“It feels really good working this physically hard again, doesn’t it?” Mark asked me as we turned onto the pavement leaving Chattaroy after a day working on our Mountain Space home. Yes, it does feel good renovating our family homestead into a retreat venue. Not that we haven’t worked hard in the last 30 years—we have. But we haven’t engaged in these kinds of challenges since we first built the home, and it feels GREAT! When we selected the original carpet for the home we bui

I pulled up the winding driveway, got out of the car and breathed in the silence of the mountain air and then……exhaled. I was just supposed to load up the car with boxes and head into town where we live, but I find myself compelled to stay, to rest, to reflect. That is what this home and land encourages, so it feels only natural to begin this post from this intuitive response to stop and write. After building the home by hand, raising our sons for two decades, then the last

Our first fire in our new home. We kept on building, but got to live in the home while we were working on finishing touches.

This is the final blog from the first chapter representing a time from 30 years ago! As I reflect, I am just so proud of those crazy kids for making this home happen! We were confident (and maybe a little ignorant) enough to go for it, humble enough to ask for help, and grateful for the lessons at each step. Having spent most of our careers within buildings, the satisfaction of building our mountain home in these beautiful surroundings cannot be overstated. This place is i

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