Once upon a time there was a family who had experienced many adventures in various parts of the land. They had seen and lived in many beautiful kingdoms and been blessed with the association of truly noble and great friends. Leaving beautiful kingdoms and noble and great friends was always difficult and brought with it much sadness for old and young alike. Yet this family was always able to find joy, fulfillment and happiness in whatever kingdom they found themselves to be in.
There came a time when this family was about to set foot on yet another new and marvelous adventure. The family knew something was different about this travel, they knew that this time they would be able to stay in the land for a long long time.
And so they began to dream. They began to dream of a life in a home that was uniquely theirs. A home that they created. A home they filled with family and friends. A home where there would be laughter, fun, good food, spiritual experiences, and memories. A home where old and young alike would be welcomed with love.
Those dreams slowly turned into reality as the brave and talented Husband and Father was able to put to paper many of the dreams of the family. And thus began the creative design process. Which lasted for several months and continued to build the excitement and joy of the family (especially the wife and mother) as they dreamed of their life in this new land and in their new home.
Until finally, on July 23, 2015, those dreams and plans began to physically take shape and the building of their new home began.
I'm so grateful Bret knows what he is doing when it comes to building a home! And I'm sure this is not the first time I am going to be grateful for his knowledge, expertise and perfectionism. Our home was supposed to start on July 22, but we went up to see it the night of the 21st when it was all staked out and spray painted and Bret realized the placement on the lot was wrong. If we shifted the house 20 feet to the right it would maximize our yard and situate the house on the lot much better. As for me, I was anxious to begin the process, and couldn't envision how 20 feet would really make that big of deal and wanted to just get the whole thing underway. It's a good thing Bret made the change because as the house has begun to take shape, it is clear to see of shifting it 20 feet made a huge difference and well worth the single day delay in starting.
We were at Bear Lake the day they started the dig and we couldn't wait to see it. So that evening Bret and I left and drove back to Logan so we could see it. It was so exciting! And I was surprised to see the entire house was dug! This picture is looking at the whole from the back yard.
Another surprise for me is how exciting each and every stage of the home building process has been!
Building up the walls for cement...
It was unbelievable the amount of rocks that kept coming and coming and coming to fill up the space in preparation for the concrete. The boys had a blast watching this process and were memorized by the endless rocks that kept getting dumped out.
Cement pouring day...
The day they poured the garage we went up and made our mark...
We loved walking around and envisioning where different rooms were going to be.
Abby in her room...
Gavin and Grayson in their future room
Every time we went to the lot...(which is pretty much every day) the boys would climb in the dirt hills and throw rocks. I had to just mentally accept the fact that they would always get dirty and dusty and that they would track that dirt and dust into my car. The dirt hills sure made them happy.
And then framing began....and boy or boy were we every over the moon excited!
Abby's bedroom window...
We took the framers cookies one day and Grayson went up to each one of them and said, "Thank you for building my house."
It was fun to show Dave and Pauline and give them a small little glimpse of it before they left on their mission.
We want our house to have a name....one name we are considering and is at the top of our list right now is Sunflower Grove because on the side of our property is this wonderful grove of sunflowers.
"Now watch me whip..."
McKenna's bedroom window
