20. our first big test

Last week we had the first big snow fall of the season. By Sunday night, the forecast was for 12" of snow in Great Falls starting Monday afternoon and ending mid-day Tuesday!! (Apparently it was a fluke to have so much snow in early October, but also not completely unheard of.)  Husband and I brought my little Impreza down to the parking lot at the bottom of the mountain on Sunday, and he gave me a crash course in a how to drive a pick up truck.  Eekk!! (Being from Minnesota, we certainly aren't afraid of snow. But doing it at 4000 feet on a unplowed dirt road would definitely be adding an additional challenge to our winter routine!)

Monday morning I added about 15 min to my commute (one hour instead of 45 min), to leave time for driving a pick-up, making the switch at the bottom of the mountain, and taking the slightly longer way to work (by necessity, since the parking lot is one exit down from the exit I would normally take). The morning went off without a hitch, and I anxious watched the weather through the day.  Unfortunately I had a recruiting dinner I had to go to that evening, so I wasn't able to leave town until about 7:30pm. At that point it had been snowing for a couple hours, but hardly anything had stuck yet since the ground was still so warm. I called Husband to confirm, and he agreed that it wasn't too bad so it would make sense for me to come home instead of getting a hotel room for the night.

As I left town, the sun had set and it really got dark. That's when I realized that the interstate has absolutely ZERO street lights on it. And that's when the snow really started to come down.

Oy vey.

I think I hit a max of 50 mph on my drive home, a drive that I usually do at 80 mph (which is exactly the speed limit on interstates in Montana). It was SO dark and SO icy in spots that I was totally hunched over the steering wheel and white-knuckling it. I terrified that I might slide off an icy bridge and end up in the river of careening off a cliff.  I was incredibly relieved to FINALLY make it to the parking lot, just so I could stretch my shoulders a bit as I transferred to the truck.

The drive up the mountain in the truck was even a little easier than I expected. The snow was really coming down, but there were only a couple inches on the road. In fact, it was almost harder to drive with the mud underneath than it would have been if the dirt road had been frozen in the snow! And when I rounded the corner to our house, there was Husband, standing at the foot of the driveway with the lights of his truck lighting the way for me. It was even a bit romantic to see him standing there in the blustering snow, making sure that I made it home safe and sound!

Since it took me about two hours to get home on Monday night, I left that long to get back to work on Tuesday. So that meant that I got home, went to bed, and got right back up to leave again. The drive was dark on Tuesday and still snowy in spots, for it was definitely easier since the snow had lightened up and the plows had had some time to clear the interstate. It ended up "only" taking 90 min to get to work on Tuesday, but I was still pretty exhausted that day.  By the time I got home for dinner on Tuesday, I was ready for bed!

It was certainly tiring, but it also wasn't as bad as I feared it would be. It definitely would have been easier if I hadn't had that dinner to go to, and it's nice knowing that I could do a hotel if I ever need it. But even with the extra time, I was still thankful to sleep in my own bed. And I'm proud that I made it through the first snowstorm of the year!

Here's Kid enjoying the snow on Tuesday at sunset

19. cultural differences

We expected a fair amount of culture shock with this move, and we have definitely experienced it! Some of it we foresaw, but some of it has been a surprise. Here are some of the things we've noticed so far:

"gossip"
I don't know if this is a Montana thing or just a small-town thing, but it seems like everyone knows everyone else's business. We noticed this on our house-hunting trip, when the realtor we were with was very, very open about saying exactly who he sold each house to and for exactly how much. Minnesotans (or at least Twin Citians?) don't talk about finances much, so this was a bit of a surprise for us. And it's not just finances! Montanans just generally talk more about what other people do, and comment on others' choices. (Which really makes we wonder what everyone is saying about us...) It's taking some getting used to!

DMV
I'm accustomed to going to one place to get my driver's license renewed and to get my car tabs renewed. Here, however, there are two different offices - the state-run office handles drivers licenses, and the "city-county" office handles plates and tabs. Also, since there's no sales tax (on anything!) here, the price to register a car is more expensive than what I'm used to. But some things are the same across state lines: it's still miserable to wait in line for literally hours in order to get the task done.

niceness
Everyone is so, so, so, so nice! And it seems authentic, not like the passive aggressive "Minnesota nice" that I'm used to :)  We have some great neighbors who would literally drop everything for us if we asked for it. I'm looking forward to the temperature dropping so I can start baking some thank you treats for all the wonderful neighbors we've met so far.


license plates
I literally couldn't tell what the "standard" license plate was until I went to the DMV. There are five "standard" plates and SOOO many specialty plate options. Seriously, the options are overwhelming. It makes it challenging to play the license plate game while driving because you see all these different ones, but they all turn out to be just from Montana.

beer/wine in grocery stores
It's crazy to me (coming from Minnesota), but you can buy beer and wine IN THE GROCERY STORE! Even Target has alcohol for sale, right there on the endcaps!! Hard liquor is in separate stores, but it's SO nice to pick up a bottle of wine while getting the rest of the dinner stuff in the grocery store. Now if only my local Target would start carrying my favorite wine...

casinos
They're everywhere! Seriously, you'll see about 10 casinos on every block. I don't know how they all stay in business! And it's not like they look welcoming, or seem to be known for their buffets, or anything like that. At some point we'll have to check one of them out, but for now I'm still just adjusting to seeing them all over the place.

dirt roads
There's the city roads. There's the interstate. And EVERYTHING else is dirt roads. Even in rural Minnesota or Wisconsin, my experience was that most roads are paved. Not so around here! But I guess that's what I should have expected with the incredibly low taxes in Montana.

I'm pretty sure these are just the tip of the iceberg, so it'll be interesting to see what else pops us for us as we continue to get settled. We've also been adjusting to living in the mountains (off grid) after living in a big city for so long. So in addition to the general culture shock of moving to Montana, we've also had the adjustments of living in the middle of nowhere. Things like:
-no pizza delivery
-driving >45min to get groceries/gas/etc
-needing a cell booster to get any service for our phones while at home
-getting satellite cable and internet (which means we have to closely monitor how much we stream each month!)
-no trash service at the curb
-prepping to heat our new house with wood this winter
-needing high clearance 4WD vehicles(?)
-learning to manage the solar power for electricity, and closely monitoring what we have plugged in when

But despite all these challenges, so far we have all been loving it! Kid is making friends and enjoys going to school, Husband seems happier than he has in a long time, and I'm loving the whole experience as well. So far Montana is an adjustment, but a fun one!

18. we made it!

The last month or so has been an absolute whirlwind! But we successfully purchased our house (whew!!!), moved in all our stuff, and are starting to unpack and settle in. We also started our new jobs/school, and the pets are getting comfortable. (Cat LOVES being an indoor/outdoor kitty now!) Lots more updates to come, but for now I'll just celebrate that we are officially Montanans!

17. we're on!

We are less than two weeks away from closing, and we finally (FINALLY!!!) got through the last of the big hurdles. We had a general inspection back in June, then a special solar inspection, then a special well inspection, plus a survey. The last big hurdle was getting the appraisal... and it took 17 days (not that we were anxiously awaiting the results or anything) to get the final report. When it finally (FINALLY!!!) arrived today, it was such a relief! We could start sharing our new address without worrying about "jinxing" the process!

We actually had to start sharing the address a couple weeks ago (like to cancel our cable, switch the utility bills to the new owners, etc.), and it just killed me to tell anyone where we were planning to live, as if saying the address would make the whole deal fall apart. Every time Husband would mention our future home, I would force him to knock on some wood. I wished on lucky stars, I wished on heads up pennies I found on the ground, and I would knock on some extra wood just for good measure - anything to help the deal go through!

I know it's completely irrational, and I never would have thought of myself as a superstitious person before all this. (It's not like I haven't taken my lucky underwear off, or anything like that!) But this process has made me realize that I am a lot more superstitious that I realized. And it made me think back to my pregnancy with Kid (after two previous miscarriages) - it wasn't until I was at least 36 weeks along that I said to Husband "I think we might actually have a baby this time!" It was like I was afraid that getting my hopes up would cause the good thing not to happen, so it was safer to just to be anxious and not to say anything that might alter the outcome.

(As an aside, in mythology, there were three women ("the Fates") who determined the destiny of all mortals. The Greeks believed that if you got too cocky about good things ("tempting the Fates"), they would respond by showing you who was really in charge and bringing some bad into your life. I must have more Greek ancestry than I realized!)

I'm realizing now that it's all in good fun to be superstitious, up until the time that very superstition prevents you from enjoying the entire process. (You know, the whole "it's the journey, not the destination" yada yada.) Bad things can happen - pregnancies end, house closings fall through, terrible accidents and tragedies happen every day - but silly things like knocking on wood aren't going to actually make a difference.

So today, after finally hearing back about the appraisal (and while technically still waiting for the underwriting process to commence, which should take three more business days), I decided to prevent my superstitious nature from impeding my enjoyment as we embark on this new adventure: I shared the address with several people, told my friends that our house closing is a done deal, and I reveled in my excitement for our new house.

And to top it all off, I wrote a blog post titled "we're on!"  Take that, Fates!

16. possible set back

After our house sold, we finally signed a breath of relief. Could things finally be starting to settle down? Could we relax and enjoy our last few weeks in MN? Was it safe to let our guard down?

Sadly no, grasshopper.

Husband went out to Montana for the house inspection last month after our offer was accepted and we were under contract. He and the inspector spent about 6 hours at the property, and thoroughly investigated every nook and cranny.

The good news is that Husband had been under the impression that the sellers (who had built the place) had done everything perfectly (which was intimidating to him), but he (thankfully) discovered that they were only human after all, and all was not perfect.

The bad news is that Husband had been under the impression that the sellers/builders had done everything perfectly, but he discovered that they were only human after all, and all was not perfect.

At first I didn't really understand the magnitude of the non-perfectionism, but as time dragged on for them to respond to our request to agree to some updates/fixes to the house, I started to question why it was taking so long. That's when Husband explained to me that there was actually some pretty MAJOR things wrong with the house (like, they had used indoor-grade wiring for the outdoor solar and wind power systems), and that it might be expensive for them to get it fixed.

How could such a thing happen, I wondered. After all we had gone through with permits over the years, and the major headache of our city inspection that was required for us to even list our house on the MLS, I couldn't figure out how such a major error had been allowed to happen for a house that had been on the market (with no offers) for over a year.

And that's when I was told that the sellers had never pulled a single permit for anything. Ever. Nothing.

Now, in their defense, apparently permits are only suggested for electrical and plumbing in Montana, or so Husband tells me, and building permits aren't even required for single family homes. And since permits can be expensive, I can kind of understand cutting this expense if your money is tight and you really know what you're doing. But what I DON'T understand is cutting this corner if you aren't absolutely, 100%, totally sure of what you're doing. And apparently they weren't.

So now we wait. We are hoping they will agree to get everything up to code, and to have it certified by a state-licensed electrician.  (And a couple other things we requested, which are a little more minor but still important.) If they do, then we can move on to the next step (appraisal), which is also not guaranteed. If not, then we start looking into back-up plans, as we're about 33 days away from the big move.

At this point, our realtor puts closing at about 50% likelihood.

15. the new addition to our family

About a year ago, when moving was just a twinkle in our eyes as we looked forward to retirement, we decided it was finally time to get a dog. Husband has been wanting a dog for years, but we had a small house with two cats already, plus we are super busy, so it didn't make sense to add a dog to our crowded lives.  In the winter/spring of 2016, however, we were shocked with the sudden and unexpected deaths of both of our beloved cats within 24 hours of each other. It was devastating. We decided we would institute a year of mourning before we welcomed any new pet into our lives.

We both grieved for a few months straight. But by the end of summer, Husband was ready to at least start thinking about our next pet. Always a cat tolerator and never a cat lover, he took our cats deaths as a sign that it was time to get a dog. But I just couldn't envision a future without a cat, so we decided to "compromise" and get one cat and one dog. His and hers pets, if you will.

We did much research and debating about the order of adoption, given that Husband very much wanted a purebed puppy and I very much wanted a humane society cat that was about a year old (young but not too young). We decided to get on the waitlist for a puppy away, and Husband did a bunch of research and decided to go with Welcome Home Labs in northern MN, with the hopes of welcoming a puppy as close to the end of the school year as possible.  (We visited them later in the fall, and even I, ardent cat lover that I am, left a little bit excited about getting a new puppy in the spring. They are great, if anyone else out there is thinking of adopting!)

The time passed, and we crossed off all the major holidays without our beloved cats: their birthdays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. By early January I finally felt emotionally ready for a new cat. I started visiting the humane society, and keeping my eyes peeled for anyone who was looking to re-home a cat. On Martin Luther King Day (2017), we welcomed home our Cat. He quickly became king of the household, but also clearly needed a companion to play with (other than an unwilling one like me or Kid). We counted down until Dog could join our family.

And finally he did!

8 weeks

introductions

10 weeks

play time!

13 weeks (look as the size of those paws!)

I'm not sure I would necessary recommend getting an 8-week-old puppy the week before putting one's house on the market, but in retrospect (a month or so later), it had a couple unexpected up sides. (Like the fact that most of our stuff was packed away, which gave Dog a lot fewer things to chew on or to pee on. And most of Husband's hobby equipment was packed away, which made him have to focus all his attention on Dog.) But it definitely still added stress to an already stressful situation!

Despite the stress, Cat and Dog have been a delight to have around. And we think they are both going to LOVE Montana - Cat can become an outdoor cat (in the country) and Dog will have a lot more freedom as well. Unfortunately Husband is already starting to say things like "when we get a second dog..." (WHAT?!?!) We'll see!

14. the stress of selling

I always knew that moving would be stressful, but I didn't realized how incredibly stressful it would be. Basically, we had MONTHS of hard work - as soon as I had accepted the job in Montana back in March, we started picking away at packing and repairs. We picked up the pace in early April, and by the end of April we were working from the moment we got home from work each day until the moment we went to bed (which was later and later every night). We stopped all our hobbies - I didn't read a single book, nor did I bake a single cake or batch of cookies - for literally months. Both Husband and I confessed to feeling guilty every time we sat down, even if it was something we needed to do (like paying the few bills that aren't on autopay, or reading Kid her bedtime stories each night).

It. Was. Exhausting.

But we kept the end of May in our sites as a beacon of hope. We had been assured by our friends, our family, our coworkers, and every realtor we met with that our neighborhood was "hot" and it was the strongest seller's market our area had seen in decades. We were told to expect to sell our house immediately upon listing, and possibly even with multiple offers by the end of the first weekend.

So we made plans to list on Thursday, June 1 (rather than opening on Memorial Day weekend, which we were told is historically quite slow), and then promptly got out of town on Friday morning in order to allow for unlimited showings.  In the following days, we remained cautiously optimistic and checked our phones regularly for updates on showings.

But it didn't sell! I think we were both a little flabbergasted. I know our expectations were high, but that was what we had been told to expect by EVERYONE! We tried to relax and remind ourselves that the median days on market was more like 20, but it was still hard not to worry. We were already under contract in Montana! We had a deadline for moving! We had to sell!!!

We had a few more showings the following work week, but surprisingly few the second weekend. At this point we (mostly I, but also with the support of Husband) started to freak out.  We called an emergency meeting with our realtor on the second weekend Sunday and made a plan to regroup since time was of the essence: we dropped the price significantly, added a video tour, created "welcome home" brochures for showings, and we took it off the market for 24 hours so it would come on "fresh" at the lower price point.

Lowering the price by $20K was particularly hard. First, because we were lowering it to what we had originally planned on if we were going to do a FSBO, so it felt like we were paying a realtor a huge fee for nothing. Second, because we had heard time and again that the WORST thing you can do in selling a price is to start too high, because then buyers start to think something must be wrong with it and they expect an even lower price. Third, because we really thought that it was the right price we had chosen in the first place, if only we had had more time. But we didn't have more time, so we knew we had to do it.

Our house went back on the market on Tuesday, we had four showings scheduled for Wednesday, and on Wednesday night we got an offer for $5K over our asking price. Hallelujah!!!!!!!!!

We finalized the deal on Thursday (we just countered by $2K, which they accepted, and we also changed the closing date to what work work best for us), and on Friday we finally started to allow ourselves to relax.

Now we just have the inspection, the appraisal, and the closing to get through.... :)