One month in High River

 

We have been living in our SEED Home for one month now in High River. In those 31 days, Mother Nature threw us a couple of curve balls, including torrential rain and an unparalleled polar vortex. Alberta went through its coldest cold snap in 50 years. The house, our patience, and the resilience of the SEED Homes team was tested through it all. In January the house only partially felt like home as we had to keep moving furniture around as workers installed trim, replaced damaged floor boards and wall panels, and various other tasks that needed to be done. Dave and Elizabeth, the awesome painters from Okotoks, finished up yesterday morning. All of the inside work is now complete.

We knew that Stephen Morgan, CEO of SEED Homes was dropping by yesterday for a visit. Both Heather and I, and by osmosis our painters, felt the urge to clean things up and put the home's best foot forward. Stephen had not seen the house for a number of weeks and we were all eager to see his reaction. The final trim work that happened to close off the seam between the walls and ceiling, combined with the outstanding filling, sanding and painting that Dave and Elizabeth did, creates a bit of a WOW response. It looks so good. 

Finally being able to permanently place our IKEA closets and cabinets allowed us to install the doors. I must say that Heather did a brilliant job visualizing all of this. She spend hours and hours back in April and May designing the house and working with the SEED Homes team to land on the final layout. With everything mostly in place - the guest bedroom being the only exception as it is serving as my temporary studio - the home feels and flows marvellously. You can see the guest bedroom mattress leaning up against the wall. When the studio is built and ready, this room will get set up for future guests. 

"I love the layout," said one visitor. "I could absolutely live here."

"The light is incredible," said another.

Stephen was transfixed as he stood in the foyer and saw everything. His mouth was slightly open and his eyes bright with delight as he took in the result of six months of hard work by a dedicated team of people. The house had transformed into a beautiful home. The idea of SEED Homes that was birthed a year ago around a CEGEN board room table had become reality. I honestly can't image what was going through his mind and heart as he stood there in awe.

Coco and Shay love it, too. In the west living area, they have a floor to ceiling view of three massive Manitoba maple trees and three adventurous squirrels that love to visit. We call it "Squirrel Television". They also love to lounge on the sofa in the east living room and watch what is happening as cars, pedestrians and their dogs go by.

I'm having a difficult time sleeping, which has nothing to do with the house and everything to do with my body. Even though I'm exhausted when I go to bed, my leg and hip get sore and I need to get up, sit at the dining table for a bit before laying down and trying to sleep again. Some nights, this process happens more than once. The way the house is laid out allows me to deal with my restless legs without bothering Heather. Even though the house is much smaller than what we had before, there is still plenty of options to give each other the space we need at various times of the day, including in the middle of the night.

We will spend the next few days finalizing the unpacking process. I need to put my clothes into the closet. Heather will work on unpacking her library of healing books into her office. Soon we'll be ready to order the final items we need from IKEA, a bookshelf and closet cabinets for the guest bedroom. When all the remaining boxes have been unpacked and their contents put away, the inside of the home will be complete.