Up until now...

     This is the beginning of something special. A turning point for my little family. My husband, Arab (a nickname of no meaning), and I will soon embark upon the building of our forever home. With our hands. Out of dirt. I think a lot of people think we are crazy.

     We have a typical little nuclear family: Dad, Mom (that's me), Daughter (Manna, almost 3), Son (Moses, just turned 1. Mo is blind, ok, I guess that's not very typical). Arab owns a roofing business. I had worked as a school counselor until a few months before the arrival of our son (Mo's blindness had nothing to do with my decision to become a stay-at-home mother, we actually didn't know that he was blind until he was a few months old). We had a typical little home life too, a mortgage, paying lots of bills and outsourcing practically everything. Don't get me wrong, we loved our house. It charmed us away from our hometown with its rustic nostalgia.

     After only a few short years, we realized this wasn't our forever home. We missed our tiny hometown and wanted to be closer to family (even though we weren't that far away). Finding out about Mo's blindness made my urge to be near family even stronger; I wanted my children to have a close-knit support system. That is now in the works.

     Two months ago, we were blessed with the selling of our first home. That rustic house we fell in love with. ("I can't believe we own this house!" I remember saying to Arab with delight as we slept in our living room floor. Our first night in our first home. Just us.)

     Let's backtrack some...

     In the spring, we purchased land. Five little acres on a sloping hillside. A nice clearing. Lots of beautiful trees. A trickling creek. Oh, and the neighbors... My parents (Mom and Stepfather) and one-year-old niece live right across the road (I would say street, but it's not really a street- there are no lines or anything). My stepbrother, his wife, and their two children (who just happen to be exactly the same age as mine) purchased the land directly beside us a few months before. Family unit, here we come.

     When we first purchased this land, in the country of a rural county in Tennessee, we were thinking cabin. I am the researcher and had been doing the research. Yes, for sure a cabin, it made sense. But how could we make it green? While googling lots of "green" house stuff, I stumbled across a very unique looking home to which I was immediately attracted.

     My first thought was something like, "That's really neat, but that's not a home that can be built around here". This was my introduction to cob homes. I thought Arab would dismiss the idea as crazy, but to my surprise his only concern was the structural integrity (which is not an issue). Thus began our cob journey. From here, we (and when I say "we", it was mostly me) researched, read, and became immersed in cob information.

     Land- check. House plans- check. Building permit- check. Skid steer purchased- check (for efficiently mixing cob). Cob-building consultant- check (Christina Ott, barefootbuilder.com). We are having our first on-site consultation this week! I am so excited to set forth on this journey. What a blessing!

     Let me share my dream with you, picture this...

Beautiful cob house on the hillside. Downsizing. No mortgage. Living more simply. Passive solar. No central heat/air. Wood heater (rocket stove). Rainwater harvesting. Becoming more self-sustainable. Continued stay-at-home mom. My kids growing up with their grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins right beside them. These kids never knowing anything different about Mo and his blindness. Homeschooling. A garden. Canning and preserving. Dairy goats. Honeybees. Sounds like the perfect adventure to me.

     We hope to begin in October.
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