Super-fast April trip

Long time, no blog! In April, we made a quick trip (leaving Seattle Saturday at 5 p.m. after basketball games, returning Sunday by 9 p.m.--and remember there's about 12 hours of round-trip driving + a night of sleeping in there!). We wanted to get out to the property before the final work was done on the house, check in with the contractor, and drop off the first load of "stuff"!

This is the living room. Cool story about this - there are dark lines in the newly-refinished floor. We asked about it, and it turns out that this room was the ENTIRE original house. The back bedroom (door on the far right) was the porch. The lines on the floor are from the original walls, separating the living area from the bedrooms! History right there on the floor in front of us!

Here is the main bathroom.

Love the tile?

It's the leftovers from our master bath remodel we just finished at our home in Redmond!

And now, the piece de resistance - the new kitchen! It was about 95% finished when we got there. We had a problem with the microwave cabinet, so that was on order, and none of the drawer pulls or knobs were on. Todd's comment when we walked in: "Wow. This is nicer than our kitchen at home!"

Paint

Whew. It was a bit scary choosing a paint color from 300+ miles away. Looks like it turned out just fine. Here's a bedroom:
and the living room (thats some of the trim sitting on the floor--that goes up next!):

and the dining room/staircase:

We're wrapping those beams in wood and putting up a skirt along the front edge of the staircase. Light fixtures have all been ordered and are on their way. Cabinets should arrive next week (only 3 weeks late. long story.). We're getting there!

FLOORS!!!!!

Ok, I know this is way too many pictures and you don't care that much but I am SOOOO excited! The hardwood floor guy that KC found did an AMAZING job. No paint on the walls yet (tomorrow he starts!) and no trim, but check this out:

This is one of the upstairs bedrooms. REALLY OLD (and I think really cool) floors.


Here is the bottom of the staircase leading up from the dining room. We're going to sand down and re-stain the treads. This thing had linoleum on it before!


Here is one of the back bedrooms. 100 year-old fir floors + sander + 3 coats of finish = Wow.

And here's the kitchen/dining room. The 5' x 8' island will wrap around this pole in the middle (it's the chimney). The gray area on the pole will be above the countertop and will have white "subway" tiles as the backsplash. The pictures is being taken from where the main kitchen counter (sink, d/w, fridge, etc.) will be.

Drywall!

We're really getting there! We now have the propane all hooked up and have a new furnace and water heater (above). And look--DRYWALL!

As the contractor says, drywallers get all the love. This is one of the upstairs bedrooms--check out all of the snow in the yard. It's still definitely winter in Ferry County!

This week, they textured and primed the walls, and paint goes on tomorrow!! I can hardly wait for those pictures!!

The hardwood floor guy arrives on Friday. All of the downstairs hardwoods will be sanded and refinished; we're not sure what we'll do upstairs yet. Either refinish the old (and in some cases broken or chipped) pine, or maybe slap down some Pergo so we don't have splinters/rough spots.

They're hoping to do the roof while the floors are being done - the roofer showed up a few weeks ago, whined about the weather, the location, etc. and KC-the-contractor kicked him off the property. KC and his guys ripped off the old junk and put down new tar paper and are just waiting for decent weather so they can finish. No leaks so far, so all is well.

Next steps: kitchen cabinets and all the "trim" work (baseboards, window trim, bathroom tile & flooring, etc.). We're hoping to make it out in mid-April for our first real visit!!

American Flats update

Quick update on our 400+ acres in the American Flats (see post from 1/10). Remember, this piece is virtually inaccessible as it is surrounded on 3 sides in the US by cliffs (minimum 500' high, straight down to the meadow) and the 4th side is the Canadian border. The only way to get there is to hike through forest service land or fly in by helicopter. It's a beautiful piece of land, but unless we can figure out a way to blast a road in--through forest service land--it's fairly unusable.

So a few weeks ago, we got a phone call from a gentleman who wanted to purchase the American Flats piece. He made an offer, we countered, he came back slightly higher, and we finally told him that he'd have to make us an offer we just couldn't refuse as we really weren't planning to sell.

He made an offer we couldn't refuse.

He has until May 31 to do feasibility studies (is the land buildable, can he get permission to fly in/build an airstrip, can he put in a septic system, is there potable water, etc.). If he gets the answers he needs, we close on June 1. We're giving it about a 50-50 chance of actually closing.

Bizarre. What does he want the land for? We're not sure--and he's not really telling. Cult headquarters? Retreat for Hollywood mega-star? A-Rod's new drug manufacturing facility?

Snow, snow and more snow!

As if we didn't have enough snow in Redmond over the holidays (18"!), it snowed buckets in Eastern Washington, too. The property didn't get hit as hard as Spokane, but when the contractor finally got a plow out so he could get to the house, there was 27" on the ground.

This is the pumphouse where the well lives. Isn't it cute? Glad we decided to re-insulate the lid. It's darn cold out there.

Looks all cozy with the lights on and the snow all around. . . .

Here are the guys removing some of the snow from the roof. The roofer should be out this week to put the new shingles on.

Once the roof is on, it's time to drywall! Finally, the insides will start looking finished. After drywalling is the floor refinishing, then the trim work, kitchen and bathrooms, paint, etc. We're getting there!!

American Flats

The property is actually two separate pieces. One half (with the house) is accessed from highway 21. The other half is due east, but there is a small piece of forest service land between the two pieces. The eastern piece, known as American Flats, is surrounded on 3 sides by steep cliffs and has Canada as it's northern boundary. We hired a forester to evaluate the property and create our Forest Management Plan (which was just approved by the county! yea!). These are some of her photos.
American Flats - the view from the top of the cliff. The straight line at the left of the photo is the US-Canada border. The property to the right (meadow & trees, partway up the cliff) is all ours!

American Flats from the meadow.

Nice cliffs, huh? We're working to determine how to best get access to this property. Right now, it's hiking only. Before 9/11, the previous owners were able to go up into Canada and access the property from the north. After 9/11, that became impossible. So, the field has sat fallow since then--the trees are starting to take over again.