Our December is being spent in Montana restoring a house built in 1903.  The address is 312 S Maryland, Conrad. It has three bedrooms upstairs, two baths, a formal living and dining room, large kitchen, family room, library and office.  It is 4,320 square feet, with a two car garage.  The place is humongous.  I bought it a couple of years ago, sight unseen, because it looked cool.  And honestly, it is cool.  I love the house.  Our plan is to flip it, but of course, our biggest challenge is finding time to spend here.  This part of Montana is not on our regular travel plan.  We tend to run I-40 and I-80, finding us North of I-90 is a bit unusual for us.

We’ve done all of our shopping this week, cabinets and carpet, tile and appliances.  All are purchased, now we just need to put it all together.  Of course, I want to do it NOW!  and all the stuff is still in transit, I feel a bit useless.  So, we are spending our time on paint and primer, getting prepped for the day it all comes together.  My fear is that it all shows up about the 20^th of this month, and then that will mess up my after-Christmas plans.  That will be a bummer.

My plan after Christmas is the same as last year, five days working the Rose Parade, building floats.  Haley and I did that last year starting on the 27^th and working right through the 31^st.  It was an incredible experience, not only was it bonding between her and I, but it helped me to see the work ethic that young lady has.  I love doing volunteer work and this was a labor of love.  I blogged that experience on Trippin the Americas last year, if you are interested in how that process comes together, check this out.  It had been on my life list for a long time, I just wanted to repeat it again this year and I’m not feeling very confident about that right now with all the work ahead of us. 😦