Why we call it the ark...

Some people have asked me why my family refers to the "new" (yes, even if it is an old mill it's new for us!) house as The Ark. Now that I think if it, calling a house that is built over a creek and suffered a significant amount of flood damage some years back "The Ark", does have a bit of an ironic undertone!
I guess it's because it's a God Thing. One of those crazy things somebody does for no apparent reason - perhaps even against all human logic. Seriously, now that all four kids have moved out - why acquire a property with several old buildings, lots of lawns to mow, space to take care of? When God told Noah to build an Ark, that sounded like a pretty random idea (especially considering it probably hadn't ever "rained" up until that point), a pretty stupid idea actually. But in the end, it was a good thing that Noah did build an Ark, load it up and sit out the rain and the storms. That's the story behind our Ark in a nutshell, nobody really knows why, or what exactly will become of the Ark - but we're sure that in the end it will be a good thing.
I haven't met anyone yet who has been up to the Ark and hasn't fallen in love with the place. And I can tell who has caught the vision and who just still thinks it's the coolest place ever (which it is, but I'm convinced it'll be more, too!). There's so many doors and rooms and buildings my parents have a box of keys, each one of them labeled making it quite easy to grab a bunch and go explore. One of the is labeled "Seminarraum", the seminar room. If you go outside and halfway around the house you can enter a large "room" beneath the house: It's got a concrete floor, the walls are rough plaster and you can still see damage from the flooding, there are crates with water bottles in against one wall, a little oven off to one side (it's several degrees colder in there than outside or anywhere in the house), a few random things (garden chairs, the drier) there are large windows across the wall to your right and you can see the "back wall" opening up into the garden. At least that's what you would see if you took a picture.
For those of us who've caught the vision you stand in the doorway and you see a big room, well lit from the big windows to your right, a loooooooong table with comfy chairs,  a dry board, some instruments and music stands off in one corner, a shelf or two of books, maybe an overhead or digital projector, a fussball table and you can almost hear the excited chatter of people exchanging ideas, little kids running around, music, laughter, ...
And that's just one room bursting with potential. Just imagine what the Ark could become!