A gift from Meg

I was fortunate and blessed to receive a true random act of kindness. Sitting on our chair on the front porch was an envelope addressed to me but was hand delivered. (There was no postage on it)

After reading the letter I stood there in silence. My heart was overwhelmed with gratitude and tears were in my eyes. A stranger by the name of Meg shared a wonderful family story. This is what it said.

Dear Shannon,

My family and I have followed your REXperiment project on your web column in the Oregonian.
We're impressed and inspired by your commitment to reusing, recycling, and upcycling.
We just wanted to share with you our Christmas tree reuse/recycling experiment.
As you know - we had wild winter weather before Christmas.
Our family had not gotten our Christmas tree yet and we really had been debating on what to do this year. We didn't quite feel right about chopping down our tree from a tree farm and we unanimously vetoed and artificial tree.
Then on December 22 our tree came to us in the way of a huge bough from our cedar tree falling in our yard, just missing the house and power lines.
My daughter came up with the idea of putting the branches in our kindling pot (a 2ft tall metal canister pot).
Once the lights and ornaments were hung we all delighted in our "Charlie Brown" tree.
It has started a new tradition for our family. Each December our 45ft tall cedar could use a little trimming away of a few of its branches.
Thanks for helping us to open our eyes to seeing how we can always reuse and recycle.
Happy New Year
Meg M. and Family,

She enclosed a photo of her daughter next the tree.

Meg, you inspire me!!! I thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing your family tradition. Your daughter's clever way to save a tree will spread for generations to come. I wish you and yours the very very best!

Shannon Quimby

Loft Bathroom

We have really enjoyed our loft bathroom. The air jet Toto Tub from Standard Supply Company (call Tina, she's the best!) is big and roomy. But the best part is, its' quiet when the bubbles are on! We used original window and door trim to face the front of the tub to give it some character. That also saved us about $75.00 by using our own materials

The vanity was hand built by Dennis Durhkoop. The under shelf is also original wood from the old house. My son Chase and I bashed it up with chains, rocks and dirt and splashed some paint and stain on top of it.

Both the deck and countertop are recycled concrete and glass. We got it at Ecohaus, and the product is called Trinity. Make sure when it's installed that the under edges are smooth. Ours were very rough and the installer had to come back and sand it down.

The sconces and vanity handles, (old door knobs) are a great find at Old Portland Architectural and Hardware