We finished a house this week. It all started a year ago with countless ideas and hours of planning, never-ending discussions and meetings. There were days when the thought of completing this projected seemed far away, but this week it finally all came together. The end of a project is my favorite part of building a house. I love it all, I am one of those crazy people who is excited to go to work every day and hardly can stop thinking about it when I am suppose to be off. I am lucky. I love everything about my job, but the end of a project is extra special. All those thoughts and ideas all start to come together at once, and suddenly there is this transformation that goes from “construction” to “completion”. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t easy or as fast as it sounds…it is endlessly long days and hours of work…but it is wonderful and exciting and so rewarding.

This week I stood inside the house as our clients drove up. I watched them get out and jump up and down with excitement; I saw their emotion and felt their joy when they saw the finished product for the first time. I felt my eyes burn with happiness, felt a lump in my throat when we had a group hug in the kitchen and everyone tried to talk at once. How proud I am to be part of this, how proud I am of the people I work with. We build houses, it’s what we do…but it is so much more. It is hard to find the right words to explain it, but such an awesome and rewarding feeling. Building a house, as cliché as it might sound, is making people’s dreams come to life, and what better feeling is there?

And a couple days later I am a little bit sad…sad that everything we were working for is completed. Of course, I have many more homes to work on and look forward to, but each one is special in it’s own way. Our homes are not just projects we check off a list, and our clients are much more than people we work for…they become life long friends and people we choose to spend our free time with long after we close the door.

I have an awesome job. Did I say how lucky I am?

We have had a mild couple weeks of winter weather in the Flathead Valley, which has been great for all our projects. We had the garage floor poured this week at the Hellroaring and luckily the homeowners were able to be here for a few days and watch all the progress. We really love this little plan, and it is fun to watch it take shape!

I really like summer, but it’s hard to complain about winter on days like today. Started out at 12 degrees and ended up sunny, beautiful bluebird skies and 40 degrees. Maybe winter has it’s upside too…

I was listening to a conversation between our project manager and our electrician this morning…they are in an on going competition to see who can beat the other person to work in the morning. I said pretty great when people are fighting to GET to the job site. Have I mentioned before how lucky we are with our Old MT team??

We are 2 weeks away from completing our Middle Fork Lodge project – it seems like we were just starting this home. If you haven’t been following the progress on our website you really should watch the next 14 days. I love this phase of the project…all the fantastic finishing touches! Check out the transformation and all the details http://whitefishcustomhomes.com/3014RiverLakesWhitefish/

We are in the last few weeks of our Middle Fork Lodge project. Our custom whitewashed gray flooring is down and looks amazing, cabinets are going in, and the lights are going up. Hard to say there is a favorite part of building a house, but certainly this stage is exciting and rewarding. After all the months of decision making and selections and this part feels like the frosting on the cake!

There is no getting around it, when you build a house you have to paint it, which means you have to pick a color. Yes, the color of dried Sheetrock mud is appealing (on a recent sample board it was actually the color of choice!) but it has to be covered with something. What is the right color, the right shade, what does it say about you and your home?? I guess the best answer is that there is no right answer…just the right one for you. And…you can always re-paint!

I happened to be walking around the job site early Saturday morning and saw this little line up of building necessities. An “I ❤️ Whitefish” hat (full of screws), Red Bull, white powdered donuts and coffee…all the makings of a great day of work!

Last night our clients “camped out” in their new bunk beds for the first time. It was the first night in their new Old Montana home, and it was really fun to see how excited they were to claim/make each of their own bunks. Seeing how happy this family is with what we created is the best and most rewarding part of our job!

We were in Rexford again this week doing a few touch up projects at our little carriage house and taking some photos for the website. From the first time I stood in this room I could feel just how good the space was. True, it is small…but there are so many things about it which just work, you forget the size all together. With the added personal touches the clients have bought in, this place feels like a little Montana mountain retreat. It’s so perfect I think we might just have to build another one…