1 -Why We’re Turning Our Family Home into a place for others to Retreat

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 decade sharing it as a respite and rental, we are now renovating it to be an intimate venue called Making Space Retreats.

It really is perfect for this.  I designed the house when our sons were infants and now in the coming year, we will be repurposing this family home to accommodate small groups for short stays.  There is a lot of work to be done, but honestly Mark and I are really excited to be doing this kind of work together again.  As you may have read in the other blog posts, we found our love of building in South America with Habitat for Humanity, dove into building this mountain home, then moved on to building careers in corporate America and academia. 

As I was designing this house, I used to walk through the rooms in my imagination before it was built, I find myself doing the same thing right now – walking through a retreat in my mind, moving through the rooms and being acutely aware of how well they will all work together once we begin running retreats. 

We are reimagining the bedrooms so that some are private and some are shared, the attached shop will become a retreat leaders suite, and the garage will be renovated into an art/movement space.  Carpet will be ripped up, new flooring laid, new paint, new fixtures…on and on.

We were delighted the renters, who loved this place so much, found an amazing farm of their own and moved out a few months ago.  As we re-entered our home, we have been dazzled by how natural it feels to be here.  We feel ourselves slowing down, listening to the wind in the pines, and breathing more deeply.  It is a powerful dichotomy feeling the release and relaxation, even as we are rolling up our sleeves and begin getting to work.

After clearing out our stored things, I began to rip out the carpet in boy’s old bedrooms and while doing so reflected. 

I remember when building the house it felt like a construction site with dust and dirt and unfinished projects all around.  Back when the first flooring went down, it transformed the worksite to truly feel like a home.  The boys would run from room to room, so excited for our new life together.

And now, here I am, pulling that same carpet up.  Only this time, the house doesn’t feel raw and unfinished.  We have the luxury of working plumbing, solid walls, years of life layered throughout.  And while those boys are now grown men off living their lives, I find myself brimming with their same enthusiasm imagining how each room will be finalized and how it will welcome wonderful people to come and rest, reflect, and recalibrate through Making Space.

I’d love for you to follow along as we bring this new dream to life.

I’m so glad you’re here at the beginning.