In my previous posts I noted that Dustin Halverson was our Landscape Architect. This was incorrect. Although Halverson holds a degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Wisconsin —Madison, he is not a licensed Landscape Architect, and therefore I should have referred to him as a Landscape Designer. In order to gain license in the State of Minnesota, one would have to work under a licensed landscape architect for a period of time and then take the LARE (landscape architecture registration exam). This was pointed out to me by a Licensed Landscape Architect form the State of Minnesota (there are only 390) and confirmed by Dustin.
NOTE: A Landscape Architecture License is not required for residential design, build, Landscape work and therefore not widely held for professionals in those positions. However, the title is exclusively reserved for those who hold a licensed title with the state and have a specified license number.

Having neglected our home office, beyond placing the computers in the room and a random table table we have owned for years, nothing had really been done. Stacy was doing her work with piles of paperwork on the floor next to her desk and digging through boxes still stored in the garage to get to things she needed whenever they were in high demand. So, After having experienced several months of this (honestly where does the time go) we decided to spruce up the workspace a little.

We started off by examining (and re-examining) the layout of the office to try and optimize the space to its fullest potential. We decided on using to long L-shaped desks and a center storage unit to divide them. We found a fairly well priced little storage unit (called the ASPVIK —that name just rolls off the tongue) at IKEA,with a roll top style door that would help to hide some of the clutter. Along with that Stacy picked up a few sets of legs that we decided to affix to a desk that I constructed out of some leftover plywood flooring. The desks took a little longer to build then I had hoped but once they were together and in place, they were well worth it. The old table we had been using was narrow and didn’t utilize the rooms depth. At the same time, it was so deep that it pushed us so far away from the windows (which were strategically placed to allow for a very private but peaceful view of our wooded side yards) that we could barely see out of them. Now we just need to straighten up a little, add some artwork and we can really start to enjoy the great light and energy that this space has.

The office was functional but completely unorganized, crowded and a poor use of space.

The simple storage unit from IKEA along with two well positioned desks, built from leftover plywood, made the space a lot more functional and organized.

I know just about everywhere else in the  country has made some charge into spring with warm weather and buds on trees. But here in St. Paul we’re still melting our way out from under the last 8″ of snow that fell on Monday of this past week. My sump pump has been putting  in over-time working to keep the basement dry as we have no ground cover to absorb the massive melting that has happened over the past few days as temps have soared into the 60’s, a 30 degree change in roughly 5 days time.On Friday I met with my good friend and landscape architect Dustin Halverson to take a look at some landscaping solutions for our yard. I have a lot of big ideas and some basic wants and needs for the yard and certainly need the expert of someone like Dustin to help me cultivate those ideas into something that will actually work for our yard. We spent a couple of hours walking around the lot accessing what the potential needs were and what alternative solutions we could implement in order to bring them to life for my modest budget.Unfortunately landscaping coming at the end of the project probably always suffers from both a diminished budget and sliding level of enthusiasim as most people have reached there end well before this stage of the process. For me the downtown over the winter months has left me with terrible case of spring fever and knowing that even when it does finally arrive I have nothing more than a mud pit surrounding my home has me itching to get the landscaping in. As I had mentioned before I wrote for a grant from the Ramsey Washington Country Watershed District and will need to implement the ideas I proposed in the plan along with a variety of new ideas that I came up with this winter. I’m also counting on Dustin to bring his skills and expertise to the table as he seems to really have a natural grasp on what types of plants, materials and forms will best work with the surrounding environment.