The Journey to Sanctuary

This is where it's all headed!  A little rewind just to put some context into the current moment.   

In the Spring of 2021, around the time of the anniversary of the death of a dear friend of mine, KT Miller, I was thinking about him and his home in NC - a place I was fortunate to have known since its inception and enjoyed being able to visit - time away from the pace and intensity of my former work life.  His home was a 5,000 sq ft version of the little space I'm creating, and it inspired my pursuit of this particular home type - it supports a connection between the outside and inside, the natural world and the constructed.  

While reflecting on that historical experience, the next thought that came into my head was "why wouldn't I create a Sanctuary for me?"  A thought I've never had in my entire life.   So I began to make myself consider what container would support my best life?  KT's Deltec home - a manufactured shell with no interior load bearing walls so you can create whatever version of space you want - held special significance for me so I snooped a bit into what would be involved in that version of place for me - it's an extremely green build, a structure I know intimately so I knew what I was getting into if I pursued it - and as I did, it seemed apparent it could potentially be a thing I could do, albeit on a much smaller scale.  

I mused on this vision for the better part of a year and schooled myself on what it would involve to create such a thing in this County - permits, technical skills and trades needed, even looked at some parcels to begin to get a sense of the potential cost of land.   I took that r&d process as far as it could go without knowing the "where" - you can only sort out so much without knowing what piece of land this would go on.  

By Thanksgiving of 2021, I had a vision, and some clarity about what it would take to pull it off.  I decided I needed to start socializing this vision with my network if I was going to find the needle in the real estate haystack I was hoping for.  The first people I shared this vision with were my friends with whom I spent most of the COVID lockdown period - Buzz Bauer and Jean Hamberg, who live about 3 miles down the road from where I am located now in Dry Creek Valley.  I had a long range timeline in mind, imagining I'd find "place" in 2022, get the prep and permitting lined up in 2023, build in 2024 and inhabit by 2025.   

Buzz and Jean's immediate response was "you have to build it here."  As in, on their land.  I was floored by that offer and it is without a doubt one of the most generous gifts I've been given in my lifetime.  Essentially, what we have done is put together a legal agreement that authorizes me to build and occupy an ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit - great bureaucratic name for a home) on their property and live in it for the rest of my life.   We figured out formulations for scenarios that could alter that intention but on the main, we are dialed in to an arrangement that works for us.  

The 1000 sq ft home I'm creating has been designed, engineered and the plans are with our County's permit department running through their gauntlet of sign-offs in anticipation of breaking ground in late Spring.  The manufactured shell will go into production in March and this ball is officially rolling such that I should be living there by the end of this year!  It truly feels like a miracle every day that this even happening and my inner project manager and general geek about learning all things are activated and thriving.

I note as I prepare to launch this thing that it's March and KT died in March and I had the idea in March and a year ago is when I first cleared the land in March and now, this too...feels like right timing and I am going to enjoy cataloging the experience.  This blog space is where I intend to share updates on this miracle of a project and process and let those who are interested peek in to the neither linear nor predictable journey of creating my little forever home.   If you're bothering to keep up with it all, I hope you will be able to come visit and enjoy the future space I'm referring to as my sanctuary!