Back Up and Running

Hi Friends!

It's been a full 5 months since I've shared here!

Quick personal overview: This summer, I was really sick and out of commission for 6 weeks (and doing better now), our 23-year-old was living in France, Italy, and Germany, our 21-year-old started her junior year of college in Santa Fe, the other 6 of us moved out of the new house and into our rental house 20 minutes away, and our 5- and 3-year-old started attending the local Waldorf school that our older kids attended years ago. This fall, our 17-year-old spends her time doing theater and community college classes, and our 15-year-old, in addition to all his work projects, is now playing high school football (as if I didn't already pray enough!).

Before we moved out of the new house, we put up a privacy fence, and built cedar decks on the south and west side of the house. And this week, we're installing an electric vehicle charger to accommodate our ski season renter (and hopefully, many other renters).

What a difference in lifestyle this deck makes! It was literally an extension of our living space. Thank you, Judah and friends! You all did a great job!

The deck is a full 16' deep. Because of the slope of the yard, it made sense to go out that far to create more usable space. And the privacy fence is doing its job nicely!

You can see the privacy fence through the kitchen windows. We just found there was a bit too much interaction with our other house across the street and wanted to add some separation. We plan to create a courtyard with plantings that can be viewed from the kitchen.

On the business side, Mickey exited his corporate career this past May to build our new company, Modern Shaker Homes. The big vision is to build beautiful villages of well-designed, long-lasting, timeless homes in a way that fosters individual well-being and healthy community. The challenge is taking our values of what we believe to be good for people and for all of creation in the short- and long-term - and then making that comply with all the regulations in the state of Massachusetts, at a price point that is within reach of many.

This is the current home page for our website, which we're working to overhaul soon.

What are our values as it comes to homebuilding? Making homes from natural, sustainably-grown/sourced materials, building them to last for several generations, and designing them to be beautiful to look at and comfortable to live in. Their look needs to be timeless (my opinion is that the design of good-looking houses that were built a couple hundred years ago are likely to still look good in a couple hundred years). Oh, and again, I want people with average incomes to be able to buy them, whether they buy the kit to build themselves or the completed house in a community.

I've been busy designing collections of homes (800-1800 square feet), accessory dwelling units (ADUs - 500-900 square feet), and tiny homes (400 square feet). The design process (in many aspects of the business) has proved to be more tedious and time-consuming than I had imagined, but because I love designing, I feel so blessed to have these "problems"!

This is a sample of a 1300 square foot, 1-1/2 story, 3-bed, 2-bath kit house we've designed.

Sample floor plan. Would love to hear your feedback if you have any ...

Mickey has been working on the business plan, developing relationships, creating systems - pulling forward all the skills and experience he's developed over a couple decades of project and program management - to create a strong company now and in the future.

While the new house we just built is currently under contract for sale, we're renting it out in the meantime, and the comments from renters are the best we've ever gotten. And it's not just because the house is new. Maybe it's all the natural materials, or the big south-facing windows that bring in so much light, or that it's a well-insulated, cozy, efficient design - but there's a different feeling, a peaceful energy, that makes for a unique experience. We plan to build many more, and we can't wait!

Until next time,

P.S. Do you know anyone who's passionate about any of this, too? Architects, builders, developers, tradespeople, community members? We'd love to meet them!

P.P.S. Thank you to everyone who came out to Jordan's dance this past Sunday! In a week or two, she leaves for Romania for 8 months. You can learn more here: https://con-solatio.org/portfolio-item/jordan-k