More on the Montana place

Mr. T and I have been spending a great deal of time scanning my slides in, and I stumbled across this pic in the middle of the literally hundreds of slides we're working with. I usually take snapshots with a regular old point and shoot, but I went ahead and snapped this one with my pro gear because I was headed down the road to shoot across the valley.

This was from the first trip I ever took there. I made two trips in the dead of winter before I ever got there in the summertime. So I didn't know when I took this shot that lupines, balsamroot and wild hyacinth were all buried under the snow, awaiting spring. But not everything is asleep up there during the winter. Deer regularly stop by in the morning to nibble on whatever plants are sticking up through the snow.

As I recall, the evening of the day I took this picture, three more feet of snow fell -- enough to reach halfway up the front door.



See that thing on top with its own deck? That's called a crow's nest (just like on ships) and the original owner built that on after the place was constructed. From the crow's nest, there's a clear, unobstructed view of the valley, the town and the Kootenai River. We can hear the faint whistle of the trains that pass through town from up on the mountain. TK always wants to climb up to the crow's nest when he hears it, so he can view the train as it winds along the river.

It's on a little over six acres, and the property line extends up the mountain a significant distance to a little clearing where the view is even better than in the crow's nest. I'm ashamed to admit that I climbed up there for the first time just this summer. I think it was up there that Mr. T and I firmly decided to take the plunge and buy the place. The corral is located just off the right edge of the picture, and enclosed by a beautiful log fence my father-in-law constructed by hand his first summer there.

The house was built in the early 80s, and hasn't been redecorated since then. Being more of a sportsman than aesthete, my father-in-law didn't really care. But his son and daughter-in-law are both! (Well, let's just say I'm not a sportsperson, but I'm an outdoor type.) So we'll be doing some renovating, starting during the week of Thanksgiving. We've decided to make our renovations as environmentally friendly as possible, which means they'll probably be more expensive, and so will take us longer to complete.

We're going to start with zero VOC paint on the walls, and from there we'll be investigating salvage timber floors, Paperstone countertops, and so forth. We pressure-washed the solarium the last time we were there, and got a start on pressure-washing the roof. Next spring we'll pressure wash the cedar siding, which has been burned black in places from the relentless summer sun -- as you can see from the picture.

The hot tub is in good shape, and I don't see any point in expending the resources to replace it right now. The house also has a solar water pre-heater, and we'll probably get that checked out next summer and serviced if needed.

Mr. T also plans to make most of any additional furniture that might be required. Instead of buying wood to do this, we've been prowling the national forests for whole, downed logs. He's long wanted to try his hand at whole-log furniture, and he's going to avail himself of the opportunity. We won't cut any or purchase any logs; all the furniture will be made from wood that's already down. We have a pile of spruce logs curing in our garage right now. Fortunately, I bought Mr. T a draw knife, used for peeling logs, last year for Christmas.

We will also be getting DSL up there soon. (Two years ago, that wouldn't have been possible, but the reach of technology has expanded up the mountain.) I enjoyed the unreachability for a long time, but it's too hard to work when I have to go into town every time I want to access e-mail or the online legal research databases I use so often. With DSL, I can spend more time there.

I'll probably be posting updates as we go, along with before and after pics.