Hardwood buying trip

One of the many special touches Ross Chapin designed into the Erin and Egret cottages at Snowberry Close is the raised bar between the kitchen and the dining room. It serves many purposes - provides a screen for what's going on in the kitchen, displays lovely artwork, stores dinnerware and gives guests a place to stand with a glass of wine and talk with the cook.
It's also one of those details that allows for a small but important additional something. In a few of our cottages we've used understated maple for these bars, while in the Egret we went a little wild and installed concrete embedded with a wave of recycled glass.In the three Erin cottages currently being finished these bars will have tops specially crafted from hand selected hardwoods. I went to Crosscut Hardwoods on Saturday and spent two hours looking for just the right planks for our cottages.

I love Crosscut, all that fragrant, colorful wood stacked up calling out to be made into fabulous furniture and glossy finishing touches. It's one of those places that make the creative juices flow. Scarlet padouk, rosy bubinga, dark purple black Walnut. Once again I fell for the striped Zebra Wood but had to walk away as it's much too dear. Busy being inspired with great ideas, I forgot to take pictures, so I borrowed this one from the Crosscut website. (Asking for forgiveness instead of permission.)

We came away with Ash, a creamy white wood with lovely figuring in a slightly darker shade of cream, and Jatoba, also known as Brazilian Cherry, which is currently a spicy medium red but will darken to a rich red brown. Two of the cottages will get the jatoba and one will get ash. This might sound like two will be exactly the same but that's not the case. We specifically chose two different grain patterns in the jatoba, one dramatically figured, one elegantly straight grained to create two different looks.

The first lucky buyer will get to choose which of the three they want in their cottage.

Grand Opening

Saturday March 21st 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM

Celebrate the first day of spring with a trip to Langley and The Highlands, where the focus is on Low Impact Development, green building and smaller homes – the perfect solutions for today.

11:00 AM Enjoy local food
Scones and coffee from Langley’s own Village Bakery

Tour a BuiltGreenTM “Erin” model cottage and “The Villa”
View completed cottages and the Villa and see the plans for the Live/Work Studios to be constructed on The Commons.

12:30 – 2:30 PM More local treats
3 Sisters beef hors d’oeuvres by Chef Jess

Visit with conservation and gardening experts
Bring your questions

1:00 – 2:30 Meet award-winning architect Ross Chapin
Hear about his coming book “Pocket Neighborhoods: Creating Small Scale Community in a Large Scale World” (Taunton Press, 2010)

Drawings for great prizes
Home Energy Audit
Edible Landscape Consultation
Share of a Whidbey CSA
Dinner for two at The Inn at Langley

Learn about a special financing opportunity
Unbeatable rates for Highlands buyers

Highlands Art Show
For the month of March, works by local artists are displayed throughout the model home in the first Highlands Art Show. The show has been popular with artists and viewers alike, setting a pattern for future shows and an ongoing partnership between The Highlands and the Whidbey art community.










Participating artists
Tim Leonard – Metal sculpture
Susan O'Brien – Oil paintings on canvas and glass
Elaine Michaelides – Blown glass vases
Dimitri Michaelides – Blown glass sculpture
Sharon Warwick – Ceramics
Natalie Olsen – Weaving and fiber arts
Patrick Brennan – Abstract oils
Earl Olsen – Photography
Yvonne Palka (Highlands resident) – Sumi-e paintings

The Highlands "Open Neighborhood" Event

September 16, 2007 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM

Though there are no houses to show off yet, the Highlands Low Impact Development (LID) infrastructure is in place. Come take a look at the network of rain gardens and carefully sloped streets that are the base of the water management system in an LID project.

This informal introduction to the Highlands will feature self guided tours of the site, snacks from local farms and a short presentation of Low Impact Development techniques. Staff will be on hand to give guided tours and answer questions about the neighborhood and LID.

The event begins at 1:00 PM with a selection of organic fruit, home-baked cookies and bread, fresh pressed apple cider and locally roasted fair-trade coffee.

The Low Impact Development presentation begins at 2:00 PM.

Arriving and Parking

The Highlands is located at 903 Al Anderson Ave. This is a quiet, residential road and there is very little parking. Non-motorized modes of transportation are encouraged.

Site work is nearing completion

The Highlands infrastructure is currently being installed and lots surveyed. Roads will be paved in August. Construction on the first cottage cluster is anticipated to start in early September.

For an ongoing calendar of Whidbey Island events visit LivingWhidbey.com