Hood River, OR, USA / Built in 1965
Liz and Andy enjoyed their city life, having a gathering with friends every week and going surfing at the nearby beach, in San Diego, a city full of excitement. However it was busy everywhere, noisy because of the airport located in the downtown, and the monthly rental fee of their two-bedroom small cottage with no yard was $1,700. They took a moment to think about their dream house when they had their two children.
魅力溢れる大都会に憧れて、サン・ディエゴで７年間を過ごした二人。毎週のように仲間とパーティ、サーフィンにも親しみ楽しかった。けれど・・・混んでいて、市街地に空港があるために騒音がひどく、中心地にある庭無し２LDKの家は月額１９万円だった。２人のこどもに恵まれてふと考えた。『自分たちの家を構えたいのはどこだろう』
Liz was born in Mexico and moved to the small town, Sumas with her family at her age four. They lived on a dairy farm there, while Andy's hometown, Ferndale is just 40-minute drive away from Liz's. His family had their house and apple trees on some land of nine acres. Both of them spent their childhoods in a quiet and beautiful small town close to the national border in Washington, so they shared a vision of where they wanted to settle down.
Andy was the first to find their dream land, at the Hood River that sits at the bottom of the highest mountain, Mt. Hood in Oregon. It's quiet, beautiful, and the air is clear there. It offers many attractions like mountain biking, winter sports, and so on, and it's blessed with tourism based activities and locations like wind surfing, and wineries... And it's warmer than their hometowns. Liz was surprised to hear his idea at first but got more attracted to it as she learned about it. Finally, they left for their new chapter after living in busy downtown for seven years.
メキシコに生まれ、４歳でアメリカ北部の小さな町スーマスにある酪農場に家族と一緒に移り住んだリズ。そこから車で４０分ほどのさらに小さな町ファーンデイルで、リンゴの木が立つ９エーカー（36421.7 平米）の土地に生まれ育ったアンディ。二人とも幼少時代をワシントン州にある国境沿いの静かで美しい小さな町で過ごした。イメージしたのはそれぞれの故郷。静かで、空気がきれいで、穏やかな、美しい小さな町。マウンテンバイクやウィンタースポーツが楽しめて、さらに観光資源に恵まれていて、故郷よりも温暖な土地・・・オレゴン州最高峰マウント・フッドの麓の町、フッドリバー。最初にたどり着いたのはアンディーだった。もう少し都市近郊をイメージしていたリズは、正直驚いた。でも…聞けば聞くほど魅力があるではないか。
Their first realtor in the new town didn't sound right to them so Liz started researching online by herself. She also stopped at every HOUSE FOR SALE sign for a year.
Her first time seeing an A-frame house was when she saw the sign for one. Even though it was in the poor condition - half painted walls, some junk in the yard, and so on... she saw potential in it. While she quickly made a phone call at the real estate agency, her little daughters started running around happily. She had to say, "Thank you, anyway" when she heard about the price of the property, since it was on a five acre lot. It was too much. However, her gut told her to go back to the realtor with more questions. The realtor, who was also a talker, told her that the landowner just might divide the land into two.
最初の不動産仲介業者はピンとこなかったので、リズは自分でオンライン検索をすることにした。また１年間もの間、住宅売り出しの看板を見つけるといつでも立ち止まって見た。彼女が初めてA-frame houseを見たのは、その看板を見つけた時だった。その悲惨な状態にも関わらずー半分だけ塗装された壁、ガラクタだらけの庭、などー磨けば光る何かを感じた。慌てて不動産屋に電話する間にも幼い娘たちは嬉しそうに辺りを駆け回り始めた。その家は５エーカー（20234.3平米）の土地に建てられていたので、売値を聞いて口をついて出て来た言葉は『失礼しました』だった。それでも、内なる声がもっと粘るように彼女を励ました。彼女と同じくおしゃべり好きだったその不動産仲介業者は、地主が土地を半分に分けようか検討中と教えてくれた。
Oh, Liz is full of joy! She was going to give us a chance to have a quick look at her place since she was busy at work online but she ended up spending more than two hours with us. This great talker led me to many interesting stories of life so I could ask only one question from my list.
数ある質問の中からたった一つ聞くことができたのは、この家との出逢いについてだった。でもそのたった一つの質問が広がりを見せ、彼女について深く知ることになった。その日在宅の仕事が忙しかった彼女は、私たちに短い訪問を許す時間しかなかったはずだった。それなのに気がつけば２時間半が過ぎていて・・・。
This red A-frame house got its light back with their love. It's growing with their baby-step projects and each helps the family to grow into an even better team. Andy teaches science in Spanish at a high school and he really enjoys doing DIY in his spare time.
この赤いA-frame houseは彼女たちの愛情のおかげで光を取り戻した。小さなプロジェクトを終える度に家族の絆は深まり、家も育っている。高校で科学をスペイン語で教えているアンディーは時間を見つけてはDIY作業に精を出しているそう。
When she found herself needing to go back to her work really, we saw ourselves being "mis amigas"("friends" in Spanish) Each of us has the same favorite quote, "mi casa es tu casa."("My house is your house." in Spanish). I had found my "home" where I can go back to anytime far away from Japan.
取材終了後、私たちはすっかりmis amigas（スペイン語で「友達」）に。互いに"mi casa es tu casa"（スペイン語で「私の家はあなたの家」）を大切な信条としている私たち。日本から遠く離れたこの土地に、いつでも帰ることができる「家」を見つけた。
〜 A Message from Liz to you〜
Follow your gut! Follow your dreams!
〜リズからあなたへ〜
直感を信じて！夢にときめいて！
Altitude(高度):147m Average temperature(平均気温):1.4to19.6℃
Annual precipitation(年間降水量):855mm 参照(CLIMATE-DATA.ORG)
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