How fortunate I am to live in the house that love built, to be surrounded each day by everything Denny.

In 1974, we bought 15 acres in the country. It all started with a workshop for him. That original workshop is now a bedroom and a dining room. When we first moved to the country, we lived in a mobile home. One day, Denny mentioned he was going to enlarge his workshop, and I said, "If you do, we are moving into it." And so we did. Over time, he added on another bedroom, the living room, kitchen, and bathroom. When he finished, we sold the mobile home and moved into the house. Denny had also added a large room on the west side and that was his workshop. Later, he built a workshop separate from the house, and then the west room became our laundry room. After that, we built onto the house again. This time it included a sunroom, office, another bedroom, and an extra bath. We took out the front bedroom wall and made the living room larger. Oh, Denissa and I helped, but he was the carpenter.

The next add-on was a garage and storeroom. Those two rooms eventually became the exercise room and what we call the Harley Room. Denny put double French doors on the garage, and it became the place to keep his Harley. The car went under an attached carport -- the final addition to our house.

We had a new bedroom but it wasn't carpeted yet. So when Denny was in the hospital for heart surgery in 1993, I had the carpet laid and moved our bedroom furniture in. When he got home, he was pleasantly surprised that our new bedroom was done. The house changed during the years as we added vinyl siding to the outside, and a metal roof, and finally got the inside finished.

I'm very proud of the love and devotion Denny poured into this house, even though at times he wasn't too happy with it because it was "added on to" rather than all built at the same time. I often told him, though, how happy I was with the house he built for us. Besides building our home, he also built me a desk and my computer work area. He built a huge bookcase that held the many books I read. He built a TV stand for Denissa's bedroom. Denny also made some picture frames out of old wood, one which has an oval center that holds the picture of my mother's family. He was so talented and knew everything about the different types of wood and which was best to use in my woodcarvings.

Will I ever move from here? Not of my own accord. This is home, where we raised our daughter and where our granddaughter has spent about half her life staying with us. We had Easter egg hunts, Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations, along with many family get-togethers. Even though it is lonesome now without Denny, this is where the memories are. This is where his love surrounds me.