Yes I would love to hear from the OP too. OP? As far as too blue, nope, it's an Eastern Red Cedar. I know this tree, grew up with it. It's very blue when young. The color warms up to green as they get older, and then darkens to a darker green as they get even older. We have them all around here and their seedlings, right under the trees, are blue. In the winter, the mature tres turn more olive, and the males get a reddish tinge to them. I use the seedlings to make topiaries. They grow very fast when young. They have the pointed needles when young, then as they mature, the foliage morphs into scales. It is most definitely not a yew, sorry but that's not even close. Yew needles are thicker, flatter, shinier, and rich green even at a very young age. Yew leaves are also more regularly placed along the stem, unlike the more irregular look of the Juniperus genus. Attached is a collection of 3 pictures, one of seedlings, the second of a young plant, and the third of an older but still young plant. You can see the progression from blue to green. For comparison, also attached is a picture of a yew seedling I had in my yard myself.

You people are fabulous. Thanks to your collective heads-up, I did some in-depth poking around and discovered that nearly all of these trees are on Alberta Agriculture's "To be strongly discouraged" list! Only the evergreen offerings have a green light, and given the problems of the other offerings, I'm now suspicious of those too *LOL* Ab-Ag has to say: - Schubert and Mayday Chokecherries, strongly discouraged because of black-knot. The City of Red Deer has proscribed them outright for that reason. - Royalty Crabapple, strongly discouraged for fire blight - Brandon Elm, strongly discouraged for weakness in strong winds, finickiness about soil quality, and prone to a host of pests and diseases, including DED - Towering Poplar and Swedish Columnar Aspen, discouraged due to black aphid infestations, susceptibility to Bronze Leaf disease, and heavy suckering habit. - Quaking Aspen, discouraged from planting within 50 feet of buildings or infrastructure, due to invasive root system (personal experience with this, it's not funny!) Lordy! With a list like *that*, what's a gal to do?? -- fire off an email to the developer, contractor, and City Engineering department Environmental Services division. I won't win any friends with my whistle but I think Marcia is right: Looks to me like some contractor got himself a case-lot of banned trees and is trying to unload them on our (probably unsuspecting) land developer. I'm all for beautifying the community with trees, but not at the risk of introducing disease to our city, or the risk of damage to homeowners' homes and infrastructure. I never planned to put a tree in my front yard because all of my buried utilities run diagonally right through it! Thanks again, everybody. I just hope we can catch this in time - the letter specifies contacting the contractor with your choices, within five days (from Sept. 13) (Oh and we're setting aside money for planting a row of upright junipers across our back fence, in spring. Thanks!)

We've been at it for awhile, but I'm just now getting around to posting a few pictures. Please forgive both the number of pictures and the fact that they are from different stages of the build! So far the build has been going really well -- both in terms of timeline and in terms of stress. Our builder has been awesome to work with. We hope to be finished by the end of February. Thanks again to all who have responded to my questions and calls for help along the way! First, the floor plan. We've made a few changes during the build, but for the most part it's accurate. First floor: 2nd floor: Basement: Front porch with newly installed cedar beams: Blue stone going in for porch floor: Front door: Main stairs: 4-panel folding door from dining room out to soon-to-be screened porch: Before folding door was in looking from dining into living: Fireplace: As floors are going in looking from living through dining into kitchen: View of kitchen from dining: View from kitchen through arch: Small sitting area in kitchen: Mudroom off of kitchen: Heading into study from living: Bath for guest room off of study: Heading upstairs: Master with most commented on fixture in the house! One sink in master bath: Girls' bath: Girls' bath floor (we love how this turned out!): View from upstairs screened porch: Finally, one shot of basement playroom taken from basement office area:

I'm going to urge you to steer clear of polyshades. It's just too hard to get color control with it. Even more aggravating if you're not accustomed to working with stain or poly. But that's just my .02. Pine does need to be condition before staining. That helps stain to absorb evenly. Otherwise, you'll have a blotchy mess. I do think emagineer's idea is an excellent one. I would go to an independent dealer or someone like Ace (my local Ace carries some great exterior stains) because you're apt to get better advice than a big box store. My Ace carries some outstanding stains, including Cabot's and Sikkens. (They are the only Sikkens dealer I've seen in the area, haven't used it yet, but you should see the Sikkens samples on wood, absolutely stunning! Costly tho.) I've used several brands of exterior stains on our deck, privacy and picket fence. Behr is OK. I like Olympic (it held well on picket.) Cabot makes a good product, and their semi-solid exterior stains might just do the trick. The semi-solid will hide more of the wood grain (but not all of it) but allows texture to remain. They sell small sample cans, too, and have a good color selection. You don't have to worry about a lot of 'extra' feature of exterior stains such as UV protection or water repel because it's an interior job. And it will need to be covered with a protective top coat. Keep in mind oil-based polyurethane can 'amber up' over time, taking on a golden hue. There are other alternatives, such as water based. (Minwax site has a forum as well as lots of info on product types.) I've linked below to a good book, it covers a multitude of ways to finish wood ;) Here is a link that might be useful: Great Wood Finishes: A step-by-step guide