It'a Been a Good Ride...

Twenty three years ago, Ival and I found our dream property.  They were 10 acre parcels out Dry Creek on Neville Ranch.  The only problem was that they were asking $50,000 for the lots.  $50,0000!  That was a LOT of money and there was no way we could afford it.  But, it was a great dream.  We built a house on a nice lot in NW Boise instead.  Then, about 10 years later I found Hidden Springs - also on Dry Creek.

I had watched Hidden Springs for years.  It started with just 3 model houses.  It was back in about 2000 and the model homes were about $350,000.  It was a lot more than we could afford.  But as it grew to 12 houses, I continued to come up and dream that someday we would be able to buy a house here.  I loved how anyone standing outside their homes would wave to you as you drove into the community.  Every house had a front porch - and you could tell the neighbors all had a good time together.

I wasn't a city girl.  Growing up in Garden Valley I had lived the perfect life.  I knew that Hidden Springs would be as close to country living as I could get since we needed to be near Boise.  As it turned out, I had come up to attend the Harvest Festival, started driving around, and found a home that was about halfway built.  I could tell it was abandoned.

I called Ival and made him come and look.  We contacted the realtor who had the house listed and discovered that we could buy it for $172,000.  We figured if Ival was the contractor and found his own subs, that we could finish the house for a reasonable price.  And so we did...

It served it's purpose for almost 10 years.  I have lots of memories, but the one that best describes our lives here was watching as Adam grew.  The only way we knew for sure how many friends Adam had over was by looking to see how many pairs of tennis shoes were lined up near the front door.  Now, I look out the front window to see how many vehicles are parked in front of the house.  There's usually at least 4 but I've counted up to 7. 

Now, we get to move on and let a nice young couple who are expecting their first child enjoy this home.  They're both teachers, have friends up here, and like us many years ago, have wanted to move here but couldn't afford it.  They love the house and will be a great addition to Hidden Springs.

I contacted my boss last night and we'll be renting one of their homes up here.  It's furnished so we can put all of our stuff in storage.  They do have it listed so if it sells we may end up having to do something different later.  But, if it's summer, we could always go over and borrow my sister's travel trailer and camp on the property until the house is done.  We have to make a trip to Portland anyway because Bob, who is a packrat like me, has the old flooring out of the Caldwell HS gym that he's giving us to use in the barn house.

I'm sure my blog will be changing.  I thought about starting a new one to document our journey on building on Jacob Springs but decided against it.  I'll be posting pictures as we go of course.  The tent will stay.  It will be moved to a flat spot on one of the hills for friends and family to use if they want a night away from home.  In fact, we'll probably add another tent.  We want to share our farm with all of our friends and family.

So we start a new adventure.  I'll have my horses, we'll have free-range chickens, some miniature donkeys for the grandkids, a pond for them to fish in, and deer and wild turkeys in our back yard.  This will be our last home.  Something we've both dreamed about for years.  Our barn house on Dry Creek on 15 acres.  Just about 1/2 a mile from that first 10 acre lot that we looked at almost 25 years ago...