The long, hot summer arrived, and with our last round of helpful friends heading off to begin their next chapter in life, we turned our attention to electrical and plumbing. We decided to divide and conquer—Mark took on the electrical, and I took on the plumbing. Mark had some experience from home renovations—replacing outlets and such—but had never designed and installed an entire electrical system for a new build. He said he often felt like a substitute teacher, trying to s

After the first week of the blitz build, things quieted down—but the work kept going. We were so grateful for the friends and family who helped us frame the main house, and every time we rounded the curve of the driveway and saw the structure standing there, our hearts filled with joy. Still, there was plenty left to do: more sheeting, framing the entry hall and garage, installing windows… whew. When we moved to Spokane to begin this chapter, Mark had a job—but just a couple

When we were in South America that first year of marriage volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, we found the camaraderie on the worksite incredibly energizing. So it only seemed natural that we would try to recreate some of that spirit when we started building our own home. Friends and family were curious and wanted to be part of the process of building our new life. That first big week of framing—when we hired a friend to coach us and serve as foreman/teacher—we had differ

The year after Mark and I got married we spent in central and south America doing volunteer work and learning a ton! One of the organizations we worked with was Habitat for Humanity and we grew so much working beside community members putting it their 'sweat equity' building a home to call their own. While we developed some skills in construction, we learned more from the relationships we built and experiences we had. Certainly that experience inspired us to want to build