First Night

Today I got a verbal okay to move in. There is a short checklist of items to complete before final, but for now I will never sleep in the old manufactured home again.

It's a year and one month to the day since groundbreaking, but really over two-years since I embarked on this project.

I celebrate by spending the evening on my new porch. For an instant I thought I saw a forest fire or an emergency vehicle in the opposing hills, but it was only the moon's big orange face rising through the fir trees. I watched him ascend as I sipped some fine Portland whiskey. The silhouettes of a few deer moved across the lawn not 30 feet away. I stood for a time at the deck rail. I could hear their munching as they pulled on the new growth. After the moon had risen in full, and his face calmed to luminescence, I retired, snuggling under the layers of down, the clean night air rushing over my face, and the moon shadows projected on the ceiling high above me. The house snaps and creeks as the timbers cool and gain moisture. A new house with old bones telling stories of another life.