Just in time to escape the dusty excavation mess John, Ryan and I spent a few days away from our project shopping for new plants and stone steps. We found most of the large plants on our list at one local nursery and thankfully their delivery fee was reasonable because there was no way the trees were going to fit in our Subaru.
The next day found us an hour outside of the city looking through a stone yard packed full of an overwhelming assortment of colors, textures, sizes and shapes.  With a map in one hand and coffee in the other we walked across the property to the farthest corner of the lot looking through pallets and piles of stone for dry stack steps.  Cowboy Coffee Quartzite was the perfect color and size for our project and as an added bonus I really like the name but wow, five of them together weighed over 3,600 pounds.
Our new steps and terraces were installed Monday and we hope to plant the largest Vine Maples along the side yard in a few days. As soon as a new watering system is ready to go the rest of the plants will leave their temporary location on the back patio and settle into our new front yard. This summer brought the Seattle area a record-breaking stretch of dry weather but I’m afraid our luck won’t hold and I can’t help worrying one rainstorm will turn the newly spread topsoil into a river of mud if we don’t plant it soon.
The new driveway will be ready for cars by Monday so front porch construction should start next week and I plan to post pictures of the building process as well as a peek at the new driveway and garage doors for my week 3 update.
If you are new to Northwest Frame of Mind and want to follow this project from the beginning please take a look at my first two posts in the series:
Northwest Frame of Mind 
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