I find it a little difficult to admit to the absolutely unplanned magic in my new home. Six months ago I had a logger friend of mine haul off 5 to 6 tree trunks to his portable saw mill to create some veneers to skin the glu laminated beams exposed in my great room ceiling. I wanted to respect the sacrifice of nature allowing me to build my new dream.

A couple weeks ago I was sweeping the new engineered prefinished beech hardwood floors (supplied by Decca Hardwood Company), stunning, though most of the flooring surface was covered with construction paper for protection during construction. I glanced up at the beams, then down to the flooring, a wonderful accidental compliment. The dark/light alternating strips in the floor were very similar to the different layers pattern contained in the suspended glu lam beams, and I’m going to cover that over. . .I don’t think so.

About 2 months ago we were at Hayes Cabinets in Woodland, Washington, and among the multiple decisions being made was the species of wood and the color of the stain.

Subsequent to that process I was choosing a stain color for the exterior siding. When I was a young builder, I had the pleasure of working with Arlie Lou Knight and Wanda Vinton on my first Street of Dreams homes. Arlie had devised an exterior color that was a special combination of Olympic Semi Transparent brown and gray stain colors, when no one mixed custom combinations. Recently, I went to Lakeside Lumber, my chosen supplier for prestained high quality siding products, and asked if I could get that special color mix. No one had any idea what I was talking about. It had passed into eternity.

After multiple blending approaches of different ratios of their new stain products. . .There it was, Arlie’s special color resurrected. And guess what, it is the same color as my interior cabinet stain. Thank you, God!