Avalon Northwest Landscape

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Yep, this back yard isn’t very large, but we have been doing plenty of construction for the renovation.  We have removed an old deck, waterproofed the house and built a new landing off the back door.  We have removed a gate and concrete drive to create a vegetable garden and orchard.  We have redesigned the pathways and created a usable lawn for their young boy.

As is the nature of small projects, much of what we are working on is nearly complete, with all of it coming together and wrapping up at the same time next week.

Sandwiched between the Duwamish River, the lightrail, a police shooting range and a hillside neighborhood lies a small hill with a lot of history.  As of September 18th, it will be the city of Tukwila’s newest park.

The park consists of trails and steps and viewpoints and even an outdoor classroom.  We have been involved with the construction of the park since it began last year, working under another company, Sahale.  Recently we have gotten involved again, taking the reigns and finishing up in preparation for the grand opening.

In the small photo to the left, you can almost see Mt. Rainier in the background beyond Rick. The camera didn’t do a great job of picking it up, but trust me, it is there and prominent!  The viewpoint pictured to the right overlooks the Duwamish and beyond. (Click on any of the pictures to see them in their full glory)

Victor, Jesse and Aaron have spent this week remodeling a back yard creating a grassy play space for a 3 year old boy and a garden for his parents.  We don’t have much to show right now other than what it looks like once the slate has been wiped clean so that we can begin to build.As things start taking shape, I’ll get some more photos up.

We installed the deck in the forested back yard and have finished the project.  I think it turned out great!

We are all finished with our Cougar Mountain job! Today the grading inspector came out and signed our final inspection. The guys are going to miss the nice drive up the hill through the woods everyday, but are also happy to be a little closer to home. Our crew has moved up to Richmond Beach and are working with Kevin on this new project. Man are we lucky, we went from a great view of Mt Baker on clear days to a beautiful view of the Puget Sound for an outdoor office. Kevin has us mostly finished with our demo and digging on the new job and we are on to starting our hardscape install! More on that later, but I’ll leave you with a few parting pictures of the Cougar Mountain Project. I will get back to you all soon and keep enjoying this wonderful northwest summer.

-Victor

It is starting to look like the vision in our heads.

Let me begin by sharing with you the playground that we worked on last month.  The water has been plumbed to some hose bibs and the school vounteers have been planting and are ready to care for the lawns.  So we returned for a partial day and rolled out the grass and tada!, instant landscape.

And this week at our forested back yard, we completed the juniper timber walls and steps.  The look turned out great.  We finished off the week by laying some grass on the level area at the top of the steps.  Next week we will build the deck and finish up.

We have nearly completed the timber walls and steps.  A few days ago it was just a hole in the hillside.

And now it’s looking like a real wall!

We spent the better half of this week adding timbers to the wall.  As with all things, the layout needed careful attention.  But once the base course was in, we were planning to kick it in gear and make up time for all the lost hours spent on the crazy difficult excavation.

And we did!  Unfortunately, we learned a few things about juniper timbers and their lack of uniformity.  So though we have developed a system and are placing timbers in the walls, there are a few extra steps with selection and squaring and planing boards that were not anticipated.

But take a look at this beautiful wood  -  it is natural and rustic, and really at home in this forest setting.

We ended this week installing the drainage and drain rock and going as far as we could before we need to excavate for the steps leading up to the small lawn area above.  Monday we will get the jackhammer back out and attack the soil under the proposed steps.

The junipers timbers have finally made it to Seattle, and we have them.

The excavation is completed, the crushed rock placed and compacted, the timbers imported, and we are ready to build some walls.

Yes, the base course is not juniper.  We had to wait for the juniper timbers to get to Seattle today so we decided to use pressure treated timbers on the base course (which will be completely hidden by the deck).  I’m hopeful that this move will also increase the longevity of the wall.  It’s funny how things work out.