Margarita Holding Area & Modern Fence

Welcome, friends! I've been kinda floundering over here for the past month without a camera. On our last trip (to Chicago) I left our camera on the airplane in the pocket in front of my seat. I felt so sad about this because 1) we had just bought it in December, 2) we had pictures on it of the MHA and of our trip to Chicago, 3) I had pictures from my brief visit to the Jonathon Adler store. If you're in Chicago and looking for a colorful place to hang out for an hour or so go to the Jonathon Adler store. It was beautiful to see his vision so bright. The good news is that I have once again purchased a camera - a slightly bigger better res camera. I'm super excited to get some photos up. I'm in Denver now and taking a few pictures of cool Vintage shops and boutiques around town as I encounter them. That will be next weekend's post. For now here are some pics of the MHA and Mr. Monkey's start to the modern fence. Further narration below . . .

This is the first step up to the MHA. The wood pillars are from a big Doug Fir that was dying in our backyard. We hired someone to cut it down and Mr. Monkey took it to a local guy to have it milled or quartered or something. Now it's cut into these long pieces that Mr. Monkey will be using for the MHA's support for the railing. In the concrete step here a neighborhood cat was walking by and decided to leave his mark (thanks a lot, Squeaky!) so while at first we were disappointed we are now pleased at the character it adds. The concrete pillars are the base of where the wood pillars are going to be attaching to support the railing. The MHA is definitely going to start a new design genre - Rustic Modern?

Here is the start of the fence that backs up to the alley. You may recall that we took our inspiration from here the house on college hill with the cool modern landscaping and fence. I was hoping for a more chocolate color than a coffee color but that's how it turned out and Mr. Monkey did not find it funny when I asked what it would entail to make that change. So it is what it is. It's not bad just not what I was going for. In fact now it is an even closer match to the fence on college hill because the colors are very similar. It's growing on me and I'm just so pleased everyday when I look out into the backyard and see how great it looks and how it works - it keeps prying eyes out of the backyard. I love it! The last note is that I got to visit the MHA for the first time with Mr. Monkey and our friend Mid-west Monkey and the view is great and will be perfect for sunset viewing! Cheers!

Modern Fences IV

The quest for the perfect modern fence continues on . . . Mr. Monkey and I have been on a search to be good neighbors and to have happy neighbors. In our case this involves hiding their houses (for privacy) and keeping our late-night laughs and bunches of bon fires contained to our yard and not echoing off their walls. We often walk around the neighborhood in search of ideas for fences. These first pictures are of the winner of the fence that we liked best in the neighborhood, that is a little different and meets our needs. It's modern but not too modern like a wall of corrugated metal. I like the horizontal lines and the big carriage bolts. I also like their color scheme and their overall landscape. We'll be skipping the raised bed boxes and our fence may not be 3 thick pieces. We're thinking four slightly narrower pieces that would also have a slightly smaller gap in between each horizontal strip. Of course we'll keep you posted on the existing fence coming down and the new fence going up! Next up -scroll down for a wacky totally unique Eugene fence!

Recently this fence went up in our neighborhood. At first we walked by and wondered what was going on over there. Was it a parade float? Was it a booth for a festival? Was is a gazebo? Finally it took its final form as a fence! I'm not the hugest fan of the aesthetics of this fence (aka I don't like the way it looks). But I admire the way they just went for it big! It's new and different and it seems like it uses twigs and not processed wood so it's environmental impact is small. It is creative and offers the house a nice privacy screen without feeling unfriendly. Yay for fences. Even though we've ended our search for our fence I'll keep my eyes for y'all. You can click here for my other 3 posts on modern fences.

Modern Fences III

From Modern Phoenix link below

Mr. Monkey and I have been once again thinking about fences and of course not just any fence but a modern fence. What's that saying about good fences and good neighbors? Mr. Monkey spoke to our neighbor who can't contribute funds but has offered to help out with the construction. This is not so good. But on the other hand she says she really doesn't care what it looks like. This is great news for us. Our neighbor's main concern is the protection of her elderly cat in her yard from other cats (including ours apparently - which is funny because our monkey cat is always getting beat up by a fluffy fur ball named Squeaky!). This means that she wants the fence to reach all the way to the ground, no spaces down below for kitties to sneak through. And although cats can often scale and jump over fences we will make this fence as tall as we can without a permit. My. Monkey thinks this is 6ft. Here are some pictures I've come across in my search and here's a Dwell link to a nice slideshow of modern fences. Here's a link to a real estate site in northern california that specializes in Eichlers and they've posted some ideas for Eichler owners. Here's a link to an Apartment Therapy post on Modern Fences in Austin, Texas. As for the pictures above. I found one in Photo Bucket and the other on the Modern Phoenix site. Finally last but not least I've blogged about fences in the past. You can go to Part 1 and Part 2 when you click on each link. If you have any good pictures of modern fences please send the link via comments. Cheers!

Modern Fences II

Well in one of my recent lay overs at home Mr. Monkey and I went for a quick walk around the neighborhood looking at fences. This is what we came up with. I'm sure there are others but these are the more interesting ones. I'm also posting a picture from Arcosanti that is not a wood fence but a wall instead - one that I've been thinking about in fence form. I think we could leave the center open and filled wih a tinted glass or a small window of woven wood. Just ideas . . .



I'm about ready to just rip out that chain link fence. I'm exercising restraint for the summer though. Since it's our first summer here and on one side of the fence there lives a kiwi plant I'm curious to see if it will bear fruit. So for this summer the chain link will stay. I also was briefly imagining removal of the chain link but keeping the metal posts and building off of that somehow for the new fence. There are craft classes at the local U and they do offer some welding classes . . . but the mind wanders first I have to put away the pile of landry I'm sitting next too then I can think about welding my own fence for the front. Enjoy the pictures of Friendly Street Neighborhood fences.

Modern Fences 1

Another place that Mr. Monkey and I will be looking to update is our fence. It is in bad bad shape. Part of it blew over in  a wind storm over the winter. This is the first of many posts with pictures of fencing. While the old standby - cedar - is lovely and can be built in creative ways I would like to contribute to the interesting modern fences of Eugene. 

Here's a possibility we're considering. It's a picture of a cool fence with mixed materials we found on a walk in Tucson, AZ in the Sam Hughes neighborhood. Mr. Monkey is not so sure about corrugated metal but I'm liking it. I also really like board form concrete. But Mr. Monkey is right to think that it may too different for the neighbors that we share this fence with. Thanks to CMM for the board form picture.

Finally here's a slideshow of cool fences from Dwell Magazine's website. Actually they're not that cool - they're convenient because they're gathered together in one spot but in general they are pretty standard. It's still fun to go to the Dwell website though. So many slideshows so little time . . .