Last week we headed up to Montana to check out our new house. We’re staying in Colorado for the rest of the summer, but we figured we should at least see our new place before moving up there in September.
Tara and her kids showed up a little after we did, and a few days later Thom, Katie, and Sefton stopped in as well. It was fun to have a big group there; the house is really good for hosting groups. Together we all explored the house and tried to figure out how things worked (so many light switches!). Katie even found a secret closet-within-a-closet. The utility room has a bewildering array of switches, control panels, and valves. It was definitely an adventure.
The house looks amazing when you first arrive:
Across the courtyard is the guest house, also known as The Party Room:
And yes, we have a turret. Everyone needs a turret.
Zaque actually slept in the attic, which is at the top of the turret above the spiral staircase. The carpet in there is deep purple (no kidding).
The cherry orchard was really cool. It’s harvest time, so Laralee and I picked a bunch of them for sharing. They were delicious.
As we wandered around figuring things out and thinking about where our furniture would go and sort of dreading the impending process of moving, I wondered if all this is crazy. We’re moving a thousand miles, away from a place and friends we know and love, to an area we know very little about, and trading our city life for a much more rural one. Is this a mid-life crisis? Maybe. But as I sat on the front porch and watched the sunset over the lake, I was reminded why we’re doing this.
It’s breathtakingly beautiful. Sure, it’ll be a different lifestyle, but we’ll figure it out and make friends and, most importantly, we’ll do it together.