Sunday, August 29, 2010

Article #115 New Homes

Throughout our 11 years of marriage we had always rented apartments, but when we moved to California after our year in Brazil my husband decided to build us our first home. We bought 5 acres of land on a hillside near Chino and made plans to construct a geodesic dome just like the hippies were doing. A dome is truly a unique building; kind of like a hollow ball turned upside down, creative though impractical for a family of noisy boys as their voices are amplified inside that space. Just imagine the Salt Lake Tabernacle with its acoustical qualities, but it was exciting to be settling down finally.

While my husband was building this unique home, a 35 foot diameter hemi-spherical dwelling from triangles of foam that would be sprayed with concrete, we needed a place to live. A small used trailer was bought. Building primitive triple decker bunkbeds for our young sons inside our trailer, a couch in the back room folded down for our bed. Some chairs and a table in the front were all that was lacking for our furniture. When we moved in, we felt just like pioneers as we hauled water to store in a barrel on the roof of our trailer for cooking and cleaning uses until our utility lines were installed. Clothes were taken to the laundromat again, but we were thrilled to be building our own home. Our oldest son began first grade and our two littlest boys started preschool several days a week, so I could teach dance part time. We lived this way while the dome was being built and our marriage was deteriorating.

Now years later as a divorced single parent building a new home with square walls in a Utah neighborhood, I made all the decisions involved alone. What color to paint walls, which carpet or curtains to order. It was an exciting, but challenging time. My oldest boy would have his own room in my traditionally-built three bedroom-one bath home with an unfinished basement. All the yard work lay ahead: putting in sod, trees, bushes, etc. We would have a garage, a backyard for my sons to play in, and room for a family garden. Life was beginning anew, all possible with my new teaching job and decision to start my life over again as a divorcee. It wasn’t an easy adjustment.

7 comments:

  1. Did you get the dome built and get to live in it before your marriage broke up?
    You must have tried very hard to make the marriage work to put up with those living conditions in the trailer.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You are such a multi-faceted person Lin..I never would have dreamed that you had all of these adventures and you really did..so glad you are sharing them.....Michelle

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lin, you are truly an inspirational woman. You remind me so very much of my mom, who is gracious, compassionate and never, ever complains about her life! I so enjoy reading about your "new" life.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dreams, reality. The reality you offered was in and of this world and for the future. So it goes.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'd like to know what happened to that dome home, too. I'm always so amazed with the stories about your past, Lin.

    ReplyDelete
  6. My first thought was also "what happened to the dome and the property it was on"? Living in a small trailer with 3 young boys must have been very challenging.

    You do have some interesting stories to tell.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Your posts about the past never cease to amaze me. You are such a strong woman who certainly gave it your all in all of the situations that I have read about so far.
    God bless you, Lin.
    Feel free to use my standard answer to 'How are you doing?
    ..."Been better...been worse!!"
    You have quite the varied group of experiences. And good for you how you kept things going for your kids while all of that was happening. I hope they appreciate your strength.

    ReplyDelete