Where it all started

In the Spring of 2005 I was up at 108 Mile Ranch, in the Cariboo of BC, at a workshop.  There was something about the beautiful rolling hills, the lakes and the trees that captured my heart.  I thought  the home I was living in near Kelowna, BC would be my "forever" home and I never expected to utter the words "I could live here" in reference to any other location.  But I did say it, and also brought home pictures of the area to my hubby who I am sure thought I was a little flakey.  Once I was able to get him up to "the Ranch" as it is known, he was a goner.  Not so much because of the scenery, but because of the long, beautiful landing strip at the 108 Mile Ranch Airport.  Len is a private pilot and he was drooling at the thought of living close to a take-off and landing facility such as this.  So on May 6th, 2006 we bought lot 49.  It is mostly a south-facing hill, about .7 of an acre.   We started dreaming about the day we would build on the property but figured it would be a few years.  In the meanwhile, we visited the property from time to time and even had the start of a driveway put in in the summer of 2008.  It gave us a place to park our little RV when we were up there to sit on the hill and listen to the birds sing.  The lot next door was empty and we had designs on it from the start.  Every 6 months or so Len would call the owner and ask if he was ready to sell.  Finally in February of 2009 we managed to buy the second lot and had them amalgamated into one 1.5 acre piece.  Now we had some serious room for a house and shop.  The planning began.