Chehalem Mountain Homestead

Over a year and half ago I started this blog with the intention of having a place to document all the major milestones in the project of a lifetime. Ha! What was I thinking? I must not have realized how much work and how busy we were about to be trying to get to the point where we could actually start building. Here’s a little catch-up on what we’ve been up to.

We spent quite a bit of time up on the property throughout the summer of 2020 getting little projects done in preparation to harvest trees and clear a place for our future home and a shop. On these visits we got to know the place pretty well, enjoyed finding beautiful botanical gifts, lounging in the shade picnicking and spending time with family. We made decisions about where we would cut trees with the help of good friends and a goal of improving the health of our forest in addition to the clearings we needed to make.

In the fall we had the beginning of a driveway installed and our timber harvest was completed which opened up the view to the mountains and valley. The site changed so much through this work but we are looking forward to enhancing the forest and landscaping around the house over the coming years.

Along the way we worked with our builder to design the house that we really wanted all along. After many refinements we arrived at what we feel is a great design that allows plenty of space for all of us to spread out and gives us the features we were looking for. Our builder and their designer were very patient with us throughout the process and our many revisions.

Early in 2021 we started in on the next heavy lift – getting our house ready to sell. When we purchased the house back in 2008 it was in need of some serious love. Major pet damage, water damage, and general neglect had left it in need of a “gut job.” We set about making repairs and updates to the house, pausing when we needed to due to burn out or lack of finances. In the end we still had a list of projects to complete when it came time to sell. We are unbelievably fortunate to have the most supportive and helpful family anyone could ever imagine. Weekends throughout the spring were almost entirely spent painting, sprucing, fixing, planting, and generally making things beautiful. The house sold pretty quickly and by August we were off on the next leg of the journey.

Did I mention that throughout this time we were also trying to figure out where we were going to live?! The debate was between finding an apartment or buying an RV and living on the property. Back and forth we went weighing the options over and over until we knew we just needed to make a decision. In the end the RV idea won. The search was on for a fifth wheel trailer that could fit all four of us and our two golden retrievers along with a big truck that could pull it. This project, during the pandemic, was not an easy one at all. Supplies of used vehicles were incredibly low and every truck we looked at got bought out from under us. We managed to find a truck and rushed to buy it just one week before we were scheduled to drive to southern Oregon to pick up the fifth wheel we had purchased. Picking up the trailer was an adventure alone as neither one of us had ever towed anything that large at all. (The trailer is 43′ long!) All went smoothly and it was soon parked in front of our house where we loaded everything we thought we would need straight from the house with just a day or two to spare before we needed to be out. A total whirlwind to say the least. Some of our closest friends thought we were crazy. And, maybe we are!

The trailer was moved up to the property in August with very limited resources at hand. A flat-ish dirt parking area and running water were our main assets. Two small generators and multiple trips off the mountain to dump the tanks kept us going until more facilities were installed. Our fantastic excavator went above and beyond to get us set up with septic and a flat gravel pad before the fall rains set in and the electrician put in all the rough electrical to prepare us for a connection to power. Never in my life did I think that gravel would be so important to me but after living with so much dirt it was beautiful. After two months listening to the generators running for several hours a couple times a day the power was connected. I almost hugged one of the linemen who showed up to make our connection and turn on our power.

The winter has been pretty quiet while we worked to get the complicated financing figured out amidst rising construction costs and pandemic uncertainty. But as of February 1, 2022, we are financed and it is off to the races now! The next part of the adventure is about to start.

Our family is embarking on a great adventure. Like any good adventure, this one promises discovery, excitement, new experiences, opportunities to learn and grow, joy, and maybe a little frustration or disappointment along the way. Overall, though, when I look back on all the adventures in my life, what I usually remember is the fun and the good times. I think this adventure will be like that.

Nearly a year ago, my mom and I started bouncing around what seemed like a bit of a wild idea of merging our households. The reasons and benefits seemed logical, from us getting more help raising our kids, to them getting more help as they age, to just plain old cutting down on the constant commuting back and forth to each other’s houses. What was first just an idea, a someday, maybe a few years from now thing, started to really take shape a couple months after our daughter, Cora, was born. With Roger and my dad on board, we raised the idea with our dear friend, and real estate agent, and she went to work getting us leads on potential properties.

Before we knew it, we were looking at houses that could provide two separate, but attached, living spaces. Our list of desires was pretty long and included a wish for some acreage to spread out on – maybe around five acres or so. We saw old houses that would need a lot of work (something that none of us are a stranger to), newer houses on not-very-nice pieces of land, and even one house that had a separate “man cave” building that we could have renovated.

We liked the man cave house enough that we made an offer on it and got frantically to work getting my parent’s house ready to sell. After the offer on the “man cave” house fell through, we kept the pedal to the metal on the house selling preparations and also got back to the hunt.

We started to realize that building a house on a piece of raw land might be the best way to get what we wanted in a place that we loved, so we opened up our search to buildable lots. One lot in particular had struck us as intriguing after looking at it online numerous times. On a very rainy day in February, we went to take a look.

Roger and I were smitten pretty much right away, but the cloudy skies and rain put a damper on the vision for others. When we started to leave that day our real estate agent’s car and my parents’ car both got stuck in the mud. A call to a friend with a winch, a call for a tow truck, and the application of quite a bit if muscle freed the cars. When all was said and done and we were leaving covered in mud, I jokingly told my mom it was the property telling us not to leave and she said it was telling us to leave and not come back.

But, we did come back. First, Roger and my parents made a trip up on a clear day and several big reasons to fall in love with the property were out in full view – Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, Mount Adams, and Mount Hood.

With this property in mind, we kept plowing ahead on getting the first house ready to sell (ours would have to come later), while keeping our eyes open for another perfect house or piece of land to come available. In the months between our first visit to the property to when the house was sold, nothing else really met the challenge. Once my parents’ house closed and we could see that the best choice was the one in hand, an offer was made and, eventually, accepted (pending approval to install a septic system). A few harried weeks, and two large septic “test pits” later, the property was ours. We found our perfect spot.

Now the real fun has begun as we embark on building a house from scratch – something none of us has ever done. It’s exciting, and scary, and completely nerve wracking at times, but each visit to the property reaffirms for me how right this place is. I feel truly fortunate that we will all get to live there – hopefully relatively soon.

So, please follow along, if you like. I’ll be doing my best to keep this space updated with all of our current happenings. A way to have something to look back on someday, and also a way to share our journey with you. I hope it is an enjoyable journey for all.