When Jerry and Nancy Cooper bought their north Everett bungalow in 2001, it had a classic landscaping problem, a sloping front yard that was difficult to mow.
Fortunately, 54-year-old Jerry Cooper, a veteran landscaper, had the skills to create a stunning yard on their corner lot.
He and staff from his landscaping company, Greening America, put in a rustic retaining wall to remove the slope so that he and Nancy Cooper, 49, could craft an oasis of plant textures and colors for all to see.
It worked.
And that fact hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Tonight the city of Everett will recognize the Coopers for their efforts at the 15th annual Monte Cristo Awards.
The Coopers’ home will be one of 51 properties across the city, including seven businesses, honored in three categories, including Pride of the Neighborhood, Rejuvenation and Transformation and Neighborhood Friendly Business.
Jerry Cooper, who has been a landscaper for 30 years, is thrilled to have won an award in the Pride of the Neighborhood category, which focuses on well-kept, green and colorful landscapes.
“I think it’s great,” he said, adding that he and his wife aren’t new to Everett. “We both went to Everett High School.”
Mary Scanes, who lives about nine blocks away, nominated the Coopers’ home after walking and driving by it countless times on her way into downtown Everett.
“That house has gone from zero to hero,” Scanes said. “You never would have noticed it before. They have just done a nice job. They’re very artistic. It’s tasteful. It’s just beautiful.”
This isn’t the first time someone has noticed the Coopers’ place.
In 2006, their yard was featured on Gardens of Merit, a fundraising tour for the Evergreen Arboretum &Gardens of Everett.
It’s easy to see why.
Lush displays of ornamental grasses sway in the breeze, mature-looking trees reach skyward, perennials and pots add pops of color, and formal boxwood hedges give the yard structure.
And that’s just the front yard.
The Coopers extended their landscaping makeover around their entire corner lot on Rucker Avenue, including a large fenced back yard with a waterfall and pond, a vegetable garden and an endless array of other interesting plants. “I designed it to be low maintenance,” Jerry Cooper said. “Now everything is so overgrown with plants, you don’t even see the weeds.” The Coopers used the existing patio in the back yard, but built new patios on the sides of the house, including one with a built-in barbecue and kitchen surrounded by flagstones and weathered Adirondack chairs.
The Coopers don’t always agree on plant choices.
While he would like to see every color of the rainbow splashed around the yard, she prefers monochromatic schemes.
They compromise by taking turns choosing specimen plants and trees.
Nancy Cooper, for example, picked the dramatic Alaska cedars on the north side of the house.
“They look like they’re dancing,” she said.
Jerry Cooper chose a deciduous stewartia tree for its excellent fall foliage and a contorted filbert known as Harry Lauder’s walking stick for its corkscrew branches.
They also divide and conquer their design duties. Nancy Cooper, who works as a hair stylist, takes care of garden art, container plants and accessories, and her husband is in charge of everything else.
The Cooper home might also be a point of pride in the neighborhood because of its architecture.
In 2008, the Coopers created a luxury master suite upstairs, complete with a large living space, a full wet bar, a flat-screen TV, a spalike bathroom and a walkout deck to enjoy their peek-a-boo view of Port Gardner.
Hoping to preserve their home’s historic character, they hired an architect and, as required by city zoning, worked with the Everett Historical Commission on the final designs.
As a result, their expanded second story looks like it could be original. Their home still features quaint roof lines. Their windows, though new, have a distinct historic character.
“We’ve been busy,” Jerry Cooper said, pleased with all the changes, especially the second-story expansion. “You can stand up in there without hitting your head.”
Sarah Jackson: 425-339-3037, sjackson@heraldnet.com
Monte Cristo Awards
The city of Everett will recognize residents and business owners, 51 in all, for taking exceptional care of their properties at the annual Monte Cristo Award ceremony tonight.
If you’d like to nominate someone in your neighborhood for next year’s awards, forms will be available in early 2010. Go to www.everettwa.org or contact Wendy McClure at wmcclure@ci.everett.wa.us or 425-257-8717 with questions.
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