Thursday, September 16, 2010

Garage Door ON my ceiling…….

 

I thought before I gave you a tour of the new homestead and while you were all thinking up creative new blog titles for me----I would actually let you see the old homestead----so you could truly appreciate the new one.

Let me deep breathe a little……

You probably don’t even want to go here with me.

You probably should just click away.

Coming to my home is a little like going over and helping them build wells in Africa. Everyone goes home being so grateful for what they have…

I think Mom’s and wives and girlfriends all over the valley have been heard to say, “Oh yeah, well at least you don’t have to live in a garage like the B’s do!”

 

Yeah…….we’re THOSE people……..

You’re still here?

Alright then---but you’ve been warned--------

from sangster view

Once upon a time, over the river and through the woods and up a hill on a scary little bumpy road, in the middle of nowhere Montana—we found 10 acres of beautiful land with a partially finished garage on it.

[If you follow that little road on the left that goes up the hill at a diagonal to where it would end up at the the top---that is where we live]

It looked like this….oh yes it did!

Image1-3home And this…….

front of houseWait just a minute…..I’m having mom-heart pangs, that little poppet there in front is 21 now……….pang,pang,pang………okay, moving on---

Well, we convinced ourselves that we could fix up the garage enough to live in it for a summer while we built our house up on the hill, I mean how bad could it be? A few months max? We only had 3 little girls—we could DO this pioneer thing.

We were absolutely, completely, citified fools. The end.

 

 

 

Okay, okay, not the end of the story.

But I’m pretty sure you should just leave now while you have a chance.

Pioneers everywhere have and will continue to mock me/us for even thinking we knew what it meant to be a pioneer.

 

I look back on the innocent that was me with fondness.

I said things like,

“ Let’s just roll up the garage door, not take it down. We are only going to be in here for a few months till our house is built.”

“ By all means put a wood burning stove in, it will make it so cozy and we won’t have such a high electric bill.”

“That twisty turny road is no big deal.”

“Girls won’t it be fun to sleep up in that 4 foot high loft? Just like ‘Little House on the Prairie’. Bedrooms are overrated.”

“Honey, I think I’m pregnant and by the way, it’s been 3 years and we are still living in a garage AND if you want wood chopped for the lousy wood stove you will have to do it all yourself now because I refuse to go into premature labor like some pioneer woman in the middle of nowhere Montana!!!!”

And so it went. We added a room onto one side.Image1-2 copyedited

We added 2 rooms onto the other side.

 

I can’t actually find a picture of that addition, you will just have to take my word for it.

That pic above is from one of our “famous” Easter Egg Hunts. When all 5 of our kids (yes we kept accumulating them) were young we would literally fill and hide over 1,000 eggs each Easter. The plastic egg company wrote me thank you notes every year.

Here are some other random Easter photos

Image1-2egghunt

I love how I look like I am about 9 feet tall here because for once my height actually matches my weight. I am explaining the 2 rules of the hunt to everyone. Don’t get lost and don’t get hurt. (I think that's why so many parents stayed every year.) Yes, I clung to the mullet hairstyle FOREVER. AND………

Why yes, those ARE Christmas lights hanging above my head. I keep telling you…white trash baby----white trash……….I would now be posting a pic of me demonstrating the egg roll but I think have humiliated myself enough for one post.

Now I think I am ready to give you the tour…

101_1050

This is what you see when you come in the front door. This is it people. The extent of my kitchen. To the left is my washer and dryer. In the right corner, my oven. The only counter I have is my dishwasher.

101_1052Here is the INFAMOUS GARAGE DOOR on my ceiling.  I would say ignore the mess but its just the way it is with 7 people in a garage. Yes, those are open garage shelves on the left that go the length of the room. This next pic was taken about 11 years ago, when the tv was at the other end of the room.

Vivid Color Prosuperbowl 

Image1-2garagedoorcmastree On the plus side—one year we had an 11 foot tree!

101_1054Here is the most important door—the bathroom door. Yep—we have just one.

Can I just say right here and now that my new house has 3 full baths and 2 half baths indoors and 1 in the attached garage and a full bath out in the shop/man cave???!!!!!!!!!

101_1056 And the final pic of the day—the doorway to the 2 other bedrooms and little computer area.

 

So, what did you think? It’s okay to need some time. I’ve needed 15 years. Just say you still love me.

Stay tuned—next up—the new homestead!!!!

Don’t forget to go HERE to help me find a new title for my blog and a chance to win a couple of great prizes!!

17 comments:

tammy said...

You SO deserve that new house! I am so stinking excited for you!! The garage add-ons remind me of my Grandparents' old house. My Grandpa would just add a room on when a new baby came. It ended up being quite the maze of rooms.

p.s. I added your contest on my sidebar.

CB said...

Lisa that is incredible that you all lived LITERALLY in the garage with the garage door as your ceiling. Quite the story!!
I cannot wait to see your new house which I know you have been waiting for for a long time!!

I think I will have to see the new house before I can help think up a new blog name.

Congratulations - especially on having 5 bathrooms - don't know how you did it with 1.

Cherie

mel nielson said...

I think you did a fabulous job of of being organized in small places. What a beautiful place to live. Your scenery! Yummy.

I'm still thinking on some awesome names.

LKP said...

i. still. love. you.

feeling better now? =)

no worries, i figure you've been busy busy busy with the new house and all!

so are ya moved in then? you've signed papers by know i thought, right?

thanks for the sweet remarks. made my day!

and i'm still trying to come up with some awesome blog name suggestions for ya. =)

have a great thursday night!!!

Pedaling said...

first of all....at least you had internet!
2nd- i love you even more!!!
3rd- no worries - you comment on my blog, just enough and i appreciate it- not need to try to come up with something to say every single day on my posts- i don't do that on other blogs...just when i have something to say.
I cannot wait to see the home tour of your new digs. Like tammy said- you so deserve it and I am so stinkin' excited for you!

now, to start thinking on a new blog name- you know i come up with blog titles all the time in my head- except under pressure like this.
i will see what i can do to WIN!

Pedaling said...

"Why I get up in the morning......"
that is on your sidebar and would be a good title.

here's another:
White Trash with honey! (i don't think you're white trash...it's a take off a toby keith song- white trash with money)

k- my brain is a rollin'. i'll be back with more!

Pedaling said...

and another:
if i were to re-name my blog (which i'm not) i would call it-
"Notes To My Children"

annie said...

Aaaah... a flood of memories! :o) Sleeping in the loft as a 17 year old was a bit tricky, but I remember liking it so I guess it wasn't too bad! :o)

Thanks for the tour! And yes, I still love you.

Annie Japannie said...

For what it's worth, I was very familiar with the garage house and I never once thought "Wow, these people live in a ramshackle hut." In fact, the oddness of your house being a garage was never even that odd to me. It was just the B's house, and it was full of wonderful ladies who taught me piano lessons and children who more or less behaved when I babysat and a cute little kitchen that had no countertops but was still just fine for making macaroni and cheese for the kids (PS - making macaroni and cheese for your kids was always a highlight because my mom would never buy us the kind in the box and when you're 13 the kind in the box is the most delicious thing in the world).

And there was something endearing about you living at the top of that crazy, crazy hill. I drove up there many a time at a point in my life where I had just recently learned to drive and I am constantly amazed that I never drove right off the edge. But driving to the top of the crazy hill to find a warm, welcoming snuggly family was in a way like finding a city on a hill whose light couldn't be hid.

So, in short, I am very happy for your new house, but I hope you never feel ashamed or white trashy for living in the garage on the mountain. It was a garage, but it was mostly an outpost of Zion.

Cheeseboy said...

I've often wondered and now I know the rest of the story. I still dig the old place though. It definitely has it's charm.

By the way, as creative as I like to think I am, I am drawing a complete BLANK when it comes to your new blog title. Something has got to come.

karen said...

I'm kind of in awe of you and your patience and your stick=to-it-iveness. From everyone's comments it must have been a loving cozy place to be, however. There are many beautiful homes that don't have that kind of spirit in them so you must have done something very right. And now you're the deserving owner of a huge prize. Enjoy.

Jess said...

Oh Lisa- I'm from the South (yes it is capitalized) and your darling home/garage is nothing like white trash, cause I've seen white trash- and that isn't it.

Congrats on the new house, and the fact that you can all simultaneously sit on separate potties at the same time.

hmmm- 5 bathrooms and counting- that's a catchy blog title

Susan Anderson said...

I was excited for you before, but now I am delirious with joy to imagine you in that new house. I only wish I could be there to see you enjoy unpacking and settling in.

It's going to be wonderful! And you have earned every bit of it and then some!!

=)

Unknown said...

My husband grew up in two converted army barracks, knocked together "for a few months" until they "built their house". They moved in when he was 5. That original house is still standing, still occupied. The "new" house was finally built 11 years ago - when my husband was 37!

Annette Lyon said...

All I can say is if ANYONE deserves a new house, that person is YOU. How you did that all those years is beyond me. Wow!

(I did post about your contest on my blog--now I just need to come up with some names . . .)

Mikki said...

Now I get it!!!!
The pics before, I saw the garage in front and I was sort of like, how is it on the cieling?
I have seen the light!

I love you Lisa LOO!!!! Girl, you really do rock and you SO deserve a house with 5 bathrooms. Did I get that right? Five bathrooms in the new place. That is awesome! How you managed all this time with one bathroom!? You deserve to be sainted or something.
Frankly your place reminds me of a few places I lived growing up. Just adds character to your life. How many people do you know who can look back and say I had a garage door on my cieling?

Carla said...

Wow!! Lisa you guys WERE pioneers!! Oh, the tales these walls could tell!!