Saturday, February 26, 2011

Our New House... with Reflectors!

In the process of designing business cards for Welcome Home Girlfriend, one of my friends wrote under my name “Owner/Visionary”.

Wow… I liked that. Visionary.

Vision is something that has entrenched my being to such a degree, that it is actually hard to see things the way they really are…I default to what they could become.

I actually have to clip my mind, so to speak, to see things the way most people see them, often, the way my husband, Darrell, sees them. Realistically.

Now that we had agreed to purchase the Mobile home, my visionary mind wanted to take over. Once I can get accurate dimensions, a ‘feel’ for the rooms, traffic flow, sunrise/sunset, breadth and width my mind begins to chug like an old steam engine. Maybe a steam engine and a humming bird combined. The humming bird part of my mind is fluttering up, down, back and forth, in and out, to see how things could connect. The steam engine is the power that builds gradually to make it happen.

Asking permission, I went out to the mobile home several times to walk through and absorb the soon to come new environment. I became excited that it WOULD work on this beautiful piece of land. A compromise to fulfill a dream. An affordable reality.

The move actually took place in May. I was surprised at how many permits were required to move a house. The land finally had a driveway, a flat graveled spot and hook ups for water and septic tank. We were ready.

Now in my mind, a good time would have been to move it early on a Saturday or a Sunday morning. I have long forgotten which day of the week this took place, but I DO remember it was a week day at 3:00 in the afternoon… up 205 from Stafford, up Holly Lane, very slowly with all the traffic of people coming home from work. I wanted to walk up to each car window (since it was that slow) and apologize for the move at rush hour. This was long before the 213 expressway so most traffic went up Holly Lane. Not a good way to meet and greet your new neighbors. I suspected they would know and remember who we were.

In all my excitement and vision, I finally stepped back to see what we were contributing to the manicured country drive… a white trailer with yellow metal trim, flat curved roof, red and yellow reflectors and mini metal doors. Hmmm…we were really going to have to work to create a home that would ‘fit in’, but I had ideas!

We placed the home facing east to capture the majesty of Mt. Hood. The only problem was that it placed the original front door at the back of the house at a 6’ drop-off with no deck or stairs. The ‘front’ door of the future was actually the original back door that entered into the laundry room. Some restructuring was in order but we found that with mobile homes, because the exterior is built first, then the flooring is laid, THEN the walls are added, it was similar to moving a wall in a house of Legos.

The original laundry room became the Front Entry Hall and the laundry room found a new home right outside the original front door.

The first summer was beyond delight for the children. Running through fields of grass towering over their heads. Fruit trees with fresh apples, big cows with big eyes stretching their head through the fence to eat our grass, because it was greener! Climbing trees, importing friends from the city, no cars, no traffic, no hassles… just the sweet smelling country, at last.

We captured a picture of Mindy and Tori reflecting on the wonder of their new home while sitting on the front steps. A picture I will always treasure.

We were living in the country.

1 comment:

  1. I thought I would write everyday but I find I kind of need to wait until there is a rhythm and my mind can flow... more to come soon.

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