Demo Day!

Well, the old house is no more. It came down yesterday. Lots of people have made comments that it was sad, but trust us, she was not salvageable, our architect for the new house stated that the first time we met him at the property. Several other knowledgeable people have seen it and agreed. It was built as a tenant house and had been so it’s whole life. No one had been living in it since 2011.

It was in such poor shape and disrepair, there had been a fire some time ago, charred rafters in the back of the house covered over by new planking, (no plywood sheathing), virtually no insulation at all (a few pieces in one corner on the west side of the downstairs front room, none in the roof or attic: planking, one layer of tar paper and a metal roof, it had to be unbelievably cold in the winter), antiquated wiring mixed in with new outlet boxes, it was amazing it was still with us. We saved and will repurpose the salvageable doors in the new house, the windows and their old glass went to a friend’s 1856 farmhouse for good use. Her time had come...

We weren't living in it, it was on the property we bought in Avon, three acres of pasture land. We'll be building a new single story house to go with the 40 x 60 pole barn we built there. Amazing sunsets, sunrises and our little Zen spot in the world.

WestView

Marcea and I were talking the other night that we sure are enjoying our temporary winter digs, (especially a washer and dryer, not going to the laundromat is huge!) but also that we were missing our tranquil place on the planet, especially after spending the whole summer enjoying the peace and quiet, and the spectacular sunsets. I stopped the other evening to get some items for a photo shoot this week and there it was, one of those amazing sunsets...

Whew!

Well, it's been a while since we've posted anything on the blog but things have definitely been busy for us!
We purchased property in Avon, on Papermill Road, and have plans to build our dream house. Three acres of pasture land with the most amazing view the Genesee Valley, one of our favorite places.

We first built a barn, 40x60 steel pole barn to which was amazing to watch go up.

A great place to store our motorhome and the Mini!

Well, the plan escalated in April of this year when we decided to sell our house in Geneseo. The market appeared to be good in the area and indeed it was. The house sold in 5 days! We had to move in 5 weeks which became interesting as we have not begun to build the house on Papermill: that will start in April of 2016. Luckily we had the the barn and motorhome and that became our temporary domicile for the summer. Yup, 4 months in a motorhome totalling about 400 square feet!
(It's a very nice 400 square feet...)

So that's what we did, packed all our belongings, purchased new and moved shelving we already had to the barn and stored everything we own.

Quite the adventure! Even more so, it's a location that is pretty much off the grid, no cable, no internet, no wifi! But interestingly it became refreshing, we read, talked, enjoyed the scenery, worked on the property. We hooked up a digital antenna to connect to the TV in the morothome and got the local channels, we up the data plan for our phones and used the hotspot for basic email and web. For my photography business I did my editing work and then found places that had wifi to upload for clients and place orders. All it took was planing and organization.

Once the house is built we'll explore our options for our media needs, but it was an interesting summer and made us realize the creature comforts we take for granted.

So there is kind of what has been happening in a nutshell, we're comfortably spending our winter in Marcea's mom's (Marcea's very gracious mom) house in Lakeville. We'll be sure to post photos as the next phase of the adventure begins in the spring!

I've been very lucky to be rather busy with my photography business lately. Today I packed up a camera, one of my tripods, some of my favorite filters, loaded everything into the Mini Cooper and went to my favorite place on the planet for some reflection and quiet time. If you get back in far enough off the beaten path there is nothing else but your soul and nature. Thank you Mr. Letchworth.