The Babbling Brooks

Concrete evidence....

that construction is in progress! Today we poured the footings for our foundation. I quickly decided that concrete work is not my calling. This was hard labor! It took 6 people plus 2 guys handling the concrete hose and pump. Many thanks to Richard, Lou, and Rob for their help. John watched in amazement as the concrete truck came screaming backwards uphill up our 900 foot road, not even slowing down for the curve. It was obvious he's had lots of practice driving the truck! Paul handled the shovel, John and Richard managed 2x4s, and Rob, Lou, and Cindy found themselves each with a trowel. My job was to scrape off the excess concrete from the top of the footing. Lou and Rob followed behind me smoothing and finishing. The next step was to insert the rebar that will be inside the foundation itself. John and Paul measured and poked holes where the rebar was to go. Richard, Rob, and Lou put in the rebar, measured precisely for length, and tapped it into place. This is a rather tricky foundation due to the differing heights on the slope. The concrete truck driver also did the excavation and he remarked to me today that this was the most difficult dig he's ever done. He was glad to see it all fit together! We finished the job in just over 3 hours and Paul was amazed at how fast we did it. Our performance earned us a great breakfast at Four Corners compliments of Paul. Tomorrow John and Paul will start putting up the styrofoam forms for the big pour scheduled for next Monday. Here's the photos of today's work. I'll let them speak for themselves :)

Spring Has Sprung! (I hope:)

I hope this is a sure sign of spring in Montana! We came home this afternoon from the job site to see that the tulips and grape hyancinth have opened. Keeping my fingers crossed the snow has stopped falling till at least October :)

Rendezvous!

For almost 10 years John and I have been reading about Rendezvous in the Tobacco Valley News and hearing people in town talk about it. We were never able to get time off to come over for it, so this year we were neophytes to the whole event. This is a big deal in Eureka. Our sleepy little town exploded with people from all over! The events ran from Friday evening through Sunday afternoon. There was so much going on on Saturday that you couldn't do everything. We started the weekend at the Rendezvous Kick-Off BBQ and Concert. It was held at the Lake Koocanusa Arena which is north of town, out towards our place. We had a yummy BBQ beef brisket dinner with baked beans and coleslaw. The arena had been freshly covered with sawdust, bleachers were brought in from the school, and the floor was covered with hay bales for additional seating. John and I chose a bale in the second row and thoroughly enjoyed the band, Smash Hit Carnival...They played music for everyone...Rolling Stones, Johnny Cash, BeeGees, Fleetwood Mac, Bonnie Raitt, Olivia Newton-John, and lots more. The crowd loved them. We discovered that people here know how to have a good time!

Saturday morning we made the 15 minute walk into town and secured our spot for the parade. It was an hour long with a few floats, a band, lots of hot rods, antiques, 4x4s, horses, the Volunteer Fire Departments, US Forest Service, Can-Am Search and Rescue, Red Hat ladies, the Creative Arts Dance school, the Black Powder Shooters, the Mountain Men, and so on....see if you can spot John doing his part to keep the parade moving :)

When the parade was over we walked over to Riverside Park and the Historical Village where the Hot Rod show, the Dutch Oven Cook-Off, and the Outdoor Craft Fair were occurring. We could see cars parked on both sides of the road all the way up the hill out of town!

The town provided shuttle buses (big yellow school types) between some of the events, so we hopped on and went out to the Black Powder Shoot at 69 Ranch. This is a big event. I had no idea that these things go on all over the western United States. They shoot their old firearms loaded with black powder and throw hatchets and knives. They keep score and at the end of the weekend declare who is the best Mountain Man. I was told by a local (George the Plumber) that these contests go on every weekend all summer long and the contestants travel all over to participate. John put his name in the lottery to enter the "Greenhorn" contest, but his name wasn't drawn. They pair up a novice with three experts to form a team and run three teams in the Greenhorn contest. Big prizes are involved, not to mention bragging rights. It was fun and interesting to watch them shoot. Be sure to look for the flying hatchet in the photos!

A quick school bus ride took us over to the Lincoln County Fairgrounds where we went to the Scraps & Threads Quilt Guild quilt show. Beautiful stuff! They meet once a month all day at a church to quilt and socialize. They'll teach beginners, so I got the information so I can go. I also learned that the shop in town gives classes. I think that would be the best way for me to start and then I can move on to the guild meetings. I remember helping my Grandma Lizzie with her quilting and going to the Salzer Valley Quilting Bees with her. I've always wanted to learn, so here's my chance!

Another bus ride to town put us there in time to walk home, get the car, and go to Mass. I think we'll like this parish :) It was a long day, but we had lots of fun. We didn't make it to the Sand Drag Races, Mud Bog, Championship Arm Wrestling, and more....maybe next year!

Today I finished up the painting at the neighbors. I spent 31.5 hours putting a second coat on everything, doing all the trim work, and cleaning up the ceiling edges. I don't dare think about how much work it is going to be to do our own house. It is more than twice the size and no one is going to put the primer and first coat on for me!

We added a little turnaround at the top of our driveway this week to make it easier getting in and out. We like the way it turned out! Tomorrow morning we will be doing the first concrete pour for our foundation! Paul says it sets up fast, so there will be 5 people there to work with the concrete, including me. We'll be pouring the footing tomorrow. The next step will be to set up the forms for the foundation itself. We'll be using the new styrofoam forms that form the walls of the foundation. The rebar will go inside and concrete will be poured to the top. The styrofoam stays in place and helps insulate the crawl space. It is so efficient that even here in our cold winters our crawl space should never drop below 43 degrees, important for the prevention of bursting pipes!

New Phone Number for John!

John has changed his cell phone to a Montana number! I sent out some notices...don't know if he has sent an announcement yet. If you didn't get it, e-mail one of us for the number!

Here he is showing what a level-headed helper he is on the job site :)  Lots of progress today in the excavation hole! I'll post photos when I am not so whipped after a day of painting walls next door.

Montana Man!

John has a new toy. I think it is required that every real man in Montana own a chain saw! And so, here it is. He put it to good use today on the brush pile at our home site. He worked hard sawing and burning all day and there's still lots to do. He already has the required pickup truck, but he'll be needing to get a firearm. I wonder...does he need a horse or will the dirt bike he is planning cover that?

And here's my new toy...the just released Nikon Coolpix S50 :) I loved my Nikon Coolpix 5200, but after two and a half years I've scratched the screen too many times by tossing it in my purse and the rubber band holding the battery door closed is cramping my style. I did a lot of research with my list of requirements in my hand. When we were in Washington last month I talked with a very knowledgeable salesman at Tall's Camera in Tukwila. He showed me a Casio and I was very impressed. I looked hard at their new models, but in the end I stayed true to my Nikon heart. It has all the features I love and use and is fast. I had to have one with a 3" screen this time. These old eyes appreciate it! This one is very small and thin. Perfect for me, John may have a little harder time using it with his large man-size fingers on the little buttons. But hey! He gets my old one :)

Happy Birthday, Brad!

Can you believe my baby will be 25 years old at 11:32 PM? Where does the time go? Seems like yesterday I was riding the bus home from work when I started having contractions at 5 minutes apart. I got off the bus at the fire station in West Seattle and called my husband to come take me to the hospital. The firemen were pretty excited to have a pregnant lady in their station and begged to take me in the paramedic truck with the sirens screaming. I assured them there was no need for that! After a couple of hours of contractions and walking but no progress, the hospital sent me home. Fifteen minutes later we were back in the car and headed back when things started to rapidly progress and I KNEW it was time to go! Dr. Lamey said after all those years of delivering babies you were the first one he'd greeted on his own birthday.

Happy Birthday to You, Brad! With all we've been through over the years it's been a wild ride as you've walked to the beat of your own drummer. I like to think of it as "Braditude"  :)  And thanks for making me the happiest Grandma ever! Love You!

Another Test....this time with photo!

Can I post a picture to my blog via e-mail, too? If so, you'll see a picture of Legend and Grandma Cindy having fun at Disneyland! If not....I guess it didn't work! This could come in handy when we're traveling and have limited internet access :) Love this photo! It was taken by my friend, Gigi, in May of 2006. John and I had Legend and spent a week visiting the McDougals. What a great time we had. Thanks Gigi and Darrell!

Testing...1,2,3

Typepad says I can post to my blog via e-mail....this is a test, this is only a test. Do not attempt to adjust your screen!

Back to Work!

A few posts back I mentioned that our future next-door neighbors were over here painting the interior of their house. The mother-in-law had fallen and broken her ankle, Kristine took her Mom home to Spokane. That left Jeff there alone to do all the painting. One person couldn't get it done in the week they had, meaning that Paul (our mutual builder) would need to hire someone to finish. He told Jeff he would take care of it and then walked out to our car with us. Before we got there I was the one he hired. So...here I am back at work earning actual money and getting some exercise and sore muscles in the process. John and Paul started working on the foundation today. They measured, dug, and measured some more and are now ready to start putting in the forms. That will start on Tuesday of next week. John will be doing a lot of work along with Paul on our house. I'll be helping with the framing, painting, tiles, and whatever else comes along that I can do. We'll be getting paid handsomely for that, too, but not in actual money....just smaller house payments and big dividends in the equity department!

We'll be going to Kalispell in the morning to pick up our Bosch clothes washer. It sprung a mysterious leak during the move and it turns out some little piece went missing. (This is after the dishwasher sprung a leak and the shower controller in the master bath broke and quit giving hot water. The maintenance people are coming tomorrow to replace those.) I'll be happy to have it back, I had to spend this afternoon at the local laundromat. It really wasn't the usual laundry experience though. I barely got the clothes in the washer when our friend, Roy, popped in. He'd seen the Beetle in the parking lot and stopped to say hello. Then I sat down with my book. Well, this is Eureka and when people see you...they talk to you. I think I read about 2 pages the whole time I was there cause every time a different person came in the door, they'd say hello and start talking. Such is small town life and it's one of the things I love here!

Decisions!

We spent the weekend and yesterday puttering around the house and getting the little details in order in the rental, making it a home by putting out some family photos and chatkes (ala Christopher Lowell :) Today we met Paul in Kalispell at the MDM Plumbing showroom. In just a little over 2 hours we chose sinks, tubs, toilets, shower heads, shower controls, faucets, and a garbage disposal. Whew! It wasn't too hard as I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted. John told Patsy who was trying hard to include both of us in the conversation that she could just "maintain eye contact with Cindy" as it was up to me. Gotta love that man :) He did come up with a couple of great suggestions. He convinced me that one faucet handle is better than 2 for the small veggie sink in the kitchen and that an air compression switch lying flat on the counter would be great for our disposal. Here's a few photos...

There it is! The exact Kohler sink that I've been wanting for the master and guest bathrooms :) We started from there and then picked the tub. We did have one we'd picked out before by Lasko. This showroom doesn't sell that brand, but we found this Kohler that is more the shape of the sinks anyway. Ours will be a drop-in with a tiled deck and apron and will be 6' instead of the 5' in the photo and 24" deep from floor to deck, a soaker (How I miss my soaker in the old house :) The faucets are different than shown here and all of them (including the shower fixtures) through out the house will have a brushed nickel finish. For some reason, I didn't take a picture of them! The tub/shower in the guest bath is a one-piece with shelves and a "tiled" finish. The toilets are all the same as in the photo and the pedestal sink will go in the powder room. All the fixtures will be white.

Here's the kitchen faucets, but again they'll have the brushed nickel finish, not the bright shiny chrome. Both sinks will be under mounted 18 gauge stainless steel.

After the plumbing shopping, we took Paul to the Chicken Noodle Cafe. He'd never been and he raved over the soup just like we do. Our next stop was Riverside Garage Doors. We think we know what we want, but haven't decided for sure yet. We're looking at something with upper window grids that match our house windows and look like they open outward.

When the looking was finished we drove west of Kalispell to Marion and Bitterroot Lake. Our former condo neighbors at Big Mountain are building a home on lake front property and invited us out to see it. It was a gorgeous place. We saw a couple of ideas in the kitchen cabinets we liked and we'll be investigating the solar powered attic fan to see if it may work for our theater ventilation.

We're hoping that Paul and John can start putting in the forms for our foundation this week. The weather may be too cold and rainy/snowy. But, we are ready for the deliveries of supplies to begin. Paul stuck some address numbers on one of our driveway posts and moved his sign over :)

Powered Up!

We have power! Lincoln Electric installed our transformer and meter sometime this week. The line was put in last fall when the neighbors put in their power. Since we are using the same builder Paul was able to get the power coop to install our underground box at the same time they did theirs. Made it much easier now that the time has come.

The excavation is done and we are hoping to start putting in the foundation next week. John and I will both be helping. Paul will be pointing and supervising with his fractured collar bone.I noticed a few signs of spring on our property tonight and loved watching the sunset on the mountains from where our deck will be. John was flying around the valley in his Champ and enjoyed it from there.

I got to meet our neighbor, Jeff, tonight. He was very nice and we talked about how we love the quiet and the darkness that allows you to see a million stars at night. I didn't meet Kristine. Her mother had come with them this week and she fell and broke her ankle on their property. Kristine had taken her back to Spokane where she lives. We'll be going to Whitefish again tomorrow to get the rest of our things. I'm looking forward to being all settled here!

Viewing Photos On This Blog...

Some of you have mentioned that you can't quite make out some of the details in the photos...like the house plans, for example :)  You can get a full-size photo by double-clicking on the photo! It should come up in a pop-up window. If not, you can use your back key to return to the blog and see the next photo. Hope that helps! (I can make the photos bigger to start with, but it takes more bandwidth.)

I'm Tired! It's Been A Busy Week!

Excavation for our new house started last week as scheduled. The backhoe came in and removed the top soil from our building site making 3 huge piles for back filling later. The rest of the dirt will be dumped in the little gully at the back of our property making a nice little turn around space. After the top soil was gone, Paul got out the orange spray paint and marked the back hoe lines two feet out from the edge of the foundation. The two large trees that were pulled out have been limbed and we have a huge pile of pine limbs waiting to be burned.

While all this was happening, John and I went to Kalispell on Wednesday, the 4th, and picked up the wood flooring for the new house. Paul had found it at a killer price so he went ahead and ordered it. We are so lucky to have a full basement with a garage door for storage in our rental house. We've ordered our Viking appliances, too, and they'll have to live there for a few months as well.

On Tuesday, April 3rd, we were sitting in Cafe Jax having lunch and saw the 26 foot U Haul truck go by. We laughed and said, "Hey, there goes our truck!" We had a 26 footer reserved for 4 days so could get our household goods out of storage in Tacoma and were to pick it up the next day at 4:30 PM. There was only one at the U Haul dealer. It was pulling a small trailer and behind it was another truck also pulling a trailer, pretty unusual in small town Eureka. Later that afternoon, we received a call from Shirley at U Haul that went something like this..."Hi, this is Shirley. Do you really need that 26 foot truck cause they came from Kalispell and took it this afternoon?" "Well, yes....that's why we reserved it for 4 days!" "Oh...well, I'll see what I can do." Hmmmm...guess a reservation doesn't mean much. She called later and said she could get a 24 foot truck. We advised her that would not do, we needed the biggest truck. So she said she would get the 24 footer and give us a trailer at no cost. John was hoping to avoid having to hook up and pull a trailer, but we agreed to this. What's a person to do???!!! So, Shirley went to Kalispell and picked up the 24 foot truck. We arrived at U Haul on Wednesday afternoon as scheduled. Shirley asked her husband to go out and hook up the trailer. He came in a few minutes later and said the brakes seemed to be dragging on the truck. Shirley mentioned how she couldn't go over 50 miles an hour coming up to Eureka. John and I are shaking our heads. The Mister decides to take it for a test drive and heads up the highway. A few minutes later he is back with smoke rolling out from behind the left tire. Not good! They took the truck to the local mechanic (it is now after 5:00 PM) who informed them there is no way that truck could be fixed right away. Shirley looked at the cost of picking up a truck in Tacoma and leaving it in Eureka...$1500...Yep, that's what we'd found, too, which is why we were doing a "local" rental and driving a truck all the way to Tacoma and back. John and I left to do our grocery shopping while Shirley tried to figure out a solution. While we were gone we talked about getting a truck in Couer d'Alene or Spokane. Turns out Shirley found the nearest 26 footer in Couer d'Alene. We could do a one-way rental...Couer d'Alene to Eureka for about the same price as the local rental at Eureka, including the gas we'd have to buy and the extra mileage we'd have to pay. So Shirley made the reservation for us to pick up the truck, the piano dolly, and 48 furniture blankets the next morning at 8:00 AM in Couer d'Alene. We had planned to spend the night at our rental house in Eureka, but now we had to go back to Whitefish to get the Beetle to drive to Couer d'Alene. No worries, we slept in Whitefish and headed out at 5:00 AM. We arrived in Couer d'Alene at 7:30, had breakfast at IHOP and went to the U Haul dealer arriving at 8:30 for our 8:00 pick up time. But no....they didn't open till 9:00. At 9:00 we were told our 8:00 rental would be ready at 4:15 PM. What? Isn't that the truck sitting there? Yes, but the 48 furniture blankets won't be here till 4:15. Geez...we took the truck and the piano dolly and headed for Tacoma. We'd asked if we could leave the Beetle there till Saturday, but he told us it wasn't a good idea. They'd had lots of break-ins and we couldn't put it behind their fence cause they weren't open on Saturday when we'd be back for the car. We ended up leaving it in an Albertson's parking lot and hoping for the best. On the way across Washington, we made a few calls and arranged to pick up the blankets at the U Haul dealer down the street from our storage unit. We arrived in Kent at Lynn and Arthur's about 4:00, took a walk around the airport to stretch our legs, and had beer and hamburgers on the patio in the sunshine. Thanks for a great time!

We loaded the truck on Friday and used every inch of that 26 feet, top to bottom. Thanks to Pam, Bob, Jackie, and Ashley for their help! We couldn't have done it without you. It took seven hours to get it all in there.

We were on the road again at 9:00 AM, Saturday. We found the Beetle in Couer d'Alene safe and sound where we'd left it :) We had time for a late lunch at Red Lobster before heading off again. It was a beautiful, sunny day and once again I was glad to get HOME to Montana! Here's a couple of photos I took along the way near Lake Koocanusa. We don't get to see mountain goats too often, but Mama Goat and her babies jumped right out and crossed in front of me :) The sun was shining and lighting up the rock cliffs along the lake.

As we arrived back in Eureka John called our helpers to confirm that we would need them in the morning. Everyone was ready with one exception. Paul, our builder, had a dirt bike accident on Saturday and fractured his collar bone. Ouch! Hope he isn't in too much pain. This will probably set us back some with the construction, but we'll deal with it. Paul will need some time to heal!

The next morning, Sunday, and time to unload the truck came too soon! Thanks to Darrell, Kathleen, and Roy for helping us on this end! We were unloaded in 2 1/2 hours.

We made a quick trip out to our property Sunday afternoon to see the progress with the excavation. It wasn't quite done yet, but apparently is now. We haven't been out since then as we have been busy getting our things here from Whitefish and trying to get settled and organized in our rental house. It'll be very comfortable for us here and we are happy with the house, getting a few little repairs done by the rental company. They came in yesterday and put up new blinds on all the windows. Very nice!

We may be out helping Paul with the foundation the next couple of days and then are looking forward to a relaxing weekend with nothing to do!

Mountain Dreams :)

Today we went with Paul to our property to "shoot the house". He needed to check the grade for excavation which begins tomorrow. In the process we decided to add some more driveway and create a tear-drop turnaround in front of the house. We're going to end up with an slight uphill drive into the garage, but we decided that's okay. We had the same thing in Bonney Lake, so we're use to it. We would have had to move the house farther down the hill to avoid it and we didn't want to do that, possibly compromising the view. John and I will probably miss the beginning of the backhoe work as we have to go to the credit union in Whitefish in the morning. So, we did the ceremonial ground-breaking today :)

We also decided on a name for a house...a requirement for a Meadow Creek Homes, Paul Beaumont project. Our choice.....MOUNTAIN DREAMS