For many of us, walking down our own street can provide a feast of holiday lights and decorations. You might even have that one neighbor whose seen-from-space display makes up for all the others. If you’re doing it yourself we already gave you our top 3 reasons to use LED Christmas lights. But if you’re in the mood for something less ambitious, you’ll be able to find it pretty close by.

Bethany: Is your house on fire, Clark?
Clark: No, Aunt Bethany, those are the Christmas lights.
- from Christmas Vacation

Of course, many options are available in Portland, Oregon. Our family has already visited Zoolights, one of my annual favorites. The displays of animal-themed lights at the Oregon Zoo are a delight. Just be sure to take a blanket or wear a long coat if you’re planning to ride the train – those metal seats are cold!

One of the many really cool lighted displays at Oregon Zoo's Zoolights.

Also in Portland, the Grotto’s Festival of Lights runs almost the entire month of December and features musical performances from local choral groups.

The lights on Peacock Lane, a neighborhood display that has been twinkling annually since the 1920s, will begin on December 15.

If you live in Vancouver, Washington and are looking for something a little closer to home, you’ll not be disappointed. On Thanksgiving weekend, Vancouver held their annual tree lighting ceremony in Esther Short Park. If you missed it, you can watch the video on YouTube. The twinkling lights in downtown are free for everyone’s enjoyment as you stroll through the park.

For the third year in a row, the Magical Lights on 63rd St. will be shining and raising money for the Make-a-Wish Foundation. This more than 40,000 light display is computer controlled with musical accompaniment that gawkers can listen to from the comfort of their car radios. Check the website for dates, times, radio station, and details on how to make a donation.

It wouldn’t be Christmas in the Pacific Northwest without some lights on the river. The Christmas Ships Parades are comprised of a fleet of 50-60 ships decorated with whimsical holiday lights. The fleets are divided between the Columbia River and the Willamette River with nightly sailings between December 8 and December 20. At their website, you can find photo galleries from previous years’ parades, route locations, and how to make a donation.

Are we missing anywhere

I’m sure we don’t have all the locales and it would be great to have a list of those streets with ambitious neighbors who put on a show. Is there a secret light display in your neighborhood? If so, leave a comment below or on our Facebook page and tell us about it and we’ll add it to the list.

Good weather

According to the Weather Channel’s website, we’re due for at least another week of cold, dry weather in the Portland metropolitan area. That makes it the perfect time to get out and enjoy some of the sights and sounds of the season. So wrap up in your coat and scarf, grab a cup of cocoa, and head outside for some nighttime holiday fun.

This elegant outdoor covered patio and kitchen is perfect for entertaining in all weather. Even if you're not going all-out on your design, your outdoor kitchen can be just as functional.

In planning for an outdoor kitchen when you live in the Northwest, the first thing that usually comes to mind is the weather, specifically rain. Don’t let that stop you. In other parts of the country, folks have to put up with wind, dust, pollution, temperatures that restrict outdoor eating and entertaining to the evening hours, and even tornadoes. So these considerations count for all of us. In the Northwest we’re really quite fortunate. The months when it’s the coldest we usually don’t consider eating out of doors anyway, and as far the rest of the year is concerned, protecting the kitchen and the guests usually isn’t all that difficult.

1. Don’t Let Worry Stop You Before You Start – If you don’t heed this piece of advice, you needn’t read further. Just consider the fact that there are going to be more than enough days of great or at least decent weather where you and your guests can truly enjoy all an outdoor kitchen has to offer.

2. Location – This recently was an issue of mine since my main grill and outdoor eating space is on a different floor than the kitchen. Honestly, I get tired of running up and down the stairs to the kitchen when I forget something. Try to keep your outdoor kitchen close to house and as close as possible to the main kitchen or be prepared to do a lot of walking while you cook.

3. Shade And Cover - Shade and cover doesn’t need to be permanent, if it were you wouldn’t really feel you were out of doors, and you don’t want to place your kitchen and guest seating in a tent. Screens or tarps, umbrellas, or any other type of portable covering needs to be part of your design. If things get bad enough, everyone can move inside, but that will probably happen much less often than you would expect. Umbrellas are particularly important, as most people don’t like sitting and eating under a hot sun any more than in a driving rain. Even here in the Northwest the outdoor eating season can be prolonged with well-placed cover, some heaters and a good sweater!

4. Create Visual Interest – Make your outdoor kitchen a part of the overall area. It can be more than a grill on a patio with a table and chairs facing the grill. Think of the parts of your kitchen, stove, grill, bar, fireplace, whatever, as parts of the landscape, pieces that should fit into the landscape. The truly excellent outdoor kitchen is not only functional, but aesthetically pleasing, a place you and your guests will want to spend some time. Since some, and possibly most of your entertaining will be in the evening, make lighting a top priority, be it strategically placed pathway lights, strings of lights, or tiki torches. The challenge is to provide enough lighting, but not too much. Don’t forget candles, or if impractical, hurricane lamps. Do a little “exterior” decorating.

5. Don’t Forget The Music – Make a sound system a part of your outdoor kitchen design. When we think of kitchens, we don’t usually consider music, but an outdoor kitchen is a place for entertaining, unless you expect everyone will go inside once they’re done eating. You may very well want to have a dancing area in your “kitchen”. Nothing wrong with that.

6. Where Do We Sit? – If you place the seating with everyone facing the grill or fireplace, as many designs dictate, you needn’t worry too much about the overall appearance of the surroundings. The grill has become the alter, and the guests are more or less forced to pay homage to it, and to watching you cook dinner. A good outdoor kitchen design doesn’t have to spotlight the grill, or the fireplace, or the bar. In fact its better it they are slightly off to one side. Let the guests see the back yard, the surrounding scenery if it’s spectacular, or the lawn, garden, or container plants. Living in the Northwest means there is plenty of greenery to look at and on the best days, deep blue skies. Arrange the seating so the guests can look at one another, not just the stove, grill, or bar.

7. How Do We Sit? – Even if your seating arrangements are integrated into the overall design of the kitchen, considerations of comfort should override those of appearance. Sitting on a stone bench isn’t as comfortable as sitting in a folding chair, though you may not care for the latter. When designing your kitchen, the comfort of your guests is as important as are the bells and whistles your grill or other appliances may feature.

8. What Do I Plan To Cook? – If you’re a professional chef, or even a fairly good amateur one, the sky’s the limit as far as the features you may desire your kitchen to have. If hot dogs or grilled finger food is about as far as you want to go, you probably don’t need a $50,000 kitchen except to impress. Granted, an outdoor grill by itself can’t really be considered a kitchen, but the money spent can go into seating, decoration, and landscaping if you really don’t need a top of the line grill, stove, refrigerator, sink, or portable bar. Put another way, if you plan on spending a considerable amount on your outdoor kitchen, learn to cook or hire someone else to do it.

9. How Much To Spend? – Assuming the sky is not the limit, you’re probably not going to want to spend more than you feel you have to. Even if your not going to be doing much more than using a grill, get a good one. If your design calls for a built in grill this is even more important, as although this can be a high-ticket item, it can cost even more have it replaced or repaired, which will likely happen eventually. Even if you save money by using a portable grill, it’s still important to get the best one you think you can afford. Even though the good old Weber that sits on three legs is practically as American as apple pie, you’ll want something larger and nicer appearing, especially if your design is to resemble an outdoor kitchen in any sense of the word.

10. Getting it Done – If you have the time and are willing to accept the challenge, you can manage some or all of the construction yourself. However, in some circumstances you’ll need to be careful. Just like building a home, designing and installing an outdoor kitchen takes planning and preparation. An experienced licensed contractor (like us!) has the skills and tips to make your vision come to life with a minimal number of “oops” moments.

11. Maintenance – This is the least exciting of the tips offered here, but nevertheless important. When you design your kitchen you need to design it with maintenance in mind. It is out of doors after all, and in spite of your most heroic efforts, things are going to get wet and sometimes dirty. This includes not only the appliances but everything else. Stone or ceramic you don’t have to worry too much about, but you’ll have plastics, fabrics, and painted surfaces that have to either be protected or cleaned up and dried out later. Even stainless steel can take a beating over time. It can mean a lot of work if you allow things to get out of hand. You want to plan for an outdoor kitchen that requires a minimum amount of maintenance knowing full well there are maintenance chores that will need to be done. Don’t let yourself become a slave to your kitchen.

If you’re interested in building an outdoor kitchen and live in the Portland, Oregon, or Vancouver, Washington, areas feel free to give Fazzolari Custom Homes and Renovations a call at 360-571-7027 or fill out our free consultation form and we’ll follow up with you right away.

A play structure has the advantage of not only giving the children a variety of activities, but allows their imaginations to run wild. A fort is always a fun place to hide in, protect, or try to capture. Climbing walls, vines or ropes help a child develop strength and coordination.

You can purchase a play structure as is, in about any size you wish, or in some instances take advantage of combo play structures, where you can join together two or more separate units.

We thought with summer finally here in the Pacific Northwest we would treat you to a set of great play structures, some for older kids, some for toddlers – bearing in mind that even a small play structure can seem pretty awesome to a toddler.

We’ll start with a play house we built for the 2005 Parade of Homes. One of my friends and neighbors liked it enough to bid on it once the show was over. As you can see, copper gutters and a built-in loft put this play house in the awesome category, though I think kids are generally happy with just about anything as long as it doesn’t have a bunch of spiders in it.

The CAD drawing below gives a sample of what a large play structure can look like. This particular model, by Miracle Recreation, covers an area of approximately 60 feet by 70 feet, and has among other features, an observation deck, a lookout tower, several types of climbers, including vine climbers, a slide climber, slides, and horizontal runways. This would be great for your the kids, but at $55,000+ it’s probably best for the local school’s playground. This one, in fact, reminds me a little of the one at the Felida park here in Vancouver.

In selecting a play structure of course you’re not limited to just those shown in brochures, as many manufacturers or retailers build their systems on a modular basis, giving the purchaser a highly customized end product. Some of these play structures come partially assembled, or are put together on site by the retailer or a contractor like us. Many, if not most, could be assembled by the homeowner, barring any restrictions on doing so out of safety or warranty considerations. Most of your larger and truly awesome play structures have foundations embedded in concrete. Smaller versions, such as those shown below, and designed for toddlers or those of preschool age are bolted down and can be somewhat portable.

The above play structures, also by Miracle, run in the neighborhood of $2,000 to $5,000 with many models to choose from.

As the children grow, so do the needs for a larger play structure, eventually getting to a size where Mom and Dad can sneak out for some time on the swings or recapture their youth by going down a slide.

The two examples shown below, both by Backyard Adventures, are of a modular construction, and can take on almost any shape or size. There’s no real requirement to purchase a large multi-functional structure if building one up module by module over time would better suit your needs.

Backyard Adventures features a concept which they call their Adventure Bridge, a component used for tying one or more structures together, as shown in the picture on the right. The bridge itself can be a home to a ship’s wheel, a telescope station, or when 5 feet or higher, become a perfect support for a tire swing. It’s not hard to visualize that given several bridges and several play structure modules, one could easily put together a play structure of truly awesome dimensions.

The structure on the left has these features:

• A Tree house
• A Cabin
• A Lower Cottage (hidden from view)
• A Sun deck and Porch
• Lemonade Stand
• 2 – 14′ Rocket Slides and a 12′ Slide
• 12′ Rocket Slide
• 2 – Adventure Bridges, with Binoculars and a Ship’s wheel, and possibly a Tire Swing.

I installed a set from Backyard Adventures for my kids, and it’s weathered pretty well over the past few years, as you can see from the photo below. (We got ours at The Kids’ Backyard Store in Portland, but you can also get residential ones at places like Costco – where prices start about $1,200.) Like any other piece of playground equipment, some periodic maintenance is going to be needed, but for the most part these structures tend to be low maintenance. I spray mine with the hose once a year and that’s pretty much it. Basically, these structures are designed and manufactured with heavy use in mind. One should reasonably expect to have playground equipment of this type in use for many years, perhaps for more than one generation, without a need for any significant repairs or replacement of parts.

When you stop to think about it, a play structure combined with other standard children’s recreational toys such as bikes, basketball hoops, or trampolines, is a much better investment than a second or third TV set, albeit much more expensive.

Most of us lived in an era where the backyard swing or swing tire pretty much made up our play “structure” and we couldn’t even visualized anything like the play structures currently available unless we visited a large city park or an amusement park. In more recent times, playground items like the “Jungle Gym” kept our kids busy, and when they grew up, it was the trampoline and the sports court where they spent many hours.

When you consider purchasing a play structure, whether it be an all in one package or you choose to go the modular route, you might think this is one of those play things the kids will quickly outgrow, after which it will stand neglected in the back yard. That’s always a possibility of course but through some careful choices it’s possible to “design” a structure that the children will have fun with for a number of years, after which children of guests and your extended family, and even your children’s children can have their turn.

A play structure such as some of those currently on the market can make a wonderful baby sitter while the adults visit. If you have family or friends over for a barbecue, the young ones will not constantly be underfoot once they see what’s out in the back yard.

Here’s hoping you have a great summer!