CABIN PROGRESS: A TOUR.
We started moving some furniture in last week, and suddenly....it really feels like a home around here! Things will surely be rearranged, walls and closets still need to be built, but for now...we are pretty much in love with it.
And it seems like the Wendell bear is loving it, as well.
CAUTION: WET PAINT.
A little cabin progress report: we have real walls! With paint and everything!We picked out some colors and spent a long day painting. It is amazing what a difference it makes - the house looks like a house now. I can visualize the pictures on the wall, the shelves and cabinets and the life that will fill this place. And although I used to dream of perfectly clean, white walls, the green and brown are growing on me. Next step: furniture!- Hannah.
HOME SWEET HOME.
After an insane amount of work this weekend—drywalling, mudding, cleaning, etc.—we were still not close to done, but that didn't stop us from moving in! We were ready. Wendell, who'd been spending most of his days at the cabin anyway, was ready. The chickens, too, were ready. So we packed some things, hauled them up, set up the bed and now we officially, have a home.The feeling was surreal. We'd spent so much time in this cabin but it had never truly felt like ours. When we began to cook a meal here, however, we became elated. What all will we experience living in this cabin? What storms? What droughts? What seasons? What emotions? Parenthood? GRANDPARENThood? We found ourselves becoming nostalgic for our first night in the cabin, even though we were still in the middle of it. We imagined ourselves laughing at the days before we had running water, at the meals we had sitting on the floor, at the incompleteness of it all, but the beauty. We opened a bottle of the same champagne we had in our wedding night and were filled with very similar emotions to that day: possibility, wonder, and a fearless love for each other and our future.- Jesse.
MOVING IN: AN OPEN LETTER TO FUTURE US
Dearest older us,We are writing not to offer an apology per se, but to remind you why your house is as odd as it is, why your drywall is a little iffy in spots, why there's old pine flooring in only one third of the house. It's because long ago you were not carpenters. You were farmers, young and in love, poor, a little idealistic, and very excited about your future—about becoming you. We hope you are warm in the cabin we've built for you (or cool if it's summer). We hope you can still see charm in the flaws we're leaving you with. We hope you will forgive us for the lack of craftsmanship, for the funky fixes we employed to make it possible for us to move into the house. Because that's this week. This week, we're moving in. It's not done, but it's livable, it's home. So don't forget us when you're having to redo a few things, because we tried our darnedest. And don't forget the people who helped you along the way - the community who helped you pay for your cabin and the family who helped you find the land to build it on. You may now be cursing our small mistakes and wonky corners, but try to remember that you had a lot of fun, you learned a lot and you couldn't wait to move in.All the best,Jesse and Hannah.