So as previously noted, last Saturday our home was included in this year’s Methow Valley Home Tour, which had the theme “Firewise Homes: Fire Adapted Building and Landscaping.” We had gotten a good rating when we had the free Firewise evaluation done last fall, but still had some projects to complete outside, including setting up more of a green lawn perimeter around the house with a sprinkler system. We worked with Eric Carlton of Carlton Landscape Construction in Twisp. Rick had met him before on some jobs he worked on, and we know his wife’s parents.
Pavers leading into the house and down the side of the shop/studio building
Front plantings with dry stream bed – should fill in nicely in a year or two
The dry stream bed is more than decorative – it serves as a catchment basin for water that drains off both the house and the shop/studio building, and the pavers are set so that they drain into it as well. Trust me, this came in handy the last couple of weeks when we had the heavy thunderstorm downpours with hail!
New green grass perimeter with automatic sprinkler system to keep it that way:
On the day of the home tour, we also had the house and our studios open (some of the homes on the tour only had their yards available for visitors to look at). I am not sure how many people came, but at a guess 100-150 or so. It was an opportunity to show the work Rick has done here so far, and I made a display board and had business cards out. There were folks from the Confluence Gallery here to monitor the house, and someone from the Firewise program as well. It was really pretty fun but we were exhausted by the end of the day. That is more than partly because of all the cleaning and de-cluttering we did beforehand – yard, deck, house, studios. Cleanest it may be for some time!
Yesterday we slept in and then took a day off – what a concept. We went on a 4.5 mile hike to Blue Lake up in the North Cascades National Park just west of Washington Pass. Someone was kind enough to offer to take our picture with my phone….
Twisp of Fate 
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