Building Our Community

Growing up I rode my bike everywhere.  The two rules were, "don’t go into anyone’s house" and "be back before dark". I had multiple friends, a school playground, and a park within a mile of my house. If I did anything wrong, my father knew about it before I got home. There were kids everywhere, we would run from yard to yard, jumping over hedges and playing in each other’s yards.

But something happened. Cable, Atari, Nintendo, one by one the kids started disappearing and the grass grew back on the paths between houses. Is it that parents live in fear of giving their children independence to run from house to house due to predators? Or perhaps children are busy, constantly being shuttled from one activity to the next. I look around and see backyards hidden with privacy fences, preventing us from communicating with each other. Neighborhoods built without parks and houses built without porches.

The Water Feature

What a challenge this project was. Not only did we have no idea how to take care of the deep concrete hole outside our front door, but nobody we consulted seemed to know what to do with it either. Dennis and I spent many hours researching garden shows, specialty pond stores, and swimming pool companies. While a great number of visitors were sure we should just fill it in, we were determined to find a plan to make it amazing.


After three years of caring for the concrete hole, I finally decided on an idea I was excited about. It including a paint a mural, which made the project more like two, but I was hopeful it would only take a couple weeks.

The House, A Love Story

While house hunting, my husband and I had a lot of things we agreed on but esthetic was not one of them. I preferred an older home, two-stories, with history and charm. My dream was to live in an established neighborhood, centralized in the city. Dennis preferred nothing over fifty years old, attached garage and a poured concrete basement. (No stacked stone!) Thank goodness for the ease of browsing via the internet. Otherwise, we would have taken months to find a house. We had looked at too many houses and I was discouraged. We almost settled on a house neither of us was completely in love with. Then I was reminded of a neighborhood we'd walk while we were dating. The houses were unique and grand. I didn’t think we would ever afford anything in that area.  But it never hurts to look! After more searching, I was able to a couple of options and things began to look up!

Online, the house was described as “Classic Knollwood” which meant nothing to us. We were not familiar enough with the area to know that is what the subdivision was called.

The Beginning

Life_and other projects

I used to write; I loved to write… not necessarily for anyone to read but mostly for myself. When I was younger writing helped me make sense of the things I was thinking, feeling and doing. Now as a 35-year old mother of two, I don’t get to do much of anything that does not include a child on my lap. Not complaining, I love my girls, but if I were to try and keep a journal now, I fear it would end up turning into a sketchpad for them and a to-do list for me.

So here I am, my first blog. Sticking my thoughts and feelings on-THE-line as it may. Processing the things that occur in the many projects of my life. Learning from my thoughts and sharing with the vastness of my curiosity from on the other side of the screen. I write as I think. Here is not the place for grammatical correctness, judgment or opinion. This is merely the verbal sketchpad of this great project I call my life. Enjoy.