Along the Garden Wall

Swedish rock wall

I love a garden wall!

Officially this house project is the third garden I will be creating from scratch. Even though neither of the other properties involved house construction, they were still "blank canvases" consisting of nothing but grass and a few tired rhododendrons around the edges.

With each design, I find myself drawn toward a more formal aesthetic and the use of geometry--straight lines and circles essentially--to provide structure to the garden. One of my favorite ways to express that geometry and to delineate spaces within a garden is with the use of hedges and rock walls.

Ode to a Tree

Our wood flooring is arriving in 3 days—yahoo! Not only am I excited to see it, but getting the flooring installed is critical to moving forward with cabinets, and then countertops, and then light fixtures, and then… Well, you get the idea.

Sequencing the work of building a house is one of the toughest parts of being your own general contractor, in my opinion. It reminds me of that old song “Dry Bones” (or Skeleton Bones). “The toe bone is connected to the foot bone, and the foot bone connected to the ankle bone…” Everything in its proper order and timing!

Gettin' Real

Yup, there is no denying it now--this house is happening and gettin' real! Here's a photo of the exterior as of a few days ago. In another week all the shingles should be on and the exterior essentially done (well, except for landscaping of course...)

I think it's fun to see how it compares with the architectural drawing--pretty darn close, huh?!

What All the Fuss is About

View of the Olympic mountains and Puget Sound from our attic window

With Seattle positioned between the Olympic and Cascade mountain ranges, Lake Washington, and Puget Sound, you don’t have to work too hard to see sparkling water or snowcapped mountains. The topography of Seattle itself with its many hills makes for plenty of lots with prime views. And those views—of water and mountains—are what all the fuss is about!

House Jewelry

For the last two weeks I have been literally and figuratively in the trenches figuring out downspout drainage for our site. To give myself a break, I stopped by Builder's Hardware Supply today to look at doorknobs. Now you might wonder how looking at doorknobs could be any more exciting than plotting drain lines, but I promise you it was.