Category: Structures

EMSWCD Naturescaping Tour

The MAunts and I attended the East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District Naturescaping Tour which was a tour of several houses that have successfully “naturescaped” as defined here . Some photo highlights:

I liked this cinder block grill and work surface

It utilized the holes in the cinder blocks for herb growing.

I’m guessing they need pretty regular water, but I find this to be a grand idea.

Many people had rain barrels and I took a lot of pictures of the setup. I would like to start saving rainwater in a big way, but have yet to find the how-to reference to get me started.

This house was the house next door to the tour, but it had a front yard completely full of red clover. It was beautiful.

In one back yard was a pioneer-type cabin playhouse.

The MAunts gazing up at a large stand of Douglas fir.

Tiny house not long for this world

I’ve long enjoyed the section of North Omaha Avenue north of Lombard. Five blocks north of Lombard, the street runs into Winchell, making for a nice quiet place to walk. The houses are mostly small and look a bit disheveled in the positive way that says to me, “we love our houses and we are doing things to them as time and money allows, but alas, we have many interests and not much money, so things are what they are.”

This house is located at 7626 N. Omaha Ave. I’ve liked this house for years for a lot of reasons. It’s tiny, and has a large lot. My mom and I happened to go to a house sale here, so we got to go inside. The woman who was having the house sale was an artist, so there was a lot of art, which always gives me a good feeling. There was even a nice chicken run for chickens. Sadly, it seems the owner was moving because she was in foreclosure.

Portland Maps (An Information Service Provided by the City of Portland) tells the sad story. In 2007, the house sold for $175,000, which is overpriced, in my opinion. I suspect it went into foreclosure in late 2009 when it sold for 105,000. It was on the market a few months ago for $125,000. I was wishing to buy it, but am currently lacking in cash for superfluous house purchases. In December of last year, the house sold for a remarkable $70,900! The new owners (Mark & Lorena Connelly) have applied for a permit to tear the house down, that is the sign on the fence to the right.

I’m sad to see this house go, and hope that the house that replaces it will have the charm that this one does. I’ll keep us updated.

6/3/11 Update. I walked by this morning and the house was gone. Thank goodness I took the picture when I did.

Infill, is there another way?

I’m a fan of infill. As someone who was not born and raised in this great city, but happily live here, I support people who love Portland moving to Portland. Projections are that roughly one zillion people will be living her by 2050 and I want my compact urban environment to be maintained for all those newcomers. I’m not a fan of sprawl. I don’t really care that the infill houses don’t match the existing ones in the neighborhood or that infill houses look alike. After all, a lot of neighborhoods don’t have “matching” houses and most neighborhoods have banks of houses that were clearly built by some developer of the past as a row of them will be strikingly similar.

Infill in Portland mostly looks like variations of this:

Houses are 1500-2500 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths with a garage and a tiny front and back yard. My problem with infill is that this standard 3 bedroom/2.5 bath doesn’t really make sense for a lot of Portlanders. For a family of four, 3 bedroom houses are great. But there are an awful lot of Portlanders who are not a family of four. There are also an awful lot of Portlanders who would rather have less house and more yard. I’m wondering if we can’t look to a different model of infill for them.

One of my favorite things about North Portland is that it has a lot of very small houses on big lots. What worries me is that these are not seen as being worth preserving. Often, when they go on the market, they are bought by someone who tears them down and replaces them with the standard infill house.

But what if the tiny house, large lot became an infill choice? Tiny houses are much easier to maintain, heat and cool. If placed on a standard sized lot, they leave room for a large garden. They are all about sustainable. And they are cute. Take a look of some of these:

The Sebastarosa is 750-847 square feet:
The Enesti is 746-843 square feet:
The B-53 is 777-874 square feet:
All of the above tiny houses can be found on the Tumbleweed Tiny House website, which is also where the pictures came from. Somewhere in Portland there must be an infill developer who wants to focus on tiny house infill for the rest of us.

A peek inside a building–from the street.

I’ve always like the look of this building. It’s on the corner of SW 10th & SW Main, and the ground floor houses a Bike Gallery location. The upper floors seem to be apartments for seniors, or at least that was who I always saw sitting outside when I walked past.

There seems to be renovation happening, which means I get to peek inside from the street.

Without their windows, the apartments look small, but cozy.

Farm in truck.

I happened to glance out the window of the Max and caught a glimpse of…What was that? The Max had sped by, but I kept watch in hopes that the object would catch up at the next stop and indeed it did.

It’s a truck farm!

The plants were planted in dirt and the rows were covered in burlap, I assume to keep the dirt from blowing away. There was even a trellis for peas. I read about truck farming specifically the movie Truck Farm, but this was the first one I have seen.

Can people read this well labeled recycling bin?

I spotted this fancy new recycling bin on the way to my bus stop.
As you can see, it’s very clearly labeled. But can people follow directions?

I spy a potato chip bag (neither newspaper, nor magazine) plus two cups in the top section.

In the “plastic bottles and metal cans” side I see two plastic bottles, but three cups.

In the “glass bottles” side I see one glass bottle and one metal can (but no cups.)
As you can see, just writing on the object what you want it to be used for does not always work.

Winter Rain

For all those people who live far away from Portland and visit only in the magical months of July, August and September, I bring you a visual of the flip side of Portland life: October-June. This nine month period consists of the dreaded “winter” which, while it doesn’t bring much snow, does bring unrelenting rain and cold. Sometimes, we get periods of rain so lengthy and intense that the grass ceases to grow and instead becomes large mud puddles, as seen in the above picture. If you decide to move here, be ready to enjoy this weather, too.

We finally get invited to the snow party.

We had a little bit (a smattering, really) of snow in November and then nothing. As we have watched story after story about everyone else in the country getting hammered by yet another “worst storm ever!” we Portlanders continued slogging through our endless winter rains with no flake in sight (though many predicted.) “It’s like everyone has been invited to the snow party but us!” wailed one commenter on a local blog. By February 1, I had given up on there being a Portland-based snow party this year. But then near the end of the month: snow!
I would say it was entirely unexpected, except that the weather people started predicting it more than a week early. Snow was “certain” they said as I harrumphed through their forecasts. In Portland, when snow is forecast all anyone anywhere can talk about is the impending snow. When will it happen? How much will we get? Will I need to stock up my pantry?*
Growing up, I lived in a place it did snow and life just went on. In fact, my school district never had a snow day until my sophomore year of high school, that’s how much life ground on. I am in full support of the city screeching to a halt once the snow arrives, but I cannot stand everyone making plans for the snow day that is most likely not going to occur.
Today’s “certain” snow did arrive, a fact that surprised me. But it wasn’t the seven inches forecast a week earlier. It wasn’t the “several inches” forecast a few days before. It didn’t start at 4:00 pm and snow heavily through the night with major accumulation on the valley floor as they predicted the day of. At 5:00 in the morning there was a half inch of snow outside my North Portland home and the roads were fine. I went for a lovely walk figuring that, at best, the west side schools might have a two hour delay, but that everyone else would have school as usual. I arrived home to the happy news that there would be no school in any Portland Public Schools on this snow day.

The sun came out, the snow melted and the day went on. But I got my snow day, my walk in the newly fallen snow and a long morning nap buried under layers of covers. It was heavenly.

*The answer to the “stock up your pantry?” question is most likely “no.” When it snows in Portland it inconveniences people for a day usually, maybe two. Do you need to rush to the store and snap up enough food for three weeks? No, no and no.