Planning

It is interesting to me that the planning for this new home, really began many years ago...when we were first married. We dreamed about the kind of home we would some day own. We looked at layouts and kitchen designs and home theater setups and bathroom options. Then we got real, and designed a home we thought we could really build and enjoy. When we found the corn crib and the decision was made to remodel it, we let a piece of this dream go and morphed it into a new one.

Now that we had four kiddos, two of them girls, the need for a bit more space and a second bathroom (or at least a double sink!) became reality in our discussions. We started plans for an addition that we had planned to start in the fall of 2012. I planned a new layout and started picking out flooring and tile and cabinets. Then we lost the corn crib and the addition was no longer a possibility...another piece of our dream had to change to fit our new reality.

Above: view from our future front door.
Below: location of our future front door.

As the new reality set in, we took what we loved from the corn crib and morphed them into our original house design from more than a decade ago. What we came up with in the course of six weeks is a beautiful composition of both of us, our unique styles, our family's needs and entertaining fun! The plan includes a second bathroom, of course, and an office for Ben to edit video. An island for baking and craft projects with room for all the kiddos and several adults to join in! Plenty of room for football and large parties, but small enough we feel we can manage it even when the kiddos have all grown and move out.

I must say, I am absolutely in love with our new home...or at least the plan for our new home. While I never would have wished this trauma and crisis on our family, I believe God is using this raw material to bless us and allow us to bless others more than we could have imagined.

Above: view of the front of our future home.
Below: the kids participating in a step in the process.

There have been many times through this process that I have been very aware of God's hand of guidance. Some coincidences are just too much to accept as a mere coincidence. One such was at a Walmart after we moved into the rental and were working on getting our plan into a format we could share with builders. We ran into one of Ben's coworkers and got to talking about the clean up and moving and what our next few steps were...he just happens to have blueprint knowledge and capabilities! Then we learned he had needed something that only this Walmart had in stock at the time, but was not the closest to his house...he should not have been on that side of town, at that Walmart, at that time! Heading out to the vehicle to show him our hand drawn plans...we discovered he had parked literally right in front of us! Wow! What an amazing answer to our need!

(Oh, and he ended up being a tremendous help getting the layout in the computer the way we wanted it and talking us through some of the potential issues and possible solutions that still kept what was most important to us.)

Next...excavating!