And so it begins ...

I know we've been talking about building a house for several years and, to be honest, it wasn't just talk. We really, really have been planning to build ever since we bought the land on the lake.  Initially, we were delayed because of a national banking crisis.  Who would have thought the mortgage industry would conspire the way it did?

Then, our son Todd didn't want to move during the final years of his high school career and abandon his friends.  Again, who would have thought ... ?


Last summer as Todd approached high school graduation we decided it was again time to dust off our house plans and begin working towards our mutual goal.  We began by preparing our Flower Mound home for sale.  We spend most of April and early May with contractors repainting and repairing as necessary all the signs of our wear over the previous 14 years in that home.  The house had served us well and will be missed, but we take from it plenty of memories and photographs.

The time arrived for us to put the house on the market and to our great joy, it sold in the first week.  Surely it was a blessing and a sign that we were moving in the right direction.  The quick sale also presented some challenges - what do do with all our stuff and where to live in the interim.

With plenty of help from our church friends and family, we boxed, labeled, and stored for later use the items we most wanted.  We also threw away or gave away many things that had laid unused for so long.  During our military years we had routinely culled the uselessness from our home.  But with more than 14 years in one house, we had amassed quite the collection.

We would also need to live somewhere.  Rather than renting a house we decided to move into our motorhome and locate it close to our property.  Again, we were blessed beyond measure in that path.  Not wanting to live in a "fish camp" with anglers and construction workers idling their diesel, king cab trucks at the rump-crack of dawn each day, we found an idyllic spot on the property of a good friend.  We're nestled under a grove of hardwood trees and surrounded by a cattle ranch.  The braying of Little Joe, our friend's donkey, is our daily alarm clock.