MAKING A HOUSE INTO A HOME

Some friends of ours have begun a new adventure, moving to France and it has inspired me to get caught up on my blogging from last summer's (2013) trip that Dave and I had taken. Although I keep a journal, I have decided to hit the highlights, summarizing the work that we had done while we were at the house.

One of our projects was staining the balcony off the master bedroom. Dave felt like this needed to be done right away and it turned out great! It was too time consuming for just one person so I helped out and we managed to get it done a lot quicker!

A little before and after of the balcony:

We had several painting projects that we accomplished as well. The more we do on our own equals money saved. Our first project was the second bedroom upstairs. It was painted a ridiculous color of florescent green. This room will be Dave's hobby room, housing his extensive collection of Colorado dairy memorabilia. The carpet isn't too terribly bad so if we start having to cut back, he said he can live without having hardwood floors in here. What neither of us could live with though was the psychedelic wall paint so it had to go! I had chosen the wall colors in April, as well as stocking up on primer so we were able to jump right in! When the upstairs remodel begins, there will be trimwork such as, door framing, baseboards and crown molding added as well. We also changed out the outlet covers.

We painted the master bedroom as well. I had chosen two different shades of grey to compliment the blue pine walls. The master bedroom has 2 smaller rooms off the main room. One, I refer to as the balcony room which is completely covered in blue pine, the other I refer to as, the dressing room. The dressing room has a smaller closet (in need of doors)and I will use this room for putting on makeup, fixing my hair, etc since the upstairs bathroom only has one vanity. It had stark white walls which are incredibly boring; although I should give thanks that it wasn't painted green! I painted it the darker shade of grey and added new switch plate covers.

The main room section of the master bedroom was painted as well. Due to the blue pine on the walls, we didn't have to paint four whole walls. This room we painted in the lighter shade of grey.

Our last painting project of the trip involved the upstairs bathroom. Two of the walls above the ceramic tile was painted that same hideous green color. I seriously don't know about these people! We soon wiped out all remaining traces of the previous owners eclectic taste in wall decor! After priming the walls, we could get some nice color on it! We replaced the white cabinet with something more rustic as well.

It felt good getting the painting done and we were pleased with the results. The only remaining area is the upstairs hallway which won't take very long to get done. It's surprising what a relatively inexpensive investment like paint can make!

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!

NEARLY HERE

I am in my final countdown for our trip to the Montana house. To say that I want Dave to immediately love the house and all of its changes, would be an understatement. We have poured a lot of time, energy and not to mention money, into transforming this house into our HOME and I want Dave to be pleased...Last night we received the invoice from our Contractor for the latest project, our second wood burning stove. He told me earlier that he would NOT send me any pictures because he wants us to be surprised, he also told me how pleased he was with the way it turned out. Knowing that he is a perfectionist, I am certain that we are going to be thrilled!

In the office area I hung some family pictures back in April to give the place a more personal touch. I have a couple more packed in my suitcase that I'll be hanging here. Next year we will start on the upstairs but will wait to put in the stair railing until we make our move in 3 years, figuring it will make moving furniture upstairs easier.

This summer has definitely had its challenges. In April 2011, right before my Mom passed away from Colon Cancer, Dave was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer. He had surgery to remove the Prostate since the cancer was aggressive and outside of the Prostate. The Surgeon felt very confident that things looked good but he did inform us that there was always the risk of it returning since it was outside the Prostate. In January we were disappointed to learn that it had returned. Although the PSA tests aren't 100% accurate, he had repeated tests and each one was elevated. This indicated that there was something going on. Through more tests and scans we learned that it wasn't anywhere else (bones, blood, organs, etc) which we were thankful for. The Radiologist explained to us that you could have over 10,000 cancer cells in an area just the size of the very tip of your pinky finger and since this cancer wasn't being picked up on the MRI's, it indicated that it was very minute and slow growing. Dave made the decision to have radiation and target the general area. The first phase was having a hormone therapy shot to suppress the manufacturing of Testosterone and then a couple of months later he began radiation for eight weeks. Last Thursday was his last radiation treatment and now we wait. We won't know anything until after the first of the year once the effects of the shot have completely worn off and his body begins producing Testosterone once again. Living with cancer has taught us to enjoy the day...just today because we don't know what the future holds. This trip to the house will be especially poignant after having the reality of cancer treatment in our lives. Time for the both of us to begin making memories at our retirement home!!

Five more days and we will be off into the wild blue yonder and heading up to Montana! This week will be filled with packing, list making and so on. We've double checked on deliveries scheduled to arrive, sent three large boxes via UPS to the house and have gathered together whatever paperwork we need. We've arranged a Dinner party and have a tentative date set for visiting some friends in Idaho. All we need to do, is finish our packing and drive to the airport. I am hoping this week goes by pretty fast!!

GOING NATIVE

Preparations have commenced for our trip to our Sweet Montana Home! In just nineteen days we will board an airplane and fly first to Denver, then catch a flight into Kalispell. Almost one year to the day since we purchased our little piece of heaven, Dave will FINALLY set eyes on it, in person for the very first time! I can hardly wait to see what he thinks since he has only seen pictures up to this point. He and I have had countless conversations, usually during our morning walks, about how we will spend those ten days. We will do some painting upstairs, take some deliveries, take a road trip to visit friends in Idaho, shop for some rustic furnishings, plan a "dinner party", visit Fresh Life Church in Kalsipell, hike in Glacier and make fires in the wood stove while we watch movies (specifically Westerns) in the Family Room at night. I have begun making various lists and lining up the septic tank guy to come out and inspect/clean the tank. I hate that those ten days will fly by!

The house has come a LONG way this past year but we still have more to do, mainly the upstairs. From the day we bought the house, I have determined that we give the place a name. The first time I brought it up, right after we closed on the house, Dave said,

"We have 1000 things to do on the house and that is about number 999!"

I have asked family members and friends for suggestions; the most creative so far comes from my Dad:

"NARNIA always winter never summer."

Last night I had a light bulb moment! I suggested to Dave that we give our place a name that relates to the region, specifically something that the Native Peoples that have been here long before the white man, might say. So, in all likelihood our place will have a name in the SALISH language, the common language spoken by North Western Tribes. I think we need to come up with a name and then have it translated into the Salish language, I won't be able to pronounce it but hey...it seems right!

Salish men on July 4th stand by tepees near St. Ignatius Mission, Flathead Reservation, Montana, 1903