{"id":1754,"date":"2016-06-01T04:24:21","date_gmt":"2016-06-01T11:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikebellah.com\/wordpress\/?p=1754"},"modified":"2016-06-01T04:24:21","modified_gmt":"2016-06-01T11:24:21","slug":"it-began-with-a-drive-in-the-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/?p=1754","title":{"rendered":"It Began with a Drive in the Country"},"content":{"rendered":"

Did I tell you we\u2019re building a house?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>So what would make a reserved, conservative couple\u2014one who buys new cars only when the old ones are exhausted and who live in the same house they bought 35 years ago and paid off the mortgage on 10 years ago\u2014what would make such a couple (closing in on their seventh decade) throw caution to the wind and build their dream home?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m still not sure. I only know it began with a drive in the country, which led to the discovery of an ideal look (plan), which led to a realignment of investments and budget and then hiring the right builder to make it happen.<\/p>\n

And I know that working on the house this spring brought hope to a time that could have focused on loss. I\u2019d look at my students and smile at their futures, then drive to the country and smile at my own.<\/p>\n

And I know that the creative process has brought a level of surprise and excitement we have not known since our early days at Hidden Falls Ranch.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m new to this retirement business, and it\u2019s too soon to say whether building was a good decision. I only know it has filled us with joy. And, for now, that\u2019s enough. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did I tell you we\u2019re building a house? So what would make a reserved, conservative couple\u2014one who buys new cars only when the old ones are exhausted and who live in the same house they bought 35 years ago and paid off the mortgage on 10 years ago\u2014what would make such a couple (closing in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1756,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1754\/revisions\/1756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}