Introduction
Recently, in 2010, I found my old diary started when we bought our property here in North Fork, CA. I have back dated posts, bit by bit, to tell that story of finding our place, moving out of Southern California and building our home on a mountainside.
I hope it will be an inspiration to others to are making a leap from one lifestyle to another. Here are some highlights starting from October 2000, when we first found and bought the place to December 2005, when we moved in to our new house. More entries will be added…
Some Background
In October 2000, my husband Larry and I bought seven acres of natural forest land in the Sierra Foothills close to Yosemite. The family has vacationed at the nearby Bass Lake for many years and long before that, I had come here with my family for vacations every year when I was a child. Our friends met us at the property and advised us that building a home here was feasible, but would take a lot of work. They would help us, they said.
So,… we could scarcely believe what we had done! This would start us off on an adventure that we never dreamed we’d be doing, having lived all our lives in the suburbs in Orange County, CA. Larry and I were not ready to retire yet but we figured we’d plan and dream and camp on the property while we waited. On the trip home, we started a notebook page called “Five Year Plan”.
Back home in Fullerton, California, we lived in a small suburb and had for the past 30 years. The house was always too small for us, a family of five, and the noise and congestion of the city was starting to wear on us. Now the kids were about to launch into the world, and we weren’t the focus of their lives any longer. As soon as we got back home, we began working to spiff up the house for a future sale. We had the roof replaced, woodwork repaired and the house painted. We were excited! I immediately started shifting my focus to a ‘mountain’ house, instead of a little cottage, and started a file for magazine ideas.
Here is the first entry and some highlights, newest down to to oldest:
How we made our escape from the city and changed our lives
Your new life and its keywords
Then and Now-The stamped patio
The rock outside the back door
Scale Map of the Sierra Foothill Garden
Creating a long lasting garden
June 2005-Plants Brought from Home
February framing and planting without a hose
Country means outbuilding first, house later
Autumn 2001- Settling into camp
July 2001 The world’s most expensive campsite
May 2001- Grading for Mother’s Day
Design-Using the Colors of the Sierras
April 2001-We turn our property into a campsite
2000 November- one step forward and two steps back
October 2000-The adventure begins…we buy property
