In the Beginning

So much has happened so quickly. It was just 9 months ago that God led us to the dump on the mountain. I say dump, because that’s literally what it looked like. There was trash scattered EVERYWHERE. In many places it was obvious that someone had unloaded a truck bed full of household garbage or they had taken old satellite dishes, toilets, and old bed frames that they weren’t sure what to do with and just left it on what looked like the beginnings of a landfill. God led us up a private drive that was about a half mile up the ridge.

Upon arrival, I was fearful and nervous and begged Daniel to leave. A lot of horror films started out this way. Two innocent newly weds take a nice quiet Sunday drive when they stumble upon an old abandoned house and decide it would be a good idea to get out and take a gander while trespassing….you get the picture. I did not want to be the silly oblivious girl on the movie that you’re yelling at the screen for her to STAY IN THE CAR!

Daniel on the other hand, looked at the old stone home covered in green vines and mildew and 16 acres littered with dirty diapers, trash, and enough shot gun shells to make it look like a war zone, and saw a Disney movie not a horror film. With excitement like a toddler on Christmas morning he said, “Babe! Call the relator and see how much they want for this gem.” Where I saw yet another intimidating project that seemed much too hard to tackle, my husband saw a diamond in the rough begging for someone to love it back to life. Three days, several “pros and cons” lists, and a whole lot of prayers later…I had drank the Kool Aid and the dump was ours!

It had hardly been 6 months since wrapping up the tiny house build, hauling the house 6 hours north, and moving in and here we were yet again with another house and one massive project.

Soon we received a phone call from the production company that filmed our tiny house episode. They saw a post on Instagram, and wanted to know what we were getting in to. We explained the dream of renovating the old stone dump and how the mountain top screamed for the treehouse resort we’d always dreamed of building, but that would be much later down the road (or so we thought).

Turns out through several conversations with friends and more conversations with the production company, we decided to put the house on the back burner and actually start with our first treehouse. This would allow the residual income from the treehouse rental to help fund the renovation of the stone house. With the help of Dorsey Pictures, we were cast as the first ever treehouse build on a show called, “Building Off the Grid.” We took time to plan and design our first treehouse and by July we were ready to start clearing the land.

We were off on yet another adventure…