Treasures in the Snow

In the bleaks of winter, when grey seems to be predominate, growth and newness are memories of yesteryear, a sighting of color or fruit can lift and encourage the heart!

Here are some recently found treasures in or after the snow.

In the coldest week of the year, Little M suggested we search for flowers. I doubtingly obliged...

The faith of a child! After sub-freezing nights...

Focus on the white flowers (since my camera didn't)

Thriving winter ferns

We call her Fruit Bat, or Harvester Extraordinaire of wintergreen berries.

Sunlight in the woods

Quick- before it melts let's build things and sail leaf boats in the snow melt!

Alive in the out-of-doors

Two treasures

In Order, In Place

Order, in all its definitions, is not something that appeals to me. My Self readily takes flight in a open field or sky and is scrambled and uninspired by recipes and rules. I can handle a decent amount of chaos, especially other people's.


But in building- a house, a household, a pattern of life, a family- order has pressed itself upon me.

Until this week, it was scarce to be found in our schedules, our living room, my brain, etc...

But in a galvanizing situation of frustration, it seemed that a "strict schedule" came into view as the only option left.

We are now one week past this milestone (which to other families may be first order of business)... and our kitchen has never been more regularly tidy, hubby reported (if only 2 out of the 6 days) feeling more human for the first in a long time, and I have found myself appropriately ready to sleep at the ungodly-early hour of 9 p.m.

The hope is that this self-imposed structure will help our family stay afloat during a hard-working year of building, and on beyond. I think we've crossed a line that in many ways we might not cross back over during this stage of our lives.



One day Sabbath per week is, I may recall, is what God suggests. So I will adjust to managing child care 6 days/week and a higher % of domicile and repetitive duties per day than I ever thought I could put up with. And do I ever plan to keep that Sabbath holy!  :)

By ordering our collective time and energy, we hope that more important things...

Responding to the Holy Spirit...Growing and not disintegrating our marriage...Being a healthy family...Generosity... Relationships...and having a place to live...

...will also fall in place.

Beautiful things, I am learning, can even grow from within and out of structure...

...not the least of which, we hope, will be our house!

Grateful List 1

I realize that I can be grateful for the time that it has taken
for building a home to become this tangible. 

Time has served us in many ways:

Had we built last summer, we would not have known to include plans for flowing water and saturated soil in wet seasons.


Design ideas had time to gestate and mature.


We have had time to bond with the property, and have met someone who once lived there.


We have gained ideas for how we operate in a home and what features fit us best-

• from pairing down to essentials (most is in storage), 
• living in very different homes, 
• and having two years of learning what life and needs are like with a child.

We're also coming into the build from a year that, though not without significant challenges, has seen greater stability than in our five together thus far.

There is much to be grateful for! And more to come...


Photo credit: my sister

Building Phases

"Drawing House Plans"
Well we're finishing the first lap here, rounding the corner full speed... M is the driver. H provides evaluation and logistics support (and, of course, brilliant suggestions and opinions). Little M provides comic relief. At the pit stop, officials from Zoning, Plans Review, and Permitting need to give us the green light before we roll on. We've turned in our drawings and are now waiting for the permit to build.

Lumber stacked and waiting.  GWNF to the right (red blaze on tree), our property downhill to the left

Next lap "Getting Under Roof":
Breaking Ground- digging and pouring the foundation of the house
Get electricity
Gather and order materials, machines, and crews
Build walls and roof

Future compost bins overlooking future home site. First things first!

Next lap "Getting Inspected"
Plumbing
Electrical
Well remediation
Repair the septic system
Occupancy permit

Sunset, looking uphill at future home site, compost bins, and national forest

Next lap "Finishing"
Interior walls
Counters
Wood stove
Stairs
Wood flooring
Repair the entrance to the property
Grade the driveway

We plan to have as much fun as we can along the way. Little M in canoe sled on future home site.

Next lap "Moving"
Move in
Plant a garden!
Build a shop/barn!

Dream Gestation

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.

Design on many levels

A man designing a box who never knew that there was one.

Staking out ideas with friend / contractor who slogged with us through stage 1: Design.

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!