Mary Bridge's Tree House

Duke and Karen took a tour of Mary Bridge's Tree House facility today. The York Crew supports Mary Bridge Children's Hosptial and Mary Bridge's Tree House Foundation by volunteering for the Festival Trees and participating in the MBA Tour of Remodeled Homes. Both events benefit the Mary Bridge charities. The Tree House is a safe place for whole families to stay while a family member is in treatment at Mary Bridge. Tree House can host up to 40 families. Some of the rooms can be connected to house a family with up to nine children. Each room has beds, linens and a private bathroom. The Tree House has a common kitchen with ample room for mulitple families to prepare meals at a time. The pantry is stocked weekly by Stadium Thriftway and monthly by Safeway of Gig Harbor. Stadium Thriftway also offers a taxi service for families so they can shop for themselves. Tree House has a outside courtyard, playroom and a day room. There is a laundry room with multiple free washers and dryers. Tree House provides the much needed service of a safe place to stay while families are away from home, dealing with the illness of a child. Tree House works because of donations from the community. For more information please call 253-403-8510.

Guest Blogger

York Enterprises welcomes a guest blogger, our very own lead Remodeler, Ryan Bittenbender. Ryan has recently started his own blog, http://www.connectingrelevance.blogspot.com/. For our blog, Ryan wrote about his recently completed addition project.

Historical Space

Taking an extra small kitchen nook and transforming it into an open eat in kitchen area with a desk workspace was no easy task. We removed approximately 24 square feet of living space. On the outside the deck and patio were reconfigured. This beautiful old home in the North End has lots of character with craftsman style moldings inside and outside, and 1" x 4" bevel cedar siding. Architect Joel Parker worked with Duke York to design the addition with the rest of the house in mind and to preserve the historical look and feel of the original house. Marvin Windows' double hung wood windows were installed to match the old single pane windows in the rest of the house. The new windows also added to the home's overall efficiency. A new tile floor, with electric floor heat, was installed throughout the kitchen and new addition. Outside a new cedar deck with wrap around stairs takes you down to the new patio and backyard. After removing a tree and expanding the patio north there is plenty of space to enjoy the sun when it does come out. The added benefits of this addition are a full basement underneath the addition (future wine room), a new concrete walkway to the street and the power and cable lines moved underground. Looking at the space, inside and outside, the homeowners have gained areas designed specifically for their lifestyle, preserving the history of the building and adding modern conveniences.

Tacoma Landmarks Preservation Commission

Our very own Duke York has become a Commissioner for the Tacoma Landmarks Preservation Commission. Congratulations! The Landmarks Commission reviews and approves changes to registered landmarks and buildings that are located in historic districts. The commission also reviews nominations and advises the city council regarding additions to the register of landmarks. There are currently 11 members on the commission. Five districts make up the historical areas of Tacoma. Two more areas are in the process of application, the west slope district and the wedge neighborhood district. The commission has a very informative web site. http://www.tacomaculture.com/.

We are currently working on the Olof Carlson home in the Old Tacoma Historic District. You can follow our project at http://www.theadditionproject.blogspot.com/