From the glass studio:
The Chapel Dove pieces are coming together.
This is for the chapel inside of St. John Medical Center in Longview, Washington
We can see the light at the end of the tunnel ;)

Site visit day: It’s coming together. Soon you’ll be able to beat the heat with beer after beer at Gossip in the Grain tap room. ;)
It is located on the corner of 162nd Ave and Fourth Plain Blvd. in Vancouver, Washington .
Aurora Mills provided all of the salvage lumber and Mike Anderson and crew have been putting it all together.
Check out their page, Gossip in the Grain, for opening date and more pics. … See more

Even though I post a lot of construction pictures here, I am not a general contractor. I design buildings and renovations on buildings. The pictures here attempt to document the process of getting those designs built. Just to confuse things more, I also have a stained glass studio. We’ve had the same North Portland shop for 16 years. Four years ago, I was invited to design a proposal for a large stained glass installation for a chapel. We worked on that proposal for months, then the project went silent, totally silent. Two and a half months ago, I got a call saying that the proposal was accepted. I am still amazed. And happy to say that we have begun work on our Chapel Dove project for the chapel located inside Peacehealth St. John Medical Center in Longview, Washington. … See more

This is a good thing.

About 500 “granny flats” are being built in Portland each year:

Site visit Friday. Ready for move in. This is Part Final: “ What happens when there are no footings under those old basement walls…?” I’ve posted the progress of this one a few times. It’s been a big process from digging out the basement to here. I’m still waiting on the professional photos, but I couldn’t resist snapping a few with my phone.
Well, it is practically a whole new house, including a new basement foundation, new basement ADU, an entirely re-assembled main floor and new second story. It is peppered with lots of reclaimed materials from the original house thanks to the handy work of the client and great work from Mike Anderson as the general contractor. … See more

Peace, prosperity, giddy happiness, success, good juju, brilliance, humility, charm, riches, enlightenment, wealth, empowerment, love, and ridiculous abundance, just to name a few.

Lifting a house is kind of a dirty job, but it’s nice to see this house set back down on a brand spankin’ new foundation. Another basement ADU…

Designing a major renovation is one thing, but sometimes the construction process can be slow. As a designer, I have to be patient while I wait for the insanely busy construction trades to get scheduled.
Finally siding! … See more

House lift and a whole new basement from scratch…
This is the new (to us) insulated concrete wall system for a basement ADU. Quad-Lock is name of the Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF) that we are using. Here are some pictures of the wall system in progress. Northwest Structural lifted the house and Mike Anderson is the contractor running this project.
The forms are 3″ thick polystyrene (foam). That is the insulation part. The forms come in panels that are light as a feather. They stack up and get tied together with more high density polystyrene. The cavity in the middle holds the rebar and will get filled with concrete. The result is the new foundation wall.
The polystyrene will remain in place and provide continuous insulation with an R- value of 28. … See more