Making Progress

We are making progress! Here is a picture of the front of the

house when we first bought it....

Here's the front of the house now!!

Here's a photo of the back of the house when we first bought it. The septic

tank is in the driveway therefore the garage unusable and it was covered

by grass and overgrown bushes.

Here's the back now! A big difference, huh?!? There is a driveway (of gravel!), the rock walls are back up and the garden beds are all cleaned and ready to be planted

this spring. We have wrapped up most of our big outside projects outside and

just in time as we woke up to some snow of the ground this morning!

TIMBER!

We had a lot of dead trees on the property that had to be removed. Most of them we were able to do ourselves with a chain saw and tractor. All but one! The biggest tree on this property was about 20 feet from the house and dying. If it had fallen on the house it would have hit the master bedroom; that wasn't going to lend itself to restful sleep for me. So we hired guys to cut it down and everything went very smoothly. Good job, Raiman brothers!

First on the list.....

Now that it's official, the first thing we really wanted to do was rip up the carpet. It was dirty.... and smelly! Dad was out of town and going to get home on the late flight, but that didn't stop us girls from 'going to town.' We ripped out the carpet in the dining room, living room, hallway and guest bedroom!

As you can see in these two pictures, it looks like wood flooring underneath. But it's not really; it is plywood with a dark stain. Whoever put it in even drew dark lines on it to try and make it look like wood planks. Very creative! But it gave us a chance to see what a wood floor will kind of look like, because we are planning on putting down engineered wood floor in the kitchen and dining room, and we liked it! A productive night tonight! Now only the master bedroom, attic and basement left.

It's Officially Official

It is official! The title for 4798 Mt Hwy 35 was officially recorded yesterday, October 11, 2011 at 2:00pm MST! The same day we put up this great mailbox. What fun to walk out to get the mail today!

Deck of Memories

Here is a picture of the present deck on the back of the house - not so glamorous. It will be one of the first projects for our contractor, Brian (who is WONDERFUL!!). We are hoping to do a lot of the work on the house ourselves, but the deck is one project we don't want to try. I'm not a prophet but I'm pretty sure I would foresee pain, part of the roof collapsing and a lot more work to clean up our mess if we tried our hand at it. But this deck has some wonderful memories connected to it. When thunderstorms would roll through in summer evenings, we would, as a family, sit on this deck, shelling peas, watching the lightning. There were many birthdays, 4th of July parties and just family time spent on their deck. Another fond memory was Christmas Eve at Grandpa and Grandma's house. After we had eaten dinner (our tradition of shrimp and cocktail sauce for appetizers and spaghetti for dinner - don't ask me where those traditions came from, we're Norwegian..... not Italian) and after all the other presents were opened (including the matching PJs for the three of us kids) there'd always be one present for the three grandkids still at large. It was a special gift, Grandma would say, as it was from Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer. There'd be glitter or something marking the path where we'd find the presents and often they'd be hiding on the deck (because Rudolf doesn't have hands, so there'd be no way he could open the door, of course, hehe). So many memories for such an insignificant place as a deck! We are looking forward to sitting on the deck and reminiscing about old times.... and making some new memories, too! God is too good!

A Real Montana Girl!

Happy 22nd Birthday Jeremy!

God Answers Prayers!

In 2001, Grandpa and Grandma Siblerud moved from their house in Creston. It was the house my Dad grew up in since he was 8 years old and we have lived next to them since 1990. We've watched their house go through two owners and a few different renters and the property diminish since then. This summer Grandpa's health diminished and he passed away on July 16th and since then Rachel had specifically been praying that we might be able to get the property back. Growing up next to your grandparents is a rare and beautiful thing and we wanted the opportunity to have that again for future generations. About a month ago, Mom was up stairs and saw someone walking around the property as if they were inspecting it. She immediately wondered if the house might be for sale, so, in a step of faith we sent a letter to the owners stating that if they were ever interested in selling we would be interested in buying. Two days later we got a call from the owners saying they had just put it on the market!! Providential!

We are going to be posting pictures, stories and movies of our work on the house - 4798 MT Hwy 35. It's going to be quite the project, but a labor of love to be sure!

It's been a while....

We haven't post on our blog in a shamefully long time. Sorry! We will be correcting that very soon with some pictures and fun stories of our new adventures.

See you soon!