Will and Helen and the House They Built

Since we’ve been living in Birmingham, we’ve been lucky to meet some really amazing people . Two people we’ve grown particularly close to are Will and Helen, a couple we met through our church‘s Sunday night small group. They currently live in Birmingham in an apartment during the week while Helen attends school and Will teaches, but they’ve been making the commute to their house in Hartselle (about an hour north of Birmingham) on the weekends to spend time at their house and on their land. The absolutely crazy part? Will built this house… with his own two hands, and almost no help. When he originally told us this, I had a hard time believing it. I mean, I can wrap my mind around people being book smart or artistically gifted, but man… someone not just designing and decorating their house, but actually building it, from scratch, just straight up manual labor? Whoa.

I was even more blown away when we actually drove up to Hartselle to see it for ourselves this past Sunday afternoon. As it turns out, Will and Helen really want to live full time in Birmingham, so they’ve decided to rent out their house to Will’s Aunt Sally, which works out well, because his parents live right down the road on their own amazing piece of land (with chickens and gardens and orchards and porches and the whole nine yards). That way, they’ll be able to keep the house, but it will allow them to live here in the city. So I told them we had to see it before they rented it, and I really wanted to commemorate their time together there in photographs. I mean, duh. If you’re friends with me, you can pretty much expect this kind of behavior. :)

As you’ll soon see, this house is gorgeous. I was so impressed with not only the craftsmanship, but with the design and all the finishing touches, which were also chosen by Will and Helen. When we first walked in and I saw that spiral staircase leading up to a loft…. with skylights… I nearly died. Talk about a dream come true. See for yourself:

The polished concrete countertops, the butcher block island, the cabinets, and yes, even the beer…. all made by hand. :)

Yeah, they’re really cute together….

Will insisted that we do an old-school self-timer photo of the whole group, so even though I look like a hot mess, we have documentation that they’re actually our friends. Ha.

Will and Helen, you guys are awesome. Thank you so much for allowing us to barge in, and bring along our troublemaker of a dog (who did, by the way, roll around in a dead skunk while we were there… nice). We had a blast, and are so impressed by your mad skills! Love you both.