Glendale Open Air Market

I stopped by the Glendale Open Air Market on Saturday. I was disappointed with not only where it was, but the lack of vendors. The market was in the parking lot next to A Mad Hatter's. I'm not sure why the planners think this is a good spot, but in my opinion it should be located in a more central area that is near as many storefronts as possible. Murphy Park or on 58th Drive between Palmaire and Myrtle would be much better locations. Closing off 58th Drive and having the Open Air Market here sets a wonderful tone for the event amongst the white picket fences and mature shade trees welcoming visitors to the Bungalows-turned-specialty shops, and Old Towne boasting brick-trimmed sidewalks and glowing gaslights. I got the last line from the Glendale Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The lack of vendors was also disappointing. There was next to nothing as far as food vendors go. I didn't see any agricultural produce or prepared food items typically present at more established markets.

Hopefully it will grow more popular and the vendor base will expand to include more food products and services. The Blue Myrtle House will eventually compliment this event or fill the niche the Glendale Open Air Market fails to meet. My hope is the Glendale Open Market becomes a raging success and a west valley alternative to the Phoenix Public Market.

Coming 2011!

Well that's the plan. Ideally I'd like to have the Blue Myrtle House constructed and open with vendors before the start of Glendale Glitters in November. The draftsman should have the plans permitted relatively soon and the financing should be in place by the end of the month.

Farmers Market and Coffee Bar

I finally decided on making the Blue Myrtle House an indoor Farmers Market and Coffee Bar. Thank you to all who participated in our poll.

Over the past couple of years I've been to numerous weekend farmers markets. If you've never been to a farmers market I recommend visiting the Phoenix Public Market. Although the Phoenix Public Market is no Des Moines Downtown Farmers Market it is one of the best in the area.

One of the things I kept hearing from the vendors at these events is how they are trying to get their products into the big grocery stores. I guess what they are saying is that they want to be able to have their items available to as many consumers as possible 7 days a week. The reality is that they are micro businesses compared to the companies that have products in the big grocers. The farmer market (micro business) vendor has a difficult time getting their items on the shelves of the big grocery stores. The truth is that if they were on the shelves of a state or national grocery chain they wouldn't be renting a booth at a weekend farmers market.

That's where the Blue Myrtle House comes in. The Blue Myrtle House is a micro version of Sprouts. We are a micro business giving other micro businesses the opportunity to make their products available 6 days a week.

I know that it's not enough just to have a place to have products available, people have to know about the Blue Myrtle House and vendor's products. One of the easiest most cost effective ways of doing this is by word of mouth. The more mouths the more words. In other words; get as many people as possible talking about your product. Two of the best ways of telling friends and friends of friends about what you are selling is by posting it on Facebook or Twitter. By talking about your product and telling people where they can buy it not only helps you but other people who are selling products at the Blue Myrtle House. You don't have to have a Facebook business page, you can do it from your own personal page. And you don't have to do it all the time. Letting friends and family know from time to time is plenty. Imagine a bunch of vendors selling at the Blue Myrtle House just occasionally telling their friends and family about their products. Together we could start a revolution! Micro-biz, micro-biz, micro-biz! Sorry, got carried away there for a moment.

I'm not officially taking vendor applications at this time, but you are welcome to tell me and others about your product by filling out the form at the bottom of this blog entry; Click Here.

Busting Up More Concrete

I finally got around to doing some more work this month. Since there is not much left to do before construction starts I took off Nov and Dec (Glendale Glitters). I've been putting off tearing out the walkway that went around the front of the house. It took three trips to get all the concrete to the dump. As it turned out it was just under 3 tons. I also tore out a pad of concrete on the back of the house, which was also about a ton of material. The pad looked like it was originally the floor for a shower that was added on years after the house was built. The pad has a drain cover and drainage pipe. I'm leaving the pipe in place as it will be extended to the new building at the end of the driveway.

I also cut off a couple of big limbs from the tree in the front yard. The limbs were hanging over/into where the house is going to be built. The new house is going to be a little bigger than the last. I did all this over the 4 weekends in January.

Google SketchUp

I found this cool program from Google called SketchUp. With it I am able to put my house plans into 3D. I'm just an amateur on it, but I got it figured out enough to draw up and model the house I'm going to have built. The smaller structure I'm building is going to replicate one of the original homes in Glendale built by the Sine family in the early 1900's. Below is a picture of the original house and my sketchup rendition of it. Go to this LINK for more 3D images of the proposed Blue Myrtle House and floor plans. There are a couple of photos of houses at the link that I got my idea for the Blue Myrtle House. Lemme know what you think!

I sent the house plan and model I came up with to several professional Draftsman for quotes. Hopefully I'll get these drafted soon and get a permit to start building.

Grass is Growing

Well the grass hasn't spread as much as I had hoped. I know I said it would be almost all grown over by now, but I've had a couple of problems with the irrigation. On two separate occasions the timers shorted out and didn't shut off. Both times the valve box filled with water and ruined the battery-operated valves. I was perplexed as to what the problem was because there was water everywhere and I couldn't find any leaks in the system. The entire side yard was flooded with about 3 inches of water. Man I was not looking forward to the next water bill. BUT that was where the mystery started. The bill was actually not that much. Long story short I finally figured out what happened. The lot next to me has monthly irrigation flooding and it leaked over into my lot and filled my valve box. I had to build up a berm where it was coming through. All good now.

Picket Fence and Bees

With the help of my father-in-law, Mike, I was able to get the picket fence erected around the driveway. I built the fence off site and then disassembled it into 8 sections for transport. We began by reassembling the sections and placing them in the holes I dug earlier in the week. We started about 8:30am and were in the shade.

Carol from the Cottage Garden II came over as we were setting up. She let us know the beekeeper was coming by at 11:30 to take care of the bees that were in the tree between my yard and hers. The only way to get to the bee-side of the tree was from my yard. Mike and I wondered how that would effect us since the tree was only about 20 feet away. By 11:00 we had the fence all in place, all that was needed was cement poured into the post holes. We decided to take lunch and come back in about an hour and a half to finish that part.

When we got back from lunch we didn't notice anything different around the bee tree. The bees were buzzing around more that normal, but they weren't really swarming. It didn't look like the beekeeper came so I went next door and asked Carol if he came. She said he did and that he said to stay away from the area for a couple of days. Well that was not an option since the last time I left my picket fence unsecured it walked off. I told Mike what she said and we pondered it for a few minutes as to what to do. We decided just to keep one eye on pouring concrete and one eye on the bees. Long story short we didn't have any problems. We got all the cement poured and called it a day.

House Idea

These two graphics should give you an idea of what the house will look like inside and out. I'm only at the first stage of planning. I sketched out the floorplan and googled "two story craftsman". I came across this house and it looked very close to the house I tore down. I liked the balcony especially on this house. I originally thought about a semi wrap around porch, but I like this better. Just imagine this house blue and this is what you can expect to see. Click to enlarge.

Variance Approved

I went before the Board that has the authority to grant building set-back variances. The hearing began at 6:00, by 6:30 I was approved for the set-backs I requested. The Board members asked a few questions about the plans for the property. I gave a brief overview of what I was planning to build and what I'd like to do.

Rio Grande Fan Tex Ash

With the help of Matt I finally got the first tree planted . I got up early and dug the hole. I was planting a 24" box so I had a lot of digging to do. Even though it was in the high 90's it wasn't too bad out, there was a heavy overcast sky. The tree is a Rio Grande Fan Tex Ash. It should look real nice once it matures.

Plugs and Pickets

Okay, I got my buddy Chris to fix the pipe I busted - thanks Chris! Fortunately I was nearly done trenching before calamity struck so I was able to start right into installing all the PVC pipe and sprinkler heads.

Everything went in pretty well. I got all the valves working too. Since I don't have electricity to the property I have to use battery powered valves. Home Depot has em' that run on a 9 volt battery. I set them to turn on a 5:30 am and run for 30 minutes. Not to bore you with the details but something went wrong and water filled up the valve box and shorted out the valves and one didn't turn off. Fortunately my good neighbor Dean called and alerted me to the flooding. I drove right over and shut the main valve off.

I stood there for a good 10 minutes scratching my head. I could not figure out what the problem was; no leaks, broken pipes, or overflow. The only thing that I should have done different was put the valves above ground level. Anyway, the valves were ruined and I had to reconfigure my orignal setup to get the replacements above ground level.

Everything is working fine now. I plugged the front yard of the Blue Myrtle House (Lot) with grass from the front yard of our house. Once I'm sure the sprinklers are going to work like I want I'm going to plant a tree in the west side of the front yard.

I've been working on a picket fence to replace the one that was at the end of the driveway. The original fence was pretty old and falling apart, besides that someone decided they needed it more than me and walked off with it in the middle of the night. All 22 feet of it! The old fence wasn't secured into the ground either. The fence I'm working on now is being constructed out of the old 2x4s from the house. I ripped and cut for a few hours to get the pickets the size I wanted.

These are pics of the where grass isn't in our front yard and where grass is in the front yard of the Blue Myrtle House (Lot). The holes in the front yard of our house should be overgrown in about a week. The Blue Myrtle House yard should be almost covered by November. I'll keep you posted!

Irrigation = Irritation

My goal has been to do has much as I can myself. In other words, not have to pay anybody to do something I am able to do myself. When I say myself that includes family and friends. It has been the help and prayers of family and friends that I am as far as I am. Without them I'd be nowhere.

Okay, having said that. Even though there are things I can do, I really really don't want to do them. For instance lawn irrigation. I am so tempted just to hire someone to do this, but I want to do it all. I'm not above renting machines and tools to help me in this endeavor which is what I did for this job. I started out with a pick and shovel, but the heat was too much. I decided I'd rent a trencher from Home Depot. One of the better decision I've made. It saved major time and effort. Todd helped me trench out about 100'. It was still grueling work, it was 100 degrees out, but we got it done. The only bad part was when I hit the main water pipe to the house. GEYSER! Man was I "unhappy" about that. Fortunately Dean and Charlie from across the street saw what happened and came to my rescue. I didn't have any tools with me to turn off the city valve. Dean was able to shut it off pretty quickly but there was water everywhere, mud too. The only good thing about it was I got cooled off from all the water raining down on me.

All right where we at; cost of renting trencher and cost of having pipe repaired. Hmmmm, what would have been cheaper me and Todd doing this or hire a professional? I'm still not done with this job, I've only got the trenches dug. I still gotta lay the PVC and put in sprinklers. I got the valves done, at least those are all ready to go.

Have you ever noticed that Todd is usually wearing a red shirt and I'm wearing a yellow one?