Just over a year ago, Jeff & I started looking at houses to buy. We already owned our home on Mississippi Avenue in North Portland and loved our cute little bungalow, but wanted something more. As time went on and with the more houses we looked at, we started to define what that looked like and narrowed down the parameters for our search. Our list looked something like this:
-Bigger house, with more than one bathroom
-Hopefully a view of some sort. Maybe a mountain? Maybe a river?
-Not new construction - something stable with old, strong bones
-Away from busy roads
-More land and space for our dogs to roam
-No more than a 30 minute drive from the heart of the city
See, we loved our sweet home on Mississippi street, and couldn't have asked for better neighbors, but there were changes happening in Portland that we weren't too stoked on. Over the past few years Portland has grown at an exponential rate, and with it, our neighborhood did too. Our street became more crowded and popular, which meant more cars speeding down our road, more garbage being thrown into our yard and a week before we moved out, even a shooting on the sidewalk one block from our house - in broad daylight. Despite the increasingly trendy & delicious restaurants moving into the vicinity and the convenience of being walking distance to New Seasons, we knew it was time to go. In our 20's, our home in one of the now preferred neighborhoods in Portland would have been perfect - just a short jaunt to a dive bar and a 10 minute drive to downtown - but now we yearned for something different. Something quiet. Something private. Something peaceful.
Both Jeff & I had never lived in the country before, so while we were searching for a home to buy outside the city limits, we weren't sure if we'd actually like the lifestyle. We're big time foodies, Jeff only had a 10 minute commute to work and we lived 2 blocks away from one of the most beautiful parks in Portland. Were we making a big mistake? Might we be trading in a fun, exciting lifestyle we loved for one that's boring and filled with lonely days and nights? We hedged our bets all on one thing: NATURE.
One thing we'd learned throughout all our years together is that both individually and collectively we LOVED being outside, and that our happiness was directly correlated to the amount of time we spent convening in nature. Whether canoeing, biking, or simply walking on the beach, we felt internal serenity and like we could breathe easier when we were outside. We thought that being away from the city and all the hustle and bustle of work and industry might bring us greater happiness. And we decided that it was at least worth finding out if we were right...
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| View of Mt. Hood from our yard |
So we lept. We ended up finding a house out in Beavercreek, OR, which was 15 minutes further out than we had originally agreed on. We were sold on the beautiful views of Mt. Hood & Adams, 5 acres of fenced in land and the fact that the entire property (including the front door) was already equipped for 2 larger sized dogs (doggy door included). We've been out here almost 3 months so far, and while it is yet to be seen whether or not we're only in a honeymoon phase, we absolutely love it out here. Our mortgage has increased, but surprisingly we're saving money. We're eating out less, traded in our gym memberships for hiking trails and are building and creating more things instead of buying them.
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| Jeff clearing the way of our hiking trails with a machete, just below our house |
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| Jeff made this table out of an old tree round. How gorgeous is that?! |
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| On a hike below our house, looking out on Clear Creek Canyon |
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I made my own wreath this year, solely from cuttings of things growing on our property.
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The biggest benefit we've seen by far however has been the increase in our quality of life. We used to worry each work day about getting our dogs enough exercise. Now they run and play for hours in the morning and crash hard at night, sometimes sore and stiff from the amount of exertion they've put forth. I've spent more time outside this winter than I ever have in any of my other years growing up in Oregon. We're constantly outside - whether we're sawing apart a fallen tree for firewood or trimming up our loganberry bushes, readying them for spring. Every "chore" outside is really a pleasure, swapping out material city distractions (like going shopping just to kill time) for duties that have purpose and meaning. For example, I used to always hate raking leaves - collecting them as they tried to fly away and cramming them into our debris bin. Now they're a food source for our compost, and it feels gratifying and "full circle" to collect them and "feed" our load of decomposing scraps.
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| Jeff, working hard to create our compost bin |
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| Compost bin in progress! |
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| Our dog, Hermosa, in front of the shop, likely stalking something... |
With each passing week, the commute into Portland seems shorter and easier. But - our desire to go into the city has also decreased with time. We find so much contentment amongst the trees and away from it all that it's become hard to leave our little corner of the world. Where once we were in the thick of it, searching for solitude and privacy, now the reverse is true. And I would argue that it is much easier to find the city, find people, good restaurants and the like than it is to find a small slice of stillness, where the only sounds you hear when you walk outside are the chirping of birds, the wind whistling in the trees and the occasional farm animal greeting the day. As I look out on Clear Creek Canyon in this moment from my dining room, looking out on our first snowfall ever in our new home, I look forward with a grateful heart to many more years of this lifestyle to come.
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| A rare family photo! Jeff, Rita, Hermosa & I hiking Clear Creek Canyon, below our property |
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| Christmas Day 2018. Visiting and delivering munchies to our favorite new neighbor, Norbert the New Zealand rescue pig. |
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| Jeff & Rita on their way to hike the canyon this week. |
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| Hermosa & Rita, on patrol below our house |
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| Rita & Hermosa & Clear Creek |
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| Hermosa & I, headed home |
