Taking possession of our new house

On Sept 7, 2013 we took possession of our beautiful new home in East Vancouver, WA, just across the I-205 bridge from Portland OR. The professional photographer's photo really shows the house to its best advantage. This is the best of both worlds... it is very close to all the great things Portland has to offer, including no sales tax on purchases, but located in the state of Washington where there is no income tax. It is also close to the Steamboat Landing Marina where we are now mooring our Catalina Sailboat . We are actually downsizing from our Lake Oswego home of more than 4000 SF to a little over 3000 SF, but with the side entry garage with window on the right side of the house, the new house looks much larger than it is.

Work was immediately begun on the new home. The first major change was to upgrade the cheap builder grade Milgard windows with all new top of the line Cascade Windows for the house. 32 windows total. We had these installed on our Lake Oswego house many years ago and always appreciated the quality and beauty of these windows. We opted to improve visibility through the windows by eliminating the phony window panes look, which are nothing more than vinyl grids embedded inside the thermopane glass, thereby gaining a much cleaner look as well. Replacing all the windows in a house is one of those projects you really like to have done before you move in.

Here's a shot in the back yard during the windows installation process. I was at the house every day, all day for the duration of the project to be sure everything was done according to my specs. The contractors did a great job, but I still managed to catch them in a couple of mistakes which were easily corrected before they were made more permanent. There's just no substitute for monitoring a contractor closely all through a project. The photo at the left was one of those moments when I questioned my sanity.

Here's the back of the house in the late afternoon sun after the window replacement and siding repair job (and painting) was completed. We tried to balance window styles to obtain a unified appearance yet still provide maximum options for cross ventilation. We did not change the size or location of any window openings, however, as this would add greatly to the cost of construction. These new energy efficient thermopane windows have a higher Low E or 'Low emissivity' rating providing better insulation against heat and UV light. And eliminating the original grid windows greatly improves the view and gives it a much richer look.

Here's the front of the house after the window replacement and siding repairs are complete. The project was completed in 3 days and looks great. Next step will be interior painting. Exterior painting will take place in the next couple weeks as weather permits. After painting it will be a tricolor scheme ... light tan for the siding, Miller Paint's Illusive Dream, a brighter color for the corner trim and a darker tan for window trim, giving it a decidely more 3D appearance.

On a Sunday and day off from the work being done on the new house, we went out to the Nice Plants Nursery in nearby Damascus, OR which has some great trees. We picked out three - two absolutely beautiful Golden Deodora Cedars (left) - each about 10' tall to be planted next to the driveway where we took out some messy old fruit trees. We also bought a gorgeous Bakeri Blue Spruce . This nursery has a lot of stock and we will choose a number of other shrubs and bushes to finish out the landscaping. They cannot dig them for transport until about mid October. But we put our name on these three for starters.

On October 12 we finally moved into the new house some 9 weeks after we closed escrow. It was a lengthy process starting with giving the sellers a month leaseback to pack for their move to the east coast. Then came the replacement of all windows with high quality LBL/Cascade windows and siding repairs. We also had the entire house painted inside and out, we replaced the carpeting in the living and dining room, installed a doggy door for the Westies, and started the ball rolling on extensive landscaping enhancements. We're planning a few other changes, but the house looks more or less complete now and very handsome indeed! Lighted pumpkin decor is for Halloween!

About a week after we moved in the landscape work was completed. The most extensive relandscaping was done in the side yard. Originally there were just some messy fruit trees there on a sloping yard with a haphazard scattering of rocks in a vague semblance of a retaining wall. We added an extra section of cedar fence to create a little enclosed yard where we can keep our kayak on its trailer as well as miscellaneous other articles like ladders and so on. We removed the useless cooking fruit trees and replaced them with a couple gorgeous Golden Deodora Cedars. A Cottage Stone retaining wall, some pretty shrubs, a reworked sprinkler system and a generous helping of bark dust completed the manicured look for the new area.

Here's another shot of side of the house with the garage and the side yard... taken on the corner from across the street to show the whole place in perspective. The house really looks a whole lot cleaner from this side than when we bought it. Compare this original view , borrowed from Google Maps street view with the same angle at the left. The Golden Deodora Cedars really look great there. They are perfect for the space... they're slow to moderate growers which may reach 25 to 35 ft. tall & a maximum of 15 ft. wide, unlike the standard Deodoras which can reach 80' high and 30' wide.

Here's a shot of the backyard. We planted a marvelous 10' Bakeri (a.k.a. Colorado) Blue Spruce in the corner, and rebuilt the stone wall around it. We evened out the shrub beds and replaced the weedy miscellaneous plantings in the planter box along the patio with 5 Boulevard Cypress trees which can be shaped ultimately to create a nice privacy hedge. An 8' lattice work section later completed the fence border where we planted star jasmine for more privacy, color and fragrance. We reworked the irrigation system with 5 new electrically operated sprinkler valves and a new professional grade Rainbird controller

Here's one of the great things about living in this neck of the woods... as we approach our exit off Hwy 14 just a couple miles down from our new home, we are greeted with this view... a classic Mt Hood photo opp. Majestic Mt Hood rises up from almost sea level to over 11,000 ft elevation in a very short distance. It is snow capped year round and in winter and spring is is always spectacular. Mt Hood Meadows and Timberline resorts both offer excellent snow skiing and the Hood River Valley with spreads down from Mt Hood to the Columbia River is loaded with forests, streams, orchards and so much more.

Another great part about life in the northwest are the autumn colors. Few places in the country provide as vivid a display of colorful fall foliage as the Pacific Northwest. Some of our friends prefer to live in places like Arizona with warm weather year round... but it's the arrival of the cool fall weather which provides the brilliant colors of autumn. We enjoy visiting the southwest in winter in our motorhome, but we much prefer living in the lush green landscapes in the spring and summer over the arid desert terrain. And as it shifts seasons in the fall, there's just nothing as breathtaking anywhere as the autumn leaves.

And then there is arrival of spring. There are many places famous for their cherry blossoms but none of them have a thing on our neighborhood, which explodes in color every spring with the incredible Cherry Blossoms. We should have our own Cherry Blossom festival! To the left is a photo of our own side yard taken in March 2014 with one modest cherry tree alongside our new landscaping. But I took another half dozen photos of the more dazzling neighborhood displays on my morning walk with the dog and created a special page for the cherry blossoms, with all the photos being taken within a block or two of our home.

Here's one final shot of our lovely home captured from Google Maps Street View which appears to be from spring 2015 when everything is bright green and in bloom. This is exactly how our pride and joy looks today, courtesy of Google, with no photographer enhancement.

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