NORTH SHORE NEWS HOME,

Driveway landscaping
eliminated ‘runway’

Marcie Good
News Reporter mgood@usnews.com

LANDSCAPER Michael Evison
recently won an honourable men-
tion from the B.C. Landscape and
‘Nursery Association for his work
on the exterior of a 1940s West

Vancouver home.

Although it wasn‘t one of his biggest pro-
jects, it’s one of his favourites because it
completely transformed a “basic, bland dri-
veway and front garden” into a welcoming,
attractive entrance.

“If you can imagine a 20-foot- wide drive-
way from the road to the house, it looked
like a runway,” he said.

His clients requested a more intery,
driveway with a separate path to the house
and a park-like setting. He ripped out the
black top and installed a curved, interlocking
brick driveway. A pathway to the front door
emerges from the driveway at about a third
of the distance.

They also wanted to open up the entry,
which was so tiny that guests had to squeeze
between the house and an overgrown camel-
lia bush. Old mature. trees and shrubs were
removed and replaced with fairly mature
ant material. A variety of deciduous and
evergreen trees were placed closer to the
road to afford more privacy.

“Irvou knew what the house looked like
befere, when you leok at it now it com-
mands the sort of expression “Wow!” he

wid. “It’s one of those lovely noticeable dit
erences,”

Evison formed his business, Calibre

“Landscaping, in 1991. Before that, he had
won awards for his own garden.

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MICHAEL Evison of Calibre Landscapin

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ig designed a new

curved driveway and updated the exterior of this West

Vancouver home.

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Wednesday, November 1. 2000 - North Shore News - 15

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GARBEN AND LIFESTYLE

Only 54 days

, to Christmas

OK, so it’s only one day after
Hatloween.

ff you're an organized person, you'll know
that it’s exactly the right time to be thinking
about Christmas. Most vears [try to he a
handy girl
and actually
make gifts for
some of the
people on my
list. I've
been known
to knit
dishrags
(labour inten-
sive but the
end product
makes your
run-ofthe-
mill, manufactured disheloth feel like wet
Heenex), sew napkins, and make raspberry jam
from the berries we grow on Thormanby
Island to give away as gifts.

Then there were the richly coloured che-
nille scarves [ knit with big fat knitting needles
one year. Those chenille scarves were gor-
geous, but a tad on the expensive side for a
home made gift. My word, one ball of the
wool was like, 11 bucks, and it took nwo balls
to make a scarf. (I don’t mind being generous
with my labour, but Pm loathe to fork over
too much money on supplies.)

Last year I copied an idea from my friend
Maria to sew attractive and practical travelling
jewelry bags. The problem ts, [’ve already
given one to every woman [ know and because
of work, this year don’t have the time to
apply myself to that kind of a project.

Resides, I°m tired of seeing the things I
make people for Christmas gifts at garage sales
around town. T've bought back three of those
jewelry bags at neighbourhood garage sales last
spring. Fortunately, I'm comfortable “re-gift-
ing” and I'll be able to use them again.

Still, this year it looks fike ['m actually
going to have to buy Christmas presents. But
I'm lucky, I figure, because, through my work,
] get exposure to all kinds of new products,
from computer gadgets to books to great bot-
des of wine. And Eve got a few nifty ideas
already. Unfortunately, I'm already a little late
on my very best idea, which is hard to believe
on Now. 1, but true.

The Sony Playstation 2, which hit the
shelves (figuratively speaking, because { doubt
one ever spent a second on any shelf other
than a “reserved” shelf) here Jast week. J
learned something interesting about these
game systems. They generally retail at close to
cost or even a loss to the manufacturers. It's
game sales where companies like Sony make all
their money. And reviews of the 26 games that
have been launched with the new Playstation 2

home

_ See Playstation page 23