This summer kept us very busy with finishing our home and starting a spec house at the same time. When we arrived home in late April from the Philippines our home was bare studs without running water. Four months later we have completely finished and moved in! The fact that Ian and I both quit our day jobs a year ago really gave us the time we needed to make it possible.
Of course it’s important to have balance in life (my motto is play until you can’t, work until you can) so we enjoyed some lake time, river time, and a couple family vacations.
Our spec house is now priority numero uno and with the trusses on order and our big framing lumber package in the driveway we hope to have a roof on by late September. We have hired an expert framer to help Ian so I get to be Paint Girl for all the siding and trim.
We say goodbye to a hot and dry summer in beautiful Northern Idaho and hello to mellow fall.
We arrived home to beautiful Northern Idaho to see snow on the mountain peaks. Mornings were still cool in the 40’s but temperatures rose into the 70’s by late afternoon. Perfect for some kayaking!
It was also time to hunt for our favorite forest morsels, the elusive morel mushroom. There’s a very short window for collecting these tasty tidbits, about six weeks in our area.
Sandpoint is named after the sandy beach that juts out into Lake Pend Orielle. The lake can reach flood levels during spring runoff when the snow is beginning to melt in the mountains. We have rarely seen the water this high.
In order for us to fund our passion for travel we need to build a couple houses! We quickly unpacked our tools and set up the scaffolding to continue where we left of on our house last October. In the month we’ve been home we worked on the outside trim and finished the shingles, fascia and batts. Meanwhile we had the insulators and drywallers working on the inside while we worked outside.
At the same time we broke ground on house number 2. After much clambering around the forest with a tape measure we estimated where the best view would be and hired the excavator to dig a septic test hole while the county health inspector was there to give approval. After passing this first test we cleared the housepad and burned the slash piles.
Our closest city is Spokane Washington, an hour and fifteen minute drive away. After a day of running around shopping for appliances for our house we enjoyed the view of Spokane Falls while having lunch at Anthony’s. The falls change dramatically throughout the seasons and Springtime is the best time to see them really raging.
It was a bit of an adjustment when we got home but after a month we were right back to Idaho life!