Gig Harbor got a substantial amount of snow over the weekend of Feb 9-11. Have the pictures showing  11″ of snow that stuck around for almost 10 days. Snow drifts from the even were still visible in till about March 15th.

The snow did a number on our the trees and plants in our yard.

3 trees that we will miss

1. Coral Maple  in the center area, Split into thirds due to the weight of the  snow on its branches.  We lost several other branches on the 4 remaining Coral maples. I started knocking the snow of starting Feb 10
2. Leland cypress  by fire pit. This was a 12 ” diameter almost 30′ tree that tilted over due to the weight of the snow. Totally uprooted
3. Leland Cypress  by raise vegetable hillside, inside the dog wire. This was a smaller 7″ diameter tree about 20′  tall. Was part of shielding the yard from the neighbors.

We lost additional trees, and branches around the yard

1. 10″ dia. 24′ cottonwood behind studio
2. 3″ dia.  14′ small Spruce by studio walkway, also damaged a few branches of the Leland Cypress beside it.
3. 3″ dia. 18′ small cottonwood on way to septic area
4. 4″ dia. 22′ small cottonwood on way to septic area, total of two
5. 10″ dia. 45′ Douglas Fir just north of the property line by walk to septic leaning against other trees in the area.
6. 6″ dia. 20′ Cherry tree by fire pit tilted over to into the scrub brush.
7. 4″ branch from a Douglas fir in the wood fall by the fire pit
8. 4″ dia 14′ dead  maple finally came down by french drain
9. 5″ dia 18′ weakened  maple on walk to Staging area
10. 3″dia Dead Maple over firewood in Staging area
11. 5″ Cottonwood by well
12. 4″ Cottonwood by well
13. Large  4″ diva. maple branch by fern area
14. Tall, not very healthy looking maple to the west of the well, lost a large branch, which is still partially attached.

It is amazing to think a year has gone by. Moved in November 9th 2017.

Here is a break down of what we accomplished in 2018.

• Fencing for Ellie
• Fencing for Orchard
• Sump pump for crawl space, New vapor barrier.  – Crawl Space solution.
• Fire Pit – Cone, Chairs,Plants, Bark,
• 1 x Swan for Fire pit.
• Debris clean out and mulched south forty
• Debris clean out and mulched north forty
• 1 x kelp sculptor – Tide Fest. Craig
• 2 x garden pagoda – Rosedale Gardens
• 2 x spiral trellis – Erin’s Landscaping
• 8 x copper caps for raised flower bed.  Amazon
• 5 x  orange glass flames – Gig Harbor Craft Fair
• 1 x Stain glass – Summer Artists at Botanical Gardens
• Painted 1/2 of Studio
• Live Edge Cabinets and Desk. -Endersaw Lumber
• Weather station Orchard.
• Lawn restoration
• Sprinkler repair
• Drip system for trees by street
• New TP holders for studio and upstairs bathroom
• Hung TV and made cable pathway in Studio Office area. Amazon
• Automation in Studio
  • Door Lock. – August
  • Phillips Hue
  • Door sensors
• New Patio Furniture –
• New Bench Front Door
• Added Led shop light and power drop -main room studio.
• 3 x  1/2 Wine Barrel in raised bed area.
• 2 Trees fell
• 1 Fence repair.
• Cleared out around stumpery and center section.
• 2 x New water filters. – Amazon
• New cabinet for modems in Studio.  – DIY
• Not including the routine maintenance of the property.
• Must have run the mulched for over 50 hours and close to 60 yards of mulch.

Looking forward to what we achieve in 2019.

On July 8th 2018 Mardi and I purchases two pagodas from Rosedale’s Nursery $302.

they are a yellows cast one tall and thin “Laurel” one short and wide “Hardy”.

The taller one is to the left of the walk way as you enter towards the front door, behind the bird bath.  The wider one  is on the path to the studio.  These make great additions and look like they always belonged in those locations.

The yard art is very satisfying in that it does not change with the seasons. Or requires trimming or watering.  So makes for easy care  garden details.

We now have a fire pit in a secluded area behind the green house. It is really nice. Bryce of Pacific Landscaping did the clearing / work.

we purchased a crushing cone from Dwyan out by the Columbia River. really nice day trip to pick it up.

We add crushed 5/8 minus black gravel for the area around the fire pit and we got two new steps for the stairs up to the fire pit.

thinking of putting some sea glass into the gravel to match with the glass in the concrete around the green house.  Will add pictures soon.

Now that the weather is turning nice and it is getting dark later. The patio was kind of dark. We got a price to pressure wash a section of  the grounds that was 1/2 the cost of a Stihl R600.

So we purchased one for the local Ace hardware store. Also got the $150 rotating nossile. which makes the job go much faster. Then I went out and washed the  patio, What a difference. Not the fastest job in the world takes about a minute to do 3+ sq ft.

Took about 1 hour for the flag stone and 2 hours for the patio.

You need to be careful with the moss/grass between the flagstone.

They should do this SouthPort. Cleans up nicely. Probably will spend days doing this, every 6 months.

This is something I would like to see Max “The Nasa base” Robot get trained to do.

The big question when we bought this house. was would there be another one like this available when we had to move out of Southport.  So by this time we would have needed to find and be in escrow.  Figure the cost to put in the fence and 6 months rent added 35K to the price.

So what is available at or below 935K.  Plus Zillow says we make 25K on the house in the 6 months.  This one looks like it would  work but 

There are a lot of homes that are in the 1250K to 950K range that are nice but now that the purchase  cut off date has pasted. It is clear that we would probably be spending more money for a house that is not as nice as this. The level lot, the lack of wood decks, the privacy. the house size. the studio make this a very good investment purchased when the timing was right.