How We Decided To Build ‘The Barn’

To understand how we reached the decision to build our current home, which we lovingly refer to as ‘The Barn,’ you must understand the years that proceeded our decision. My husband and I were married 8 years this last December, and in that time we have moved 7 times and completed 3 renovations. And when I say we have moved, I mean from Vancouver, Washington to Doha, Qatar, back to Vancouver, onto Eugene, Oregon, back to Vancouver and now finally landed just north of Vancouver. And when I say we have completed 3 renovations I mean, when I came home from my honeymoon the only thing in our home was a toilet, a bed, and the Christmas tree my in-laws surprised us with! The next renovation took place while I was 6 months pregnant with my first child, and the final one took place while we lived with my parents; so to say that we had chosen a bit of chaos for ourselves over the years is an understatement. Part of our problem is my husband works in construction/development and is really good at what he does, and I am a dreamer and a creative who is always willing to come up with a new project for us to tackle. I must add however, we did not move just to move, each time it was for my husbands career, and they were choices that we agreed and felt like were necessary to make. All of this to say, when stumbled upon the 5 acres of raw land (meaning no road, well, or septic just a forest of trees) that we currently call home, I was VERY hesitant to move again. Our oldest was 4 and our youngest had just turned 1, and we loved the neighborhood and house we were living in. What pulled at us was my husband’s desire for a shop, and our mutual desire for a particular school district, so….. we purchased the land.

Once the land was purchased we sat down to discuss what we wanted to build. I was very clear that I did not want to just throw any old house up, and my husband was clear that he HAD to have a shop. We were also in a bit of a time crunch because we wanted to sell the house we were living in during the summertime, which was only 4 months away. I was also worried that having just finished the first year with a new baby (where are my mama’s, you know how year one goes), that I just did not have the head space to design the home we knew we one day wanted. Taking all of this into consideration, we made a compromise. We would build a shop with a living space upstairs and live in that for a couple of years and eventually build our house on the front half of the property. My husband knew what he wanted for the shop, which included a home office, and I knew that to feel content for a few years I would want at least 3 bedrooms, I really wanted to use the 3rd room as a playroom for all of my boys “stuff.”

The year of building was a long one as my husband had to complete the construction after work hours and on weekends, which left me fairly overextended at home with a 1 and 4 year old. We moved in December 23rd, 2017 to a partially finished home, largely because we just had to get out of the chaos. I remember my husband staying up until 2 am with one of our carpenters laying our hardwood floors, just so we could be in by Christmas, while I went to Target to buy a fake Christmas tree on clearance so that my boys had some semblance of a Christmas.

This is the Barn today, and after one year we know that we made the right decision. We love, love, love the city we live in, our family lives to be on the river and the marina is only about two miles away. We also scored the best neighbors you could ask for, which is a really big deal when you move onto property, it definitely makes it not so lonely. Running around in the woods with our boys is another favorite of ours! As far as the barn we are so happy with the home it provides our family, but we also have quite a bit of work left to do, and I am excited to share that here with you!

~ Ashley