some compost ingredients, such as green grass clippings or wet leaves, mat down very easily into slimy layers that air cannot get through. Other ingredients, such as straw, don't mat down easily and are very helpful in allowing air into the center of a pile. To make sure that you have adequate aeration for your pile and its microbes, thoroughly break up or mix in any ingredients that might mat down and exclude air. You can also turn the pile to get air into it, which means completely breaking it apart with a spade or garden fork and then piling it back together in a more 'fluffed-up' condition.

Water
Ideally, your pile should be as moist as a wrung-out sponge to fit the needs of compost microbes. At this moisture level, there is a thin film of water coating every particle in the pile, making it very easy for microbes to live and disperse themselves throughout the pile. If your pile is drier than this, it won't be very good microbial habitat, and composting will be slowed significantly. If your pile is a great deal wetter, the sodden ingredients will be so heavy that they will tend to mat down and exclude air from the pile, again slowing the composting process (and perhaps creating anaerobic odor problems). If you are using dry ingredients, such as autumn leaves or straw, you'll need to moisten them as you add them to the pile. Kitchen fruit and vegetable wastes generally have plenty of moisture, as do fresh green grass clippings and garden thinnings. Watch out for far-too-soggy piles in wet climates (a tarp may help to keep rain off during wet weather). In dry climates, it may be necessary to water your pile occasionally to maintain proper moisture.

Food
In broad terms, there are two major kinds of food that composting microbes need.
Materials with higher Carbon content or 'Browns' are dry and dead plant materials such as straw, dry brown weeds, autumn leaves, and wood chips or sawdust. These materials are mostly made of chemicals that are just long chains of sugar molecules linked together. As such, these items are a source of energy for the compost microbes. Because they tend to be dry, browns often need to be moistened before they are put into a compost system.

Materials with higher Nitrogen content or 'Greens' are fresh (and often green) plant materials such as green weeds from the garden, kitchen fruit and vegetable scraps, green leaves, coffee grounds and tea bags, fresh horse manure, etc. Compared to browns, greens have more nitrogen in them. Nitrogen is a critical element in amino acids and proteins, and can be thought of as a protein source for the billions of multiplying microbes.

A good mix of browns and greens is the best nutritional balance for the microbes. This mix also helps out with the aeration and amount of water in the pile. Browns, for instance, tend to be bulky and promote good aeration. Greens, on the other hand, are typically high in moisture, and balance out the dry nature of the browns.

Heat
A common misunderstanding about compost piles is that they must be hot to be successful. This just isn't true. If you have good aeration and moisture, and the proper ingredient mix, your pile will decompose just fine at temperatures of 50 degrees F or above.

Hotter piles will decompose a bit faster, however. One way to understand why this is so is to realize that the heat in a hot pile is the result of the collective body heat of billions of microbes that are busy digesting the ingredients in the pile. Generally speaking, a hotter pile means more microbes or conditions that allow the microbes to have faster metabolisms, and therefore a faster composting process. If you'd like to keep your pile as warm as possible, consider the following:

For a pile to get hot and stay hot for a long period of time, the typical minimum size for the pile is one cubic meter (a cube one meter, or about three feet, on a side). A pile this size has plenty of mass in which those billions of heat-generating microbes can live, yet is also large enough that the center of the pile is well-insulated by the material surrounding it. Smaller piles just cannot insulate themselves well enough to remain hot for long, if at all. You can also provide additional insulation to a pile by stacking bales of hay or straw, or bags of dry autumn leaves, around your bin system. Some people even used stacked hay bales to make bin systems (this kind of bin will slowly compost itself, of course).

So what do I suggest?

I think everyone has room for at least one pile – if you haven’t composted before, I recommend that it be 3 feet wide by 3 feet deep – the goal is to stack materials on the pile to a height of at least 3 feet – this can take some time depending on what you put into it. Once you have a location that gets some sun, in an out-of-the-way place but still easily accessible, you can just start building the pile “loose” to see how it works. Or you can contain the pile using fencing, old wood palettes, or one of those plastic store-bought compost containers – I have two of those myself:

Once you’ve decided on a place, I like to put some sticks or limbs on the bottom so that the pile get’s some air – this is optional – just something I do so the pile works faster – some of your material should touch the earth – that’ll encourage bugs and earthworms to come into your pile which is beneficial. Start with a layer of leftover autumn leaves – ideally, the smaller the particles are when you start, the quicker they will turn into humus – I leave beds in the yard with some leaves so I’ll have something to add to the pile during the other seasons – when I’m ready for new “brown” material, I run over the leaves with a lawnmower that has a bag – this gets dumped to a depth of about 6 inches in the pile. I water the pile every time I add a major layer to it, so at this point wet it down. The next time I mow, I add the clippings (“green” material) to a depth of 6 inches, right on top of the first layer, and wet it down – you’ll notice that the first layer has compressed a bit – that means the pile is starting to work. I repeat this cycle over and over until the pile gets to be about 3 1/2 feet high. That’s the basics and if you do this, the pile will turn into humus within about a season without doing anything else to it.
To really boost the pile, and get workable humus within a few months, I do some additional work to it – this is often referred to as a “managed compost pile.”

First, I add all those vegetable clippings and peels from food preparation. I’ve got a small plastic tub that I keep on the counter – as I make meals, all the clippings and peels go into the tub, along with egg shells and the filters and grounds from my morning coffee – all these are good for the pile (break up the egg shells to speed up decomposition). So about every 4-6 days, I dump the tub into the pile – sometimes more or less often, and everything that is vegetable goes into the pile (I usually don’t add cooked vegetables – only those that are the remains of raw like carrot stems, etc). When I add this, I add a handful of leaves or whatever I have on hand on top to cover it up in case it’s started to break down and get “stinky.”
I turn the pile at least once a week – this usually involves placing a pitch-fork in and turning it from side-to-side when the pile is small – when the pile gets larger, I’ll “flip” the pile into a second pile to keep things “mixed-up.” After turning, I wet the pile down unless it’s already wet. Autumn leaves usually compress down more and take longer to compost unless you spend time turning – the more air that is in there the better.
Usually the materials at the bottom of the pile are more “ready” than the materials at the top – it’s convenient to divide it in half (place the top into a new pile) and add to it as the start of a new pile – the first pile is ready for use/straining. I actually prefer to have two main piles (I spend the most time on these) as short-term piles (meaning they turn into humus the fastest, but take the most work), and a third pile that I don’t spend much time on (I let this one sit in another area of the yard and let nature “do its thing.” On that third pile, I don’t turn it or water it, but towards the spring I peel off the top and get all the good soil at the bottom – this gets strained for the garden and the new pile becomes my long-term pile. That third pile is also located at the bottom of the yard so it’s out of site.

Whenever you can, try to chop up your materials into smaller pieces – don’t spend a lot of time doing this, but if it’s convenient, break up things with your hands or use the lawnmower – the smaller the pieces, the faster the pile turns into humus.
If your pile is working well, you will feel the heat coming off it even when it’s cold outside. Decomposition occurs most efficiently when the temperature inside the pile is between 104 degrees F and 131 degrees F. You usually wont’ see temperatures like these unless you keep close tabs in managing your pile. Compost thermometers are available at garden shops and nurseries. It is best not to turn the pile while it is between these temperatures, but rather when the temperature is below 104 degrees F or above 131 degrees F. This keeps the pile operating at its peak. Most disease pathogens die when exposed to 131 degrees for 10-15 minutes, though some weed seeds are killed only when they're heated to between 140 degrees and 150 degrees. If weed seeds are a problem, let the pile reach 150 degrees during the first heating period, then drop back down to the original temperature range. Maintaining temperatures above 131 degrees can kill the decomposing microbes.

Since you are keeping close tabs on the pile, you’ll see when it or a portion is ready for use. Finished compost is dark in color and has an earthy smell (like the smell of soil). Usually, it's difficult to recognize any of the original ingredients, although bits of hard-to-decompose materials (such as straw) sometimes can be seen. There is no single point at which compost is finished -- it's a bit more subjective than that. For many outdoor garden applications, for instance, it can be fine to use compost that still has a few recognizable bits of leaves or straw -- it will finish rotting in the soil. If you plan to use compost in seed-starting mixes, though, you're best off having a well-finished compost, because seedling roots may be attacked by decomposer microbes if the roots contact unfinished compost. If that’s the case, strain your compost through some type of open mesh screen – about ½ inch openings are best (I use a frame with 1/2 inch square chicken wire and it works fine).

-- John

Welcome to NorthcrestModern's Blog

2007-06-27T12:33:00.000-04:00

I decided to create this blog as a better way to publish my ideas and experiences regarding the Northcrest subdivision and the NorthcrestModern website. I thought that in this format I could be less formal and write with less regard to formal content - it let's me write more about what I'm feeling and about my opinions than the more formal website - it also provides a venue for reader comments and built-in organization, navigation and article archiving - all tasks that are onerous to the webmaster. Enjoy and feel free to comment.

-- John