03/22/2011
Our fence plan required 19 posts, 6 of which needed to go across concrete to divide our parking area from our patio. We wanted the fence height to be 5′ on the patio side—high enough to create some privacy and division but not too high that our friends can’t peak over and say hi when they arrive for a cook out. We were able to by 10′ 4×4 posts and have them cut in half at Home Depot. Obviously, we needed 3 posts for this. Here’s a sort of before shot, where Jason is checking the height to make sure it’s good. I was standing at our back door to that this shot.
You can’t dig post holes in concrete, obviously. Jason’s had some experience with attaching fences to concrete in the past so he knew stability can be tricky. We found these great E-Z Base post bases at HD that are made just for this purpose. They’re hard to find and a bit pricy (around $15 each) but they work great. Four deep screw holes need to be made with a powerful hammer drill. We found some handy 4″ concrete anchors in the same section at the store.
The trickiest part of using these E-Z Bases was getting them onto the 4x4s. They’re made to fit as tight as a glove for obvious reasons. We found the best technique was to get them partly on the post with our hands and then slam the post and E-Z Base against the ground. It took a few slams but the post would gradually slide down into the base all the way. They’re very sturdy. Jason is making sure they’re straight and level.
The rest of the posts were done the regular way. We have a manual post-hole digger and Jason is a post-hole-digging-machine. He got the 11 holes dug, 2′ deep, in a matter of hours. We got 8′ 4×4 posts for the rest of the fence. With 2′ underground, we’ll still have plenty left to get a level 5′ fence and trim the tops off the posts. Jason bought fence post concrete to put in each hole. (Who knew they made that?! It’s fast setting!) Half a bag of concrete and half a gallon of water was needed for each hole. Concrete is cheap. It dries so fast it and it wasn’t windy so most posts didn’t need any additional support and Jason was able to level them as the concrete was setting.
I helped Jason level and set the last few posts after the sun went down. This is Jason’s third fence building project and he said he finished the posts much faster than he expected.
On to the planks… (Is that the right term? That’s how we refer to our horizontal fence pickets.)
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Step 1: Inspiration, Step 2: Planning
8 Comments | 
Art, Art: gardening, Art: modern design, Art: modern wood fence | Tagged: DIY, fence, posts | 
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Posted by mahlbrandt
03/21/2011
Happy First Day of Spring! I’ve always been a summer girl—bring on the heat!—but spring in Nashville is breath-taking. (Especially if you have allergies, harharhar…) I love all the flowering trees. Here’s the view out my front door in the morning:
And some various signs of spring from around our yard:
2 Comments | Art, Art: gardening, Art: God's creation | Tagged: flowering trees, flowers, Nashville, spring | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
01/03/2011
A quick before and after post to start out the new year. Just a little spray paint and a cactus made this $2 estate sale bird planter a little more classy.
2 Comments | Art, Art: crafts, Art: gardening, Art: mcm thrift store find, Art: mid-century design | Tagged: before & after, bird, cactus, estate sale | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
11/16/2010
Jason and I had been brainstorming what kind of architectural design element we could add to our house to create a backdrop for our spineless prickly pear cactus (which is the same color as our house.) At one point we were considering using decorative concrete block.
As we’ve also been discussing the design of a fence for our backyard, Jason decided to create the accent for the front of our house using the same style we’re thinking of for the fence. He used 1×2 untreated planks and 2×4’s for support, then stained the whole structure before mounting it onto the house. (I helped a little with that step.)
It took a little bit of getting used to but I’m really loving it now! We’ve decided to call it an architectural trellis (or an architrellis!).
1 Comment | Art, Art: gardening, Art: God's creation, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: architecture, backdrop, landscaping, trellis | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
11/04/2010
I love adding fresh sweet basil to my Italian food but sadly, basil is one of the few herbs that doesn’t survive through the winter in our garden. It often drops enough seeds that it will come back in the spring. If not, we buy a plant and I can’t wait until it’s mature enough to pluck off some leaves to chop up and sprinkle on my pasta. Two years ago a fellow basil lover shared a little secret with me: basil can be frozen with extra virgin olive oil to make basil cubes! I’ve never tried drying basil, but freezing it is great way to preserve fresh basil and save it for cooking through the winter.
Before the first frost warning, I start by cutting back most of the basil plant. I left one branch with flowers and seeds on the plant.
Then I chop it up pretty fine. I used the food processor / blender for the second batch and it worked a lot better. If the leaf pieces are too big they wont stick together enough to freeze with the e.v.o.o.
Mix the chopped basil with extra virgin olive oil. (Again, chopped finer than this is better.)
Spoon the mixture into an ice cube tray, packing it pretty tightly.
After the cubes are frozen—I waited until the next day—they’re ready to be popped out of the ice cube tray. I used a knife to loosen the edges of the basil cubes from the tray and flipped them on to a piece of wax paper. The olive oil melts pretty quickly so work fast.
I store my basil cubes in a couple of layers of zip lock bags and stick them back in the freezer.
To use the basil cubes, I toss them in with pasta sauce as it’s cooking or heating. It would probably work to put one in with hot, cooked pasta too. It doesn’t take much for the e.v.o.o. to melt. Not as good as freshly picked basil but it’ll get me through the winter!
1 Comment | Art, Art: Cooking, Art: gardening | Tagged: basil cubes, freezing, herb garden, herbs, preserving, saving, sweet basil | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
09/28/2010
I’m having [another] crazy busy week between work & freelance. Blah, blah, blah, everyone is busy… I know! I’m sorry for the lame excuse for light blogging. Here are a couple of quick photos of some new things around the ol’ mid-century modern ranch.
My parents and I bought Jason a greenhouse a couple weeks ago. He was quite surprised to see it out on the back patio when we woke up on his birthday. It’s out in the yard now ready to over-winter some of Jason’s tender tropicals.
This was like a birthday present from God for Jason. He’s been wanting a smoker for years but they’re pretty expensive ($150-250 for a big one like this) and no one ever seems to sell used ones on craigslist. We were riding our bikes home from a coffee shop run a few days after J’s bday and guess what our neighbors were selling at their yard sale? For $20! It needs cleaned up/fixed up but Jason can’t wait to use it… rack of ribs, smoked salmon, jerky …
Leave a Comment » | Art, Art: Cooking, Art: gardening, Family, Family: Jason | Tagged: gardening, greenhouse, grilling, Jason, smoker | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
09/27/2010
Remember ask a kid when you would stand back to back with your friends to compare height? That’s what I feel like I’m doing with our Japanese Flowering Plum tree and our banana tree. They’re planted close together and they’re really competing for height this year.
The interesting thing about this competition is that the banana tree dies back to the ground every year. After 6 months or so it’s about the same height as our 3 year old plum tree (which is also growing quite fast).
Leave a Comment » | Art, Art: gardening, Art: God's creation | Tagged: comparison, garden, height, trees | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
09/15/2010
We (meaning mostly Jason) recently replaced all of the pine mulch in the front of our house with pea gravel. From a distance it doesn’t look all that different.
But closer up it looks really nice and clean.
And it won’t decompose and need to be refreshed twice a year.
A little piece of Arizona style xeriscape in Nashville, Tennessee.
Leave a Comment » | Art, Art: gardening, Art: God's creation, Art: modern design | Tagged: landscaping, mulch, pea gravel, rocks, xeriscape | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
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