Near the Canadian border in the Idaho panhandle overlooking the Kootenai River and Cabinet Mountains is a little slice of heaven. John and Stormy are on an adventure building their dream home. Nestled on an acre with woods and mountain views they began by building a cabin and garden. The 10x10 foot cabin without electricity, running water or bathroom was home for over 5 years while they constructed the dream. Last November they moved from the cabin into the framed house. They got electricity and running cold water in the house. The next project is an on demand water heater and indoor bathroom! Enjoy the photos. We enjoyed our visit!

The house is nestled in the woods which provide protection from the weather. There are 3 stories. The kitchen is on the first floor, acutally it is below ground level. Stormy loves to be able to putter in the kitchen and look up at the woods. She hand dug the kitchen with basement area(took her 2.5 weeks and removed 11 truck loads of dirt). She also did all the rock work. The rocks were gathered from favorite sites and collected to add memories and energy to the house. The photos do not come near showing the detail and scope of the work. Believe me, it is awesome!

John told us the story of putting up the walls in minus 24 degree weather. He and Stormy met while working on building bridges for the highways and freeways in the area. After 4 years of working bridges and on the house part-time, Stormy retired from building bridges and works on the house full time. John spends the summers working on bridges. This is the front door to the house. The house is still under construction. The bathrooms are coming, on the docket are decks and moving the bedroom from the basement to the top floor. John plans to build a bed that will slide thru the exterior wall onto a deck for summertime sleeping.

Moving up stairs to the second floor we arrive at the Livingroom. Stormy has been working on sanding the railings and posts. All the stairway rails and posts are from the lumber off the property. The beams are salvaged from bridge sites. Where ever possible the building materials are from reused and recycled materials. Obviously the windows and insulation aren't!