A SHADY TABLE

Trevor was recently rummaging around in the attic of the building our office is in and found a big stash of abandoned wood. He pulled it out and quickly transformed it into an awesome new picnic table complete with a shade trellis for our patio. His ingenuity and abiltity to turn scraps into gold constantly blows my mind. Do you need a picnic table for your patio? I'm sure he'd be glad to help. Give him a call 928-609-7422.

RAMMED EARTH

Some friends of ours; Alan and Birgit Francis; are building a beautiful home on Flagstaff Mesa this year. Among its many tributes to the site it inhabits, it has a solid connection to the physical land. They had all of the excavated earth (which was a lot due to the awesome water catchment cistern) sifted and sorted so that they could reclaim everything possible from it and they got quite a bit: A pile of sand, a pile of gravel, a pile of sticky clay, and a whole bunch of big beautiful stones that he had masons sculpt into landscape walls that curve across the site, opening space for a drive and a patio. 

They invited a bunch of hands out recently to help turn their stash of reclaimed earthen materials into a massive rammed earth wall that will sit just inside a solarium-style corridor that opens up via Nanawalls onto a south facing courtyard. The result: a heat sink in a mountain climate, in the middle of the home, made from the red dirt that the home sits on. 

I have a lot of praise for this project so expect to hear more about the construction as the progress moves along-- and of course, many cheers to Alan and Birgit for having the solid sensibility to build something so grounded. 

This last image is just a sneak peak: That is steel stair tread embed about to be encapsulated in concrete. Everyone loves a cantilevered stair-- am I right?

OREGON AVENUE REMODEL

Here is a sneak peak of the outcome of the remodel we completed this fall on the Oregon Avenue house down in Phoenix. We will hire a professional photographer to come out and shoot this beauty but we couldn't wait to share some pictures. The house that was once hard to navigate, closed off, and out of date is now open, cool, and bright-- perfect for them to raise their new family in. 

A JUNIPER JEWEL

Trevor has been spending a lot of time in the shop lately, and consequently in the lumber yard. On a recent trip to A.P. Sawmill (http://www.apsawmill.com/) he spotted a large juniper remnant and had to have it. We've decided to use it as a top for a new island in our mini-kitchen. Here are some pictures but we'll post more when the island has been built!