New Doors

Not our best day as far as progress with the winery.  The glass bowl that we watched being made yesterday did not turn out to Dave’s satisfaction so he won’t let us use it and he might or might not get another one done before he shuts the glass ovens down for the summer.  RJ put up more crown molding and found one whole wall is at the wrong angle and he doesn’t know how to match it now.  I made some phone calls for phone service and found it is very expensive.  I have to find some cheaper alternatives.  I also called about winery POS and had no luck there either.  That said, I did get the second coat of stain on the bar, cleaned up the refrigerator mess caused by 2 bursted Pepsi’s and organized the storage in the chicken coup.  What I have to show you today is the new French doors going out to the patio.  They aren’t completely trimmed out yet, but they look fantastic.  I know you’re tired of hearing it, but it sure makes a difference.  Brings alot of extra light in, too.  George and Chris from Cue Construction did the installation.

Blown Glass Sink

Yesterday, RJ and I were given the most wonderful opportunity.  We got to watch our bathroom sink bowl being blown and formed.  It was awesome.  We are very lucky to have a world-famous glass blower in our area, Dave Johnson, otherwise known as Old Dave.  We have a mutual friend, so awhile ago, we asked him if he would make our sink for us.  It took him awhile to take on that project, but lately he has been very excited.  He blew 3 sinks as experiments so we had something to look at.  From those, we picked the color and shape.  It took about two hours to make this bowl.  Tom was his assistant.  These two pictures show the beginning and end of our bowl.  It is cooling off in a kiln now.  I can’t wait to see the finished product.  We will be displaying his work at our tasting room.  Please come and see once we’re open.

I’m back and…

two steps forward; one step back.  I’m back from my trip to Eastern Oregon.  I spent a week in Milton-Freewater to help take care of my Mom and Dad since my Mom just had her 3rd hip replacement (in same hip).  In case, you want to know, she is doing very well and pretty much back to her old self as far as cheeriness goes.  (She went through agonizing pain for two months.)

Back to our little project.  While I was gone, things still moved forward.  On Thursday, we were given our OLCC Winery license…..YEAH!!!!  We’re a winery now!  Also, on Thursday and Friday, RJ and Al put up most of the molding in the tasting room.  It really sets everything off, but like the bar staining; it is just supposed to be there, so it is hard to remember what it was like without it.  Pictures are above.  Then the step back.  RJ had to struggle through my paper filing system (thank goodness for cellphones) to find paperwork for TTB so we could get our labels approved.  Unfortunately, all labels were denied.  We think it is because there is a disconnect between the Brand Name (Plum Hill Vineyards) and the producer (Kramer Vineyards).  We thought we had taken care of that with letters, dba documents, etc., but no luck.  Will have to work on that this week.

More But Small Progress

With the exception of the landscaping in the front, we’ve accomplished only small things.  Well, on second thought, one of the bar cabinets isn’t small.  So here is another view of the water feature, the unfinished bar cabinet and some framing of the ADA bathroom and storage.

Labels

pinot-noir-label-41I haven’t been at the winery working for the last couple of days.  I have been trying to catch up on administrative things and home things (like laundry).  One of the things I have been working on is finalizing the labels for TTB approval and then finding a printing company.  I am done with my part so thought I would share a couple of the labels with you.  The labels for the chardonnay and rose’ are very similar to the Pinot Gris label; the colors and grapes are different.  The Pinot Noir label is not quite the latest version.  The latest has our Plum Hill logo on the back instead of the Kramer logo.

Bar Staining

The other thing that happened this week was the staining of the bar.  It’s kind of funny how staining works.  We picked a stain that we thought would match the cabinet color.  We errored on the side of lighter and less red.  As it turned out, the stain doesn’t match the cabinets but ties in very nicely with the grape carved wood which is much better.  Remember my “It’s the Small Things.”  Well, this is one of the small things but it has made such a difference.  But let me tell you alittle about the process.  It took 3-1/2 hours to tape, fill nail holes and sand the filler and it only took an hour or so to stain.  What did we learn?  There is wood filler that takes stain, yeah!!!!.  Always, have a nail set with you when you do cabinet staining (sorry about the cut, Darolyn).  And lastly trust your judgement on stain colors.  We still have a coat of stain left to go, but here are before and afters in the meantime.  Doesn’t the blue accent tape go nicely?

Water Feature

It has been a big couple of days for us.  The first significant event is the water feature is almost done.  It has been “rocked” and running for a couple of days and now there are some more rocks for decoration and the all important plants.  Yesterday, as we were admiring the fabulous work of Henry and Joyce, at separate times, both RJ and I said “it needs a concrete bench.”  Great minds think alike.  So, today we looked for one while running our errands.  There was a very elaborate one at Fred Meyers for $300, very nice, but alittle more than we wanted to spend.  None at any other place we went, but they could be special ordered.  On a whim, we went to a yard rock place that I remembered.  Since it was past 5 o’clock, we expected it to be closed but would take a look anyway.  They had two stone benches outside which were nice.  A very friendly salesman came by and told me he had one concrete bench left inside.  We went to look and I said, “we’ll take it.”  $65, what a deal.  So here are before, after and with bench pictures.  Cool, huh!

Shoes, shoes and more shoes

I took the day off from working at the farm/winery today.  Do you wonder what I do when I’m not working at the farm.  This week I decided I was going to organize my shoes in my closet.  I had a pile of them on the floor because I ran out of plastic boxes.  Didn’t help that I bought 5 pairs while in Australia, but don’t tell RJ.  He’s still wondering how our suitcases got so full and heavy.  In fairness, 2 pairs were flip flops which weigh little and take up little space, but then there was this pair of boots I bought.  What was I thinking?  Back to my shoe organizing; I had about half of this done years ago, but never finished the pictures and labeling.  So I decided to finish it.  I have been referred to as Martha Stewart and Imelda Marcos.  Can you guess why?  Could it be the 161+/- pairs of shoes (after I got rid of at least 20 pairs)?  Hey, it’s down from over 200 I used to have when I was working (and purses to match).  Or could it be the pictures and printed labels on every plastic box for every pair of shoes?  By the way, I have a few of my brand new size 7B shoes listed on ebay.  Search for viking-su.  Enjoy this break from the hard work we’ve been doing.  By-the-way, my arm is still very sore from the window scraping (gonna get you Henry) and my sore leg woke me up this morning (don’t know what that’s from). 

Window Glazing

You have to have a good sense of humor when you take on a project of this magnitude.  I got a big laugh this morning at the winery when I saw what Mrs. H, aka Demo Diva, had left for me on the walls where the shower used to be: “Demo Diva 5/7/08″, I took a picture (above).  

We spent a full day at the winery today.  More cleaning up and burning, plus I worked on windows of the chicken coup; got the broken ones all replaced and glazed plus cleaned the paint off the others and patched the glazing.  After about 30 windows, I found a technique that really works.  It’s all in the angle of the putty knife and it helps to have good glazing compound not the dried up stuff we were using this weekend.  Still won’t take this on as a new career though.  Third picture is me glazing.  Yes, that is the same shirt you see in other pictures.  I have 2 “farm” outfits and I just rotate them through laundry and word days.  They’ll be ready for trash when this is over!

The first picture is RJ caring for his baby grape vines.  They are doing well.  We’ve lost very few.

Demo Divas

So yesterday, RJ and I decided to spend the whole day at the winery working on projects.  Of course, Joyce D. was there working on the front yard.  Henry and Joyce are there working more than we are.  We need to give them part ownership in the business.  We took out the broken dishwasher and loaded it and the other dead appliances on the truck for Forest Grove’s Spring Clean-up on Saturday.  We also tore out a door frame to open up the hallway and then tackled the utility room.  Took out part of the wall, the cabinets and the shower.  Joyce H. joined us for that demo work.  I also worked on patching the kitchen wall.  So the pictures today are the Demo Divas, Joyce and I.  By the way, demo is hard work, uses muscles that don’t get used much, but it is very rewarding because of instant satisfaction.

One other piece of news:  Sometime between Monday evening and Tuesday morning, someone took down the plastic protecting our new floors in the tasting room and walked on the floor.  Who would ever do that?  We think the shoe prints are just dust, but we won’t know for sure until this weekend when we try to clean it.  We are now locking the building doors and changed the gate combination.