Wednesday, June 11, 2008

In the beginning...

While I hope building our dream house is not an epic of biblical proportions, when I look at the job ahead of us, and talk to other people who have built homes, I think it will quite likely be a very long and often frustrating process (we have found that out already) but, I am sure, worth it in the end.

So, I guess we need to backtrack a bit--Gary wants to ensure that all his hard work last summer and this spring is recorded for posterity. And there is the whole "how did we get here" story to tell.

It all started when my mom and I were talking one night about the property that my dad had owned for years...she was hopeful that someday in the future Gary and I might build there, even though she knew that she would not live to see it. She understood that, for me, this was not just a piece of property--it is a place where I picked blackberries with my Papa (her dad), it rests on the Millstream, where I fished for trout as a child, and it is not far from my uncle's home where my Gram and Papa lived and where I spent many idyllic hours and days growing up. I wanted to be able to pass some of that childhood memory and experience on to my own two children....so when my dad got home that night I asked him what he was planning for the lot...and it was soon ours, a place to build our dream home.

My mom died before she could see it happen, but I think she would be very happy to see her grandbabies grow up just a stone's throw from where she herself grew up.

We put our mobile home up for sale, and began planning...my uncle offered to do our plans for us, and we found some we liked for him to start working from. In September of '07 the mobile home sold, and we packed up and moved in with my dad (who I am sure had not forseen THAT when he offered us the property, haha). By Christmas we had a final plan--it is actually dated Dec 25th, 2007--thanks for the nice Christmas gift Uncle Bob! Spring was spent gathering estimates, talking to our lender, and applying for permits.....

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