I did hit Bremerton today in the course of my travels and checked out the eucryphia. You can see the top of it over the buildings and did look like it was lacking leaves. But I did get the head of facilities to get me into the area - the Child Development Center is naturally very restricted access and they are putting in a new parking lot in front so not an easy site to get close to. Up close it looks much better. It obviously has lost a lot of foliage since I last saw it as well but mostly on the top, most exposed portion. Down lower there are many more leaves. Not the best photo as I was looking up in to the tree (you can't get far enough away to get a clear shot overall) but you can see the leaves present. And this one is more of a close up of the lower branches but still not the best shot. Leaves much more apparent. It's definitely taken a hit. I am assuming the leaf drop was due to winter conditions. Bremerton had a couple of pretty sharp cold snaps and a whole lot more snow than we saw on Bainbridge. btw, the Umbellularia was another tree they had asked me about (and that was 2015, not last year as I had thought) and I had made mention in my report that it looked unthrifty at that time. It doesn't look any better now. Drainage in that area is not wonderful and it was pretty squishy after our endless months of rain so that may be a factor.

The painters and I had a bit of a communication problem - they are Guatemalan and I no habla espanol too good :-(( Their crew leader, who spoke great English, was only there first thing in the morning to give the day's instructions and while we talked about being careful with the plantings, I doubt that was on their primary agenda. To be honest, my garden would provide a challenge to any housepainter regardless of delicacy - it is just too fully planted. Considering what the damage could have been, nothing was permanently disabled - needing some remedial pruning perhaps and set back a bit, but that's about it. The eucryphia will recover with a bit of trimming and the Pittosporum 'Garnettii' next to it looks like it came through unscathed. The Hebe 'Amy' referred to in another post took a bit of a beating but she was due for a good haircut anyway. The paint job looks stunning, btw :-)

Too new on local market for longtime experience. Perhaps as long as several years ago I bought one and gave it to a friend who overwinters it in a tub, under plastic. It's about 6'-7' high, in the pot, I guess. I also planted a small one on the north side of a customer's house, in an urban neighborhood where it many persist for awhile. I have also noticed one on the south side of a building in a mild urban neighborhood. Tender plants like this are grown here as long as winters stay mild enough, say above 15 degrees F. In the past there have been wipeouts at irregular intervals, sometimes as long as 30 years, where the men are separated from the boys. Waterfront banana belt properties and other favored sites are sometimes able to keep California Specials alive/less damaged through some of them.

@M t your floors, colors, well everything looks beautiful!!! :) Curious how shiny the floors are? The samples we got seem to be so shiny compared to other samples and it was probably the only thing holding us back from this line... would love to know what you think?