Come see us at the Parade of Homes this weekend!!  We have 2 awesome houses in the Parade of Homes this year…the Middle Fork Lodge in the Lakes and the Woodlot on Marina Crest (both Whitefish).  Our Woodlot home was voted best kitchen and best home in it’s price class.  Our Middle Fork Lodge home won 4 overall awards: Best Kitchen, Curb Appeal, and Best Interior Decor, and we are honored to have received the judges choice award this year for the most outstanding home in the parade.  Best part…we built homes our clients absolutely love!!

We started out with a simple sketch well over a year ago of our Middle Fork Lodge project…just trying to bring the house to life so the clients could imagine it. The other night we shot photos of the completed house. I’d say after thousands of hours of work we captured our vision almost perfectly. It’s a great feeling! Having the sketch framed in the clients home – priceless!

Just posted new photos to our website and Houzz page…and BOTH these homes will be featured in the Flathead Valley Parade of Homes this fall. Check them out on Houzz or visit our website…and come see them in person in September!

http://www.houzz.com/projects/600856/Whitefish-Custom-Home–Hollywood-3600-

http://www.houzz.com/projects/600891/Woodlot-3700

Just over a week ago we bought an office. Yes, an office…officially we have an Old Montana space! We are setting up shop downtown Whitefish at 300 2nd Street East above Loula’s in an awesome old brick building which has been standing since 1915. It’s an awesome little space and we are very excited to make it our own. Last Friday we ripped up carpet and tore things apart, Sunday we painted the lovely orange color to gray, and this week we built a wall and floor of reclaimed wood from our own job-sites…and next week we move in!

Did you know all our house names are based off of runs from Whitefish Mountain Resort (ok, Big Mountain!)? We just started a new project in Whitefish, the Trapper…our first spec home. It is something we’ve talked about for a long time, and it’s finally happening…and very exciting! Check out the website to follow our progress! Any ideas for the next house plan name?!?!?

Getting ready to post some new photos to the website of 2 homes we completed in the last couple months. Taking photos is no small project! It is fun and rewarding though to spend a few hours in these houses after they are done – we spend so much time in the construction phase, and never really get to enjoy them once they are complete. It’s nice to stand on top of a beautiful kitchen island and think “this house could not have turned out any better”. And luckily the home owners feel exactly the same way!

“It’s not easy being green”…isn’t that what Kermit the Frog says? Well, in a sense it is true, especially in the building world. But we are pretty proud of our little company and all we have been doing, from our job-site management and material use, to the products we put in our homes. It’s actually not easy, because it takes extra time to break down boxes for recycling and time to take materials to places they can be reused, time to organize a dumpster and make sure we aren’t being wasteful…but is it worth it? Of course it is! Do I feel good knowing we are using companies here in the valley that share our same thoughts on energy use, recycling and green products as we do? Of course! I’m pretty happy with the things Old Montana is doing, and hopefully next year on Earth Day I can say we are doing even better!

We have finished another house!  The clients are arriving this afternoon to see their house for the first time in a couple months.  So much has changed since they were last here, and we are so excited for them to see everything.  I have a feeling similar to a kid on Christmas morning…I really can’t stand the suspense of waiting for them to arrive!  Last night, as we stood in the great room admiring how everything came together just perfectly and reminiscing how we got to this point, I could not help but wish I could slow down this last day.  It is the best feeling.  It is the rewarding feeling.  It is the reason being able to do this job is so special and fun.  We are lucky.

We just added some photos to Old MT’s website of our little Carriage House project in Rexford. It reminded me of how much we loved working on this special place. We had so many great ideas packed into a small space you would never consider calling it just a garage apartment!! Check out the photos http://yjx.b7b.myftpupload.com/photo-gallery/

Part of our Old Montana team, Tom Bernstein, published his first book this past weekend, “A Rumor of Justice”, and it is available on Amazon (and I can personally tell you it’s truly worth reading and gifting!) We are very proud of Tom and his accomplishment! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I6PB3C0