Monday morning... such a badass day I went and locked the keys in the house.

So this Monday morning was a joke. Jumped outta bed 40 minutes early, got ready for work with the swiftness, ate breakfast, got Pudge ready to go to work and ran out the door. What did I forget to do? To grab the flipping keys!!! My luck Lori had also left for work early, and I had to hang out in the back yard. In the sun, with my dog. Bummer right? Yeah, no, no it was a great hour in the yard. I did remember to grab the camera though, so here are a few pictures from a sunny monday morning in snohomish county.


















Plum blossoms.













The crew sharing a sliver of sun, they would like you to think they hate each other, but all bets are off when there is sun involved.














Pudge getting some rays.














Biff through the front windows, wishing he were allowed
outside too.













Close up of the 'Orangalo' Japanese Maple going on 3 years old.




















Before and After pics of a Cypress tree (i think...) I've bent using rope and some stakes. It used to go straight up and down, but I wanted to see what would happen if I tied the top to the ground. A year later I removed the rope and wow, it's really bent. One thing, be careful of where you tie the tree down, I had to really try to get the rope out of the fold. Next time I'll change the spot a few times through out the bending process. Now I'm going to try and fan out the branches on the top and bottom to create a "natural" tree screen.
















New pot of 12' tall Arrow bamboo. We've now got 5 species of bamboo growing at the Chestnut house. Arrow, Rufa, Bissetti, Ascalata and some variegated stuff I don't know the name of.











Close up of one of the types of succulents that we've got around.






New Dwarf Fuji apple tree, soon to come is the surrounding 'guild'. We are trying our hand at permaculture.































New topper to our first bed built last spring, trying to extend our growing season anyway possible.

















Another angle of the raised bed with green house topper.








Two smaller herb beds. Notice all those bricks, they are gone again. Wait and see where they are getting used next, think fire and sticky sweetness.














Pudge strolling up the path, smelling the flowers and soaking up the rays.





Thanks for stoppin' by and checkin the secne again. We've been staying busy, tons of new plants going in and stuff going on. Lori added a few new beds, a couple apple guilsds under the apple trees and pulled up a our 500 brick outdoor patio. Will post more pics soon.

After a post little marination..

Post, first Post thoughts... and disclaimer?

Now that I've had a couple days to marinate on the first post, it becomes more and more obvious I'm not gonna be able to share everything we've done in one or two giant posts. Nor do I think I could successfully relay everything in one stream off the top of the head. It would end up as a pile house & yard make over brain vomit all over the screen and then where would we be. Lost one is where, with a bunch of missing somethings in the middle and not like it's any fun to read a blog that was only two posts long.

Fyi, sometimes I can be scatter brained and probably am a tad on the O.C.D. side and probably a little off my rocker at times I've been told. So if I bounce around here and there, bringing up random crap along the way. It happens, enjoy.

I'm really going to try and post as often as time permits but with spring finally teasing us, sunny days in the yard will be more plentiful(cross you fingers, always seems to rain on the weekends all though last weekend was rad) and with deadlines on the horizon at work who knows when I'll actually get the blog caught up or get the beds planted. The ball is rolling lets see where it takes us.

So yeah back on topic, the point of this whole blog thing is to write down, log, track, relive err maybe remember and share with you guys where the hell we've been and what the hell we've been doing for the past 18 months. For those of you that have been with in an earshot of us anywhere through out this roller coaster we've been on. There is a real good chance you've heard a lot of this already or you might have been down in the trenches with us or rather under the house or on the roof. And for those of you that are hundreds or even thousands of miles away who we don't see often or ever, and don't write or call enough. Here's the long and short of what's been going on over the past couple a years.

I'm kinda coming up with the format for this as I go, sort of writing as it comes to me. If I miss something, feel free to blurt it out. Not that I'll listen all the time but it's worth a shot! Might be just the foot in the ass i was looking for. I think what I'll do is hit up different parts of the remodel we've been through already, and throw in chunks of projects we are either in the process of like planting bamboo. Then throw in some garden posts and hopefully get caught up enough with the past that we can start thinking about our future ideas or dreams.

In the next post I want to go into who we are, what was important to us when buying our first home. I'll go into where we wanted to live and where we actually ended up planting our feet. As well as things we started learning instantly, about buying a house in an area you aren't familiar with. Thanks again for reading along.











Happy Plantings!!!
Nate & Lori @ 47.98°N 122.21°W

Everett to Earth, this is our house.

Hello, Hello,Hello

I would like to welcome you to the first page of our blog, hopefully you will enjoy our journey through the dance of remodeling and change that is our life in the past couple years and for the years to come.

I've decided in the past couple weeks, that I should start keeping track of the stuff we do around the house and yard in a journal or log of some type. Not only as a way to track the changes to our home we've made, but as a reference tool in the garden tracking growth and output.

This thought came to me when I was struggling to think of all the stuff we've gone through along the way, and all the crazy changes we've made to the house already. This continues to be the tune when we venture outside and try to remember everything we've done in the garden so far. Like what we've planted, where these plants are and how old the are.

Realizing I can't remember what I had for dinner the night before, there is no way I can successfully remember all the stuff we've done to the house in one fail swoop. Let alone try and relay to someone effectively what we've been up in and around the house for the last year and a half, with out something slipping through the cracks in my head.

So... This is where a 'journal' or 'house log' comes into play, and rather than keep all our experience to ourselves in the pages of some notebook on a book shelf or stuffed in a stack of magazines in a pile somewhere. I figured starting a blog to share our adventure in home ownership with our family friends and strangers alike would be a good place to start. Not only does this give us a way to track and see the progression of our Everett Oasis for ourselves. But will allow other folks from remodelers to websurfers alike whom are treking down a simalar paths, a chance to see how we as first time home owners approached the hurdles that come along with owning and updating an older home.

Starting this blog also gives us a place to organize and formulate all those remodeling ideas and todo lists that get scribbled down on drink napkins, the landscapes drawn in the margins of school papers, or the countless drawlings scribed on the back of envelopes or bills to a place where thy can be expanded on.

Since this is our first blog, I hope y'all will have patience with us as we are learning the ropes of blogging and stumble along the path remodeling. In the posts to come I want to give an overview of where we started with our renevation and what we've done to get to the point we are at now. Remodeling is an ever changing adventure of ups and downs, but once you work out the kinks or remove the 80's decor. Remember a little motivation and a good idea of what you want to achive in the long run, coupled with a crap load of elbow grease, can turn your stressful box of worms into your idea paridise for years to come.

If anyone one has any suggestions or comments for us, or would just like to share their remodeling adventures, please do share!!! Free knowledge makes the world go round.


Thanks,
Nate @ 47.98°N 122.21°W