 |
| John and Cathryn |
August 9, 2017
Hello again everyone! We have been away from our blogging for longer than we expected. After coming home last summer from our year long RV adventure, we decided to sell the truck and 5th wheel and stay at home for awhile and enjoy this beautiful place we call home. It has been a busy and fun past year with a few challenges for John learning to live in a four season climate, especially with the much colder and snowy winters. We will share some pictures and memories of the past year with you as we publish this new blog.
The thing that got us back in the blogger saddle wanting to share with everyone is that we decided to build us a new "we" home on a few acres in the country. That's a big, bold step for a couple of old folks like us and we plan to document it so we decided to share the experience with our friends and family.
We hope you will come along with us on this new adventure.
July 24, 2017......We finally broke ground!!!
We purchased two acres in a small subdivision called Pheasant Haven located in the Lower Valley, about ten miles south of Kalispell. We like the location a lot because it is quiet and dark and we have a 360 degree view of all the mountains. The north end of Flathead Lake is about three or four miles south of our lot and the quaint village of Big Fork is about 10 miles southeast.
We picked this country property mainly because it allows us to build a single level home without steps and fully handicap accessible in case of future need. We also wanted to have a larger garage that will shelter our future smaller RV plus allow John to have a workshop area. We are also attaching a small self sufficient "bunkhouse" to the rear of the RV shelter/garage for family or friends to stay in if they wish when they come to visit. With the acreage we have, we also plan a small orchard and garden area too.
So....here we go with some pictures of where we are now with this project.
 |
| This is how our two acre lot looked before the digging started. |
 |
| First scoop to create the foundation. |
 |
| Our driveway going in. |
 |
| First pouring of the foundation |
 |
| This is going to be our front covered porch. |
 |
| This will be our back covered porch. |
 |
| Looking north towards the front between the detached garage and the house. The second pouring of the foundation to above ground level will happen this week. |
Friends helping us celebrate the groundbreaking!
Cathryn has lived in the Kalispell area, on and off, for over forty years and she made many good friends during that time. I have had the good fortune to meet and get to know most of them. This special group of ladies, along with a few privileged men, arranged a small groundbreaking ceremony to toast our new home with us. The ladies are affectionately known as the "Care Bears" and have been getting together monthly or more for over 35 years. They are always there for friends and community when needed. Everyone wrote something special on a small note and we will add them, along with some other special items, to our "time capsule" that will be placed someplace in or around the new house. Pretty neat!
 |
| Our good friends John and Barb also came out to see our lot. |
That's about it for now. We will document the progress as it occurs and update this blog next month. Until then....Happy Trails!
