About

We are Kevin and Sue Colbert, and we started this blog to chronicle the next chapter in our lives, which we’ve just begun.

We met at Northern Illinois University where Kevin got a degree in Marketing and Sue got a degree in French Business Translation and a teaching certification. During our first ten years of marriage, Kevin worked in retail management, sales, and construction, and we had our three wonderful children who are now in their late 20s and early 30s (and last year we were blessed with our first grandchild). We owned two different homes during that time, and Kevin cut his teeth in the remodeling realm, acquiring skills and tools along the way.

Eventually we moved to suburban Chicago to buy the family business, a custom picture framing and art printing enterprise.  We expanded the business to four locations, doing nearly all the design and build-outs ourselves. Several years later, we also bought the family home—which had been sold by Kevin’s parents to the people who sold it to us. There we homeschooled our kids, traveled as we could, always incorporating our studies into our trips. We also remodeled the house (a couple of times) and became Grand Central Station for parties, small groups, receptions, exchange students, travelers, missionaries, long-term guests, and anyone else who needed a place to stay or a venue for celebration and fellowship.

We even had a stint as an Airbnb.

We loved the people part of our lives, but the demands of running a business for over 20 years and the intensity of living in a large metropolitan area were wearing on us. We were stressed and tired and tired of being stressed. All our kids had worked in the business at some point, but our daughter had joined us as general manager after college, and seven years later she decided she was ready to buy us out. Our sons were married and living elsewhere, so the big question for us as a couple became: “What next?”

After much prayer, consideration, and counsel, we decided to move back to Sue’s small hometown in northern Illinois to live a simpler life and be close to Sue’s mother. So we set off on a search for a fixer upper in a beautiful rural setting, and we found it! Six and a half acres of hilly woods with a house needing tons of work and a nice outbuilding in the clearing.

And here the adventure begins.