Has it been 9 months? ...since the possibility of care-taking this spot of earth was conceived.
Or has it been 6 years?...since M&I realized that the dreams we had held, would now take shape together.
No, it had to be at least 23 years?...back when M began to design and dream about building a house for somebody he'd love. (Ironically I had never dreamed of or cared which dwelling I'd have- except a tropical hut)
Perhaps it was longer ago when ancestral pioneers set sail or set course for new places, taking the challenge of building and piecing together their lives, a home.
Whatever the gestation, we're tending a dream here. And very practically, just eager for a place to call home. It's a challenge for two adventuresome souls to pick a spot on earth to hang our hats, but here we are.
It might seem like laughably little to show for all our activity: a cabin-sized box with a pointed roof, some windows, doors and rooms. Really? It took that long to come up with...this?
But no one documented our learning curve of real estate, the Virginia residential and international building codes, and building software; no one witnessed the mighty winds created by uneven communication, tiredness, late-night impasses, new ideas, the big decisions, life-giving choices, and break-throughs of peace that marked our progress.
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| Design on many levels |
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| A man designing a box who never knew that there was one. |
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| Staking out ideas with friend / contractor who slogged with us through stage 1: Design. |
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| The first time we staked out house dimensions and due South |
So to the onlooker, I say, look for what's not in the drawings to tell the story: myriad building methods we decided not to do; the materials we researched and chose against; the space and walls and angles we eliminated; the debt size that we decided not to sign on; and the resentments we chose not to allow between us, the pressured schedule we took ourselves out of.
Two individuals bound and working together...it's not a smooth process. But it is how we make a home.
Land-ho!
