Year One

We cannot believe a year has passed since we purchased Oakleaf Cottage. A year ago today, we left the title office, packed a tiny overnight bag, an air mattress, a bottle of wine and our favorite celebratory glasses: a pair of gold-decked champagne flutes Dave’s mom found at auction. We treated ourselves to dinner at Canyon Grill, still trying to absorb what we had done, and what we needed to do.

We dozed off with the full solstice moon shining blue through the uncovered windows, lulled by the sound of a pair of owls talking to each other across the night, and a soft breeze in the treetops. Dawn arrived clear and cool, and we sat on the steps of the front porch, sipping coffee, drawing sketches, discussing details and plans, dreaming and getting distracted by the beauty around us.

A number of changes took place in the first few months – starting with remodeling the Cottage. It has fabulous bones, a classic “four over four” farmhouse layout that feels like home, or your grandparent’s home. There is no want for windows and natural light, and the living spaces have the perfect balance between openness and privacy.

We wanted to draw out more of that sense of an older home, every change we made was with consideration of what an older farmhouse would have. We settled on tongue and groove for the ceilings rather than beadboard, as we knew it would be very difficult to make the home seem 100 years old — but we could make it feel 80, with built-ins and simple trim.

Our first year saw a couple moderate-sized events, a few insanely fun photoshoots, and even a commercial was filmed here!

Austin and Rose Photography

Photo courtesy of Riverworks Marketing

We are still undergoing more changes, and this year’s focus has been on the barn. We’ve never seen a barn smack dab in the woods before, and certainly not snuggled up alongside such an impressive rocky mountainside. We’ve been bringing in loads of dirt, first to level the floor of the barn (it had a 28″ difference in floor height from one end to the other) and then to fill in the area behind the barn where a lot of dirt had been dug out by the original owners to create a level enough space for the barn – we are on the side of a mountain, after all.

Behind the Barn – Last Year

Standing on all that dirt, four feet higher than we had ever seen it before, felt surreal to Dave and I (and not just for the fact that we spent a lot of money on dirt we could stand on). We see the area behind the barn as being such a fun place, like a back lawn. We can’t wait to have dinners and Celidihs (Kay-lees) here.

We were first exposed to a celidih while in Nova Scotia, taking in Celtic music during the yearly festival known as Celtic Colors, which brings in musicians from all over the world to play Gaelic-inspired music. In its traditional Scottish or Irish sense, it’s simply a social gathering, involving music and dancing. It’s so much fun, we want to have a place to hold such music here — and what better place than next to a mossy rock wall that looks like it came straight out of Darby O’Gill and the Little People?

This past year has been extremely exciting for us. We’ve done most all the work ourselves, and so it’s been a lot of long days and late nights and early mornings (which explains some of my sloppy blogging history). We can’t wait to move forward and share more of this gorgeous place. We are, every day, grateful and in awe of this place we come to, a place that offers new surprises all the time, like our little friend Casper:

Here’s to our first year!

• Cris & Dave