Hi, I'm Zach and my wife and I live in the mountains of Middlesex, Vermont.

Exactly one year to the hour that Central Vermont was struck with catastrophic flooding in July of 2023, the remnants of Hurricane Beryl said "Hold my beer".

The brook that runs 8 feet behind our house completely surrounded the house for several hours. At its largest, it was 150 wide, raging like nothing we've ever seen. We had water ¼ of the way up our first-story windows and the interior of our home is inundated with water. We have several feet of quicksand-style mud covering our entire property. If it weren't for a very large pine tree holding the ground together with its roots, our bathroom (which does not have a foundation) would have been torn off the house in the rapids. We had whole trees, couches, propane tanks, and BBQ grills floating by our bedroom window as water lapped waist-high up our home. We have had no power for two days, and our water intake spring line was torn off the house. We have still yet to find the other end and reconnect it.

I wish I were exaggerating all this because it doesn't seem real. My wife and I were up all night as we watched the water climb higher up our first-story windows. It's eerie and surreal this happened one year ago TO THE HOUR that last year's flood occurred. Our damage was minimal last year despite receiving over 9 inches of rain in 12 hours. This year, the damage was 1000 times worse.

We have been planning to build a home once my wife finished graduate school, but the flood has shortened that timeline considerably. The corner of our house is being held up by the roots of a halfway-fallen pine tree.

We were not prepared to have to build a home this quickly and hate asking for help, but this situation has changed everything. We're going to move heaven and earth to do everything we can to build a home before winter or the brook swallows the house, whichever comes first. Any contributions to this cause would be our greatest blessing.

Every dollar raised here will go directly to purchasing materials and paying our contractor to build our new passive house, far away from the threat of future floods. My wife and I plan to use as much reclaimed/recycled materials as we can find, and make our home as energy-efficient as possible.