Will and I share many hopes and dreams for our family. One of our biggest dreams was made a reality the day we bought our house, over two years ago now. We had been on the search for a certain kind of home to grow a family in since we were dating. After all, we did meet in the School of Architecture, so design is very important to us. But just as important to us was the type of beliefs that go along with the particular type of architecture we love. The American Arts and Crafts Movement which took place in the 1920's and 30's embraced craftsmanship, attention to detail, and simple, beautiful designs that were both pleasing to the eye and highly efficient. Out of this movement was born the Bungalow, a house design built for middle class families trying to live the American dream. Most of these Bungalows are very modest in size, but were made with great attention to detail, and used local materials and artists as much as possible. Wood, glass, and masonry were integrated into these homes with reverence, resulting in beautiful simplicity which still resonates with a lot of people today. We dreamed of our Craftsman Bungalow, in walking distance to most everything we could need - schools, shopping, library, post office, medical facilities and outdoor recreation with enough property to refine our own crafts - Will's woodworking and our love of gardening.
Our search had become an obsession however, especially after we lost Luke. It felt like if we could just find that house we had been dreaming about all of these years then our life could be happy again. We would fill the emptiness we felt with endless car drives searching miles and miles for the perfect house. We thought we found it several times, only to watch it slip through our fingers. It was an emotional roller coaster, fueled by our desire to prove to ourselves that there was a dream within our control.
Unfortunately, most bungalows that are left some 80 to 90 years later are usually found on busy roads or packed tightly on tiny lots in subdivisions. Will and I wanted the best of both worlds - a simple and beautiful bungalow, but on a decent sized lot on a quiet street. After a decade of searching, we were beginning to think that we would need to make some compromises to find our dream home.
But one day in early January, 2010 a house popped up on our Internet search that fit every single criteria we had. Our hearts were nearly pumping out of our chests we were so excited and scared at the same time. We dialed up our realtor (who is more like a family friend) and she agreed that this house was perfect and we didn't have a moment to lose. We were walking through it hours later, and put in an offer after our walk through. It was perfect. But the anxiety was only beginning. Two other offers had been put in and ours was the lowest. We couldn't afford to offer any more, and the next day we learned that we had lost it. To make a long story short, over the next couple of weeks the house was put back on the market two more times. Our third offer (of the same price our original offer was) was accepted and we achieved the unimaginable - our dream home.
And here we are today, a little over two years later. The disbelief and awe has begun to fade, but our love and genuine appreciation remains. Every morning I wake up and look out of my bright and architecturally pleasing Craftsman windows and I can't help but smile. Barry Manilow's song, "Looks Like We Made It" constantly runs through my head. We are so grateful. Our home has been amazing in the healing process as we learn to readjust our hopes and dreams for our family. When Will and I fell in love over a decade ago and began planning our future together, never did we think for one minute it wouldn't be as we planned. Everything changed when we lost Luke though. We learned a difficult lesson - our life together may not be what we had imagined. But despite the hard times that we now understand inevitably come, it is still a beautiful life worthy of hopes and dreams.
So Will and I have been very busy since we moved into our dream home, making to-do lists, researching, building, digging, growing, fixing, painting, cooking, baking, canning, and, well, you get the idea. It is our hope to make our almost 1/2 acre lot a self-sufficient producer of children, food and most recently, chickens. In February we bought eight baby chicks and brought them home. Here we are below on our way home from the farm with the tiny chicks stowed at my feet in the car.
We set up a comfy little box in our basement complete with a heat lamp and found endless hours of entertainment watching our new "Chicken TV". Lucy has taken a shine to these little birds and loves to talk to them as well as feed them. Emma thinks they are funny and loves to say "hi" over and over to them.
Here are the girls below, watching our chicken TV. I think Lucy is wearing a pair of 3D glasses to add another dimension to the experience.
But baby chicks grow even faster than baby humans we found out. Before long, these little birdies were big! But still not big enough to go outside. And despite nightly cleanings of their little box, they started smelling. After a couple of weeks of the stench getting worse with each passing day, I finally told Will he had 48 hours to get them out of the house or I would sell them on Craigslist. Needless to say, 24 hours later (another reason why I love Will - he is so efficient!) they were set up nicely in our garage with a heat lamp over head to stay warm.
All winter long we have been researching chickens, gardening and how to make our piece of property as efficient as possible with all systems joined together in a complimentary and tightly run ecosystem. After the girls were tucked into bed, Will would head out to the garage and build the chicken coop, while I curled up on the couch with a stack of library books. Here Will is below building the coop in our garage.
Many people have asked us why we would go through all of this work when a dozen eggs can be bought at the store for a dollar. There are many reasons, but I think the main reason can be summed up with our Craftsman mentality. We value the art to be found in the details and systems that are efficient and designed with great thought. Easier and faster isn't always better. We find enjoyment in quality and process. We could have a microwave, but we choose not to because food just tastes better heated by slower methods and a lot of research says the more traditional ways of heating your food is healthier. Finally, after gardening at our house for the past two summers, it became clear to us that manure would really help our growing efforts. The chickens provide the manure, while we feed them all of the many table scraps left over from our two toddlers. They will also eat the bugs and weeds in our lawn and in return provide us with eggs more nutritious than any we could find on the grocer's shelves.
The coop is finally finished, and last week we enlisted the help of family and neighbors to move it into the run we have set up. Our first-laid eggs have already been promised to the friend who donated the left over roofing shingles from his house and the gentlemen who helped move the coop.
Will has been busy digging holes for cedar fence posts and building garden boxes for a new method of gardening we are going to try this year as well.
All Will has to do now is put up some extenders on the fence posts to keep the deer out, plant our seedlings that he started in our basement last month, and hook up the rain barrels he made.
I have been busy planning out what to plant and how to grow each fruit or vegetable to it's maximum potential. All I have to do now is apply my book knowledge to real life!
So far, our little homestead has eight chickens, one peach tree, four blueberry bushes, countless strawberry plants, raspberries, black caps, rhubarb, asparagus, herbs and annual veggies like tomatoes, cucumber, peas, beans, pumpkin, beets, squash, onions and garlic. Oh, and two precious little girls!
Lucy and Emma are loving all the time spent outdoors while their mama and dada work. And when Lucy isn't busy digging holes in the garden and Emma isn't occupied chewing on rocks and drooling mud they are having a blast in their new playhouse the chicken coop. Too bad once the chickens move in the stench will ruin their fun!
If the above picture was our family billboard, I think it would say, "A toaster oven family living in a microwave world!"
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