GARAGE WORK

A garage is something that a lot of people probably take for granted but for us, we are excited to finally have one! We have lived in a mobile home our whole marriage, in a mobile home park and have never had a garage. When I looked at the very first house back in February 2012, it didn't have one and the second one we looked at in July 2012, had a detached garage. When we bought our Mountainview Hideaway in August 2012, I was excited to finally have a garage! It's detached and it also has a 12 foot x 28 foot workshop above which we will convert into a studio for me next year. It will be nice to park our cars inside especially since we will be seeing snow on a regular basis! Once we get up there in September, we can store the Subaru inside, no more rental cars for us! Last Fall we had a garage door opener installed and we are beginning to think of storage solutions inside the garage. I'd like to throw up some insulation and nail in some drywall before we start attaching anything to the studs.

We just heard from our contractor last night and he finished work on the exterior of the garage. He used 12 gallons of stain, countless nails and 3 cases of caulk to get it sealed up nice and tight. He also replaced boards that were compromised as well as finished off the one side that was on the property line facing the neighbor's property. It had exposed cinder blocks and he added insulation and siding to give it a nice finished look. Onc we get up there in September, we will take some pictures for comparison. For now, I will leave you with these before photos.

I might paint the garage door the same green shade that I've done on the front door of the house. I will also put in new light bulbs to make sure the carriage lights are working. Hopefully they are and we won't have to replace them down the road.

The stairs lead up to the workshop area. Dave and I stained the steps and supports last year. We had Randy bring the landing up to code. The railing was way too low and we had some rotted wood that needed to be replaced. I will probably be painting these doors as well.

In September we will have to post new "NO TRESPASSING" signs and get our satellite dish and internet hook up done as well. It's getting very real!

FIRST U HAUL MOVE PART THREE: WRAPPING UP

We spent a good portion of our week unpacking boxes and putting stuff away. We took a break near the end of the week to go into Glacier for several hours. We enjoyed our drive over to Two Medicine and Dave stopped a bit near Marias Pass and took some pictures.

We stopped at Running Eagle Falls and we were able to see it running at full strength because of the Spring snow melt.

The foot bridge wasn't up yet so Dave had to wade across in order to get the shot.

Time out for our traditional dinner party with friends Randy and Chris and Bill and Paula, it's nice to have made some friends already and we are looking forward to making more!

Dave had coordinated for two cords of firewood to be delivered to the house, which came our last full day. We had wisely purchased a wheel barrow since Dave was stacking it behind the house, out of sight. We have one storage rack inside the garage and Dave liked it so much that he got a second which he assembled while we were there. He's going to get another one since we still have a lot of firewood! At first, we didn't think this would take too long to move and stack...wrong-o!

My Dad had gotten us a log splitter which I will probably be using more than Dave for doing smaller pieces of firewood. On this wood, it was so dry that he could actually split some of the larger pieces for stacking, quicker than if we were running the splitter.

Dave ended up spending eight hours working on the woodpile whereas I, spent about twenty minutes raking and bagging the bark and debris that was left behind in the driveway.

The first U Haul load is in the books... gearing up for the second in less than eight weeks!

FIRST U HAUL MOVE PART TWO GETTING SETTLED

We arrived before noon on our third day and immediately began to unload the truck. Our contractor Randy came by that afternoon and helped Dave to unload some heavy furniture pieces and get the barrister bookcase upstairs into his hobby room.The two pieces of furniture I was most concerned about, the antique secretary and curio cabinet with curved glass, traveled beautifully! Dave had done an excellent job of protecting them and placing them within the truck. I had taken photos of their contents before I packed everything so that I knew immediately where everything was to be placed. It cut the time significantly when it was time to unpack those things! I have the curio cabinet in the living room so that I can easily access my pink glass depressionware serving pieces. I purged through my collection earlier this year, choosing specific pieces for our daughters and daughter in law and gave each of them a write up on their history. We brought up a new log floor lamp and placed it in the living room between the rockers Dave assembled last September. The antique secretary was put into the living room as well but I'm not certain it will stay there. I may choose to put it in the craft studio over the garage once it's remodeled.

Randy's lady love Chris came over later in the afternoon and brought all the fixins for a nice dinner which she cooked for us. What a treat to already have friends waiting for us and are eager for our move!

Randy drove Dave down to Kalispell the next day so they could load our new snow blower from Home Depot into the back of his truck; while they were gone, I surprised Dave by bringing his boxes into the living room that were stacked out on the porch. Randy had put in a new kitchen door and screen door over the winter and I installed a new lock set for them.The new door still needs to be painted but the screen just slides right up into the frame allowing wonderful air to come into the kitchen. He also finished closing up the exterior of the house, replacing boards, etc and repainted the upper level. The house is completely done ow with the exception of my closet upstairs and probably installing new toilets.

Randy had also closed off an open area under the front porch. The gable point over the front door was open with exposed roofing paper. He closed it off and installed cedar shingles giving it a more finished look.

BEFORE (porch has not been redone in this photo):

AFTER:

This trip was a short one since we were using one of Dave's weeks of vacation for Charlie's wedding in Florida. It was mostly a working trip but Dave did manage to sneak off one morning and get some gorgeous photos like this one of Stanton Mountain reflected in the still waters of Lake McDonald!

Randy and Chris invited us over to their place which sits right on the Flathead River. They had a pair of Osprey on their property and Dave was excited over the prospect of photographing them. They were being discouraged by the power company from building their nest on top of these poles. A couple of days after Dave took these pictures, a Canada Goose vacated their nest that they had built last year and the pair began occupying it once again.

We enjoyed good friendship and a good meal with them as well!

To be continued...

FIRST U HAUL MOVE: PART ONE: WINTER STORM COMPLICATIONS

This has been an incredibly busy season in our lives! Sadly, we lost a treasured family member March 30th so we've had a Memorial Service, a destination wedding, a Springtime in Yellowstone vacation and our grand-daughter stayed 9 days with us while her folks were in South Africa; now we are working on U Haul Move #2.

I picked up our 20 foot U Haul on April 14th and backed it into the driveway on the very first try! Dave had created a loading diagram for where all the boxes and furniture items should go and so we managed to load the truck in under 4 hours!

We had one major complication though, a winter storm called "VEXO" brewing out in the mountains of Colorado. We had planned to make the drive in 3 stages, arriving the first day in Castle Rock, Colorado just south of Denver where I had used Travelocity to make a reservation. We ate the cost of that room when we canceled and took a different route than our usual Interstate 25 one that takes us up through Colorado and into Buffalo, Wyoming. We decided to drive Interstate 35 north through Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska, leaving on Saturday, April 16th.

We managed to drive 500 miles before we had to use the windshield wipers. We drove into a rain which eventually changed over to snow. We managed to make it to Scottsbluff, Nebraska where we called it a day!

We awoke the next morning and hit the road early, the snow had began to fall heavily around 5 AM. Since we had driven so far the day before we were able to stay even with the storm system that had dropped up to eighteen inches in parts of Colorado!

We continued our drive north and west, eventually connecting with Interstate 90 in Gillette, Wyoming. Once we crossed over into Montana it was if the clouds parted and I'm pretty sure I hear a chorus of angels sing, well maybe I imagined that part!

We drove as far as Bozeman, Montana, checked into our room and walked over and ate a nice dinner at Outback steakhouse.

Dave and I got a good night's sleep and we were on the road before 4 AM! We made one last rest stop, west of Missoula and were eager to finish the last 125+ miles!

We knew we would be at the house before noon, barring any complications and that also included a quick grocery stop once we got into Columbia Falls. We arrived safe and sound, giving thanks to God; we only added an extra thirty miles by skirting the winter storm! The U Haul truck was surprisingly comfortable, handled well and had about 10,000 miles on it when we picked it up.

NEWS

I thought I would share a piece of news. It is no secret that Dave and I feel that God has orchestrated everything regarding the house in Montana. From my contacting our Realtor Bill (who wasn't involved in any sort of way with the first house we looked at 4 years ago) to the foreclosure price, to Randy as our contractor, etc. it's all been God's Divine hand guiding and providing. Realizing that, we made the decision that the Mountainview Hideaway was a blessing to be shared with others and have plans to offer it as a "retreat" for ministry. We can be as involved with guests as they like, playing tour guide, etc or as uninvolved as they like, basically being a place for them to crash at night. We want to be able to share what God has provided for us and in the most beautiful setting imaginable.

Needless to say, over time, Dave and I have talked about the practical logistics of our retirement move. As they say, "timing is everything" so there were the questions of, "When do we put our house on the market?" "Will we have to move into an apartment between the closing and his last day of work?" "Maybe the Mobile Home Park would buy it from us and we can stay until we move out?" (We know that we would get less money from them because they want to make a profit but that might be a wash for us if we had to rent an apartment, stay in a hotel, etc.) "How will this play out?" and so on and on it has gone. I have said from the get go, that God has orchestrated everything so far and that I had total peace that He would work that out as well and that I wouldn't stress about it.

Right after Christmas, we had new neighbors move in next door to us. They are a nice couple with 3 young children. He is from El Paso and she is from San Antonio; right after they moved in, he was out in the yard and introduced himself to Dave as he was coming home from work. A couple of weeks ago, I was at Lowes picking up more paint and supplies when he approached me and introduced himself, 'I believe I'm your new neighbor", he said. We began chatting and at the time, he apologized for the extra car parked on the street in front of their house and said that he hoped they hadn't been too noisy. (We look like a used car lot so I told him, if anything, I should apologize!) He said his wife's parents were visiting from San Antonio and that they liked our mobile home park so much, that they had driven around looking at empty lots because they want to sell their house in San Antonio and move up here. I said in passing that I was there buying paint supplies because we are selling our house later later this year and moving. We just looked at each other and said, "hmmm...." During the course of this conversation I learned that they are Christians as well; part of his concern about the noise was that they were having an evening of praise and worship.

I shared with Dave about our exchange at Lowes but hadn't thought about it since. Last week our new neighbors knocked on our door and asked if we had given any thought to an asking price for our home? I invited them in even though we look like a disaster area with boxes and stuff strung out all over the place. I gave them a limited tour of the house and we began talking. In a nutshell, they are serious about us selling the house to their family! We talked about our situation of hoping the park would buy it so we could stay until the move. He does home remodeling for a living and said that we could work out a deal where Dave and I don't do any more home repairs or painting, etc. reflecting that in the price and we could stay until we needed to move. A win/win situation for everyone!

This is an answer to prayer!! Dave and I have began to pray over the selling price, we typically pray individually over big decisions and then come together to see what we feel the Holy Spirit's leading is; nearly every single time, it is identical! So, this is the beginning stage, laying the possible groundwork for what happens in just nine months. I am excited, amazed and thankful over how God works out even the smallest details in our lives. He alone is worthy...

"For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly." Psalms 84:11

PAINTING, PURGING AND PACKING

With only two months left until our first U Haul truckload, we've been in overdrive down here. We painted the Master Bathroom last month and now we are in the midst of purging, sorting and packing. There are boxes and plastic containers piling up and the house is in such a state of disarray but it's only going to get worse before it gets better. We are planning on taking ALL of Dave's Colorado milk bottle collection and "go-withs" as well as the shelves and bookcases he has everything displayed upon. I am looking forward to a time where all of his stuff can be contained in ONE room, his hobby room. With well over five hundred bottles out and on display, it is a lot of work for him to properly prepare everything for a 3 day drive. Better him than me since I have enough on my own plate to prepare!

Once the bottles and shelves are down, we can spackle and repaint the living room. There is another wall with nearly the same amount of milk bottles displayed.

This past month we ordered some new lamps as well. I wanted something different, yet still rustic for the Master Bedroom. I really liked these when I saw them on Black Forest Decor but Bed, Bath & Beyond carried them as well so overall, we saved more than a hundred dollars!

We unpackaged the lamps and put these out on our night stands to see how nicely they would go with our log bedroom set and I am very pleased!

The matching floor lamp is currently out in the living room and I can't wait to see it up in the bedroom!

The plan is to put the floor lamp in this corner in the Master bedroom.

Dave has had his heart set on a log floor lamp ever since we got the table lamps that are out in the family room...

This one, in the lighter Aspen wood will go nicely in the living room in between the two rocking chairs. We've decided against table lamps but we need another light source along with the overhead light.

I purged the curio cabinet which holds my Pink Glass Depressionware pieces; setting aside those pieces that I want to pass on to our daughters. I catalogued those pieces and wrote up a brief summary of the different designs along with their estimated values. Once that was finished, I spent a couple of hours reconfiguring where everything should go, photographing it and then labeling which shelf it went on. I'm anticipating that it will go quicker when I recreate the display once it's up there!

For some reason, packing up the Pink Glassware made me a little sad...

I started packing up the china cabinet yesterday but ran out of bubble wrap near the end. I am putting the china cabinet up in the craft studio once it's finished and I am pretty certain, I will keep special things that were my mother's up in the hutch portion. While wrapping things up, I labeled all of those things too so they can be separated and set off to the side until they are ready to be displayed.

I feel like the clock is ticking...

GET IT TOGETHER

I love organization! I get a thrill from looking at organizational products, planning a project and the thrill of completing something that ultimately, makes my life better. I also love our movie collection. Over the years we have transitioned from VHS tapes to DVD's and then eventually to Blu-Rays. I have accused Dave of being a "Blu-Ray Snob" but even I have to admit, the clarity of some of our movies can't be beat! I was discouraged every time I opened the doors to our movie cabinet and looking at the picture below, you can see why! All our Blu Rays were stored in the bottom with our TV Series' and Documentaries while regular DVD's were in the top section. My Type A personality just couldn't handle this any longer!

I looked on PINTEREST for some ideas; have I said that I also LOVE Pinterest? Electronic hoarding without the guilt and clutter, but I digress! After seeing some options that were on there, I got a general idea of what I wanted to do and what types of products were out there. I found these sleeves on Amazon, they come 25 to a pack and cost less than a dollar per sleeve. Each sleeve holds 2 DVD's or Blu-Rays and you can insert the liner notes from the old plastic cases so you can see what you have and it looks very neat and tidy.

I had an enormous stack of empty disc cases which I threw into the recycling bin. Not all of our movies were transferred to the sleeves, we have some nice boxed sets or metal specialty cases (Harry Potter series, Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, Band of Brothers, etc) that I decided to leave as is. Once the DVD's had been transferred, I purchased 6 photo storage boxes from Hobby Lobby at only $2.00 a piece (on sale) and divided our movies in between them. All Westerns, whether DVD or Blu Ray were alphabetized together as were our Christmas movies and everything else was appropriately organized, including those boxed sets or specialty cases. I took a disorganized, hot mess and transformed it into a well-organized thing of deep, personal satisfaction! Can you believe that there are 300 movies in these boxes?

All of our Boxed TV Series and Documentaries are stored neatly now in the bottom of our cabinet. If I can only convince Dave to discard his old VHS tapes from all the Stanley Cup 1999 playoff games when our Dallas Stars won the Cup... One step at a time!