All Posts By

RyanHannah

City Living

Brighton, CO

So, remember when we shared that its pretty difficult to find work in Westcliffe?

Our savings account knows that fact all too well.

After a long winter without much work, and a husband with ADD cooped up in a house with no job, we’ve decided to take a few years to “fund raise”.

Basically what this means is…. we’re on the road again!

This time this destination is: Brighton Colorado!

This means a few changes for our rural living lifestyle:

(1) Saying goodbye (or see ya later) to this great little town we’ve really come to love and appreciate. We’ve made so many amazing relationships here and we cannot wait to move back ASAP.

(2) Macey has to go (or stay really). The cute lil pooch we got when we moved here isn’t really suited for the apartment lifestyle of the city. Being a St. Barnard and Lab mix, she loves running around our 2 acre lot. We have a good friend who has offered to take care of her and she will get to live on a farm and chase cows and chickens: her dream.

Maceyface

Griselda Hobbs

(3) Grizzy. The 1975 Jeep that has rescued Ryan from the mud, ice, and snow many times this winter. She’s such a beautiful old thing, but like Macey, better suited to mountain life. She is currently for sale if anyone is interested in giving her a loving home.

(4) Tiny House will stay here. We just had it moved {expensively} down here and some friends have graciously allowed us to store it on their land for now. So until we get land of our own and have some $avings to finish it, the tiny house will stay in Westcliffe. {see recent pics on instagram}

(5) The Mountains. AHHHH. Need I say anything else?

Hello these are my friends, the Sangres.

New things we are excited about:

(1) Stability. We are both going to be working full time jobs for the first time since we’ve known each other. This is uncharted territory people. :)

(2) Future. Since being in Westcliffe, we’ve had lots of time to begin thinking about what we really want in life. This move (and the job$ that come with) will enable us to pursue the things we really want to. Also, not live in poverty forever. :)

(3) Purpose//Focus. Since we know what we want (at least, we THINK we do), we’re attempting to be pretty focused on working really hard & saving some cash. So, if you happen get married in the next couple of years, and we aren’t able to come: please {oh please} understand its totally not you. We are really just trying to practice discipline with our finances. Or if you come into town, maybe we can go for a lil walk instead of to dinner? #pleaseunderstandweloveyou #alsoholdusaccountableherepluleaaaze #daveramseystylesavings

All that being said, here are some things summed up into one picture that we’re going to miss.

mountains.car.pooch.westcliffe.

Dear Westcliffe,

We are so grateful for the past 6 months. We love your people so much, they are the most down-to-earth people we’ve ever met. They all love to garden and fix things. We think that we’d like to raise our family here someday. If you could get a few more jobs for younger people like us, that would be rad (but don’t get too many ok? we like you small). But until you do or until we can handle your drought, we’ve gotta say goodbye for now.

Don’t worry. We’ll visit. Often.

Ryan & Hannah

June 6, 2014

Country Living

Life in the Valley

Note: when I say “valley” I’m not speaking philosophically about where we are at in life.

Nope.

We literally live in a valley.

Between the Wet Mountains and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

And its great.

Here is a little snapshot of what our lives have looked like since being here:

The Groths (Hannah’s fam from TX) came and celebrating Christmas with us. Pic below is of sledding adventures in the mountains. It was great to create memories in our (2 bedroom 1 bath) rental home with them. SUCH a tight squeeze, but so worth it.

Ryan has been making rustic/farmhouse style furniture for the rental we’re living in currently (with hopes to sell when Tiny House is complete). There is a barn on the property, so he has a workshop finally! He’s had a few local folks interested in some custom furniture, so hopefully he’ll get to be out in his barn more often.

I’ve (Hannah) enjoyed having a home for the first time since we’ve been married. We realized that since April we have lived in 5 different homes and about 10 different hotels. The little things like cooking, and relaxing on the couch and watching a movie, having a Christmas tree, or hanging our coats up in a closet are things that I am thankful for in this housing situation.

We also have a new addition to the family: Macey the pup! She’s a Lab/St. Bernard mix and has a really laid back, sweet personality. She’s six months old, loves to please, and is eager to learn. One downside: she eats poop. No, she loves poop. I’ve heard this is normal for pups, still: NOT.OK. Other than that she’s great :)

We also traded (for good or bad) our Saturn for this big girl, Griselda Hobbs. She’s a 1975 Jeep Wagoneer. Almost all her handles that do anything functional, come off and on at different times. The radio doesn’t work as far as we know. To get to the trunk you need a special key to first put the window down, then unlatch the back. The fabric is torn and super retro. The seat belts go across your lap. She’s a hefty lady weighing 3 tons, but she can maneuver her way through at least 6-8 inches of standing snow, hold her own on the iciest of roads in negative degree Colorado winters, and she’s a lovely burnt orange, oxidized in all the right places. Not sure how long we’ll keep her alive, but for now, this charming old gal is ours.

We have been working on the Tiny House to get it ready to move down here from Golden. We had to order some more (bigger) axles, that could hold more weight because this house is freakin huge! We have some friends down here that have offered to let us park it on their land. Once it’s moved down here, we’ll work on getting it finished! The exterior is almost completely done, its just the inside that needs work now.

While we’ve found part time work here in the Valley, we are still looking for more lucrative means of making a living here. As we’ve talked to many people here, this is what they have to say about new folks coming in:

– people move to Westcliffe because they love it (either they have family that lives here, they’ve visited growing up, camped here, been hunting with their grandfather…etc.)

– they all struggle financially to “make it” for the first several years

– if they make it out of those first years, they stay forever

– if not, they leave to go make life work somewhere else

So, we have a similar story. We felt compelled to move here. Moved. And we would LOVE to make it work here and stay forever.

But that’s the part that we’re at currently: making it work here.

We absolutely LOVE being here. The people that we’ve met have such similar passions and goals in life as we do. There is a slightly older population in town, so we enjoy being on the younger end of things. There is an openness here to do things “differently” (i.e. build a Tiny House, or straw bale, or earth bag home). We are really looking forward to raising a family here and participating in the community here.

So, we’re still hopeful that perhaps we can be one of those families that can make it work here :)

We’ll keep you updated on our lives in the Wet Mountain Valley.

Living in a small town is like living in a large family of rather uncongenial relations. Sometimes it’s fun, and sometimes it’s perfectly awful, but it’s always good for you.

– Joyce Dennys

February 9, 2014

Country Living

Westcliffe, CO

If you know anything about Ryan and I its… (1) that we enjoy watching the thrilling nineties show, Northern Exposure (yeah, go ahead. watch it. you won’t be able to stop. and you won’t have a clue why), (2) that our Tiny House has taken much longer than we thought…. (3) and that we’re slightly obsessed with a lil town called Westcliffe. How to describe Westcliffe… – elevation is just under 8,000 in town – population is around 800 – there’s a movie theater in town that plays movies on Friday and Saturday nights. – on Halloween, the kids Trick-or-Treat in the downtown businesses. – there are about 10 churches in town. – when you get finger-printed at the sheriff’s office, there is a jail cell in the next room. – there is a strong Mennonite and Amish presence (there is also a bakery). – there are no building codes in Custer County (:cough: more.tiny.houses.coming. also more details from Ryan, because I’m sure that statement is more complicated than I just made it sound). – the elementary, middle, and high school are all in one building. – the only chains are: Subway, Family Dollar and The Post Office. Anyways. More posts to come about this magical place because long story made short/even longer by other blog posts later on…. We’re moving there :)

November 27, 2013

Simple Living, Tiny Living

Wedding & Tiny House Update

Hello & Happy Summer from the Corsons!

Yes, its true- we did get married! 4 months have passed, so we figured it was about time to update the blog…

Wedding Update

Now, I know you’re all wondering, “well, DID you have a ‘simple wedding??'” Especially all you brides out there a couple of months after your big day. I can just hear you, “ooohhhh yess… that funny girl who thought her wedding was going to be ‘simple’ and then she invited 400 people. HAH! She’s cute.” Well, was it simple?…

Kind of.

We definitely did stay true to our original vision of keeping this wedding as simple as possible for the sake of focusing on the things we care about. We quickly found out that the things we really care about are people. We both loved looking around the room at the rehearsal dinner, ceremony, and potluck reception and seeing how many different people were here to celebrate with us. We also realized that weddings, no matter how much you try to weed out stress- just ARE stressful. Yes we kept things simple, yes we look back and love everything that happened, and yes we were super stressed the week of the wedding- trying to work out details or organizing people, spending time with people, and spending time with each other. It’s a huge week in the life of any human making a lifetime commitment like marriage to another. Add in other humans who you both love and want to spend time with and you’ve created something more complex than just having a few conversations with out of town guests. Also, we had the help of SO many people in actually pulling this thing off…could NOT have happened without these friends.

Our conclusion? Weddings are stressful. And worth it to us because, with the help of friends, we were able to create space to celebrate and set aside time designated as a very important event with very important people. If you ACTUALLY want something simple and stress-free… we suggest you elope :)

Tiny House Update

There has been SO many changes in this area since the last blog post!

(1) We found a trailer

(2) We have been collecting materials

(3) and building and designing… (let’s be honest, Ryan designs everything)

(4) AAAAAAND…… we moved in!!

While it is SO exciting to get out of the renting cycle and to actually be living in what will soon be our completed home, this adventure has been so much different that I (Hannah) pictured. I have always really admired and looked up to pioneer families who rode in a wagon across months of unknown territory and adventure to their picturesque cottages and babbling brooks. Of course it was a hard life, but didn’t they realize that they were starting something new and that the challenges were totally worth it, even in that moment?

Whew.

Shoot dang those folks were amazing.

Now, don’t worry – I feel almost completely silly at comparing what we are doing to the pioneer families (except we don’t have running water or electricity). And I don’t exactly think that Tiny Houses are going to be the next “thing” (um hello, homeschool families like my own would have to have a train of these things) – of course I could be wrong ;-) But here’s what I see the value for us right now:

we can do it.

Financially. Physically. Mentally (some days better than others).

It may take us longer than we initially expected, but we will finish. And have a HOME that is paid for and fully functional!

But honestly, living without things that I (still Hannah here) am used to having (like running water and electricity) has been so much harder than I thought it would be! I thought that I was ready to be camping out in a partially finished home, working long hours, learning as much as I can about construction…

Yup. I definitely admire those pioneers.

But I AM learning so much. I am thankful for a husband who is patient (most days) with me to teach me what he knows about construction and perseverance. I am thankful for Zella Cameron, the kind woman who is letting us build this monster in her front yard. I am also thankful for her bathroom and kitchen (which she recently offered to let us use until ours is complete). I am thankful for friends and family who have given their time and muscles to help us do a little bit at a time. I am thankful (most days :) ) for the ways that this project is challenging me. To do something I’ve never done and honestly, am really not good at. I’m thankful that we are building a home and will have no debt.

That’s pretty cool.

That’s about it for now… Thanks for reading! You can keep up with more current updates if you’re on Instagram, look up hannahcorson and follow her, she has updates more frequently there regarding the Tiny House construction! You can also keep up with us at gofundme.com/restoringsimple . Thanks!!

August 17, 2013

Simple Living

A Simple Wedding

You know how people always talk about having a “simple wedding?” No stress, just enjoying each other and the special people you’ve invited to spend your special day with? And then, that week and day comes, and it just IS stressful and NOT simple?

How does one keep a wedding simple? Is this even possible? Everyone I talk to says that they have tried this, but because of one thing or another, it always ends up being stressful and not so simple.

I (Hannah) quickly realized this within the first week of being engaged. I was at Hobby Lobby (because where else do you go to start planning a wedding?) and was looking into the possibility of making our invitations. I found cute & kitschy paper, stamps, ribbons, stickers, and envelopes. Of course, it might take us 2 weeks to make them, but our invitations would be so pinterest perfect, all the 15 year-olds would save them for inspiration for their own weddings. After 45 minutes of strategizing in the aisles of the mecca of the craft world: this stamp with that paper with that ribbon, with that paper laid on top of this one, I had two thoughts.

(1) “Crap. This was not going to be a simple wedding.”

And then after a moment of sitting in the defeat and sensing my stress levels rising already:

(2) “Wait a minute. What if I just said NO to trying to make this day perfect? What if I just realized my goal of this day (to have people I love in one place, celebrating me and my man) could be reached in MUCH easier ways than my culture tells me?”

Our wedding website says that we have 179 “to dos” and we are behind on 89 of them. We haven’t sent out invitations, gone dress shopping, figured out colors, or even talked to the wedding party yet. We HAVE had a conversation about whether we want the wedding in the evening or in the afternoon (no decision yet…). We don’t have a budget (well, we do- its somewhere between $0-$50 depending on how much utilities are in March). We aren’t having a cake or big reception. We may or may not be including a dog in the ceremony. We had no idea what an “A” or “B” list was before yesterday. We know that we want candles and Christmas lights (well, I [Hannah] do at least). We DO have someone to marry us and we DO have the church booked! We also have amazing friends who have offered to help. We consider these things fairly significant steps.

We have just realized (Ryan probably faster than me) that we desire to keep Simplicity as the highest value in planning this day, because when we say NO to things that honestly, don’t matter, it can free us to say yes to the things that really do.

Well, this is our plan at least. We’ll see how it goes :-)

February 2, 2013

Newer Posts