Spring Home & Garden 2021

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Gardening going strong

From 2020’s COVID jump-start, sales are likely to stay high-level

By Elisa Claassen for the Lynden Tribune

WHATCOM — Spring in Whatcom County has gone from being 40 degrees by day to now 70-plus degrees in recent weeks. Suddenly many owering trees and spring bulbs are in full bloom. Locals are jumping into action to create their own ower-rich and veggie-luscious gardens at home.

ose in gardening retail need to prepare far beyond their customers just looking for sunny weather.

“We started our ordering process last fall (for 2021),” said Dean Hendricks of Ace Hardware in the Fairway Center. “Usually Ace Hardware has a national convention where we see current and new lawn and garden products. A lot of our buying is done then. However, with COVID we had to do this virtually.”

e longtime owner at Ace recently sold to long-time employee Brandon York, but Hendricks is still much involved in the gardening department or wherever needed throughout the store.

“As far as trends, we are seeing a lot more battery-powered tools sell,” he said. “We sell both Echo and Stihl. With the new battery technology, customers like the ease

and quality of battery-powered (versus electric) tools.”

Hendricks said the gardening industry was very strong last year. “Customers were home because of the epidemic and did a lot of yard work.”

He anticipates vegetable gardening to continue to be strong, similar to last year’s pattern.

“With COVID restrictions in manufacturing, and a lot of people gardening, a shortage of canning jars and lids has been a big issue. We have some in stock now, but shortages will continue through the season.”

While many locals are used to bringing their own pots and hanging baskets to the Ace parking lot tent for help in repotting — supplying both the labor and the potting/ planting soil — they won’t be o ering that as a single-day event this year but still have a large assortment of plants.

Another long-time go-to gardening business in Whatcom County is Joe’s Gardens in south Bellingham. e farm was established there in Happy Valley in 1933 by Joe and Ann Bertero. Karol and Carl Weston took over operations in 1983. eir sons Nathan and Jason Weston now run it.

“ e trend is already in full swing. It is becoming increasingly di cult to source certain products because demand is so high again this year,” the Joe’s helpdesk replied in email answer to questions.

Although located in Bellingham with a farm stand on site, Joe’s also sells plants and plant starts to other retail locations, making

deliveries to Lynden and to Skagit County.

Joe’s recommends new gardeners “start simple and enjoy the process.”

Whatcom County Gardeners is a local online gardening group with 9,200 members on Facebook. ey share gardening goals by asking each other for ideas and help. Not everyone has the same approach. Many are happy to have the joy of colorful owers while others want more practical advise on growing their own foods.

ese are a sample of comments:

Jeannette Oslie Drain: I’m trying swiss chard, two di erent kinds of sun owers, Walla Walla onions, and a lettuce mix, along with regulars of zucchini, cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, beets and lettuce (grown for ducks). e main garden is 60 by 20 feet with a strip of 5 feet by 60 added for tomatoes. Everything is from seed this year; considering starts next year.

Carole Teshima: More container gardening because of rabbit problems. ey’re cute, but pesky! Bulbs, tomatoes, everything is doing well because they don’t get eaten.

Elizabeth ies: I wanted to support local farmers so signed up for a CSA veggie box. I’m planting 90% for pollinators this year. e remaining 10% is herbs. Usually more of a 50/50 mix and mostly in containers. No trouble getting supplies. A coworker got a group together large enough for Cedarville Farm to

deliver to our workplace.

Marcia Hoelzen: I had some trouble nding seed varieties that I use routinely for veggies. I did eventually get what I needed, but had to ‘beg and borrow.’

Deven Vilar: Last year I struggled a little bit with my tomatoes being pollinated enough. is year I am planting some cosmos and zinnias near my tomatoes to encourage pollinators. If I had more room, I would do more veggies, but owers are what makes my heart really sing. So I just do tomatoes, squash, and greens. e rest is a beautiful mix of dahlias, cosmos, zinnias, ranuculus, anemones, corn owers, and a bunch of other beautiful things. is is my fourth year of gardening.

Korey Krause: I’m actually growing more owers this year! Lots of dahlias and sweet peas. ey were such a bright spot during the pandemic and something fun and cheerful to check on each day, watch grow, and share with others. I will still grow the veggies and berries we eat the most, like lettuce, kale, zucchini, strawberries, blueberries, herbs in a few raised garden beds.

Stephanie Stargell: I am growing what I know we will eat and what I can preserve via canning, dehydrating, and freezing. I decided to go “all in.” I am a little scared. It started because I wanted a ton of tomato varieties and then it mushroomed.

A customer makes her selections at the Lynden Ace Hardware outdoor tent.

The plants are in the ground, or almost, at a Lynden backyard garden.

Tiny homes in the big outdoors

Lynden’s West Coast Homes offers three models of construction under 400 square feet

By Brent Lindquist brent@lyndentribune.com

LYNDEN — Tiny homes can’t be any bigger than 400 square feet, and Lynden’s West Coast Homes has honed the art of making the most of small spaces.

“I know mobile homes have a very negative connotation, but we build these like custom homes,” said Laura Faber, project manager and interior designer with West Coast Homes. “ e only thing that is di erent is they get manufactured on a steel chassis and they have wheels.”

When a customer buys a tiny home from West Coast Homes, the state Department of Labor & Industries has already approved of the plans. e agency treats this more like a vehicle than a home. Homeowner touches can soften the fact it’s a mobile home in size.

First created in 2011 as a division of Faber Construction company, West Coast

Homes got its start building tiny homes in 2015.

“We kind of started building them for Wildwood Resort on Lake Whatcom,” Faber said.

West Coast Homes did all the infrastructure for the resort and the tiny homes were built in the Chehalis area. ere were some issues with quality control, so the resort asked if West Coast Homes could tackle the actual building of the homes, and another branch of the business was born.

“We gured, we build big buildings, so we could probably gure out how to build small ones,” Faber said.

West Coast Homes o ers three di erent models of tiny homes termed the Salish, the Bellevue and the Glacier. Each o ers something a little di erent to the buyers who choose them. e Salish, for example, o ers a living room area that boasts many windows for a great deal of natural light. e Bellevue is West Coast Homes’ most popular model, with its gradually inclined staircase and spacious loft. e Glacier brings a more modern feel, maximizing the space allowed and featuring transom windows in the transition from inside to outside.

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Many tiny house owners choose to customize their homes with outdoor and connected add-ons. (Courtesy photo/West Coast Homes)

Each of these models has been approved by L&I, and while certain parts don’t change much from home to home, there are components that buyers can customize to their liking. In the Bellevue, for example, there’s an optional co ee bar/pantry cabinet, and the roof can be either pitched or at, with the latter option allowing for a rooftop deck. e Salish features a perfect place for a replace, along with spots for built-in cabinets and a movable island.

Loft areas don’t count toward the maximum square footage, Faber said, as their height doesn’t rise above the ve-foot mark.

West Coast Homes has started construction on the company’s 33rd unit at their Hannegan Road lot just across from the Faber Construction headquarters near Hinotes Corner. While most of these homes aren’t used for full-time living, some customers do choose that route.

“We’ve built probably two units where the people actually live in them full-time,” Faber said. “Both actually brought their units to

their daughter or son’s property and just put it on there as an outbuilding on that property.”

Faber said many people are leaning toward minimalism these days, which is part of why tiny homes have become so popular. People who love the outdoors are often drawn to tiny homes, as many of them see homes as places to sleep between trips outside.

“ ere are so many people who just enjoy the outdoors, so why have this giant house if you’re going to be just exploring in your backyard anyway,” Faber said.

e three Faber Construction tiny home models range in starting price from $140,000 to $160,000, and Faber said that putting less money into homes and more into experiences is becoming more and more popular with people.

Laura Faber runs West Coast Homes with her brother, general manager Raymond Faber, and customer support and administrative o ce manager Kristi Faber. Visit WestCoast-Homes.com for more information.

Left: A variety of customization options are available in each of the three tiny house models o ered by West Coast Homes. Variations include storage space, kitchen islands and inset wall spaces.Right: West Coast Homes has multiple tiny houses in various states of construction on its Hannegan Road lot. (Brent Lindquist/Lynden Tribune)

The finished tiny homes are transported to their destination sites on their built-in wheels. (Courtesy photo/West Coast Homes)

Staging a house is her specialty

Lindy Stuit can make a place attractive to buyers within two hours

By Elisa Claassen for the Lynden Tribune

WHATCOM — It’s a “hot” real estate market for sellers right now, although that

can always change. Showing a home o to best advantage may mean a signi cant di erence in extra dollars.

To that end, “I take a house and make a home,” summarizes staging specialist Lindy Korthuis Stuit of Lynden.

Even doing simple staging, not taking much time, can “totally change” the atmosphere of a home, and the seller will “get (the investment) back in the sale.”

Stuit is a mother of four and a book-

keeper in addition to being a home stager. A 1996 Lynden High School graduate, she spent ve years as a nanny for a family before marrying Ben Stuit and starting their own family.

“I was always told I had a gift for decorating,” she said. “It’s intrinsic. I loved to redo my bedroom in youth.”

In the Stuit home on the west side of town, she has trained her children where to put their items to keep everything or-

derly. It is also a fun home and the basement attests to that, with great places to hang out and play with swings bolted into the ceiling that can support adults, couches and a Lego wall.

She wasn’t looking for a staging career. It came to her. She got a call. A real estate agent made inquiries with friends. Did anyone know of someone with a skill set to stage homes? It resulted in doing ve homes in two years for that agent.

Now she is well prepared and has been collecting an array of tools of the trade. An assortment of furniture and décor elements has been obtained and put into a shed and a cargo trailer. A teen son gets paid to help load and unload furniture and arrange it. As a team, the pair can transform spaces more quickly than home owners or busy real estate agents could do: two hours.

Lindy Stuit does home and o ce decorating in general and holiday displays for people as well as the real estate home staging she has developed as her niche. (Courtesy photo/Sparrow Home Decor)

Lindy Stuit first got a call from a real estate agent to try her hand at staging a home before she decided to keep doing it as a business.

Two hours? Most people are still writing their “to do” list in that timeframe. Pictures on her Facebook page show what she has done and can do.

“I like to nd the beauty,” she said, adding, “It’s a blessing and a curse.”

Stuit said she constantly notices things around her, assessing what she would do to rearrange, x and replace. She got her business license and launched Sparrow Home Décor through Facebook in 2020.

“ is name came to me over a year ago when I went with a friend to a church function for women. A speaker there talked about the little sparrow bird and how our lives could be compared to it.

“Although it is small in this big world, the sparrow is both powerful and productive. Its persistence and integrity show us that we do not have to be big to make a di erence and we must work for what we want. We also do not need to have the biggest and best things in order for our voices to be heard. In many cultures, the sparrow symbolizes happiness, hope and self-love. ey are also a symbol of creativity, community, friendliness and the importance of simplicity. ese are all things I strive to do when putting my touches into a home so the name ‘Sparrow’ seemed to be the perfect business name for me.”

Not only does she o er staging, but will also decorate and reorganize homes for clients who might not possess that skill themselves.

Her style is a “simple” one. She doesn’t like excessive clutter. She prefers a simple color palette. Her approach is outlined in her contract: set up the look with her furniture on a month’s basis, which can be extended if desired. Her rates are competitive in the market. e basic plan is to address the living room, the kitchen and dining space, and bathrooms. She can add on additional rooms for an extra charge.

Sparrow Home Decor has accumulated an assortment of furniture and decor elements, stored in a shed and a cargo trailer, that can quickly be placed to brighten or transform a space. (Courtesy photo/Sparrow Home Decor)

If a space for sale is empty, it is better for attractiveness to prospective buyers to have it look more like it is being lived in, and that's where the services of Lindy Stuit as a real estate stager enter in. (Courtesy photo/Sparrow Home Decor)

Bright and open, and ordered space

Dykstra family achieves goals — plenty of windows, south exposure — in home built amidst COVID

By Elisa Claassen for the Lynden Tribune

LYNDEN — Rob and Liz Dykstra were living just a short walk away from where they knew the open acreage of an elderly couple o Double Ditch Road would be developed at some point.

e Dykstra family was residing on the south, and shady, side of Village Drive, in the second house of the couple’s marriage, now with three children.

ey knew that if they were to go into another home — their rst small house had been an extensive remodel and the second focused more on cosmetic xes — it would be a building project to get all the details the way they wanted them, from the start.

“We wanted sunshine and space,” summarized Rob.

e Dykstras’ custom home in new Double Ditch Court de nitely achieves those goals, with abundant daylight streaming in from the south and almost a half-acre of space to be enjoyed.

is home-building project, begun in October 2019, got a jump on the main impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. e Dykstras were able to order most of their supplies for construction in advance. ey moved in in July 2020.

From the start, this project was also thought of as a tribute to Rob’s dad, Gerrit, and his 60-plus years in the construction industry, especially creating custom homes. Dykstra Construction Services is listed as the general contractor — probably the last one in that way.

e family

Rob Dykstra may be remembered for lettering in three sports in his Lynden Christian High School years. He was part

of a state championship football team for the class of 1998, an all-league wide receiver at 6-4 and 195 pounds. He also was the team’s kicker and booted the rst eld goal of his life in the nal second of the state championship game with his team trailing, per media coverage in December 1997. ese days, he trains for triathlons o ered through the City of Bellingham Parks Department.

He and Liz met in their college years at Trinity Christian College in Chicago

not far from where Liz grew up. While Rob was three years ahead of Liz, it was mutual friends who introduced them. He studied business administration and computer science and she completed a degree in elementary education. After he graduated, they continued to date longdistance. On a summer job in Lynden she found she really liked the Paci c Northwest area and was up for moving here.

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The new home of the Rob and Liz Dykstra family is the first one on the right in new Double Ditch Court o south Double Ditch Road in Lynden. (Elisa Claassen/Lynden Tribune)

Over his years of having a home-building dad, Rob certainly learned many of the skills of the trade, and continues now parttime in bidding and estimating for associated company Columbia Cabinets Northwest.

Dykstra Construction Services is known for high-end projects not only locally including Semiahmoo but also in the Seatttle area and out of state as far as Hawaii and Arizona. “It’s a wide reach,” Rob said of Gerrit’s reputation for quality and excellence.

Back home after college, Rob signed up for four years of volunteer re ghting with North Whatcom Fire & Rescue. at led to the opportunity to be a full-time career reghter with the Bellevue Fire Department — a job he has been in about 14 years now. His 24-hour rotation schedule allowed Rob to do a lot of work on his new home’s construction on his days o .

e home

After two home remodels they had a chance this time to develop what they wanted from the get-go. Rob’s experience in construction was put to good use, although COVID did shift some things.

From plans they had found online, the Dykstras went to JWR Design of Lynden (Jerry Roetcisoender) to see if he had stock

plans or how they could modify one to suit their needs and have it engineered for local code.

eir previous home sold in summer 2019, which meant the young family needed someplace or two to stay during the

building process. Liz took the kids with relatives near Chicago for a few months, and Rob had a stint in his parents’ basement. He focused as much time and attention as he could to getting and keeping the house project steadily on track.

COVID had something to say about timing. Just one day away from having all the insulation done, the construction industry was among those shut down by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee. Rob couldn’t get any subcontractors. In the lapse until that could happen, he worked on painting the exterior of the house.

“It’s good we started when we did,” Liz said. ey had ordered their appliances by November 2019. eir early ordering bene tted them in almost every aspect of what they needed, with the exception of garage doors that were damaged in their original shipping and had to be redone and reshipped and are now in place.

Several things were important to the Dykstra family within their almost 3,000 square feet on two oors. For one thing, the many Andersen windows throughout the house — including pantry, laundry and even powder room — supply not only good indoor lighting but also a view to see where

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Sliding barn-like doors are used in two places in the Dykstra house, including to the centrally located family o ce. (Elisa Claassen/Lynden Tribune)

Liz and Rob Dykstra had lived in two other homes in Lynden before they began building this one in summer 2019. (Calvin

children may be playing whether in the front yard or back.

From the front porch into the short entry, the living room has the high vaulted ceiling preferred by Liz. It reaches from 18 to 20 feet high, with the replace to the top with cutouts. A light palette is in use with white accents; the walls are an o -white of Balboa Mist from Benjamin Moore to give some contrast.

Across from the couch are two leather chairs from Wisers Furniture where Liz is eager to nd more furnishings to complete a few spaces.

“I wanted open, clean and crisp … and comfy,” she said. “I didn’t want it to feel like a museum.”

Much of the ooring is white oak with a natural nish sourced online, with carpeting in the bedrooms and family space in the bonus room. e same marble tile around the replace is also used in the master bath.

An o ce o the living room and close to the front door uses barn-style doors on tracks, with glass found online through Etsy from an Atlanta-based artisan working with poplar wood and walnut stain. Rob shares the space with children sometimes doing school work there. It is one of two double doors in the house to use the sliding system. e other is between the master bedroom and bath, this one with white wood.

e master suite has doors from the living room and also to the patio in the back yard. Reminiscent of the boys’ rooms upstairs with a charcoal accent wall behind the bed, the accent pillow says, “Un-

der His wings you will nd refuge. Psalm Ninety one.” A large tub is adjacent to the glass-walled shower, with seating area across from the double sink vanity with a

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Louis Adelstein

Mel Adelstein

Mel Adelstein

Carrie Adelstein

Sadie Adelstein

Louis Adelstein

Rick Adelstein

Bratt/Lynden Tribune)

A bath tub is back in style in the master bedroom of the Dykstra house. (Elisa Claassen/Lynden Tribune)

lovely black-and-white patterned Italian back splash. eir 5-year-old daughter actually enjoys the tub as a pretend hot tub. A separate toilet space for privacy and the spacious his-and-her walk-in closet are in this area.

Upstairs and organizing

e other end of the great room has a Pier 1 table with Pottery Barn stools nearby. Liz’s mom instincts are evident in how carefully she has organized storing the items they use as a family. Pullout drawers can handle 100 pounds of heavy-duty pans with ease. Other cabinets hide a slotted space for cookie sheets, platters and cutting boards. A small desk space has both a calendar hanging inside the cabinet door above and vertical shelving for both kids and parents alike to store school work and bills.

When Liz asked the sales sta at DeWaard & Bode for recommendations on nice appliances that would not easily show small hand prints, they pointed out the black stainless steel units that Liz loves.

e kitchen is clean and functional as well as attractive. A side door goes to a walkin pantry, which not only has the expected pantry stocks but also a window and the microwave and co ee makers.

Around the corner are the utility room, powder room, back entrance, inside garage entrance and storage spaces. e utility room hosts bed and feeding space for their young cat, large LG washer and dryer, sink and more windows. Liz steps over to the wall and pulls down a hidden ironing board and pops it easily back up into place. Some ideas came from Pinterest, but many she saw in magazines and the couple worked together on taking ideas and making them agreed-upon reality.

Liz wanted an immediate place for the children’s shoes and backpacks, but not one to become cluttered and messy quickly. e solution was using the space under the stairs where the kids can actually walk in and put everything away — with enough space, surprisingly, for folding chairs and

The kitchen is the brightly lit central point of the Dykstra house with a generous walk-in pantry at its far end, heavy-duty drawers for pots and pans, and stainless steel appliances. The kitchen is conveniently on the way to kids bedrooms and the back utility area and garage. (Calvin Bratt/Lynden Tribune)

There's no excuse for papers lying around, mom Liz seems to be saying to all, with this cabinet of organizing compartments we have here. (Elisa Claassen/ Lynden Tribune) Continued on C18

holiday decorations, too.

Home designer Jerry Roetcisoender came up with an unusual approach to accessing the second oor. e staircase at the edge of the great room, dining room and kitchen, with LJ Smith horizontal metal railings, stops at a landing mid- oor and then splits to go both to the bonus room over the two-car garage one way and to the children’s bedrooms on the other side above the utility room. In the bonus room, Rob made sure to strengthen the supports so Liz could have a swinging chair in the reading nook there.

e spacious carpeted bonus room has niches established for reading, television viewing, a large cat tree, and children’s play space. A wall-mounted Daikin heater provides heat and cooling from the ceiling just to this space to save on the use of the furnace, Rob said. Likewise, the tankless on-demand water heater in the garage has served them well. ey haven’t run out of hot water yet.

Liz and Rob have two boys and a girl, ages 12, 10 and 5, who attend Ebenezer school. e two boys have almost matching rooms with gray cedar siding shiplap on the wall behind their beds. Rob found

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The bonus room over the garage includes a reading nook as well as general relaxation play and TV viewing area and a cat tree for the rambunctious cat Darla. (Elisa Claassen/Lynden Tribune)

this wood in his dad’s shop, imagined this repurposing, and used almost all of it. eir daughter’s bath has a mini-“makeup” area with touches of pink.

e back-yard landscaping is still in development. e Dykstra site was able to inherit the 30-by-50-foot shed that had been used by the preceding owner for his “tinkering” hobbies, now put to use as play

space for the kids as well as storage. e driveway is situated to the southeast side of the home, both to get to the garage “behind” the house and to the shed. It will be paved when all sidewalks are fully in.

“We’re really happy with JWR,” Rob said. “ ey have been great to work with,” Liz added, “as well as the other subcontractors.”

The patio is open to the back yard and also accessible from the master bedroom and close to the garage. (Calvin Bratt/Lynden Tribune)

To romp outside in beautiful weather is what a big back yard is for, right?

Showcase retirement home

New house of Janice and Gordon Bogaard displays his collected art and is a family gathering point

By Calvin Bratt editor@lyndentribune.com

LYNDEN — No question about it, a key feature of this house had to be to

display all the Western and outdoor art pieces and artifacts Gord and Janice Bogaard have collected over the years.

At every turn and in every room is the evidence. A bronze grizzly bear sculpture by Daniel Parker of Kalipell, Montana, can be the conversation piece in the living room, where the bear is trying to reach for a sh under the surface of the water, which in reality is the table surface of this art creation.

As Gord walks their house, it’s a steady refrain of “ is came out of ...” and “We picked this up at ...” as he points

out yet another framed or mounted or sculpted or painted item. And each one’s obvious quality bears out his enthusiasm.

“He is pretty good at putting things together,” Janice says in appreciation of her husband’s decor sense. “I tell people, ‘He’s got a tape measure in every room.’”

And when you’re designing and building a new home, that homeowner trait is a good one.

Gord and Janice Bogaard moved on May 1, 2020, to this ideally situated Rye

Court lot with unobstructed view toward Mount Baker — because the playground of Isom Elementary School keeps it so. ey might even see their third-grade granddaughter playing out there on the school yard.

From 24 years of living on Maberry Loop, the Bogaards had developed a few speci c ideas about what might be different in any new home for them. One, there should be a sidewalk around the side to the back patio so visitors don’t have to troop through the house to get

In the beautiful new home of Gord and Janice Bogaard on Rye Court near Main Street, the collected Western and nature art of Gord is given prominent display. He has collected it over many years and continues to do so. (Calvin Bratt/Lynden Tribune)

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there. Two, as they age, there should be minimal main- oor stairs. Consider it done in this design of Mark Bratt built by custom builder

Chuck Handy, of Handy Homes.

“It all came together the way it was supposed to,” said Janice Bogaard in praise of the collaboration of those two

and many subcontractors. “I love it.”

ere was also the question of whether they should venture far from a standard Northwest style of construc-

tion, but it didn’t take long to know that all of the artistic items Gord and Janice

The master bedroom and bath made use of the services of Fishtrap Creek Interiors for flooring, carpet and tile as well as the products of Creative Stoneworks. Fishtrap Creek and Van's Plumbing & Electric provided lighting throughout the house. (Calvin Bratt/Lynden Tribune)

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have assembled would t absolutely perfectly in a Northwest style. So that is what this house is.

Full disclosure, Arizona is where the Bogaards are spending a few winter months now, upon last year’s sale of Bogaard Hay to new younger owners. Behind the Main Street business, 27 lots were platted into Bogaard Meadows, which is now down to only one lot yet to be built on (right next door to the Bogaards).

But this is where they want to be for all of Lynden’s other-seasons enjoyment.

For Janice, mornings are a favorite time. She loves to be in the back patio area, which has its own propane re pit and infrared heaters for warmth as needed, and welcome the day. An all-house sound system carries background music here too. Or sometimes she chooses the front entry looking out onto and listening to a soothing water feature there.

On nice summer evenings, the spacious patio is likely where the Bogaards will be, and maybe with company. A TV screen is available. “It’s just where we all congregate,” Janice said.

e Bogaards’ extended family — two daughters and their husbands, 11 grandchildren and ve great-grandchildren — are in the Lynden area, except for three grandsons.

It was clear that Gord’s collected art and artifacts needed places to be on display all throughout this house. Both the architect and the builder were cognizant of that, and were guring on ways of showcasing adequately from the start of the process. A big cabinet of glassed display space takes up much of the living room, with each piece of carving or weaving or painting or sculpting giving a reason to pause and admire. At rst the Bogaards thought maybe the shelving had been built

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Gord and Janice may be relaxing at the front entry or on the back patio of the house. A belt-buckle basket is part of the decor of the Cowboy Room.

In one case, antlers are made into a candle mount, in another elk antlers and a cougar skin are their own alcove display, among Gord's collections.

too large, but in fact it wasn’t too much at all for all that it would contain — and can continue to rotate in new as Gord keeps pursuing his hobby.

“Every trip we go on, we come back with some art,” Janice said.

Just a few of the items and sources of

western/nature/native art include: spurs from Texas; a table runner made of Pendleton wool; something woven by Alaska tribes from whale baleen; an “Antlers of North America” display by nature sculp-

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tor/artist Ralph Trethewey. Other acquisitions have come from Winthrop and LaConner WA, Burnaby BC, and Scottsdale AZ. When asked, Gord can give a ready credit for nearly all of it.

A surprising number of creations are from Lynden artist and fellow collector Mel Fullner. Horns and antlers are especially Fullner's forte. A candle mount using antlers and metal pine cones is the attraction on the dining room table.

Antlers of an elk and the skin of a cougar, both shot by the Bogaards’ grandson Cole Stremler, have a prominent display spot above the main stairway to the second oor. Among the guest rooms there, one is called the Cowboy Room and is entirely decked out on that theme.

“You can get a sense throughout our house, all the stu that’s so Northwest. Mark knew us in our other house [and had also designed it], so he knew what we had,” Janice said.

For this new house, Gord was also making his measurements for what items of art or furniture would t best where.

In many ways, Janice Bogaard contributed ideas and preferences she had accumulated over the years from seeing

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The Bogaard kitchen island features as countertop a diagonally shaped piece of granite about eight feet in length. The kitchen can be a place of social gathering around the island or at a nearby table. (Calvin Bratt/Lynden Tribune)

what she liked in other homes especially.

e kitchen area is spacious, with a big diagonal island o ering a deep working sink and stool seating for ve. All countertop is granite. Of the island piece about eight feet long, “this is the largest slab I could get,” Gord said. If more daylight is desired, the seating can move to the table of an east-facing window.

Shelley Smit of Fishtrap Creek Interiors was the person guiding the Bogaards on the coordination of the interior design, including ooring and lighting.

Key subcontractor partners were: painting, Kent Kamphouse; cabinetry, Riverside, Dan Matheis; countertops, Creative Stoneworks, headed by Brandon Stremler; masonry, Matt Moore; landscaping, Vander Giessen Nursery; water feature, West Coast Landscape; windows, Lyndale Glass; appliances, DeWaard & Bode; sound system, Express; Van's Plumbing & Electric; and concrete, Greg Blankers.

“We’re so happy with how it all turned out,” Janice said.

The gas fireplace in the living room is of hammered metal from Innovations of Bellingham. Above it is an art piece of a timber scene and fisherman, also in metal. The stonework of

the chimney and masonry elsewhere in the house was done by Matt Moore of Lynden. (Calvin Bratt/Lynden Tribune)

Gordon Bogaard picked up the vivid sculpture of a grizzly bear in action from artist Daniel Parker at an art show in Kalispell, Montana. The snowshoes and moccasins are an acquisition of Mel Fullner of Lynden, who both collects and creates nature art.

Part of a sudden new neighborhood

Buttrey house is amidst an explosion of residential growth on Lynden’s east side

By Calvin Bratt editor@lyndentribune.com

LYNDEN — Dakota and Katherine Buttrey had general ideas of what they wanted in their rst house. en they worked with architect Jerry Roetcisoender and through family connections in the housing industry to accomplish their goals.

ey moved in on Valentine’s Day to their new home on Brome Street on the burgeoning east side of Lynden. It feels like they have been part of a fullscale build-out of this North Prairie plat right around them in the past two years.

Dakota’s dad, Randy, is a nish carpenter who has imparted skills of the trade to his son; Randy Buttrey took on the role of general contractor for this project. A sister of Katherine is co-owner of the Lynden Interiors supply store and also a Realtor.

“It was like a little family a air,” she said of the collaboration.

Katherine said that after rst looking for houses they liked, the Buttreys decided they might as well create from scratch. ey are not so much into the prevailing Northwest style, instead preferring “bright, and a little bit of modern,” she said.

ey worked from a house plan

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Katherine and Dakota Buttrey are settling into their new home on Brome Street, Lynden. (Calvin Bratt/Lynden Tribune)

available with Roetcisoender, but made their own changes in it with him. Examples are: a steeper roof pitch, cute metal roof awning extending out from the garage and kitchen, and doubleposted arches at both the front and back entrances. Another was to switch the positioning of the replace and wall TV screen in the living room.

e whole building process was almost exactly a year. ey broke ground in February 2020, and construction had progressed to framing when the rst shutdowns of COVID hit that spring, starting a period of some “hiccups” with

subcontractors and suppliers.

ey were very glad to have Dakota’s dad working his way through the complications caused by the pandemic. “He does great work,” Katherine said. e house de nitely has the white modern look, with black doors and trim, that they sought. e layout also creates the opportunity for the Buttreys to adapt rooms to suit their work as professional photographers/videographers and keep up their practice in guitar and keyboard music-making — they are worship leaders in a house church.

In fact, the Buttreys foresee the

12-by-21-foot bonus room over the garage as potentially being a working area for up to four people in photography or videography together.

Architect Roetcisoender worked with their ideas to keep the main living area open and airy. ey have seen some other places in Lynden that resemble their oor plan, but nothing identical.

It was just important to them that their home setting be one they wanted, as they spend most of their time at home in their professional lines of work, the

From the starting floor plan with architect Jerry Roetcisoender, the Buttreys exercised their preference and switched around the position of the TV and media area with where the fireplace was built. They moved in on Valentine's Day. (Calvin Bratt/Lynden Tribune)

Buttreys said.

One source of decor and furnishing ideas has been studio-mcgee.com. ey want their selections to be high quality. e Buttreys continue to slowly complete their interior acquisitions and then the landscaping will need to be done outside as well. But they are happy to be living in the house they have dreamed about for two years.

The white base and black trim theme is carried faithfully throughout this house. The Buttreys' dog Mele gives a questioning expression as to whether anyone will challenge him to take away his toy. (Calvin Bratt/Lynden Tribune)

Unique aspects of the Buttrey house would be the metal-roofed awning over the garage doors and also to the right extending from the kitchen, the doubleposting of the front entrance and also at the back of the house, and the steep roof pitch. (Calvin Bratt/Lynden Tribune)

The upstairs bonus room will be used as a work area for the Buttrey couple, who are professional photographers and videographers. And they will aim to invite others to join them in that vein, or to be making music in the house as well. (Calvin Bratt/Lynden Tribune)