Outside

The garage, which is now an apartment, and the new shop.

Back deck stretches almost entire length of house. After digging out the sod I've planted blueberries, rhubarb, tomatoes, beans, chives and boxwood. The deer haven't found it yet but I think the geese really appreciate it...

New little side porch and shade garden.

The front porch addition and some landscaping. Since the front of the house gets morning sun, we have morning coffee here nearly every day. After 10 a.m. or so, the sun has moved toward the lake side. We've removed sod from all four sides of the house, as well as one side of the garage, for planting beds. This side yard is now full of white viburnum, white lilac and purple heathers. The front planting beds are heathers, dogwood, miniature rhodies, rosemary and slate stones found in the area. The beds against the front of the house and porch are all more mauve and purple heathers.

The center of the driveway is the property line between us and the neighbors, and this photo looks toward the road. We've just planted lavender hedges on both sides of the driveway!

The newly paved driveway made of Lake Whatcom Watershed approved permeable pavers.

Daryl pulling down dead alder limbs.

Neighbor Crash under the poplars.

Yes, it's a trailer. I think that when Daryl put it on this property 25 years ago he didn't foresee that it would be his primary home. I think it was intended to be a weekend and summer place. It's been very good for that, as well as a temporary home for family members who are between houses. But, now that he's retired and deserves to live on this beautiful piece of property, do we really want to live in a trailer?

Lake Whatcom Watershed has strict restrictions about what can and cannot be built on the lake. We had the option of taking this mobile home off the land and building new. The rules, though, were that whatever we built could not be moved to the left, to the right, any closer to the road or any closer to the lake, so, we had to stay on the same foot print that the trailer currently occupied. So, whatever we built was going to be the exact same size or be two story, which Daryl did not want. What he really wanted was a shop, and when we realized that the cost involved in removing the trailer could be better used for gutting and improving/remodeling it and also building a shop, it was pretty obvious what we would do. And, when it came down to analyzing the mobile home, it was already extremely efficient with new windows, new insulation and siding and the best floor plan I could ever imagine. So, we decided to keep it and work with it.

Working with it means we didn't dump it in a landfill, which is quite green of us! It also means that every cabinet has been removed and replaced with custom ones we love. It means that every doorknob and light fixture has been replaced, all the flooring has been replaced, decks and porches have been built, extensive landscaping, and every thing that could be changed has been changed. So, yeh, it's a trailer sitting on a million dollar lot but it's as close to perfect of a home as we could get.