…as in, the company I worked for got acquired and would be immediately merging with another company. That’s when it all started. The promise of share payout coupled with potential job loss. I rounded up brownies and dusted off my resume. Graeme, instinctively, pointed his browser to Zillow.com. I’m still not exactly sure why, as we hadn’t talked about buying property or moving in over a year. But he’s the guy who prepares for the worst: I lose my job, we’re forced to move out of our apartment, and there’s an apocalypse that requires us to grow our own food and light fires to keep warm. It had been awhile since Graeme was looking for developable land. In 2017, we considered a few properties close to Graeme’s school, Veritas, hoping to find some cheap, unrestricted land on which we could plop a container home or two to rent out to faculty. We put that search on the shelf until last summer when the school was moving into its new home further south in Austin, and we reopened the conversation with a new twist: faculty housing on campus. Boarding school style, except without the boarding students or proctor responsibilities. We rounded up a few interested faculty members and mused about a tiny home community over fajitas and a campfire. Though the school would not be able obtain permits for a tiny home village in the short term, we had obviously surfaced a desire for communal living and a willingness to trade off on space and some conventional ‘comforts’ for a more simple, intentional lifestyle.
And then we put the dream back on the shelf. A slightly lower shelf, this time.
Fast forward to Labor Day 2018, back to the living room with despondent Amanda and an optimistic Zillow-crawling Graeme. He applied a few filters and *ping* a property that seems to check all the boxes: close proximity to the school campus, highly unrestricted developmental policies, at least 1 acre (it’s 2.5), covered in trees but with adequate cleared space. In a state of disbelief, I half-jokingly suggested that we text our broker friend tout-de-suite and ask him to inquire about the property. Three days later we were touring the land; two weeks later we submitted an offer, and 3 months later we bought a small percentage of Texas. Miraculous.
No sooner had we made our first visit to the land, did I plant the seed with one of the Tiny House Campfire families (we’ll call them The Bees) about joining us on the land. They said they would consider it. I thought maybe it’s just flattery; after all, they are really nice people. But a few weeks later they asked us if we were still serious about our offer. Miraculous. Graeme and I roughly sketched out an idea of a couple of housing structures, a studio space for me all oriented around shared public spaces like a courtyard and a pool (not giving up too many comforts!) and represented it to them. They loved the idea, and felt a strong calling to step out in faith with us.
As early as our dating days, Graeme and I have listed Build A House on our shared life goals list. I’ve always wanted to hire an architect and bring a vision to life. We have been talking about what kind of retreat we wanted to cultivate and how this kind of endeavor would shape us. We always imagined a home that facilitated well being, healthy relationships with God, land, food, literature, materials, animals. We wanted to create a space for hospitality and human flourishing. And we didn’t want to do it alone. But, how would we know that there would be others to join with us? And here we are. We are overwhelmed with gratitude. God provides.
considerafield 