We began one year ago today. We have come so far, and have so far to go.

It was one year ago today that we launched the first stage of our crowdfunding effort to build, at long last, a house. At that point, we'd been without a real home, living in this tiny tin can, for five years. Today, it's almost six.

And today, we have the beginnings of a home.

It's been a long, hard road. We were halted almost immediately after we started by a combination of an early winter and the seemingly universal unavailability of anyone with an interest in taking either our money or the job. We spent the next eight months trying desperately to find someone with the requisite skills, and the requisite willingness. 

We've really only been at this in any significant way since a week into July. At that point, we had some layers of fill on the site, but not nearly enough, much less graded and tamped. A foundation? Not even close. 

But fewer than three months later, we have the makings of a house. That photo up there? That's what it looks like right this moment; I took that this morning, just after sunrise.

We have a long, long way to go. Upper level framework (up is more energy-efficient than out, especially with a small home); stairs; roof; wiring and plumbing; windows and doors and floors; bathroom fixtures and kitchen appliances that went with the old house; a new septic system, relocated entirely; insulation and interior finish work; mudding in and plastering the entire structure. And winter is now just around the corner. We had hoped to be in it before the real cold hits, but that's not guaranteed. Oh, our crew, who are genuine masters at what they do, have told us definitively that they can have us in the house by Thanksgiving — if we can keep the work funded.

Normally, we would have split what remains up into at least two, and probably three, separate stages. But we're running out of time. So today, we bit the bullet, made the decision to fold the remaining stages into one large stage, and launch the new crowdfunding site for an amount that I still can't really get my head around. And we're going to be asking you to share the link daily, in hopes that we can reach enough potential donors to keep the work funded consistently, and be safe inside a real home by winter.

The link to our YouCaring page is here; as always, the best ways to share it are via the widgets provided, and with the widget code from the lower right-hand corner that produces the image shown above. We also need folks to continue to share Wings's site; the holidays are approaching rapidly, and folks who want to commission holiday gifts will need to start getting their orders in now so that he'll have sufficient time to complete them and get them shipped.

Also as always, we send our profound thanks to everyone who has given us a hand thus far. Because of a few generous souls just today, we've been able to hit the ground running on this stage; not even half a day since going live with it, and we've raised far more than I could have dreamed, especially for a busy Saturday. We are blessed, and we are grateful.