FIRST VISIT PART ONE

At the end of September I flew up for two weeks to do some work and to receive our first furniture delivery. I had enough advanced notice that I was able to fly into the Kalispell airport which is about twenty minutes from the house, rather than the Missoula airport which is two and a half hours away. I got my rental car, a Toyota Rav 4, drove to our Realtor's office in Whitefish where I picked up the keys to our new home. Being later in the afternoon, I had planned to drop off my stuff, drive back to Kalispell and start doing some shopping. I needed to buy some groceries and other household items, including an air mattress and a small electric heater since there wasn't propane in the tank to run the furnace. I walked in the door and along with the excitement I felt, I wondered about the smell that greeted me. I chalked it up to the fact that the house had been empty for quite some time and needed a good airing out. I went to the kitchen sink, turned the faucet handle and nothing... there was no water. I went to the breaker box and flipped all of the switches but nothing happened. Suddenly feeling very overwhelmed (along with chilled) and wondering what I had gotten myself into, I immediately called our contractor. He was just getting back from elk hunting and told me he would be there in about two hours to try and figure out what was wrong.

I knew I could always get a motel room for the night if I had to but I had planned to spend my first night at our new house! I decided to run into Kalispell and make a very abbreviated shopping trip. I got my air mattress, heater, a folding camping chair and a few grocery items and made it back to the house a few minutes before he got there.

(A few essentials to get me through that first night!)

I was so embarrassed when he walked to the OUTSIDE box that hides the main and flipped a switch underneath of it. UGH I felt SO stupid! Apparently the Well had been turned off a while back. It took several days of priming it before the water ran consistently.

I thanked him profusely for coming to my rescue and after he left, I went about the task of inflating my air mattress, unpacking my sleeping bag which I had brought up with me and enjoying the warmth of my little electric heater.

I was limited on what I could bring up with me since I had flown. I loaded 2 dufflebags in which I had used vacuum sealed bags to store bulkier stuff. I had compressed a pillow, sheets, bath towels and clothing. One of the bags had been searched, I'm sure because they were wondering why the x-ray machine revealed I was traveling with 20 pounds of flatware! Upon my return to Texas, I left most of my toiletries there and folded one of the dufflebags inside the other so I only had to check one bag.

I drove to Kalispell, had a bite of breakfast and started shopping!!

(Doing my part to stimulate Montana's economy!)

I spent that day cleaning and setting up the kitchen with a new microwave, coffeepot, glasses and so on.

(Twenty pounds of flatware never looked so good!)

I also had picked up paint so I could I start painting the kitchen areas before the new appliances were delivered.

(I painted the wall where the new refrigerator would be placed and scrubbed the floor until it shone!)

(The kitchen was desperate for new appliances!)

It was beginning to feel a bit like "home".

To be continued...