SETTLING IN

Waking up the very first morning around 5, Dave started a fire while I started the coffee pot. I got the brisket all chopped up for my chili and put the crock pot to good use once again. We had planned to go to church but we changed our minds feeling we would be pretty rushed throughout the day since we were hosting a small get together that evening for the Contractor and our Realtor/Property Management guy along with their spouses. I hadn't been able to find a key ingredient for the Kahlua Pecan Pie the day before so we ran back into Kalispell where we also made another stop at the hardware store.

(Starting the very first fire in the new wood stove that was installed in the dining room.)

(It's cranking out the heat!)

(A good start to the day!)

(Dave hung the new juniper wood clock in the dining room. We had sent several boxes a week before our trip to our Realtor's house and we picked them up after we flew in.)

(While I was throwing the pie together for baking, Dave was sprucing the place up before our guests came over.)

We had a lovely evening with our dinner guests, visiting and getting to know one another better. Dave had only met our Realtor once last summer when we had went to look at a house while we were on vacation and he had only spoken with our Contractor over the phone a couple of times. Our first dinner party was a success!

The next day while awaiting the delivery of the guest bedroom rugs and our new washer and dryer from Lowes, Dave ran into town to get more firewood and to look at a rustic shop to see about replacing the cheap cabinet in the upstairs bathroom.

(Delivery and installation of our new washer and dryer!)

(The new rugs for the guest bedroom are from the same collection as our area rug in the dining room.)

Once the deliveries were done we decided to take a drive over to Eureka to look for an Amish run business called Montana Woodworks. Our main log furniture "supplier" has contracts with other builders and our TV stand and guest bed came from them. Dave was still wanting to replace the bathroom cabinet with something more rustic. We made a quick drive down our road, looking for access to Spoon Lake but all we found was this little guy, probably looking for the lake as well!

The drive over to Eureka was a pretty one, with the sun roof open and the windows down but it was a bust in terms of finding the furniture place. It turns out that it was * 30 miles west in Kootenai and Dave wasn't interested in driving further! We turned around and headed back to Columbia Falls. Along the way we made the decision to go into Glacier National Park for a brief time. Dave was still amazed at how close the Park is to the house! Once there, we decided to take a nice little "evening stroll" through the Trail Of The Cedars and Avalanche Creek!

On the drive home, going through "Hungry Horse" there's a place called the Huckleberry Patch which sells every kind of Huck product under the sun!! They also make the most incredible Huckleberry milk shakes known to mankind! We picked up an entire Huckleberry Pie to have throughout the week.

Warming up chili for dinner, next to the wood stove in the family room, a little 'Lonesome Dove" on the TV and then pie for dessert! Living the good life!

CHANGES!

We waited for the day to travel to the Montana house for so long and now it has already come and gone...I was a little anxious to see Dave's reaction on seeing the house for the very first time in person. A lot of time, energy and not to mention money, have gone into transforming this place into our home! We boarded our flight early here in Dallas and flew to Denver where we had a layover. We ate enormous breakfast burritos knowing we wouldn't be eating until much later in the day!

(After breakfast, reading my Cowboys and Indians magazine in the Denver airport.)

(Somewhere over Montana air space!)

After picking up our rental car (Subaru Outback) we started on our many errands that were on my "to do" list. We completed our errands and stopped to get a pizza for us to enjoy for our dinner later on. I did all of the driving initially since I was already familiar with the area. At long last, we headed north out of Columbia Falls and began driving up the North Fork Road to our "Sweet Montana Home"! Dave sat in the passenger seat, soaking it all in. I had told him about the area, being surrounded by mountains and trees but he kept saying,

"Wow, look at all of the trees and the mountains!"

Naturally that just made me smile! We pulled into the driveway and there it stood, our long-awaited dream had finally become a reality!

OUR BEAUTIFUL MONTANA HOME!

We had ice cream in the car so we quickly took it inside and then I gave him the tour!! I was thrilled that he thought the place was great! He enjoyed going through the rooms and seeing all of the changes that had been made. I of course have a different perspective because I had been to the house when we first bought it, "as is". Dave was pretty enthusiastic about bringing down the queen-sized guest bed that was upstairs in the master bedroom and getting the newly remodeled guest bedroom all set up. While he was upstairs dismantling the bed, I threw my brisket on to cook in the crock pot and started cleaning the guest bedroom. Fortunately for us, the Contractor is really great about cleaning up after himself so it didn't take me too long!

(Dave is putting the bed together in the newly remodeled guest bedroom.)

We brought down the remaining furniture and set up the bedroom! Just for fun, here are some before and after pictures of the guest bedroom makeover:

(The bedroom had white walls and ugly carpeting, not to mention a dingy ceiling and it was missing trim, molding and a door!)

(What a transformation! Hardwood flooring, trim and molding, a new ceiling fan and fresh paint!)

(The chest of drawers that my best friend Brenda and I brought back from Idaho in April. The elk picture is one of Dave's that he tool up in Jasper, Alberta on our 2010 Autumn trip)

(No door, how strange!)

(The queen sized guest bed is all set up, one of the nightstands from Idaho holds the one of new lamps that Dave found at the Grand Canyon in May when he did his "Rim to Rim" hike with his brothers. We also have a beautiful bedroom door! The prints over the headboard are over 100 years old which I had found on e bay. We had them matted and framed and I love how they turned out!)

(The previous owners had sealed up an archway but the outline was still visible.)

(The wall was smoothed out and the light switch plate was taken out. We found a beautiful 3D carved bear picture in St. Regis, Montana which hangs on the reworked wall.)

(Little details: I moved the blanket ladder that holds our Glacier National Park Pendleton blankets from the family room into the guest bedroom. The room is decorated with Glacier National Park touches and bears.)

We were still pretty wound up but finally sat down around 9:30 to eat our pizza. Our adventure had just begun!