Nicole and I bought our home here in Lakeridge in the South Seattle area in October of 2008. We had been searching for a home that fit our needs for months, with little luck. Nicole wanted to live close to her lifelong home in Ballard, in the heart of Seattle. Her best friend, Ingrid, her Father, and Mother all lived within a range of a few blocks to a few miles away, and we both loved the neighborhood culture in the Ballard area. Sadly, I felt that the homes (at least any we could hope to afford) in that neighborhood, while charming- were generally going to be a tight fit for us- what with our two cars, two motorcycles, two dogs, and many bicycles and other belongings. We visited beautiful historic broom closets all over Greenwood, Fremont, Central District, Georgetown, West Seattle and Ballard. Either too small, too old and beat down, or almost suitable but far out of our price range, these neighborhoods were essentially closed to us unless we were willing to seriously compromise our vision of what our first home should be. Nothing was even close to fitting what we needed. Finally Nicole consented to looking a little further afield for a suitable home. Our Realtor, Jen found us a few homes in the south end. One of the first we visited was the house we would come to know as Bluebird. The little blue house with the generous back yard instantly took our hearts and imaginations a running. It's a modest 1940's era home with a single bathroom, a glorified carport for a garage, and the upstairs floor is an attic style finished half story, instead of a full upper story with it's own bathroom, but the home was attractive, with a well groomed front lawn and hedge, and a fully fenced backyard with a concrete patio and plenty of grass for the dogs to play on. In fact, the backyard was maybe the thing that struck us both most strongly about this little house on the South end. Nicole had been gardening in the small back yard of her Ballard duplex for years, growing her favorite flowers, Dahlias, as well as herbs, tomatoes, squash, and some grapes, and I had come to really enjoy helping her care for the plants in our modest space. We knew that we would plant a garden in our new home wherever we found ourselves. The back yard of the little blue house was huge by our standards, totally flat, and without a single tree obstructing the sunlight from shining down on our as yet unplanted crops. We both began fantasizing about the wonderful variety of plants, flowers, and in my case- vegetables we could grow in such a place. For Nicole, Ballard may not have been forgotten, but it was no longer a factor in deciding where we were to live. We were sold after five minutes touring the home. We made an offer the following day, and thankfully it was accepted, and we moved in a few short weeks later. Ingrid was the first to visit the house, before we even closed and moved in, and standing on the sidewalk out front with Nicole, quickly dubbed the home "Bluebird". Although initially I was reluctant to bestow such a cute name to my new abode, the name stuck, so there you have it.
Fall season update- Sadly, Peggy the giant bunny can easily surmount our little fence and has raided the fall planting of lettuces and baby Bok Choy more than once already, putting some of them at a severe disadvantage. I'm not sure if they will all pull through or if Peggers won't get them all before I kick her butt out of the garden. We'll post pics of the fall planting including bunny damage soon. Pics include shots of a soup made from the Delicata squash and Basil from the yard, homemade pesto, and Fried Green Tomatoes, which were de-lish! Though we didn't grow them, Nicole and here Dad Phil made tons of awesome homemade "Cold Packed" Dill Pickles. Yum!
