MOUNTAINVIEW HIDEAWAY: SOON AND VERY SOON

It's hard to believe that in just fifteen more days, Dave and I are bound for the Mountainview Hideaway once more. We are driving straight through to Yellowstone and will spend a day there, seeing Charlie who will soon be wrapping up his work tenure. I am bringing up a cookie cake for him so we can celebrate his birthday that evening. The next morning, Dave and I will hit the road early and drive the last * four hundred miles to the house. Once Charlie and his friend Sean check out from Yellowstone, they will join us at the house. I plan on having them break down the fence I toppled over on our last visit so we can either haul it to the landfill or maybe have a bonfire one evening. We will have them do a bit of staining on the house as well.

From the very beginning when we knew without a shadow of a doubt that God had blessed us with our home, we wanted to use the house as a blessing to others. So much of the guest bedroom remodeling project was done with our future guests in mind. I have joked that we will be like a Bed and Breakfast, pampering visitors and playing tour guide. Dave's younger brother Trace and his wife Pam are joining us during our first week up at the Hideaway and we will play hosts as well as task masters since they are willing to help do a little work with us. It won't be all work, there will be some play time as well.

The new china hutch should arrive during the first few days at the house so I have been gathering a few special items to take up with us that I can store inside. We are driving our car and not the van so it's a much smaller load we'll be taking, unlike my April trips where the van is overflowing with boxes and smaller furniture items. We will take up the wood blinds I ordered for the library window and I might be able to bring up a box of books. Other projects besides staining the house will be cleaning and staining the back concrete patio off the french doors in the family room and possibly working on interior doors.

Our contractor just finished a structural project for us on the detached garage. It doesn't have the "WOW FACTOR" that room remodeling transformations do but it was something that needed to be addressed. This past winter with the heavier than normal snowfall caused ice dams near the garage's foundation, resulting in bulging and bowing. The last thing we want is to lose our garage when it could have been prevented. Once again the previous owners and their quirky way of doing things had to be corrected. Our contractor dug down next to the foundation and reinforced it with rebar and concrete.

He also added a drain tile to divert water away from the garage and reinforced the support posts for the stairs leading up to the workshop over the garage, this will eventually be my work studio.

We will also be applying new stain to these garage steps and supports in order to make them last as long as possible. We have already picked up the BEHR DECK OVER products we intend to use.

Our Contractor will start our next interior project this winter. We are having new hardwood floors laid in the upstairs master bedroom, adding trim work (baseboards and crown molding) and having a new door and frame installed. We have already painted the walls but we need to consult with him on my closet which is lacking doors and a practical layout for storage. The first step however is that he will lift the support beam downstairs in the kitchen/dining room which is directly underneath in order to level the bedroom floor.