The Babbling Brooks

Winter at Mountain Dreams...

     

Winter Visitors

     

The winter herd of elk is back in the valley. John saw about 40 of them across the border the other day. Three of them came wandering around our place looking for a snack this afternoon. We enjoyed watching them out in the snow. Last year we saw about 250 of them at one time just off Airport Road. You haven't seen a real elk crossing until you have to stop and wait for all of them to get across in their own sweet time :) 

Snow Plowing!

      

John got the chance to use the new machine yesterday. We had about 5-6 inches of snow. He'd put the plow on the ATV last week so it was all ready to go. He started with the circle at the top of the drive and then was able to get the 900+ feet of driveway done with 4 passes. He came in for lunch just as I was leaving for a Cookie Exchange at the Owl's Burrow (our neighbor's house). They have a long uphill driveway like ours and I think it's steeper. John said he'd do theirs, too, if they'd like. So I asked when I got there and gave him a call. They were very appreciative!

Wow!

That's about all I could say when this happened last night! This is the glass door that goes out to the deck. I heard a very loud POP!, almost like an explosion...and then it sounded like water running somewhere. (Somehow John slept through this part :) My first thought was that a pipe had broken. That's not supposed to happen. It should never get below the low 40s under the house. (We have a remote sensor there so that we can keep an eye on it from inside the house.) After about 15 seconds the sound stopped. Further investigation yielded the source. The outside pane of glass must have been defective and couldn't take the cold. John said it was -8F when he looked out at the thermometer this morning. Our high today is supposed to be 11F and there's expectations of somewhere around -35F over the next few days. We'll have to wait till tomorrow to get the ball rolling on a replacement since it is Sunday. Wow!

Update: John talked to Paul (our builder) this evening. Our windows and the doors we got from Riverside in Kalispell have a lifetime warranty! So, we're covered!!

We've Been Dusted!

     

We've been waiting for this! We're headed for "record low temperatures" later this week...don't know if that includes more snowflakes or not! 

John's new toy.....

     

There's a snowplow that attaches to the front, so he's all set for winter. He'll be able to plow our road up to Mountain Dreams himself from now on. And, conveniently, he'll now be able to ride in the woods with the rest of the boys.

Sunday Morning Visitors...

    

kind of risky for them to be wandering around like that. It's hunting season and Thanksgiving is coming up! 

More studio pictures.....

I've had a request for some additional photos showing how I've sorted and labeled the storage in my studio. My cardstock is sorted by color, patterned paper by color, theme or, in some cases, manufacturer. Embellishments are mostly sorted by color and some by theme. Rubber stamps are stored in the Iris carts below my worktable and are sorted by theme. Each drawer has a number and I intend to compile a binder of all my stamps with numbered pages corresponding to the drawers showing what is in each one. IT should be easy to add new stamps and keep it up to date. For the alphabet sets stored in the acrylic drawers from The Container Storeabove the work table I used part of the original packaging as labels to show the font. Ribbon is stored in 2 large open top glass containers that I found at Walmart. Some of them are still on the cards they came on. Some of them have been rolled on to old fashioned clothes pins that are from The Dollar Store. Chipboard alphabets are stacked in acrylic containers from The Container Store  . They are right at my worktable where they are easy to get to! I have tools, photo pencils,scissors, exacto knife, etc. in a Tool Turn-About from Pampered Chef. Right behind it I've put a few small nails in the wall where I hang a brayer, an 18" steel ruler, and a basket that holds my adhesives. Photos are sorted according to the album they'll go in...for example, Legend 2008, Disney, Mountain Dreams, Russia, etc. The boxes hold 4x6 and 5x7 prints and if I've printed an enlargement I slip a note inside to remind me. Memorabilia is sorted and stored in plastic expanding files I found at the dollar spot in Target. Enlargements are filed in document boxes, again from The Container Store. I love that place! If there are specific questions you have, feel free to leave a comment and I'd be happy to answer them...

                          

The Studio at Mountain Dreams...

I've had a lot of requests for pictures of my studio. Here it is! Since we were moving to a new state and building a new home I had the opportunity to build the room exactly the way I wanted it. There was a lot of planning to get things right. It is wired with cable, extra phone lines, and plenty of outlets, so I could reorganize if I wanted to...but I don't see that happening. The outlets behind the furnishings work on switches and I also have some higher up on the wall to use with chargers, heat tools, etc. The floor is heated porcelain tile, easy to clean and warm in the winter! There are 2 skylights on the northwest side of the room that let natural light pour in all day long. I took the pictures with my wide angle lens with natural light, then used the photomerge feature in Adobe Photoshop Elements to get an entire wall in the picture. All the furnishings and most of the storage was purchased at IKEAwith the exception of the work table (standing height) which I got at Costcoand the photo ledges which are from Pottery Barn. The drawer units beneath the worktable are Iris carts with the wheels removed. The shelf above it sits on top of the carts (thanks to Cheryl S. for that idea!). Each drawer is labeled (as is everything else in the room) and has a piece of patterned paper on the inside of the front to give a more uniform look (thanks to Paula W. for that idea!). The white frosted paper holders and the pale yellow storage pieces (the Shelf-It series) are from Cropper Hopper. The stackable paper trays are made by Design Dynamics and can be ordered online at several scrapbooking sites. All the wood storage pieces and the photo boxes are from IKEA and I'm putting my Longaberger baskets to good use! I love my play space, hope you do, too!

         

Bluebirds!

We had fun this spring checking our bluebird boxes. We put up 4 nesting boxes this year. We only had one nest, but that's okay for the first year.Here's some photos of the parents and their babies. We didn't have a second nesting this year, but sometimes the parents come back and have another brood. We've been seeing adult bluebirds here the last few days, but we think it's too late in the season for them to nest again.

No, Mama bird does't mind if you pick the babies up. Apparently they have no sense of smell. If we were looking into the nest and she or Dad came back with food, they'd just sit on a branch somewhere and wait till we were through. That's our dear friend (and former coworker) Elaine on the ladder. She and I were too short to see inside the nest without the ladder. The bluebird group told us they need to be up that high or the birds wouldn't use the boxes.

Edamame at last!

You may remember last fall when we were working furiously to get the siding on the house and painted before the snow started flying. We got the siding and trim done, but the shingles in all the gables of the house were left with a soft gray primer.It got too cold to continue painting. John had planned to paint them in June, but that didn't happen...too many other fun things going on. He's working on them now and I am very happy with our color choice, Edamame to go with the Sprout paint on the siding :)

It's batty around here!

Yesterday when John opened the (outside) door to the crawl space, this is what rolled out from between the top of the door and the frame. We've seen a few bats flitting around outside. We're thinking a bat house is in order!

Two Is Better Than One!

Just before we left for Utah on the 8th of July Mama Whitetail brought her twin fawns to see us. John happened to look out and see them on our small lawn. Before I could grab my camera and get a picture of all of them together Mom and one baby had moved to the edge of the trees and the more curious fawn was left standing alone and wondering who the heck those people in the window were. We saw Mom again and were guessing she was hiding the fawns nearby. Since we've returned to Montana we've seen Mama three times and Legend is so excited about seeing deer. Last evening she was drinking from the bird bath and the night before that we could hear grass munching outside the bedroom, but it was too dark to verify it was her (gee, can you guess why it is tough to grow anything here???). This evening I looked up and there were the twins outside. Legend loved seeing them and they were just as curious about him. He was right at the open window waving at them and they didn't mind...Mom, of course, was watching from the edge of the lawn.

A little summer joy.....

is bursting out all over Mountain Dreams!

Birdies!

When John and I first visited Plant Land to pick out shrubs I spotted this little birdbath and had to have it. (We left the one we had in Bonney Lake.) We put it out where I can see it from my studio and surrounded it with rocks and moss. The birds have discovered it and are making good use of it. I am really enjoying seeing them. The birds here are more varied and are much more colorful than what I was use to seeing in Washington. And, lucky me, my Aunt Jean is a birder and has been able to help me identify some. She's also recommended a couple of good bird books, so I'll be looking for those. Today it looked like there were almost a dozen birds out there at once. I need to get faster with my camera or figure out how to make sure they don't see me moving through the window!

We have babies!

6 of them! We joined Montana Bluebird Trails and have 4 nesting boxes on our property. We have one nest and the start of another, not too bad for the first year. We were excited to find 5 eggs which then became six. Mama doesn't mind us peeking and we were told that we can even pick the babies up when they are a little older. They should be ready to fly around the 21st!

Mountain Dreams...an update!

Things have been happening here at Mountain Dreams!

Our master bath is FINALLY done! This whole tile experience has been a nightmare. What started as a simple problem turned into 15 weeks of phone calls, repeated shipments of tile, and a tile store severing their ties with Mohawk Tile. In case you don't remember or don't have a clue what all this is about...our tile installer had our master bath completely tiled except for the corners. When he opened the box containing the outcorners (bullnosed on 2 sides), they didn't match the rest of the bullnose tile that had been installed. We had rounded tile edges on the walls and backsplashes, the outcorners had angled edges. This was in mid-January. I made a phone call to the store in Kalispell and talked to our salesman. He'd never run into this problem before. He called the Mohawk tile rep and was told the correct tile would be reshipped right away. But when it came...same thing, angled edges. They tried a third time, still the wrong tile. The rep then did a little more checking and it was discovered that our tile was made in the USA, except for the corners which are made in Italy. Ok, so that's a little weird...but he assured us the next shipment would be correct. But...they'd be sending all new bullnose tile...with angled edges. That meant that what we had installed now needed to be demolitioned and replaced. And...we made sure they would be paying the labor. We arranged to have all this done while we were gone in late February and March. Our plumber came out in the morning on the day we left and removed our tub. Our tiler came in a few days later and removed all the tile that was to be replaced. The tile showed up in Kalispell a few days before we came home and...yep!it was wrong again! This time our salesman went right to the top and called the president of Mohawk Industries. He was flabbergasted and assigned someone to look into the problem. What they found was that the product from the USA and the product from Italy had been assigned the same product numbers. They couldn't know exactly what was in the boxes without physically opening them. So, supposedly that's what they were doing.They told us that someone in each warehouse was opening the boxes to find the product we needed. After a month of waiting and no progress, Mohawk stopped returning phone calls. So, we had a decision to make. The store in Kalispell was willing to start all over with new product if that's what we wanted. We liked the tile we had chosen and one of the reasons for that particular product was that they made outcorners and we wouldn't have to make 45 degree cuts to finish the corners. We decided that we really didn't want to tear our entire bathroom apart. So we had the rounded bullnose edges and backsplashes replaced and had the corners done with 45 degree cuts. The plumber returned to hook up the tub and it's done!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The naked lady??? We picked her up in Italy ten years ago :)

We've also been grading our road...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We've seeded a lawn...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We've planted shrubs and 3 flowering trees...big thanks to Wanda,our friend and art teacher, who let us use her discount at Plant Land!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                       

 

 

 

 

 

We've added a little "zen" with a birdbath...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We still have loads of work to do. The next big project will be to put a second coat of paint on the exterior and get the darker green (edamame) on the shingled gables. But fun comes first.My sisters will be arriving for a visit on Thursday and staying for a few days.On the 11th we are leaving for Lewistown in central Montana. John will be in the Champ,I'll be in one of the vehicles...probably the Beetle since it's a little easier on the gas bill. We'll be meeting the Montana Antique Airplane Club for an air tour of the central part of the state.This will be our first time meeting anyone in the group, I'm sure we'll meet some nice people.When we return we'll have about 3 weeks to get the painting done and then we'll be headed to St. George for Shayla and Roger's wedding reception and to pick up Legend! He'll be coming back with us!

First Visitors to Mountain Dreams!

We were so happy to have Wendy, Brian, Trevor, Zachary, and Jacob come visit us during their spring break last week. They were the first to use the guest facilities!

They made the drive from Washington after Brian got off work on Wednesday and arrived at 5:00 in the morning. Over the next 3 days we made cookies, did a little hiking, played at the park, patched a pot hole in the road, shot the BB gun and played in the snow when we all went to Whitefish for the Pond Skimming competition (see below).

     

It was fun having them here. Hope it's not too long till the next visit!    

 

High Blue Belt for Trevor and Other Babblings

We made a quick trip to Washington last week. We were served a yummy gourmet dinner at our friend's home. It was part of the prize (along with $Cash) for my contest winning photo from last summer's Air Tour. It turned out to be perfect timing. Trevor had a Tae Kwan Do belt test while we were there. We were happy to see him perform. He did well and passed to the next level. He's only 7 and is half way to earning his black belt!

John and I took advantage of the trip and took the truck instead of the Beetle. We came back with it filled with goodies from IKEA . I got 4 bookcases, 2 cabinets, 2 wall cubbies, and a desk for my studio. Here's a sneak peak. We also picked up 3 bookcases for our hallway (which means I can finish unpacking the boxes!), a media stand for the future big screen television, a desk chair for John, new bedding for our room, 3 bar stools, and a dining room table plus 4 chairs. We need 8 chairs, but they only had 4 in stock. They should have more in when we are in Washington later this month to see the dentist and we think we can get them in the Beetle (may have to take them out of the boxes). We drove back to Montana on Sunday (the 24th) and spent two days assembling furniture.

We have been in Great Falls since Wednesday for the Montana Aviation Conference. John has been to lots of seminars and presentations and got himself signed up with the Montana Antique Aircraft Association. Yep, that's an additional Air Tour for this summer. We've also been invited to join a motorcycle tour of Yellowstone and the Tetons. We met Dwight who manages the Wheatland County Airport and his wife, Julie. They seem like fun people...we may take them up on it. I've spent my days visiting the C.M. Russell museum and playing with my paints. The keynote speaker for tonight's final banquet was Dick Rutan, pilot of the Voyager. He tells an amazing story of his record breaking flight. As an added bonus we got to see video of the first flight of the X-plane. This team is trying to win the $10,000,000 prize for the first civilian flight into space. They must take the equivalent of 3 people into space, return them safely, and then do it again within 10 days. The video we saw tonight was taken in 2004 and they were able to leave and reenter the atmosphere. Amazing stuff!

In the morning we'll be leaving for some Grandma time in St. George! We'll spend a week there and the travel to Southern California to see some friends, then up to Washington for that dentist appointment. We are hoping we'll get to see Chris and Yvette, too, as we go through Sacramento!

And so it begins (or ends)...

The beginning of unpacking in a new home...the ending of ten months of hard work with lots of fun and joy and a little frustration. We moved into Mountain Dreams on Saturday, January 26th. We were fortunate to have good neighbors and friends pitching in to help. Big thanks to John G. and Dick L., our Gateway Village neighbors, and Paul, our builder (and Oreo!). Mother Nature on the other hand was not so cooperative. She chose that week to bring temperatures with a negative sign....as in -18 F with warming to the 20s later in the day. 

We'd gone to Libby on Friday afternoon and picked up a UHaul truck. It was just our luck that the UHaul dealer here in Eureka closed up the week before. We packed the truck full, unloaded at the new house, then had lunch at The Front Porch. After lunch, John and his wife, Glenda, helped us take 2 more pickup loads over to the house. John and I spent the next four days bringing the remainder over in the pickup and trailer and cleaning the rental house. Mother Nature was not in the best mood...John had to chain up several times to make the last 30 feet up to the garage to unload.

The next day we needed to return the UHaul truck to Libby. We ran into snow about 10 miles south of Eureka which slowed us quite a bit. But it was a beautiful drive along Lake Koocanusa and a delight to see deer in the snow and to stop to look at the ice falls all along the way.

We are busy getting things unpacked and in order, but it'll be awhile before we get things completely done.....we need to get some new bookcases and the furniture for my studio before much of it can be unpacked.

There were a few little things that still needed to be done when we moved in. Most of those have been completed, but one small issue has turned into a HUGE one. We've learned that the tile company no longer makes those pesky corner tiles for our master bath. The ones they sent us...twice...have an angled edge, the rest of the bullnose tile has rounded edges. So....all the bullnose tile in the bathroom needs to be removed and replaced with the tile with angled edges. I'm guessing the tile company won't make this mistake again...it's going to cost them about $1000 in labor for this to be done (including the cost of removing our tub and putting it back in). You'd think that if they make a design decision to change a tile edge, they'd make sure they didn't mismatch an order...

We are loving living here. There are so many things about the house itself that we love...the big, open shower...the heated tile floors...the kitchen with it's space, big refrigerator, and awesome countertops...the tall ceilings...the huge pantry...the view...etc. And we love the quiet and the starry skies when the sun goes down!

Ok, Ok...

I'm working on it! Many of you know that we have moved into the new house...a whole week ago! There are still a few little things that need to be done. It'll be a bit before I have photos of the house, but I can share photos of the move and a few other things....hopefully, I'll get that done sometime this weekend! Stay tuned.

Appliance Mover

John's getting real good at moving appliances. The stove, microwave, and dishwasher have all gone over to the house. The refrigerator needed to go today as the plumber is coming to finish all the hook-ups tomorrow (5 more sinks, refrigerator, master tub/shower/toilet, and the stove...who knew the plumber hooks up our propane stove? I thought the gas guys would have to come back :) While we were there he shoveled last night's snow fall from in front of the garage. Hopefully, it won't be icy tomorrow. We're also expecting the carpet guys back to install the carpet in the master bedroom and the appraiser in the afternoon. The satellite TV is scheduled to be installed on Tuesday. We have a UHaul truck reserved for Saturday, so we should be in the house sometime next weekend. We have to pick up the truck in Kalispell. John stopped at the UHaul dealer here in Eureka and found that ownership of Montana Metalworks (who had the UHaul business) had passed from father to son. Said son apparently didn't want to be bothered renting trucks, so he'd told UHaul to come get them. John tried to get them to leave one here a few extra days to save us the trip on Saturday, but they wouldn't do it. There are still a lot of little things to be done in the house and as it appears no one else is going to be doing them, we've taken it upon ourselves to take care of them. We hope we can get the financial part of this done before we move in, keeping our fingers crossed on that :)

Maybe It's Time To Start Packing!

John got up this morning and picked up some fresh donuts at the bakery. He took them out to the cabinet shop and there they were.....loading our stuff into the truck! Bill and Willy must have worked really hard to redo all those cabinet doors and finish the woodwork for our trim. I didn't get out to the house until almost 4:00 (my watercolor class was today :) and there was quite a lot accomplished today. Bill and Willy have the kitchen almost completely put together. John will take the dishwasher out tomorrow so they can check that the dimensions are correct before they permanently install the back of the island. The doors and drawer fronts have been installed in the guest bath. They are planning to finish up the rest of their work tomorrow. Matt and Jackie worked on the master bath today and got almost all of the tub deck finished and the counter tops built and tiled except for the counter rail tile. Yesterday it was discovered that the corner bull nose tiles have a 45 degree but, the rest of the bull nose tile for the edges are rounded. Go figure! I talked with the salesman at the tile store today about that bull nose edge problem. The original order was pulled and they did order the correct corner tiles. Either the wrong box was put on the truck or the wrong tile was in the correct box. I'm wondering whether these tiles match the 3x12 border tiles that were originally sent in error. Either way, they are resending the corner tiles via UPS so we should have them in 3-5 days. Just hoping they have the rounded edge! So, here's a peek of the progress in the kitchen...

And here's the pantry and master closet photos that I promised...

Progress Report.....Mountain Dreams

We've made some headway in the last few days. Here's what's happening at Mountain Dreams...

• I have become a dust fairy. There is construction dust everywhere. I've started to clean the upstairs which is now mostly finished. My Swiffer works pretty well on the walls. I looked for a bigger duster, but couldn't find one in town. I've dusted the walls, polished the baseboards, trim, and doors and washed the windows. Today I started cleaning the upstairs bathroom which means cleaning the drywall mud and paint off the bath tub. That little project is almost finished, but there is a ton of silt in the bottom of the tub. You'd think the bottom could have been covered during construction along with the edges :) When I finish with that I'll need to caulk around the outside edges of the tub and along the floor. The sink and back splash still need to be installed in this bathroom.

• Most of the trim is done! We are waiting for more trim to arrive for the ledge and windows in my studio,the dining room,the master bedroom and bath,and the ledge in the powder room.

• The tile is in my studio. We decided to hire Matt to install the tile for us. His wife, Jackie, did the work. She got the tile in last week and did the grout today. Hurrah! I have a heated tile floor for my feet (although I have to rework my plan for the desk, workbench, and storage in this room...the heating element was installed when I was not there and it was laid in the wrong position. Moving my desk to have warm feet also means my carefully planned lighting, outlets, and switches are also in the wrong places). I bought the workbench mentioned above and John got it put together for me!

• We have carpet! We were scheduled to have 2 crews come for 2 days to install all the carpeting. Matt was concerned about the carpet being put in the master bedroom before he could finish the tile and get the trim around the windows, so we had one crew come for 2 days and do the stairs and all of the upstairs. It took them a full 2 days. We love the carpet (Boston Fern) and like the way it looks with the baseboards and the paint. They'll be back on the 21st to do the master bedroom.
• We've picked up the railings for the stairwell. They're not up yet, but if you look closely at the third photo they're sitting in the storage room :)

• All the doors are on...including the pocket door in the powder room. The door hardware is on with the exception of my studio and the front door. I have a glass door knob that I am using on the studio, I took that out to the house today. We had to return the entry set we chose as it didn't fit the door and ordered a different one. It came in on Friday and Paul was to pick it up today in Kalispell. (Note my studio door to the right, it's been redone with a 1/2 pane of glass as originally ordered.)

• We have lights! Well, we've had lights for awhile....recessed cans and lots of them. Now we also have decorative lights. John has been working hard to get the rest of them up. He's installed the 3 mini pendants over the kitchen island, the chandelier in the dining space, and one of the lights over the master bathroom tub (the other one will go up tomorrow). We've had to reorder 2 of the mini pendants in the kitchen. One of them has crooked threads at the top of the socket assembly so the shade hangs slightly crooked. Another one has a scratch that we're not willing to live with. But we'll use these till we get the replacements. The only lights left to put up are the under cabinet lights in the kitchen and laundry.

• Shelving is up in the pantry and closets, no photos though :) I'll get those. John wired the phone box for the house (which is in the pantry), so we now have a dial tone and can make calls. We also believe we have DSL (which we've been paying for since Dec. 19th!), but we haven't taken a computer out to set it up yet. Montana Skynet will be our new ISP (we are not changing e-mail addys) and we need to call them from our new phone number to get set up. I'll do that when we can put a desk and computer out there. We've already picked up the new modem for their service. Need to call Big Sky Wireless and have them install the satellite dish for TV. It's our only option right now, I'm looking forward to the day Interbel turns on the fiber optic cable they buried for us and we can switch back to cable for both TV and Internet.

• Today Matt put the tile on our shower floor. I love the way it looks. He still needs to finish the tile on the tub deck, walls, and counter tops (which still need to be built), then the whole bathroom needs to be grouted. This room probably has the most work left to be done, but it is shaping up beautifully!

• The big event in the last week has been the kitchen. You saw a sneak peek above! The rest of the cabinets for the kitchen and laundry room were delivered and hung. They are gorgeous, but there was a slight glitch. I watched for about an hour while they hung cabinets and installed the vent and the vent pipe which had to be hidden inside small upper cabinets in order to vent it out through the roof. It couldn't go straight up due to the rooms upstairs. John and I decided to go to lunch while the installation continued. As we were getting ready to leave I noticed a stack of small doors with glass in them. Hmmmmm, it looked to me like there were way too many doors with glass and as I looked around I didn't see any tall doors with glass for my dish cupboards. So I asked. The mood changed quickly! Seems they thought I'd wanted glass in all those small upper cabinets and none in the tall upper cabinets. "Huh?" was all I could say. I was flabbergasted that anyone would think someone would want glass in cupboard doors that were designed to hide a vent pipe. You may also notice that I hadn't painted the walls inside the top of those cabinets which I certainly would have done if I wanted glass there! I had been told by both our builder and the cabinet maker that it wouldn't show so it would be fine. Geez, even if I didn't have glass there I certainly would have painted there if I'd known there wouldn't be a back to the cabinets up there (which I have no problem with).Glass was to be installed in the bank of cabinets to the right of the refrigerator (I agreed that glass would be fine in the small upper cabinets there, so they can leave those as is. I painted up to the ceiling line inside the cabinets on Sunday.), but no glass in the cabinets on the other wall. So all those doors need to be redone. (Today I found out through the grapevine that the cabinet maker had wondered to himself last week about why I would want glass in those cabinets where the vent pipe was. So.....why didn't I get a phone call? Who knows!) This was a pricey mistake and I hope he doesn't take forever to redo them!

One last image to leave you with...here is what John has to do so that we can be assured of getting up our driveway when it's icy. We don't have a lot of snow here, but we've had a couple of periods of rather warm days that melt some of the patchy snow (warm being a relative term...it's been in the high 30s). Then it freezes at night and sometimes our driveway gets slick. We are fortunate that we can pick up free sand at the county shop which we drive by on our way home from town.

So that's where we're at with the house...should be moving in the next 10-14 days! 

No Progress...

Nothing happening at the house today...... John and I drove out there after a couple of morning appointments. No one was there working and we received no phone calls or explanations. We marked some areas of the floor that need to be worked on with painters tape. While we were doing that Matt happened to show up to pick up some finish for the floor at another job. Hmmmm. We talked to him about the floor and showed him where we are not happy with the puddles and bubbles. He says he'll be out there tomorrow morning to start working on our place again and will have the floor, tile, and trim done in a couple of weeks. He was concerned about the carpet going in the master bedroom before he can put the window trim in. He doesn't want to be dropping drywall dust from around the windows into the new carpet. So, I called the carpet store and did a little rescheduling. They were going to send 2 crews out this Thursday and Friday, the 10th and 11th, to do the carpeting (I purposely scheduled this for a week AFTER the date I was told that the house would be ready for carpeting). Now they will send 1 crew to do the upstairs this week and then come back on the 21st and do the bedroom. We also hired Matt today to put the tile in my studio. John and I were going to do it, but I am just tired and frustrated and don't want to do it. I just want to be finished with this whole thing! I am tired of promises made to get things done not being kept, it's just not the way we do things :( We'll see what tomorrow brings...stay tuned.

Frustration!

We are safely back to Eureka. It was slow going over Snoqualmie Pass and until we were east of George, Washington. At forty miles an hour it was beginning to look like we'd be spending the night in Couer d'Alene, Idaho but the snow and slush finally cleared up and we got to Couer d'Alene by 2:00 where we had lunch at Red Lobster. We were home by 7:30 pm. We went to Kalispell today to catch up on groceries and to pick up a grout sample card at Lowe's. I need to choose the grout for the tile floor in my studio, but they didn't have any sample cards and won't for a week. Hopefully, Matt has the one I gave him with my choices in the master bath and I can look at that. So...after we returned we were excited to visit the house to see all the progress that had been made in the 10 days we were gone. And that's when the frustration really hit! Not much has been accomplished since we last saw it on Dec. 24th. There has been some work done on the wood floors and they look a lot better. After the first coat of finish, we could see some puddling and bubbling, not good! And now, it still needs work. We could see puddling around the post and there are still some areas of bubbling. Hopefully, it is not considered done! So, that second coat would have taken 3 days to dry. In the rest of the time we were gone, there was some trim work done and some of the door hardware was installed. Here's a photo of the theater door with it's trim and door handle. I'll get a photo of one of the windows that's done tomorrow. The trim work and doors are gorgeous! We love them and are so happy we decided to make those a priority in our house. However, we are not happy that there was no further tile work done, no more plumbing, the shelving is in the garage...not in the closet or the pantry, the rest of the cabinetry is not here.........and time is running short! We need to be out of our rental home soon. I am NOT wanting to move into a home that is not finished and that I can't get insurance for....construction insurance does not cover personal belongings and the construction loan can't be turned into a mortgage till we have a home! Arghhhh! I (we) are frustrated that things are not moving along!

Mountain Dreams: Big Progress=Big Post

A lot has happened since I last shared the house. I finally finished staining those posts, beams, and the molding that will edge them (1/4" quarter round). John has been working hard at getting all the electrical work finished. Most of the outlets and switches are in and almost all the light fixtures, including the trim on the 56 recessed cans :) We haven't done the pendant lights over the kitchen island or the dining room light yet as we didn't want them to be in the way of the counter top installation. John can't do those by himself as I need to supervise at what height they should hang :) Here's the lights in my studio, the guest bath, the powder room, and the master bath (except the pendants still to installed over the tub). Notice, too, that the vanities have been put in! I am really happy with the cherry wood and Autumn Maple stain with the colors we chose! And note that tile floor in the master bath...it's not grouted yet, but it's being warmed by the heating mat underneath....LOVE THAT! The heating mat has been installed in my studio, too...but no tile yet.

 

John got the outdoor lights in and he and Paul got the rest of the lights up in the garage. It was a two man job as they are so long.

And speaking of tile...here's what we have so far in the master bath. There have been a couple of issues with the tile, so Matt could only get so far. They sent the wrong sized bull nose tile for the edges and it had to be reordered, we just recently got that. The tile for the shower pan and for my studio floor was supposed to be here a week ago. I called yesterday and they called Daltile to find out why it wasn't here yet. Daltile records show that it was delivered to the warehouse in Kalispell last week right on schedule. Neither the salesman or the warehouse people recalled it coming in and they searched for it. Nothing. He called me back and said he'd found it. So I said, "So where is it?" and the reply was..."Well, it's in the warehouse now". Turns out it had been ordered and delivered in the name of "Meadow Creek Homes" instead of "Brooks" and they hadn't connected it with the fact that it belonged to us.

The most exciting thing so far......the kitchen counter tops! Love, love, love them! You may remember the whole sad story regarding choosing counter tops (posted under Mountain Dreams, September 25th). We finally found a wonderful company to work with, they are in and I love them (did I say that already?) With the choice of quartz, they are the single most expensive item in the house and worth every penny! The piece for the island was too heavy for two guys, so they had to call the other installers from their store over from the other job they were doing in Eureka to help with that one.

 

They had pre-drilled all the holes for faucets, etc at the shop to within a hair of coming through the quartz. James, the installer, asked me to verify that there was the proper number and that they were all in the right place before he took a hammer them and knocked out the holes. James installed the under-mount sinks and the plumber came in later and put in the faucets. The black button you see to the left of the faucet over the double sink is an air button that controls the garbage disposal. We didn't want a switch on the side of the island or under the sink. The sprayer still needs to be installed.

Our fireplace is done and we love it. Paul and John cut and sanded the mantle and I stained it. This was Paul's first time using ledgestone (he usually uses round stream stone), so he was not sleeping at night figuring out how this was going to go together.  John cut the stones, Paul stacked and mortared them, and I sat 10 feet back supervising to make sure it all looked good. We are very happy with the results and can't wait to sit on the hearth in front of the fire. This first photo was checking the hearthstones and deciding exactly where they should be placed.

John put some of the extra wood flooring in the storage room (after another construction lesson from Paul). We'd planned to just use stick-on vinyl squares, but all the ones we could find were ugly. Can't they just make simple stuff anymore? All I wanted was a simple black and cream checkerboard floor. Nope, I could have stuff that looked like bad fake marble or granite, but nothing just a plain color. Anyway, between the two of us it's been finished and we have a nice wood floor to store our stuff on :)

Matt has been working hard on the stair posts, trim, and doors as his Dad finishes them and brings things in. He started finishing the wood floors this week. We really love the way things are shaping up! Iron railings for around the top of the stairs have been ordered from a fabricator in Kalispell.

Paul and John are taking care of the little details...Christmas light outlets, garage lights, pantry shelving, etc...

Don't let them fool you there in the garage...they were not working, they were reviewing Friday night's poker game....more to come! 

That's Really Putting Your Heads Together :)

Lots of Progress

We've made a lot of progress this week at Mountain Dreams, especially today. I have photos to share and will do so in a day or two. Somewhere in the next couple of days I need to concentrate on wrapping and mailing presents! For now, I am tired and need to figure out how to get a mixture of mineral spirits and polyurethane out of my hair :) Later!

We Got Stoned and I Am Beaming

The stone for the fireplace has arrived and is ready for Paul to do his magic. John and I won't be helping on this project. Paul has never used the stone we picked, so this will be a first for him. When he picked it up they told him the same stone was used at the new Hutton Ranch complex in Kalispell (a big shopping center with a 14-screen theatre, restaurants, stores, etc.). They commented that the mason that did the Glacier Quilts building did an outstanding job, better than the others. So tomorrow I'll be taking some photos of the good and not-so-good as examples of how it goes together. It's a stacked ledge stone.

I have been busy staining the mantle for the fireplace and the posts and beams in the house. We are really happy with the way they are turning out...very woodsy and lodge-like which was our intent :) 

Other Mountain Dreams progress:

• The master bath is mostly tiled. We are waiting on the arrival of the tile for the shower pan and for my studio floor. The bullnose tile that was delivered was the wrong size...3x13 vs. 6x6. We are waiting for delivery of the correct tile. We've chosen Mocha grout for the floor and shower pan and French Vanilla grout for the walls and tub deck. There we go again with those food names, seems to be a theme here!
• The carpet has arrived at the warehouse in Kalispell. It'll wait there until the rest of the items are done. Carpet is last on the installation list.
• Our posts have arrived for the top railing along the stairwell. Matt is planning to put them in tomorrow. As soon as we have exact measurements, we'll order custom railings from Currier's Welding in Kalispell. When Paul went to order a new truck rack he realized they could do our railings....at a much better price than the other place!
• The window casing material has arrived from the woodworker! I'm anxiously awaiting for those to go in!
• Our interior doors are done and were being sanded a few days ago. We're looking for those to show up at any time. Paul says they are gorgeous and I don't doubt it.
• John built some temporary steps for both the front porch and the back deck. We'll have to wait till next spring to do permanent improvements, but at least we can get safely up and down.
• John finished installing a wood floor in the storage room. We'd planned stick-on vinyl squares, but there was plenty of wood flooring left so we decided to put some in there. Paul is going to buy back the rest.
• The heating mat is down in my studio, waiting for the tile (see above).
• The heating people have been out and are working on getting the propane furnace running, should be done tomorrow. John will begin installing the 5 electric heaters upstairs.
• The garage door openers were installed and John put up the lights that come on automatically with them or when motion is detected in the garage. They are so quiet, nice upgrade choice John! It'll be some time before they can replace that quirky panel on one of the doors...it seems to be back-ordered.
• John installed the outside lights on the garage.
• Phone service has been ordered beginning December 19th. We'll update you with the new number when it happens, although we really don't intend to use it (we need a land line for DSL service)....we'll still use our cells for other than local calls and we make just as many calls to Kalispell as we do in Eureka. We'll be changing our DSL service at the same time from Interbel to MontanaSkynet (due to the internet issues we've had with Interbel), but our e-mail addys won't change. We'll keep using the Earthlink addys.
• We'll be losing our cable TV when we move from "town" to the "country". It'll be a couple of years before Interbel gets cable TV to us, although we are first and the fiber optic cable is in place. We've ordered DISH satellite service and they should be coming out sometime between the 17th and the 19th. I am going to hate having that monstrosity hanging on my house, but I know we'll be able to get rid of it in the future.
• Most of the outlets are in, Paul is finishing up the switches, and the phone and TV outlets will be in within a few days.

Tomorrow we are headed to the Flathead for assorted house business and shopping and will be back at the house over the weekend to keep at it!

It's Snowing!

It's been snowing lightly now for almost 24 hours and it is starting to pile up. We decided this would be a great opportunity to drive up to our house to take some snow photos for our Christmas card! Quite a change from the one we did last year sitting in the sand on Papohaku Beach on Molokai'! After taking a few shots with the snow covered trees in the background we blazed a trail over to our neighbors and I took some photos of their home in the snow to send to them (They live in Everett, WA). We did a little Christmas decorating with the wreath we bought in Trego yesterday (It was Bazaar Day in the Tobacco Valley and it was a big thing!) That will probably be about the full extent of our decorating for this year :) John put new traction tires on the Beetle last month and we were happy with the way they drove in the snow. We had no problem getting up the hill that is our driveway :) Note however how the Beetle was plowing through the snow, the front grill is plastered! It may be time for John to seriously consider what sort of snow plow machine he wants :) We are looking forward to waking up to snow and that beautiful light it reflects into the house and being able to sit in front of a roaring fire with our hot mochas in hand....just about 3 more weeks! I'm going to start packing things up later this week. I may have lost 4 days of packing/working time....I was called for jury duty in Libby beginning December 11th, what timing!

:  

 

I'm A Glue Lady

We decided to do a little decorating and make the back entry from the garage into our house into more of a "mudroom". We stained pine tongue-and-groove boards with the Autumn Maple stain we are using on the cabinets and the rest of the woodwork and put them up on two of the walls where we will have storage for gloves and hats, hang hooks for our coats, and put a bench for taking off boots. I put the glue on and John put the boards up. We still need to get another piece of quarter-round molding for the end corner and we'll need to decide whether to put a small molding at the top or perhaps some type of small pine shelf. They don't make these boards in 9' lengths, so we have our Ambitious Amber color above. We are very happy with the way it turned out! It's just the right touch of "Montana cabin" :)

The tile for our master bath floor arrived on Monday and I brought it back from Kalispell...yes, in the Beetle. You'd be amazed at what that thing can haul! Matt has the tile down and ready to grout. The rest of the tile and the carpeting should be in by tomorrow or early next week!

And Monday night we had snow...that's lasted! We may have some more over the next few days.

Surprise!...A Day Off

We put on our usual painting clothes and went out to the house late this morning. The painting is done except for one more coat in the storage room (the Smiley face John painted on the wall shows through :) and the touch-up around the ceilings in the living room, hallway, laundry room, powder room and pantry. I used painter's tape there....that was a mistake. When I began taking the tape off I found lots of seepage under it. So I quit using it and I got a much better line doing it by hand. When we got to the house we found that Matt and his wife were sanding the wood floors in preparation for putting a first coat of finish on it tomorrow. My ladder and I would just be in the way, not to mention the dust that was flying all over. Day off! We were hoping to finish that touch-up and put up the bead board wall in the mudroom to be done with it before Thanksgiving, but no problem...we'll get to it after our company leaves. We'll have to wait till Thursday when the floors are dry to give a house tour to Shayla, Legend, and Brad.

Most of our tile should arrive this week. We are having an issue with the heating mat that goes under the tile in the master bath. That needs to be resolved before the tile goes down. We bought a special tester in Kalispell last Friday, but it doesn't appear to be working so we'll try to get it exchanged when we come back through there tomorrow.

We have a tentative move-in time of the week before Christmas, but Paul is "not making any promises". It mostly depends on the Poes....Bill, the woodworker (cabinets, baseboards, doors, window trim) and Matt, the all-around handyman (tile, wood floors, finish carpentry). We'll be giving our landlord notice for the end of December and keep our fingers crossed!

Mountain Dreams is Shaping Up!

We started the day with some snow flurries! (see previous post) When I arrived at Mountain Dreams Oreo was on the front porch. He always gets up and comes to greet me, but not today...he knew where the warmest spot was and he was staying there! It was very cold in the bedroom where I was working and upstairs where John was, so he made a trip home and got 2 portable heaters. Those helped a lot and were a welcome addition to the portable furnace that Paul has in our hallway. Bill and Willy finished putting in the kitchen base cabinet frames last night, but oops!...the island is 2 inches too close to the stove which means it is not lined up with the opposite bank of cabinets and the middle pendant light will not be lined up over the sink. Paul put in a call to Bill to have it moved. We are so happy with the cabinets themselves. The cherry wood with the Autumn Maple stain looks just gorgeous with our amber walls :) (It'll be even better when we get all the dust off the walls!!!)

Ed came from Masterpiece One in Kalispell and measured for our carpet. Somehow I forgot to get a photo of him doing his thing and no picture of the carpet, either! But, its a green Berber, "Boston Fern" with just a hint of cream that will pick up the color upstairs. 

And then we had Justin from Distinctive Countertops measuring for our quartz. It was interesting watching him work. He set up little target points on all the corners and started aiming a laser around the kitchen. He said it has to get the same measurement 47 out of 50 times before it will lock in. All the measurements are recorded and will be plugged into a CAD program at the shop to cut our countertops. He also took our 2 kitchen sinks as they are both undermounts and they will do that at the shop. Should be about 2 weeks and they'll be ready!

John finished painting the second coat on the bonus/office space, that was a huge job! I put another coat in the master bedroom closet and hall while playing hostess to Ed and Justin. When I ran out of paint, I stained some of the boards that are going on the wall in the mudroom area. Tomorrow we are going to pick up some trouble lights to use in the garage. The big lights aren't installed out there yet and it's getting too dark by about 4:00 to work out there! And Paul??? He was in Kalispell today getting a new truck!

Tomorrow we are taking the day off from the house and going to the Flathead again...more paint, need to order door hardware, pick up the backordered trim kits for our sloped recessed lights...and, of course, groceries and Costco! I also need to pick up some 9x9 baking pans so Shayla and I can make Legend's pirate ship birthday cake. He is so excited for his birthday he can hardly stand it! They'll all be here in just 5 days!

Winter Has Arrived :)

Big Progress @ Mountain Dreams :)

Things are moving along. Today the first of our cabinets were delivered. The base cabinets were being installed in the kitchen when we left late this afternoon. Good thing...cause tomorrow Woody from Distinctive Countertops in Kalispell will be coming to make the templates for our quartz countertops (which will take about 2 weeks to be delivered!) Also tomorrow we'll have Ed from Masterpiece One Carpet and Tile in Kalispell coming to measure for the carpeting upstairs and in the master bedroom. Paul made a visit to Ed today and placed the order for the tile for the master bath and my studio (see selections below!) We took our Viking stove out of our basement storage and it is now sitting in place in the kitchen. It needed to be there for the templating tomorrow. All the Wonderboard is in place in the master bath and John and Matt put down the heating mat for the floor tile. Those of you not married to me may not know that I have the world's coldest feet. I am so looking forward to heated tile floors. Those heating mats are the only reason I agreed to tile. Matt put Wonderboard on the floor of my studio today and the heating mat will probably go in there tomorrow. And me? Good Heavens....I am still painting. (You know the movie "Groundhog Day"??? That is my life these last 6 weeks :) John wired most of the outlets over the last couple of days, so today he did a lot of painting of the 2nd coat in the upstairs bonus space, just the ceiling left to do. I finished up in the theatre and then got a start in the master bedroom. I'll need to go around to all the rooms with a bucket of the Eggwhite paint and do little touch-ups. You probably know that it is a painting rule that you cannot paint a room without at least one goof-up where the wall paint touches the ceiling. At least we don't have that problem in the bonus space as it is all one color. We are close to being done and then will tackle the staining and installing of the wood walls we are putting in our "mudroom". Our goal is to be done with all of that by Monday as Brad, Shayla, and Legend arrive on Tuesday!

 

PS: I have no idea why the above is underlined. It happens sometimes when I use spellcheck and then it won't let me take it off. Sometimes Typepad just has a mind of it's own.

On the Home Front...

We spent all day yesterday in Kalispell. We got more paint to finish up the interior painting. As I told the employees at Sherwin-Williams, I really like them but I hope not to see them again until spring :) We also have chosen our tile and carpet. We brought several sample boards home after working with Ed at Masterpiece One. He was very knowledgeable, friendly, and helpful in finding what we were looking for. Tomorrow we'll talk with Matt who is going to set the tile in the master bath and go over what goes where, so the tile order can be placed for there, my studio floor, and a kitchen back splash (probably just a 6"). If we can get the order in by Tuesday afternoon, it'll be on a truck out of Dallas and up here by the end of the week. Ed will be coming out, hopefully sometime this week, to measure for carpet upstairs and in the master bedroom. We stopped by Adoornment to order door hardware, but Annie was not there (We found out they are open on Saturday by appointment only.) We also accomplished a front-end alignment on the Beetle at Les Schwab, grocery shopping at Rosauer's, a look at peel-and-stick-tiles at Home Depot for the storage room (we've decided against those, we'll use the leftover wood from the floors downstairs), birthday gift shopping for a special little guy at Target, and a stop at Costco. The last stop was at the new wood-fired pizza restaurant, Bullman's, at Hutton Ranch. It was very good pizza, service could use a little polish, and they don't get their beer and wine license for another 2 weeks...but I'd go back.

Our cabinets are promised for Tuesday or Wednesday and we've rescheduled Woody from Distinctive Countertops in Kalispell to do the templates on Thursday. (Which reminds me we need to take our stove out there on Wednesday!) Once the templates are done, the counter tops should only take about 2 weeks!

And me...I've got one (hopefully, not two!) more coat of paint in the stairwell, John's office, and the bonus space...two coats on the theatre walls (ceiling and slopes are done)...two coats in the master bedroom (vaulted ceiling is done), one coat in the master closet and one coat in the powder room.

We need to install the electric heating mats in the master bedroom and studio to keep that tile warm! Install the tile studio floor. The furnace needs to be hooked up. The 2 water heaters need to be installed. Interbel has put the connection on the outside of the house for phone, they need to come back and do the inside work. As soon as the phone lines are working we are going to call Montanasky and change our ISP. (Having some complicated issues with DSL Interbel service.) We'll need to get the satellite people out to install a dish (yuck, I am really gonna hate having that thing hanging on my house).Matt will install all the window and door trim and the baseboards and, I guess, the doors. John and I are installing a wood paneled wall along 2 sides of the mud room area. I need to get those stained! I'm sure there's a million other things to do, too.

The Power of Paint

It was about 7 months ago that Paul asked if I would be interested in doing the painting at the Ferderer's house next door. At that time I didn't have any "paint clothes" so I needed to figure out what I was going to wear to paint in. I found an old pair of jeans, an old shirt, a sweatshirt, bought a couple more shirts at the thrift store...but what to do about shoes! I didn't want to use my good walking tennis shoes or my boots, but I had my pink tennis shoes I bought in Australia to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I hadn't worn them too much since, so decided to use those. Well, here they are today. I think paint is all that is holding them together. It's a testimonial to the quality of the Sherwin-Williams paint we are using. That stuff dries and actually forms sheets of paint. There are several holes in the mesh part on the top of my shoes and, of course, that's where the paint always drop on my foot so it gets on my socks, too. When the paint gives out, I'm going to duct tape :)

Today @ Mountain Dreams

John got the sealer on the back deck and painted the metal support brackets on the front porch (the ones that hold up the second floor :) He also finished priming the last of those pesky shingles!

Hank, the gutter guy and his helper put up gutters and downspouts all around, except for the corner of the front porch. We are hoping to avoid having a downspout cutting across the porch, so we are going to order a rain chain and give it a try. Hank set us up for that. I couldn't believe how well the gutters match the trim! I thought we might have a problem matching Red Barn, but Colonial Red did the trick. Hank said that was the best match he'd ever seen! This continuous gutter machine they use now is quite amazing. It's pretty cool to see this big roll of metal turn into a gutter and they can make it as long as they want, cut it off, and put it up.

Matt got a great start on the shower pan and bench in the master bath. And me? I was painting, what else???? But no photos to show for that. I am usually working by myself and anyone else there is off doing something else. Guess I'll have to take a tripod and prove I actually did some work :)

Latest news on the cabinets....Bill's wife usually does the sanding and she has been sick. Newest estimate on delivery is Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. We have rescheduled the countertop template people for Thursday...keeping my fingers crossed!

What's Up @ Mountain Dreams???

Lots of work accomplished this week...

• Siding completed! All siding and shingles (gables and dormers) are on. The siding and trim has one coat of paint (second coat will probably have to wait till spring). John has just a small section of the shingles to finish putting the primer on. (Again the paint will probably have to wait till spring, depending on weather.)
• Wood floors are in! Probably one more sanding and they will be ready for the first coat of finish. Way to go, Matt!
• Painting is done in the guest bedroom, guest bathroom, studio, master bathroom, living room, kitchen, dining room, front hallway, laundry room, pantry, and downstairs closets...ceilings are done throughout the house. Master closet and hallway, powder room need one coat, theatre and master bedroom need 2 coats. The bonus space including John's office has almost one coat and will need a second. We need more paint and will get that in Kalispell on Saturday!
• Plumbing fixtures have been delivered and are waiting patiently in the garage.
• Trim (baseboards) have been delivered, also waiting.
• Tub deck and bench have been constructed in the master bath. Durock has been installed for shower and floors.
• Front porch has been sealed, brackets on the posts and beam have been primed and will be painted (black) tomorrow.
• Dirt (with a mixture of clay) was delivered today to create a driveway that will allow us to actually drive into the garage!

Next up...

• Gutters...scheduled for tomorrow!
• Cabinets...were supposed to be delivered today, no show. Paul will call tomorrow to get the story.
• Quartz countertops! Scheduled for templating on Tuesday...but the base cabinets and appliances have to be in place (the appliances have been in our basement since August)...may have to reschedule based on the cabinets. We had to order the countertops at a place south of Kalispell and we don't want to be paying them to drive to Eureka for nothing! No one in town does quartz. Gary the Granite man says it is too hard of a material and will destroy his granite equipment, so he won't touch it.  (That's Gary in the left of the last photo. He came out to discuss with Matt, on the right, how to tile the shower pan.)
• Installation of the heating mats for the tile floors, master bath and studio.
• John and I will be going to Kalispell on Saturday and, hopefully, finalize the tile and carpet and get it ordered! We also need to go order all the door hardware!

Brrrrrrr!!!

This is what I've been seeing when I go out to my car in the morning. I am learning to love the spray deicer can :) Friday when I left for Kalispell at 9 AM it was 15 degrees. It has been warming into the 40s and low 50s in the afternoon. John just checked the forecast for the rest of the week here in Eureka. We are wanting to seal the deck or at least the decking on the porch. We need 40 degrees for 24 hours. Well, that's not going to happen, but we figured we could tent the front porch and put a couple of heaters out there to get that part done. Well, there it is in the forecast....the first snow of the year predicted for Saturday. It doesn't say "chance of snow" or "snow showers", it says "SNOW"! Gotta go find my hat and gloves!

Quick House Update...

Here's what's been going on the last couple of days. The lap siding is all up! I need to put a coat of paint on the back wall of my studio and the tall wall of the garage. John and Paul are finishing up the shingles on the dormers and gables and John will be finishing putting a coat of primer on them. There'll be a little more touch-up work on the trim and that's it for the winter. We'll have to put another coat on and paint the shingles in the spring (something to look forward to all winter :(...We also need to get a coat of sealer on the deck and front porch, but we can do that when the temperatures are colder.

The garage doors were installed yesterday. The clay color looks a little different than originally planned as we'd had to make that change with the shade of green, but we still are happy with it. We didn't care for the other color choices and we sure didn't want to have to paint our garage doors! One little problem...check out the photo :) They also brought the wrong motor for the openers (John ordered some special fancy one), so they have to come back for that anyway.

Matt and his wife, Jamie, started installing the wood floors today. Paul assures me that I can drop paint on them and it's not a problem. Everything will be sanded out before the finish goes on anyway (whew!). They expect to be done with this phase by the end of the week.

And here you can see the start of our Ambitious Amber walls. We've got one coat on the kitchen, dining room, and one wall of the living room. We decided to take the amber color up onto the vaulted ceiling in the dining room and I think it was the right choice. I love it! The rest of the ceilings in all of the downstairs will be Eggwhite (which you can see in the second photo.) For those of you that remember our in-your-face-yellow walls in Bonney Lake...this is about the same depth of color, but with a much golder tone. Love it!

Stuff Is Happening At Mountain Dreams!

We've been hard at work and accomplished a lot in the last two weeks. John and I haven't had a day off in almost three weeks and are beginning to show the wear :) Out side, we are still working to get the siding on and painted before it gets too cold. It is usually about 11:00 am before it hits the low 40s and I can start painting. Still, about 3/4 of the lap siding is up and painted and most of the trim work is done. I still need to get some of it higher up where I'll need to drag the ladder out and climb up. We hit a little setback when the shingle siding for the gables and dormers was opened. We'd ordered pre-primed siding and these were not primed. We found out then that James Hardie does not offer this particular style of shingle pre-primed. Hmmm, wish I'd known that...I would have just used a different kind. So now these need to be primed before they can be painted. We had Sherman-Williams tint the primer to a gray instead of bright white and the shingles will probably be staying that way until next spring when we can paint them Edamame green (No, they couldn't tint the primer that color...we asked.) John has been up on the roof with a tiny paint brush priming all those little grooves while I've been brushing Green Sprout and Red Barn on the rest of the house. The deck has been added to the back of the house and the front porch is on! The redwood decking on both needs to be sealed, but that can be done when the temperatures are colder so we are concentrating on the painting. This week John and Paul poured a concrete apron in front of the garage so we'll be able to drive in. I'm so glad that's done. I'd hate to be parking outside in the snow when there is a big garage sitting there :)

In the meantime, the pressure is on to get going on the interior painting. The wood floor installation starts on Tuesday! Yikes! I started painting the ceilings today and hope to get those plus the walls in the places where the wood is being installed done before Matt gets there to start installing the floor. I HATE drop cloths, what a pain in the patootie. John took the pile of wood flooring that has been residing in our rental basement since April over to the house on Wednesday, so it can adjust to the humidity...so I already have to cover and work around those. But, I did remind him to not stack them next the the walls so they're not too much in the way. Today I got about half the ceilings in the "wood floor rooms" done before I ran out of paint, but that's only one coat...and two would be so much better. So, here's the color choices we've made for the interior. (Remember they may look different on your monitor, so guess you'll just have to come visit to really see them :) I really thought I was going to love Butter Up, but when I put it on the wall it went "cold". Don't ask how a yellow can look cold, but it does. The light here is just so different...no gray clouds or pollution, it's clear and clean. I thought I'd paint the laundry room and maybe the half bath with the Antique Red. Beautiful on the paint stick, but put it on the wall and it looks like something you'd see splashed on the walls in a crime drama. I may still use some red as an accent somewhere. Garden Sage actually looked pretty good, but we decided to give Ryegrass a try and liked it better, especially when paired with the new choice of Ambitious Amber. The Amber is more of a gold tone and much warmer than the yellow...it's going in the main rooms downstairs (living room, kitchen, dining room, hallway, laundry room, half bath, pantry, and two closets) with Eggwhite ceilings, except in the dining room where we've decided to paint the vaulted ceiling with the Amber. The Ryegrass is going in the master suite (bedroom, bathroom, closet, hall), my studio, the theatre, the guest room, and the guest bath...all with Eggwhite ceilings (and Eggwhite slopes in the truss areas of the theatre and guest areas). And the Cachet Cream is going in the stairwell, John's office area, and the bonus (exercise) area...up the walls and across the slopes and ceiling. We wanted to paint this area all one color to avoid emphasizing a couple of small slopes and the Amber was too dark. Cachet Cream is one shade lighter on the same color card (and Eggwhite is one shade lighter than that). The three colors are all tinted with differing amounts of red and gold. The storage room will probably get painted with whatever I have left over :)

There is a new addition at the back of the house...a propane tank resembling a large medicinal capsule. We were hoping for the slightly less conspicuous pale green like our neighbors, but no such luck. White with a blue cap is the norm...they just happened to have the green one when Jeff and Kris had theirs installed. Northern Energy says we can paint it as long as we use a light color, so I guess we'll put that on the list of things for next year. Water heater #1 is sitting in the garage and waiting to be installed, need to paint it's little room first :) Guess water heater #2 will make it's appearance at a later date.

Tomorrow we are taking the day off! We need to go to Kalispell to put a deposit on our countertops, get paint, look at tile, maybe look at doorknobs, get groceries, see a movie, gift shopping, etc. and we'll be stopping for an early anniversary dinner at our favorite Italian place...Mambo's in Whitefish. We'll be back at the grind on Sunday.

Painting Vacation Available!

This deluxe package includes the opportunity to hone your roller and brush techniques in the Mountain Dreams project of beautiful NW Montana! Your stay includes room and board at the Brooks residence on Riverside Drive, fine dining at Cafe Jax and The Crossroads Grill, and an evening at the Majestic Theatre...all in historic downtown Eureka. Enjoy the gorgeous fall colors backed by snow-capped mountains and warm, sunny days followed by crisp, cool nights. Your package includes as many nights as you wish to stay! Cost for this incredible opportunity...nothing, zero, zip, nada. Call soon to take advantage of this incredible offer as we cannot guarantee this package to include the painting opportunities beyond a certain date :)

Going Green

No, you won't find me putting compact fluorescent bulbs in my home without a government mandate...but we're finally putting green on the house (as opposed to into it :). The fire has been lit to get the siding up and painted before it gets too cold. John and Paul cut and nail, I follow behind with a paint brush. We are using Hardiplank...can't burn it, termites can't eat it, has a 50 year warranty, can't cut with a regular saw, have to use a special hammer. Six inch lap siding is going up to the fascia boards and staggered shingles will fill the gables ends and dormers. We had to recently make a color change as I realized that the paint we had chosen said "interior use only". Sherwin-Williams tells me it uses a yellow pigment that will fade in the sun. So, instead of Sage Green we are using Sprout and we decided to use a little darker green, Edamame, on the shingles (haven't put any of that on yet). Almost makes you hungry! Here's the progress so far. After just a little head scratching Paul and John figured out how to cut the shingles to fit in the gables. The deck joists have been put in and today John built the joists for the front porch while I painted and Paul went to Kalispell for supplies.

   

And here's what we got to enjoy while we were working today! Bet you can guess why the road our property is on is named Aspen Lane :)

 

Upstairs Tour...

All the sheetrock is up! Friday he was putting the corner strips up and we hope that the taping and mudding will be done by the 5th...so I can start priming! The siding is coming tomorrow. Paul and John will start putting it up and I'll start painting. It's pre-primed which is going to help a lot!

Here's a quick tour of the upstairs!

 

House Details...

Waiting for things to happen and taking care of details on the house...

We are waiting for the sheetrocker to finish so that the interior painting can begin. He'll probably get the last of the drywall up this week and do the taping and mudding next week, then we can get started on the priming, texturing, second priming, and finally the interior paint colors. I bought some quarts of the interior colors I am considering last week, so I'll be painting some squares on the walls and looking at them before ordering gallons of paint!

John met Paul at the site today and got his assignment to dig the trench for the gas line to the house. Living where we do there is no natural gas available, we will have a propane tank in back of the house that will feed the furnace (for downstairs heat), the primary water heater (which will feed the secondary electric water heater), fireplace, and the stove/oven. John needs to dig the trench from the tank site to where the line will enter the house.

In the meantime, over the next few days I'll be priming and painting the cut ends and nail heads on the window trim...need to pick up some more primer in Kalispell tomorrow. The big news is that the siding has been ordered and is expected on Monday. Paul says he plans to begin siding on Monday. I am concerned that we may not get the exterior painting done before it gets too cold if we don't start soon (like yesterday!) and that has really been a new house bubble-buster for me. If they can get started next week I can follow behind with the paint brush and get some of it done before the interior is ready to be primed.

We had another bubble-buster occur with the countertops. You may remember the agonizing weeks I had spent researching countertop materials, then finally deciding on quartz and being disappointed in the color choices (which was true in ALL the material choices). I'd finally found a quartz color ("Black Annubis") manufactured by Silestone that I was happy with and talked to Bob at Home Depot in Kalispell about it. Sure, no problem they do jobs in Eureka and can do our countertops in that. Fast forward to the first week of September....I stopped at Home Depot as we were about 8 weeks from countertops. Hmmm, I don't see my color sample there. I ask the 2 ladies in the department. They don't know anything (and don't seem willing to find out)...I'll have to come back when Bob is there. I was gone to Utah and then while we were in Washington, we had some extra time in Olympia and stopped at a Home Depot. There it is...Black Annubis is shown in the vanity display, but not in the kitchen countertop display. The first girl I ask is new, doesn't have a clue and asks someone else who is just as clueless and they waste my time looking at the same brochure and display I just looked at where it is not shown. Finally, the other salesperson who seems to have a few more brain cells tells me that not all colors are available for slab countertops to all suppliers, Home Depot can only supply Black Annubis in pre-formed vanity tops. Gee, thanks Bob...you'd think he could have told me that months ago. So...there we were back at square one. After returning to Montana, I checked again and found another Silestone dealer in Kalispell. We planned a trip to their showroom, but the day before Paul called to tell me about a new countertop showroom in the Flathead that our plumbing showroom told him about. We visited Distinctive Countertops . We were so impressed! It's huge with beautiful displays and samples of everything they sell (which we have not found to be the norm). They don't carry Silestone, but they have Caesarstone, Zodiaq, and Hanstone...all quartz. In all my research I had not discovered Hanstone and we immediately found our color in that display... Genesis!

We were so impressed with Wanda (she and her husband are the owners), too. We are going in tomorrow to get the estimate ($$$$), so hopefully we have this squared away. This will be one of the biggest expenditures in the house and we'll be living with it for a long time, so we need to get this right and be happy with what we decide. After the many hours of research, I have no doubt that quartz is the right material.

Tile for the master bathroom...well, that's a story for another day and the end of it is not yet in sight :(

Quick Tour of the Downstairs!

The sheetrock is up throughout the downstairs. Wow, it makes it feel so big, especially with the tall ceilings. Our sheetrocker has been gone for a few days, so he'll be working next week to finish the upstairs and then starting the taping and mudding. As soon as the mud is dry I'll start priming the walls and then he'll come back and put on the texture. I want the smoothest texture possible (aka orange peel). Paul says with the new recycled paper they use on sheetrock it will leave a fuzz that can be seen unless you use a heavier texture. There is to be NO cake frosting, etc. on my walls! So, I will need to prime, let the sheetrocker texture, and then prime again. Here's a quick tour of the downstairs!

 

Pool Fun In St. George

Having fun in St. George! Legend, of course, is just as cute as ever...with or without the curls. Check out the new haircut!

I had a long day yesterday with a 4 hour drive to Spokane, a flight to Seattle where I met Brad at SeaTac, a flight to Las Vegas, getting a rental car, and a 2 hour drive to St. George. I determined the actual travel time was just about the same as when we drive from Eureka, just skipped the overnight in the hotel. Brad and I arrived just after midnight. We spent last night in a hotel as it was so late. Shayla dropped Legend off with us this morning and we took him to school. After picking him up at noon, we all went to lunch, picked up groceries and checked into the Worldmark. It certainly is handy having a condo available to us here! We had lots of fun in the pool this afternoon. Brad and Legend played ping pong and video games in the rec center while I cooked dinner. Tomorrow we are planning a day at the Family Fun Center for mini-golf, go-carts, and the Sponge Bob Squarepants game which Legend assures us is there :)

On the home front, John reports that the insulation is going in. He worked long days on Monday and Tuesday finishing the electrical work for the inspection on Wednesday. The inspector didn't show up yesterday or today. The electrical inspection is the only one required by the state of Montana, but if the inspector doesn't arrive within 48 hours of notification that the rough-in is done...too bad, construction can continue. So, the pink stuff started going in today and the drywallers are on tap for next week!

Update on the House!

Wow, things are moving along...the roof is DONE, the soffits are DONE, the outlet and switch boxes downstairs are DONE, the plumbing will be DONE tomorrow, the framing is DONE with the exception of the built-in shelving area in the master bath that was an afterthought. Some of our window trim is up on the outside and we are so pleased with the way our windows look :) Our cabinet man came today to go over some more measurements and check that he has all the doors correctly measured and opening the right way (He is custom building our interior doors). We've decided to have him do the baseboards, molding, and window frames, too...everything in cherry. John is working hard on the wiring, he has almost all the downstairs DONE...the inspection is next Wednesday and the insulation guys will be there on Thursday. The drywallers are scheduled a week after that and I will be back from St. George and Washington just in time to begin priming behind them. I need to prime before they do the texture as I want orange peel texturing on the walls...no cake frosting or splatters for me. In the meantime, I have been painstakingly staining and finishing our front door...two more coats of finish to do. Yesterday Paul brought me another pile of cedar boards to prime and paint for the rest of the trim on the corners and around the garage doors (which are ready and waiting at the supplier to be installed). I'll be working over the weekend to get those done before I leave for Utah on Wednesday. Paul is ordering the siding this week. I am hoping to get it painted before it gets too cold, but Mother Nature may force us to wait till next spring. (Our mornings are in the 40s already, warms up as soon as the sun peeks over the mountains.) The siding is pre-primed so that saves a step. Here's Paul figuring out how the siding will go up...we're using a combination of lap siding and shingles, all Hardiplank fireproof cement fiber board to keep the US Forest Service happy.

We've made decisions on stone and hearthstones for the fireplace and placed our order for lighting which should be here any day. I had the hardest time with the light for the dining room and the 3 pendants over the island. Gosh, there is so much ugly stuff on the market...who buys that stuff??? I would find a light I liked or pendants I liked, but nothing that was a match...I finally settled on something I can live with and like pretty well...with the caveat that when I find something I love they'll be replaced. The bathrooms were a little easier...I'd found some I liked at Pottery Barn, then I found them at half the price somewhere else AND they had matching pendants that I needed for over our master bathtub! (I was going to just use recessed cans there, but due to the location of the overhead floor joists, they couldn't be positioned correctly to center over the tub and be where I could use them to read...I love a bubble bath paired with a new magazine :) Same lights go in all the bathrooms...And I've picked out tile for the master bath I love! Problem is I don't know the price yet and it says "Handmade, in Italy"...could be an issue :) The lady I need to meet with wasn't there when we stopped in. I talked to her husband and brought the tile boards home to live with for a bit. I'll be seeing Karina tomorrow and before long I should know where the tile thing is going... I am also considering a full tile backsplash in the kitchen and found some that perfectly match my Longaberger pottery which will be sitting behind glass cabinet doors :)