The SEED is in the home

 

After three or four days in a row of visiting SEED Homes in SE Calgary to share our home with a variety of dignitaries and visitors, it's time to take a break and reflect.  Since we left our former Elma Street home at the end of July, we've been on a perpetual vacation of sorts spending time in Crowsnest Pass, High River, Sexsmith, DeWinton and now NW Calgary. 

Meanwhile, Heather has been travelling through Italy doing a 400 km pilgrimage walk with her friend Michelle from the UK. Both of us are itching to settle into our new home and begin the process of stabilizing our lives and getting rooted in High River.

What am I looking forward to when the house is complete and we can sleep in it for the first time?

1. Waking up and having my first cup of coffee looking out our big windows and watching the sun come up.

2. Rediscovering our things and finding places for everything (truthfully, this might be a mix of anticipation and dread - did we purge enough?).

3. Driving up to my sister and brother-in-law's house to get Coco and Shay to bring them back to their new home. That will be such a good day.

4. This may seem super weird and simplistic, but turning on the water in the house for the first time will be EPIC, particularly because of the challenges we have had with getting services to the lot. 

5. Finding a spot in the house where I can paint until Birdsong Studio 3.0 gets built and installed. I have no idea where this will be yet.

6. Settling into our reading nook in the evening with Heather and just being still, together. 

7. Going for walks with the dogs getting to learn more about our new community.

8. Starting back on the Ideal Protein program and losing the weight that I've put on from four months of stress, uncertainty and medicating with food and drink. 

9. Spending more time with family and friends. That is one of the biggest things we are both looking forward to. 

10. Generally, just having our own space again will be so nice. It will take time to settle in, but we both long for the chance to get to work making it HOME.

This list could go on for a long time, but fundamental to the design of this new phase of our downsized life is to live more simply, minimize debt, travel more, and connect more deeply with those we love.