Hello.
We’re Scott and Alexandra Mueller. In the winter of 2007 we decided to change our lives completely. At the time, we were living in a great house with a huge mortgage payment, working great jobs with really long commutes and filling our lives with Pottery Barn comforts. As we talked over dinner one night, we came to the conclusion that while we were happy, we wanted more from life.
We didn’t want to be tied to jobs we didn’t love so we could afford a mortgage we could never pay off. We didn’t want to spend 10+ hours a week in traffic. We didn’t even really want that last chair we bought from Pottery Barn, did we? Well, maybe we did, it really tied the room together.
What we wanted was to break our insatiable consumption cycle and begin a new life. We wanted were more freedoms and we wanted our time back.
“How the heck are we gonna pull that off?” We asked ourselves.
After lots of daydreaming we decided the best way for us would be to create a sustainable base of operations. We needed a home that could support itself so that we weren’t constantly tethered to high-stress jobs. We wanted to spend more time on the basics. We wanted to grow our own food, spend time making art and investing in others with similar aspirations.
We began looking for land in March of 2008 and by April we had closed escrow on a beautiful piece of property in Eastern Washington. That year we began making plans and by April the following year we began construction on our new home. We moved to the property in April 2010 and camped for seven months as we finished construction ourselves. It felt great.
Now we’re on to raising chickens and working on our gardens. We’ve got lots of plans for the future, but we’re in no rush. We’re looking to enjoy the journey and hope you will too. Please follow our experiment in sustainable living through our blog and galleries… talk to you soon.
Best regards,
Scott and Alex
Our Mission:
Our mission is to build a more sustainable life for ourselves and to share it with others. To do so we will: 1) Build a personal home, gardens, and lifestyle that sustains the earth. 2) Support a retreat for others to visit and learn how we did it and what doing it does for the soul. 3) Enjoy!
