1-Finding Land: from the city to a new life

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 our own home someday.

But perhaps the thing that influenced us the most in believing we could take on this huge task of building our own home was the addage that I was raised with that said "you can't mess anything up so bad you can't hire a professional to fix it, so go for it." And go for it we did.

When we returned to the states we landed once again in the city where we met, Seattle, and began our life together. We were working at Washington Mutual and Pacific Northwest Ballet respectively, when our first son, Niklas, was born. We loved Seattle and spent our 20s there, but the arrival of our first child made two things clear: 1) we wanted to be closer to Mark's parents in Spokane, and 2) we desired a larger piece of land where we could build a home. So, with our second baby, Daniel, on the way, we purchased 18 acres in Chattaroy, Washington, and I began designing our new home during late night feedings.

When we found the property in Chattaroy we fell in love with it immediately. The fact that the land was on the east side of a bluff, had a variety of terrain, lots of trees, and even an ancient apple orchard made our hearts sing. For a hot second, we thought about building on the top of the property, but the drive up would be a bit prohibitive, and so we decided to build the home smack dab in the center of the land. As I designed the home I delighted in thinking about every square foot and how it would be used by our family.

Mark's parents moved near our building site and we moved in with them. Our son's were one and three years old as we began putting in long days building the home.

We were learning every step of the way! While we did most of the work, we did hire out some specific things. For example, a family friend was hired to guide us and friends and family in the framing of the home. That was an intensive week, and when his time was up Mark and I just kept on going! Thankfully a Home Improvement Store opened about a half hour a way and they were all very enthusiastic with helping us as it was a new store. We were so lucky to have friends and family all join in on our vision and be willing to help us in various steps during construction. Here we are standing on the main floor built onto the foundation and ready for winter. These young kids don't have any idea the challenges and fun that lay ahead.

Read on to learn about the journey of completing buiding, raising a famiy, with an empty nest raising a home and eventually moving toward Making Space Retreats!