In contemplating retirement, Kevin and Cheri McCorkle considered options: buy a recreational vehicle and hit the road, maybe tackle more exotic travel or simply remodel their home of 15 years. They chose the remodel. Little did they know that they were embarking on a two-and-a-half-year trip in every sense of the word. Retirement and relaxation […]
Suzanne O'Clair
Gardening in Poulsbo, Suzanne O'Clair is a freelance writer and columnist for Kitsap Week Magazine. She was an ASID interior designer for many years in Denver. She holds a master's degree in applied communication. Semi-retired, she owns and operates O Stars Above and delights in creating beaded and embroidered jewelry.
Posted inHome
The Art of the Deck — Make Your Outdoor Living Last
After surviving last winter, who isn’t contemplating how to get more summer out of the months ahead? According to Doug Woodside of Decks and Patio Covers in Kingston, it’s simple — create an outdoor living space. He says clients call him years after having one installed and report it’s added months of outdoor activities. Want […]
Posted inGarden
Cultivating Connections — Family’s Heritage Becomes New Venture to Help Farmers
Newcomers and longtime Kitsap residents alike can overlook some of the most treasured local assets: the hard-working farmers and their land. Tucked in here and there on back roads are families who have been in West Sound for generations farming the land, growing food and figuring out how to make farms survive as times change. […]
Posted inHome
An Urban, Contemporary Home and Garden on Morgan Hill
John and Suzanne Pitts bought a small RV and traveled six months and 16,000 miles through the Western Territories of Canada and Alaska in 2013. At the same time, they were researching a new place to build and settle down for what might be called a second retirement. The Pacific Northwest was tucked in the […]
Posted inHome
A Sparkling Boathouse
In the search for a new home, the owner found one that had a picturesque but deteriorating boathouse attached to a rickety pier. Who knows how much that influenced his purchase of the home, but that bit of history from the 1930s was of great interest to him. Twenty-four years later, after several phases of […]
Posted inHome
Magical Rocky Beach Retreat
Back in the ’50s, Dennis Jacobson’s family vacationed in a rented cabin less than a mile down the road from the retirement home where he and his wife, Betty, live. He knew then he wanted to live right on the water someday. As his career unfolded in the flat lands of the Midwest, he had […]
Posted inHome
A Simple Farmhouse
Simplicity has a timeless allure. Perhaps farmhouses derive their popularity from that simplicity that piques memories of a simpler time and place called home. But as Chris and Julie Anne Madson discovered, simplicity takes a serious commitment. They made choices, sat with them and then simplified them further over and over, again, throughout this experience. […]
Posted inHome
Designing a Forever Home
The arrival of an AARP invitation in the mail can be a trigger that sends a person off like the proverbial dog looking for its forever home. It may come as a shock —”What?! I’m nowhere near old enough for retirement!” — but that one little invitation turns the idea of aging into a personal […]
Posted inHome
A Chic and Charming Home
A contemporary, stucco home on the south end of Bainbridge Island delivers unexpected turns of surprise and delight far exceeding the simplicity of its exterior. A colonnade between the garage and the home frames a view of Port Orchard Passage on its way to the tucked-in entrance. The front walk is sheltered by a wall […]