And this week the paperwork tide shifted.  This was the week that the paperwork that so intimidates me –I’m coming to terms with the fact that I don’t have a lot of trust in bureaucratic systems that need lots of forms to work out in my benefit– came together an moved forward.

We signed all the loan paperwork for the bank.  We can now get ourselves more than enough debt to finish this project.

So, that’s good, right?  It’s feels like one of those weird adulting things that may or may not be untrue.  You have to take on debt to become financially solvent?  Student loans, house loans, car loans?   I hate that they feel so necessary.  For a good long chapter, I was an English teacher who lived out of a backpack.  And now here we are.  Currently we live in Denver in a house smaller than what we’re building and pay rent.  A lot of rent.  Condos are springing up in our neighborhood like flees and many of them are selling in the 400ks or higher.  So our modest 200K loan is potentially quite a bargain.  (Part of that bargain is that our life also revolves around building the house right now.)  We certainly feel like we’ll be able to pay off our own mortgage faster than someone else’s by renting, but whew, it doesn’t mean that the new debt doesn’t feel heavy.  And one second-hand window at a time, we’re hoping to be far under budget.

And the architect and structural engineer finalized their work and we marched up to the county to submit it!

We still need a few revisions, but every day are a little closer, both to breaking ground with heavy machinery and also sitting on our beautiful someday-deck and listening to the wind purr through the pines as the humming birds come to visit.