The selection of our future home location came to us like most things do in a marriage - by compromise.
country boy + suburb girl = space and convenience
Our site before construction begins
Luckily, we both agree that the rolling hills out the back window is a view we can live with. So, we have country farmland views, but we are also five minutes from downtown and ten minutes from Brent's flooring store but the best part is that we are steps away from the farm where Brent’s horse lives.
Honey the horse, Brent, and our daughter at age 2
Brent has always had a fascination with horses. When he was a kid, he left a family reunion to go out in a pasture and get on a big Percheron draft horse. He climbed up and fell asleep while the horse grazed. Later in life, he saved enough money to buy his first car but passed for an opportunity to buy his first horse instead. Riding horses gives him a brief, but necessary, pause to life. What he means by that is that it forces him to be in the moment. When riding, there is no time to let your mind wander or worry. Focus on the present. It helps him to relax and clear his mind. He's excited we'll be able to see this horse in the pastures out the back windows and porch and to share his passion with the people he loves the most.
One of our first challenges we faced is a restriction that we must share a driveway with the home next door. There are many reasons why we wanted this restriction removed but the most important was that we wanted to maximize parking for our guests. You see, we will live on a country road with a speed limit of 45. Having turns in the driveway would have limited this greatly. In pursuing this change, we got to know our new neighbors and they’re lovely. We look forward to living next to them soon!
Our request was finally approved! We designed many different options for our driveway and finally settled on this one. The driveway allows for convenient parking right in front of the house. This parking will also serve as a place to turn around so we do not need to back out onto the country road.