THE JOURNEY

I am excited because we have set a date in August, purchased our airfare and reserved a rental car for Dave's first visit to the Montana house! It is so incredible to people when they learn that he has yet to set foot inside the house. Almost one year to the day, he will finally get to see it in person. The best part is that the biggest projects of the remodeling phase are now a reality. He will get to enjoy the family room and the kitchen for himself instead of seeing those rooms through photographs.

Our next interior project is the downstairs guest bedroom. The previous owners had a doorway that passed from the bedroom to the living room which is on the other side. They closed it off but the transition isn't very smooth, you can tell the outline if you look at it from a certain angle. The living room side is particularly noticeable. When I was there in October I went ahead and painted the bedroom, except for the section that our contractor will redo. We also need crown molding, trim and the ceiling needs to be patched. We will also have wood flooring installed. One of the things I like in the bedroom are the built in closets that frame the window and the window seat.

Not really digging the mauve colored shade but it works for the time being. I loathe the carpet colors! Shudder!

I have to ask myself why the previous owners didn't add trim? One of life's mysteries!

The section of the wall that will be smoothed out. At one time there must've been a light switch on the wall. I am having the contractor patch that as well.

Not really sure where the door is, we are having a knotty pine one installed. I am thinking that our guests might like some privacy!

We had originally decided to have the same flooring installed in the bedroom that is now in the remodeled family room. I didn't worry about the floor transitioning from the office (pine pergo) to the bedroom since there will be a door. While I was at the house last month I met with our contractor and as we went through the house evaluating upcoming projects, I suddenly realized that the flooring we had decided upon would clash with the window wall that has the closets and window seat. Dave and I began looking for alternatives and saw a sample of flooring that we really liked that had the "skip-peel" look to it. However, when we saw a picture of a room done in it, it was a deal breaker. This bedroom size room will be overwhelmed by the flooring as if to say, "LOOK AT OUR FLOORING!!!" when you enter it. Flooring should compliment not compete...We are considering a distressed pine flooring now.

We have a more pressing concern then the flooring choices. When the contractor pulled back the hideous carpet in the guest bedroom it was obvious that water had backed up into the room at some point. He is going to have to work on a drainage issue first, channeling snow melt and run off away from the house.

Now that the weather is transitioning to Spring in Montana, our contractor will be doing some outdoor work, this new drainage issue and the some roof work. Over the Winter, ice dams caused some leaking into the kitchen area; it turns out there is insufficient flashing so he will take care of that for us. Once the guest bedroom is finished Dave and I will bring the new queen sized bed downstairs, set the room up and use it until we retire. When we make the final move we will start using the upstairs master bedroom. In one sense, it would be nice to keep the bed upstairs until that time but we are both eager to see the downstairs bedroom completed. Hurry up August!!