Three Stories Up.

The second floor and roof is on. I can't believe how those guys climbed around up there like monkeys. The guy in the picture walked around the edge of the house, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth while he worked, grabbing trusses off the huge hook that dangled above his head. In this picture, he's three stories off the ground. I watched from the ground, absolutely amazed. Has anyone noticed how often I use the word "amazed?"

I can't really describe what it feels like to walk into the house with the first floor finished. It's an amazing thing. Where there was nothing before, nothing but a big hole in the ground, there is now a structure with floors and ceilings and stairs. I can begin to visualize where rooms will be, how they will look. I go back and forth between thinking the house is way too big and way too small. Every change seems monumental. Things seem to be going so quickly now, but Bohemian keeps reminding me that it will be months before we move in. I just can't wait that long!

Steve building our back wall...

It's so exciting to see the brick go on. The first aesthetic addition to the building process!

Acorn

I found this acorn near the trash. I don't know how it got here, as the closest oak tree is pretty far from the trash pile.

For many years, I have held onto the dream of building a house in the country, a place for the gathering of family, friends, good food and fine music. We've had many hopeful signs, and many devastating heartbreaks, but we held fast to our dream. Years of prayer often felt worthless. After all, many people have no home at all. How could I be so myopic as to believe that God would grant me a big house on a hill in the country somewhere? Yet it was a desire of my heart, and I continued to pray for God's will in my life. If there were a place for us, I would be willing to go, whether that was in the city or in the country. And then, a piece of inspiration came that I could not ignore...
During a concert in Wheaton, IL in July of 2001, one of my favorite musicians, David Wilcox, David shared this bit of inspiration:

"Imagine an acorn planted in a paper cup. It's a seedling. You say to yourself, "It's an oak tree. It's the strongest of trees. It's an oak tree." And somebody looks at it and says, "Oh, come on! That's no oak tree! Look at that! That's an acorn with a sprout!" And you say, "Yeah, well. I'm...I'm taking care of it. It's gonna grow." "Oh, yeah. Where you gonna plant it? It's nothing but parking lot and broken glass! Have you looked outside? Have you seen this world?" And you say, "Yeah, yeah, yeah." You don't show it to everybody. Sometimes you keep the dream tucked inside your coat when it's cold. But's it there. And it's growing close to your heart. You find yourself a little garden. You call it a garden. It's a square foot of ground. It's a place to call home. The dream's gotta be planted. It's gotta have a place to dig in. And you clear a little more as you have time. A lot of time goes by and sure enough, the dream can grow. Grow right where you are. Right in your little town, in your little street, in your little home. And it grows. In those scorching hot summer days that used to feel like there was nothin' but pavement and broken glass, you got shade. What is that shade from? What is that great, green shade from? Oh, that's an acorn, in a paper cup. Well, and...time. Yeah. Take care of that dream. "

You have to understand...I'm a gardener. I love anything that grows. Even as we speak, I'm trying to nurture a couple of hormworms that I found devouring my tomato plants. Most people kill them, but I learned that they turn into very cool and very interesting hummingbird moths, creatures that amaze me as they flutter from one brightly colored herb to another, helping to pollinate my garden.

You also have to understand that I'm a treehugger. I don't love all trees more than I love all people, but there are SOME trees that I love more than SOME people.

Finally, you have to understand that I have some family members who are *not* gardeners, or tree-lovers, or dreamers. As a matter of fact, a particular family member can be downright discouraging. If I didn't have people like my husband, and David, and other musicians, I would be pretty discouraged a lot of the time.

Usually, when some exciting dream comes into my life, it just bubbles out of me. I share it with those I love. Including my discouraging family member. And most often, this person fills my ears and my heart with discouragement.

But as David spoke that night in Wheaton, I closed my eyes and I saw...I mean it, I *saw* our house on the hill. I saw it as clearly as if it were right there, right there in front of me! I could *see* a room full of people, loving and enjoying music, in my home, up on my hill, in a beautiful country community. Music is a big part of my life (my husband and children are musicians...I'm just the groupie) and a coffeehouse is something I had dreamed of for a very long time, but never, NEVER before had I been given a true vision of it. Actually, I'm not sure I've ever had a clear vision about anything. I was smitten. And inspired.

That was the beginning of a realization of a dream.

After the house concert, I was able to speak with David for just a few minutes. I told him about my dream of a paramusic career, how his story inspired me, how clearly that vision of our future home came to my mind, and I handed him my journal to sign. Here's what he wrote:

To Denice:

It's an Oak Tree
(all it needs is a place to grow and time--
because all it needs to know is inside)
It's inevitable.

David Wilcox

I've held that dream, that little tree in a cup, close to my heart and shielded it from those who would discourage me and laugh at my fragile sprouted acorn. I've shared it with those, including my husband, who could say, "Yes! Let me help you water that! I know a place where you can plant it!"

Shortly thereafter, we were able to purchase a beautiful piece of property which included a gorgeous hilltop that commands quite a view. And, indeed, our little acorn has begun to grow. That's not to say there haven't been times of drought along the way, but all the roots grow deeper when it's dry, don't they?

The Sprouted Acorn has been my working title. I have even found the most amazing photograph by photographer Dan Suzio, of a sprouting acorn. It will hang in my living room as a reminder of that little dream and how it grew.

And the house on the hill...we are building it JUST as I envisioned it that night in Wheaton.

Sweetheart after walking around in the coal from the excavation

I'm anxiously awaiting the next phase of the building process, which is the building of our basement. It was actually supposed to start on Monday, but it looks like it won't be until the NEXT week. Sigh. But I'm glad that we're further ahead than we were!

Wow. It has been quite a long time since I've written in the blog. Like Bard would say, "Bad Blogger! Bad! Bad!"

We have taken a break from school in order to work on building our house. I'm excited...and quite scared. I'm not sure if I'm ready for this, even though I've been waiting for it forever. For the past thirteen and a half years, I've dreamed of the day when we could build a house of our own, and now the time is here. I don't know if I'm prepared for all of the decisions, but I'm trying not to get too hung up about it.

We'll begin lessons again on August 1st, which is a Friday.

About the house:

We had gone back and forth between having a house build and contracting it ourselves. Finally, Bohemian (dear husband) and I decided to sit down and draw out the elements of our "dream house." After much consideration and visiting several builders, we decided to have our "dream house" drawn up by an architect and see what would happen. The plan came out *great* and we decided to go for it.

The bank thing was amazing. We didn't think we were prepared at all to go into a bank and ask for money to build our own house, but we decided just to walk through open doors and God gave us the courage to just ask! And it worked!

So now we're in the process of actually building! The excavator, who is also our neighbor, finished his portion on Friday, and our dear friend JT came on Saturday to build the forms for the footers. Tomorrow, the footer forms will be finished and the concrete will be poured. Wow. I'm kind of in shock.

And to prove that I'm in shock, it's 2:00 AM and I've been spending the past two hours trying to find a virtual exterior design site so I can decide what colors of siding, shutters, brick, trim and doors to choose. I've all along wanted a white house with dark green shingles and dark green shutters. I also thought a classic red door would be good as well as red brick. I like simple as a kettle, and I think that does it. I hope I don't screw this up. I wish I had a mother-figure to help me!!

Photos soon to come...

There's still a hole on the hill. Kenny, our neighbor and excavator, finished most of it on Friday morning and then took the weekend off. He still has to dig the footer trenches and some other minor things. Our dear friend John will be pouring the footers and building the basement. He's supposed to come on Friday and spend the weekend, bringing his little boy Joey with him. Sweetheart LOVES Joey, so it will be a good weekend. John's a great guy. I think Bohemian said it will take him a week to get the foundation finished. After that...well...we're still looking for a framer.

We have actually started the process of building our house. Wow. It's kinda wild. The hill has this great big hole in it. I won't believe it until I see it done. I just keep thinking that *something* is going to happen. Like Bohemian's going to fall out of the treehouse, or lose his job, or a meteor's going to hit the earth (this may sound hilarious, but I actually *worry* about this!), or something else catastrophic. Aren't I selfish? I've just wanted this for SO long, and I just can't believe it's going to happen! We've wanted a bigger house, so we can have house concerts, raise service dogs, maybe even adopt or have more children. I just keep thinking that *something* isn't going to go right, and it will all go down the drain. But so far, so good.We drew the plan ourselves. I really wanted to go solar, or at least all natural gas (we have free gas here) but we just couldn't make it work financially. There are currently 8 of us living in a 16 x 24 cabin with no indoor bath or toilet. I have a teenaged daughter and a preteen son, and they really are in need of their own space, as am I. We've lived in a small house for 13 years. We've been living in the cabin for two years. It's a wonderful life, it truly is. But it will be so much more wonderful when I can do what I've always wanted to do...invite people into my home. When this is all done, we'll have FIVE bedrooms, a walkout basement, a country kitchen, a living room AND family room AND a homelearning room! I'm so very jazzed about that. The homelearning room has a set of French doors that open onto the wraparound porch. I just imagine doing lessons with the doors wide open, letting in the sun...IF a meteorite doesn't destroy the earth, that is. ;-) 

Groundbreaking

On June 28th, 2003, we held a groundbreaking for our new home. We wouldn't officially start the excavation until Monday morning, but Bard would be in Italy, so we did it on Saturday. We had a cool little cake that had Tonka trucks on it, one for each member of the family to keep. Each of us dug a shovelful of dirt and put it in a glass jar to keep, starting with the oldest member of the family and working down to the youngest. The kids then gave pony rides to our guests and we had a cookout on the hill in the evening.

Bo's trying to find some subs for our septic system and for our framing. Ack. The framer (our neighbor Aden, actually) who was *going* to do our house now says he doesn't have the time. Ugh. So we either have to find another one or wait for him. That was one of the things I thought was "all wrapped up." Ah, well. It all happens for a reason. We closed on the home loan on Wednesday afternoon. We are supposed to start digging on Monday, or at least sometime next week.

We have an appointment at the bank tomorrow to sign our closing papers. We hope to start digging next week.

Hoping for some more good news about our soon-to-be built house, "Habitat for the *****" or "The House that Music Built." We met with our cabinet maker on Saturday and he gave us very great news about our cabinets. He'll be able to make them for about $1,000 less than we have in the budget. Yes! The big challenge we're facing now is flooring. We're planning to install the wood floors ourselves, and we're putting in quite a bit of wood. So we'll be looking for material and attempting to decide which rooms will be wood, tile, carpet and linoleum. It's a tough decision, and it's all about MONEY, baby! Ah, well. Soon (in about nine months) it will be all over but the crying. Oh, and the house payment. ;-)

I'm a little shell-shocked right now...we got a preliminary loan approval this morning. It was really bizarre and surreal and I'm not sure yet that I'm not going to wake up. Yikes. We won't be going ANYWHERE for the next thirty years. I just can't believe it.

We have a couple of things that have to be finalized. First, because of the dollar amount, they have to get two other loan officers to approve the loan. The underwriter approved the loan, and had it been $5,000 less, that would have been the final approval. Ah, well. One more day, it sounds like, and we'll be on our way. This is such an astronomically big deal to me. I just can't, can't, can't believe it.

I'm bigtime nervous. The loan approval was much too easy. We were expecting a very big deal and a lot of bleeding, but it was very painless. I think God led us to this exact place. First of all, it turns out that I went to school from Kindergarten through graduation with the underwriter's brother-in-law. No way. We rode the school bus together every day (give or take a few, of course) for 13 years. Amazing. Secondly, the underwriter lives an hour away, even though he works right in our town. His water pump was struck by lightning a couple of years ago and he called Bo's company to come out. They were out the next day, pulled the pump and he was a happy customer. He had called Bo a couple of years ago to look into costs for drilling a well. Bo pulled out his laptop, punched in the guy's name, and up came the estimate. Was that ever impressive! Here's a guy asking for a loan to build his own house, and the biggest question is "How organized can you be?" And he whips out his laptop and BOOM, he proves to this loan underwriter how organized he can be! There was NO WAY he could have been prepared for that!

Amazing.

We're in the process of designing our new kitchen and preparing to build the new house. We hope to begin digging in about four weeks. The bank has approved our loan, and now we just have to get the final plans for finish work before they will let us begin. It will be time consuming, I'm sure, but it will be a lot of fun, too!

We received a loan approval for our house, so Habitat for the ***** is just around the corner! I'm in the process of choosing my kitchen cabinets, flooring, bathroom layout, etc. I'm excited and nervous! Hopefully we'll be into our completed home by April 2004. We should be able to move in before winter, but it won't be completely finished. We're in the process of trying to determine whether we should put in a wood floor on the first floor or put in linoleum in the kitchen and dining room and carpet in the family room and living room.

We've decided to go with our original plan. We had chosen a different plan through a builder, but what we discovered is that after we made some of the necessary modifications for the things we really wanted, it ended up being the same price as the one we designed, so we're staying with our original plan. Our bank is allowing Bo to be the general contractor, which should save us money. It's what we've always wanted to do, so I hope it works out well for us.

I am always and forever amazed by the wealth of information on the web. There are so many quality learning materials and cool things to do, I just don't know what I'd do without them all. I think I'd give up my indoor plumbing before I'd give up my internet connection. While I was exploring the First Grade Backpack, I found a link to author/illustrator Jan Brett's page. Wow! She has a ton of printable activities on her site! The site says that there are 2, 007 pages of activities, artwork and projects. There are alphabet flashcards, math flashcards, lesson planners, doorway borders, recipe books, printable notecards with envelopes. I'm so impressed, that I'm actually going to buy her books online, though I don't own a single one now. Anyone who puts that much effort into knowledge and literacy deserves my cash. Go check it out!

Whew! Everyone completed their goals for the day! It was actually a fairly good day, with the exception of Monet's hyper attititude, my messy cabin, and the fact that I got a note from the library telling me that I have a $24.00 fine and several overdue books. I'm kinda frustrated about that because I can't renew my books online anymore, which I used to be able to do. I'll have to see what I can do to get that fixed.

I messed around with the SOS a bit. Very cool! I think this will be quite helpful for our school program. The only challenge I see arising is that we only have one computer. There could be some fights and logistics problems.

Especially since I found so many cool websites today that will be fantastic learning tools as well as buffers in between lessons (and during Mama's potty breaks!) that I'll gladly share with you.

One of the fantastic sites I found was Our First Grade Backpack Very impressive! I found it while looking for simple online stories that Monet can read instead of me running to the library (and paying outrageous fines!!!) for books that he can read. I was especially impressed with the reading page. I found some great stuff like a realplayer reading of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day read by the author. There are a bunch of cute stories that children can follow along with while they are read to (I know the rules...but I don't feel like restructuring that sentence right now!) if you go to the Cbeebies site--stories like Jack and the Beanstalk starring Noddy or The Lion and the Mouse starring Angelmouse. There were so many stories and so many links on Our First Grade Backpack, I haven't even begun to explore them all. I hope to put several good ones in a folder for Monet and Sweetheart to enjoy while I'm doing other things during the day.

One great site that I discovered on Our First Grade Backpack is Learning to Read at Starfall. It's a free online phonics program that uses interactive games, animated stories and short movies to teach children to read. The site also provides free journaling page and worksheet downloads for each lesson. Very useful! Much better than spending hundreds of dollars on a phonics program. I may try it with Sweetheart. We've always used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (hokey title, good book) but only get about half-way through it before the kid catches on and we don't need to continue with the lessons. This may be just the little program we need to get Sweetheart started reading! Bard began reading at 3 years old and is now an incredible reader...voracious, I would say. Edison didn't really start reading until recently. Monet just started to learn to read in October and is now quite adept! He's very excited about joining choir because the two requirements were to learn to read and to be in second grade. He meets both requirements! He's very excited.

Bard babysat for the first time tonight. Read her blog to find out how it went.

Ah! And Edison won his scrimmage! Good for you, Edison!

And while we're talking baseball, yesterday Monet was at baseball practice and got hit right on the tip of the nose by a baseball. I wasn't there, but I was told that he bled like a stuck pig. But he didn't cry! Now I call him my "baseball hero." He's pretty proud of the blood on his glove. ;-)

Monet and I just finished our History lessons...sheesh, was that a chore. We talked about Self Government as it relates to our own lives and as was illustrated by Leif Erikson. It seems that Monet takes everything so personally. When I would talk about a person being self-governed in contrast to being disciplined or governed externally, he would say, "Stop talking about me!" Is that a guilty conscience??? I finally had to say, "LOOK! You can choose to be the kind of person people like or the kind of person people don't like. Which one do you want to be? You can be the kind of person that makes people angry, or the kind that makes people happy. Which would you like to be? If you are self-governed, you get priviliges. You get special treatment. You get promotions. If you have to be governed by someone else, you may be demoted, punished, or simply overlooked. Which do you want to be? Self-governed or governed by someone else?" He said self-governed. Since the discussion, he's been saying things like, "I'm going to put this away. That's being self-governed." I guess sometimes the behavior just needs to be given a name in order for a child to accomplish it.

We're working on Saxon Math right now. I like it, though I wish I could find a way to work through it a bit faster. Some of the things we're working on are a bit too elementary for the kids. The Switched On Schoolhouse stuff should help that, though.

Lots of chicken eggs today! Three blue ones and one brown. Cool!