It is a home that is filled with our growing boys/men and maturing adults. We gained a borrowed son from Spain this fall, Sergio who is now 16 years old and a sophomore in High School. He has come every summer since he was 13 and had liked it enough to want to spend an entire school year with us. We sure do love him, my son from another mother. He flies back home in June which is quickly approaching and my eyes well up with the thought of him being gone. We have four more days till spring and so much life and learning is continuing to happen as these minutes, days, weeks, months, and years seem to fly by.
A few seasons have come and gone since I've written. As I look at these pictures of our home in each season, I see how quickly the house seems to settle into its surroundings and the bushes and trees are taking root and establishing themselves. This is home. We are home. It is a home that is filled with our growing boys/men and maturing adults. We gained a borrowed son from Spain this fall, Sergio who is now 16 years old and a sophomore in High School. He has come every summer since he was 13 and had liked it enough to want to spend an entire school year with us. We sure do love him, my son from another mother. He flies back home in June which is quickly approaching and my eyes well up with the thought of him being gone. We have four more days till spring and so much life and learning is continuing to happen as these minutes, days, weeks, months, and years seem to fly by. I'm done with my Interior Design Degree Adventure, as of last Spring, and am working in the field designing kitchens and loving every moment of it. It's fun to look back and see the seemingly effortless transition from school to work as I landed multiple projects while still finishing up my final year. I'm so grateful and keenly aware of the opportunities that have come my way. I was able to work as lead designer on a building remodel in downtown Corvallis which recently received an award from the Downtown Corvallis Association. Through my connections with the Balance Real Estate, Paul and Elizabeth Spies approached me yet again to redesign a kitchen in North Albany. The project started while I was taking the final classes of my degree requirements- Advance Kitchen and Bath and Advance Interiors. I was able to use this real life project for my final capstone presentation and ended the program with a love for kitchen design and expectant what this next season would bring. It's been an amazing series of adventures these past three years in school and eight years since moving to the covered bridge capital of the west. You really can't anticipate all of the different roads presented to you in one's lifetime and am often thankful my life doesn't look like how I thought it would. It definitely hasn't been without its challenges but you should know I'm a strong supporter of challenges and maybe now risks too. Without challenges I believe we have the likelihood to becoming bland asleep human beings just going through the motions. Difficultly has awakened my soul to the deep love of God and so much more in my life. I'm trusting in the path God has for me/us and know there are such treasures and heart ache in the future and I'm ok with that. Till next time live fully friends and- Happy Spring!
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This fall, after many years of, wonderful loving nudging by my husband, I enrolled in the Interior Design program at my local community college. Yes, this mom is going to community college and loving it. This realization forced me to look closely at the different responsibilities I had and decide where those ranked in priority and value. Attempting to balance my spirituality, family & friends, physical & mental health, school, and managing our home & activities has been just that, a balancing act. But I can honestly say practice does result in perfecting-maybe not perfect. I'm heading in the, "balanced for a moment" direction before being thrown off kilter by life. Those moments of peace though, oh those moments, feel so good.
I write all of the above because it is part of my story and I am grateful for it. Maybe you don't have someone to encourage you toward your dreams or balance in your life- but let me tell you, it is worth it! It doesn't mean that it will come easy or you won't fail at times but I won't learn until I try. Here I am writing this blog because one of my instructors challenged me to go for it, and my husband encouraged me to go for it . So I am...will you? What's your next Risky Adventure? I'm four days away from finals. Wish me luck! Of the things I have learned this year, which I have learned a ton, keeping a blog current is not at the top of my to do list. Ok lets be honest, it wasn't even on the to do list. The type of things that are on my daily lists are- Take a shower (yes I put this on the list just for the pure joy of checking that little box off first thing) Menial home maker task Some type of home improvement project Eat lunch ;) Menial task Etc. etc... Of all the boxes on my lists you can probably guess which category I love to check off the most. I looooove home improvement tasks and even with all of the obstacles of literally moving a house and putting it back together, I am not burned out! I've even dreamt of "saving" other old homes and have woke up telling my husband how amazing this house was that I dreamt of. Yes, I'm already dreaming of a possible new projects and we still have lists of things to finish on our cherry street home. But Look we are still making progress! There is an end in sight. Summer is just around the corner people and we are looking forward to our second summer enjoying our new home and the creek. Oh, and taking a break from our home remodel projects because we all need to stop and smell the clouds sometimes.
It has been a little while since I last posted and, I just discovered, we are only one week shy of our one year anniversary date from when we won the bid for our $1 Cherry Street House. Wow, so much has been learned, dismantled, rebuilt or built for the first time. It is even a little difficult for me to keep track of what we have accomplished, in just these last three months, without going back through my pictures and calendar to jog my memory. So here it goes...jog... In the last three months we or others have: ripped up a ton of nails in prep. for new floors (my dad brought over his crowbar collection), the house was anchored to the foundation (no floating away if the creek floods), re-plumbed via my father-in-law, re-electrified (totally a word) via my father-in-law, passed plumbing & electrical inspection (I installed the brass clamp to ground the house to the foundation), built stairs to a temporary platform to provide access to our exterior electrical box in order to get "green tagged", electrical pole installed, duct work installed, gas pipes reconnected, pressure tested, and passed inspection, basement insulated, painting party partied, new floors installed in the kitchen/dining, drywall installed in the kitchen, island pendants installed (granite is an conductor because of the quarts), NW Cherry Street paved with curb, gutter and sidewalk, our front porch is 3/4 of the way done, back porch is being framed up by our amazing contractor Warren and his son Karl, and I had my first "I heard about you" and I too am moving a house knock at door followed by talking the poor mans ear off about what not to do and what not to miss. Needless to say, it has been a busy month and the only reason I have even stopped to write this is I've been sick for a week (I picked up the kindergarteners super bug) and am now on an antibiotic regiment. Here are some pictures. As I look through these pictures, I'm reminded of all the memories we are making with the people we do life with. From pulling up nails with my Dad and him bringing a special mask to keep is little girl safe, to having a bunch of girlfriends over to eat pizza and paint, I am so blessed to be able to say that we have a family and community that does life with us. Sometimes being sick is what it takes to slow me down and remind me of how grateful I am for my health and my full life. It has been a crazy year since we were blessed with the house of my dreams and it has been so much fun making it our home with the people we love, making memories every little step of the way. On February 3rd, NW Structural Movers came and lowered our Cherry Street house onto its foundation. Yippee! With each step I have this same feeling of excitement and unbelief. The only thing I can compare it to is Christmas when I was a kid~ it just felt like Christmas Eve was ages away and maybe I'd miss it. I made sure I didn't, "miss" the lowering of the house and was there a couple hours before they arrived. My amazing Mom-in-law, Dad-in-law, Dad(Mom was home sick), and our builder and his son Warren and Karl were there early also to make sure everything was where it should be and to watch. When I asked Warren, who built our foundation, how he thought it went he said, "better than expected." I nervously laughed as I realize the truth in his answer. The house fit like a glove onto the foundation(the siding overhangs the cement wall) which he had so meticulously built. What a great day and nothing to add to list of repairs for us to finish before we move in. So thankful. December 5th~The forms to make our foundation have arrived!My dear neighbor texted this picture to me, she is excited for progress too. Thank you Miss Janice! December 19th~The cement is here and... And so is my wonderful family(Mother-in-Law, Sister, & Nephews)... And the principal from across the street. It's going to be a short commute to work pretty soon.
Peace... Just to catch you up if your are just coming in on this adventure with us~the last time I posted was after a 2 month stall in our build progress. Our 80% chance that it would work out ended up not in our favor and it was back to the drawing board once again. Without going into too much detail, we made some hard decisions in the last two weeks and things are finally picking up steam. Within the last week, we have not only been approved to break ground on the road but our building plans for our foundation have been approved in record time. By record time, I mean that I submitted the plans (with the help of an amazing Kathy from our little community city hall) on Tuesday and received a call from Kathy on the next Monday saying the plans were approved and we can build!!! All I can say at this point is, I feel we are at the home stretch in this Risky Adventure and we couldn't have done it sanely without the support of our family, friends and new community. There are always two sides to every story and in a small community I've heard a bit of the "other-side." Life is going to throw you curve balls and how we choose to handle those with character and love makes all the difference in this thing called life. Everyone has their own stories and road blocks and speed bumps. My hope and vision for this home is that it would bring people together. It's history isn't filled with rainbows and butterflies and we will do our best to change that. We continue to give this journey to God and to pace ourselves in this Adventure. I am hopeful that the Risky bit of it will be over soon and we will finally see new adventures on the horizon. Made one phone call last week (after a gentle whisper from the Holy Spirit) and by the end of it I had a glimmer of hope. Just to be honest, there were/are moments of pride and hopelessness. I am a work in progress and will be until the day I die. So, back to the five minute phone call... and I quote, "there is an 80 percent chance" that we will be able to move forward by the second week in November. I realize that there is also a 20 percent chance that we won't but I am choosing to trust in the process. If you believe in prayer, or even if you don't, we would appreciate your prayers. Either way, 80 or 20, we would have peace in the process and continue to have faith. Don't dig up in doubt what you planted with faith.
~Elisabeth Elliot~ I was at the house today mudding holes in the kitchen ceiling, when I started thinking about all that is happening right now in my life. In the midst of my thinking/praying/processing, I realized it was August 20th the last time I wrote to you all. Even though the last two months haven't been ideal, they have been part of this journey and worth sharing. So, with that as an intro, I should probably fill you in. You know how, many months ago we bought some land to put our home on it? Well, when we bought our lot we wrote up a real estate agreement which required the seller to build a city street to our house by October 20th, 2014. Today is October 20th, 2014 and we do not have a road or even a road in process or scheduled to start. We have been in contact with the seller and have been advised by the real estate agent & lawyers to wait and hope that our real estate agreement will be honored. I don't place my hope in the seller but I do put my hope in the belief that God is good and he sees this seemingly immovable road block. I have hope that my family and I will live in our home on Cherry Street one day and this will be just a speed bump in part of our story. I am choosing to give my cares to the Lord because he cares for me, and only He can give me peace. Good night and thank you to all of our amazing friends and family who have and are supporting us through our Risky Adventure. We moved our Cherry Street House today!!! Set the alarm last night to get up at 6 am which seemed to come pretty quickly after staying up late with my dear friend Crystal, we are still on summer time. My mom asked me if it was hard to fall asleep and I honestly could say, "Nope." Was thankful for a slumber party distraction, gotta love good friends and excited little boys. One of our young guests said it was the first time in his life to get up before his little brother, he has been waiting for this day for months. Me too buddy, me too. Arrived a little early and took a quick picture (that is me under my house) before the guys with hard hats asked us to move behind the cones. So fun to share this experience with our friends, family, and new neighbors/town folk. At one point a sweet little lady came up and gave me a hug, she was just as excited as I was. We had at least four towns represented there this morning and Millersburg crew brought me a mocha~Thanx Anber and Ellen! It is so neat to begin our small town community life sharing such a big part of our life with our old and new friends. The picture of the dirt/our lot is where the house is headed a block away. NW Structural Movers made us a gentle slope to drive the house to where we want it. They were at the house prepping a week and a half before and did such a great job. That is my Papa in the blue plaid, my mother in law in the teal, and my Mama with the yellow purse following the house down Cherry Street. Half a block on our way and only minutes into the move.
It was at this point in the move where my tummy didn't feel so good and the quote, "between a rock and a hard place?" was offered up by my dear friend Leiah as some needed comical relief. Felt so much love and support as another friend, Miss Mary, started talking about what it will be like when we move in . So thankful for good friends. Twins/My Distracting Friends We made it past the pole by winching the telephone pole back to give us an inch to get the house through. Tight fit.
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June 2016
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