Family Mellmann

The weather forecast declared snowfall (roughly 10 inches), wind, and frigid cold (-10 F) for this week.  What it didn't say was that we would get all of those things in one afternoon.  There are days when we don't need any other form of entertainment other than watching out the windows.    

The rest of the windows are now installed (we had to reorder a couple that were incorrect from the supplier).  Garage doors are in and the metal portion of roofing on the garage is done.  The first sheets of drywall have been installed, and the generator was delivered.  And this week the builder put me to work staining beams.  I took a little hired help to get things rolling; I call him Dad. After buffing out scuffs and scars, we put a first coat of stain on eight beams and a mantle piece and called it a day (almost ten hours from leaving Livingston to our return...not bad for an 80 year old).  Then on Saturday I went back to put a second coat on by myself.  The sunny 50 degree (Fahrenheit) day made it hard to stay inside staining.  A chair on the patio would have been more relaxing.  But I got the job done. I don't have a selfie stick so this is as good as it gets. :) Now that the missing window is in and the wrong window has been replaced, it's ...

I drove to Billings today to take care of some rental business and on my way back I stopped off in Absarokee to see if the cold and wind slowed down our progress.  From a distance, it didn't look like much had changed, but when I pulled up in front of the house I was greeting by a brand new front door! Inside the garage were stacks of sheetrock (drywall to some of you) ready for installation.  They guys were out back bringing in sheeetrock and stacking what is needed for each room. It looks like all the missing doors and windows have arrived.  The front door is installed.  The pedestrian door in the garage came but isn't installed yet.  The windows that go around the front door are here now.  And the replacement windows (a mistake was made on the arch windows) for the back side of the house have come.  Oh, and we were missing one picture window which has now also arrived. This is the window that will go above the front door.  That looks pretty hea...

It has been a few weeks since I last visited our construction site.  Between the Christmas/New Year's holiday slowdown and a little baby distraction (my builder is a new "again" dad!), things have just been plodding along. Today was a fabulous day to visit.  With 50 degree weather and a sunny blue sky, the guys were busy working on manual truss work (where manufactured trusses wouldn't work) on the back of the house (where it's sunny).  The posts and horizontal "gluelam" beams for the porch roof have arrived so the crew is trying to finish the roofing while we have this great weather. I spotted some of the posts in the garage.  These should be really nice when they're all stained. This made me laugh.  There were three buckets on the patio catching drips from the...from the...I'm not sure why they were catching the water from the trusses...other than to keep the patio from getting muddy?  The covered porch is starting to take shape. The back patio...

Moving from Vermont to Montana involves more than just packing up our clothes and furniture and shipping it across the country.  There is also the business to move.  But when your business is rental real estate, you can't just pack it up and ship it.  So, we are gradually selling our Vermont properties as we shift our business to Montana. Just before Christmas, we closed on the purchase of our first Montana rental property.  It is a four-unit apartment building in a charming planned community with shopping, dining, playground, and an elementary school all within walking distance.  Located on the southwest end of Billings, the community is outside of the downtown area but has easy access to it.  So, as we wind down the work of Covered Bridge Apartments in Vermont, we are pleased to introduce you to Lost Sheep Rentals.  Like Covered Bridge, Lost Sheep is the management arm of the business. This is the new building. Each unit has a Master Bedroom with pri...