More than shelter, home: Time for the final push. Please share to help us get there.

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

The last few months have been extraordinary . . . and extraordinarily difficult. We've been blessed with so much support from so many people in our effort to build a home in a place where none of the usual mechanisms apply, and to free ourselves, after seven full winters, from the health-endangering environment of this toxic tin can.

We are so close; it's shelter, of a sort. 

We have so far to go; it's not yet a home.

When we lost everything, we were lucky to have the RV to give us a roof over our heads. At the time, I was so profoundly discouraged that I truly had no hope of ever having a real home again. At our age, and with our health conditions? It was beyond impossible. But on September 11, 2015, an electrical fire, one thankfully put out before it could really get under way, awakened a different kind of a fire. We knew then that this arrangement was unsustainable, that it was, given our situation, not survivable in the long term, and that even if there were no options, we had to find a way to do this. Wings had poured everything, all his resources, his body, heart, and soul into this land, and there was too much here to abandon it. He is also too much a part of the land, and it is too much a part of him.

But there is no denying that it has been an extraordinarily hard seven years. And the last five months, we've both been battling pneumonia and other medical issues (and another electrical fire in the same spot), and there is, frankly, not a whole lot more that our bodies can take at this point. [We did get word this morning that his heart is in great shape, and that's one enormous stressor of the past months off my mind.]

So now, it's time to finish this. We are doing all of this exactly once; no renovations, no remodels, no additions, and certainly no moves. This is it, for the rest of our hopefully-yet-long lives. But we need to push through these last stages, make what is at the moment still bare-bones "shelter" of a sort, not yet habitable, not yet liveable, into a home. For seventeen months, I have poured my own heart and soul into this nonstop, and I admit that I am somewhere way beyond exhausted now, but I need to finish this. We need to be safe, for the first time in too many years — in too many ways, for the first time in our lives.

Here's the new widget:

And here's the link.

Yes, it's a lot. I did warn everyone. Half of that? That's just what's left on the wiring, the water heater, and the septic system. That's not all the rest of the materials, much less the labor. Right now, we've got enough for this week's labor, and probably next week's; beyond that . . . ? Nope.

So please share the links, especially via the social media widgets. Please also share the link to Wings's site, because sales form the baseline of the construction costs (and day-to-day cost of living, too). Finally, please share the link to our wishlist, because the Lowe's cards (in any denomination) are what will help us buy materials, allowing us to divert money from sales to labor costs.

I owe so many personal thanks to so many people, and I'm so far behind, and I am so very, very sorry for that. One of the side effects of my illness is a kind of brain fog that too often makes interaction impossible, and the strain I've been under for months, along with the other health issues, has literally torn the foundations out from under my ability to carry on the most basic conversations and carry out the most basic tasks. But for the moment, thank you all, from the bottom of our hearts. We love you all.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.