We’re grateful for our current life by the beach, but our heart belongs to NW Montana. We would have moved sooner, but our jobs kept us in South Florida. Today’s world offers remote employment opportunities making a move to Montana a reality. The house is coming along nicely, and we are completely satisfied with our builder, J Martin Builders. They’ve done a great job and so have all their subcontractors.
The House
In my last post, I shared updates on our mechanicals, including electric, plumbing, septic and HVAC. Our contractors hit some frost but pushed through and have made progress this week. Final framing has been completed, including the pony walls in our primary shower. Plus, our fireplace is now framed into our living room space.
On our next visit to Montana, we’ll check all the mechanicals before insulation and drywall gets installed. In the meantime, we are finalizing the plumbing, electric and HVAC with our builder. In today’s post, I’m going to talk about the property, including planning for wildfires and our garden. I’ll also give you an update on our interior design.
Find more information about mechanicals in my post below:
The Land
Our 12 + acre property is located in the western foothills of the Swan Mountain Range. The land sits at the end of a community road, where our driveway curves around to reveal our home sitting up on a small rise. Our builder, Jason and Glacier Construction did a great job planning the excavation and perfectly placing the home on our build site. We’ll have mountain views from our great room, primary bedroom, office and one guest bedroom. The south facing 11′ x 7′ window package and clerestory windows will allow light to pour into our great room space. The matching 11′ x 7′ window package on the opposite wall will frame the Swan Mountains just beyond. At 2,025 square feet, our house is not big but it’s special. We’re creating our very own dark, green jewel box. One that opens up to mountain views and is nestled among meadows and pine forests.
The excavation and house placement gives us plenty of flat outdoor space on the south, east and west sides of our home. A boulder retaining wall along the south side of the house and driveway stabilizes the slope in front of the house. The slopes on the east and west sides aren’t very steep, while the north facing slope dramatically drops off into the valley below. Keeping trees and adding deep-rooted plants to the north slope will ensure it stays put in the long run.
Our soil consists of a few large, medium and smaller boulders mixed with dirt, which is great for drainage and makes a stable base for building. We’ll be adding gravel to reduce the mess into our home, but it’s also good fire protection. We’ll bring in truckloads of gravel, placing it five feet around the house and down the driveway. The boulder wall and gardens to the south and east get lots of sun making them perfect for wildflowers and other sun-loving plants.
We fell in love with the property in 2017. Once it was ours, we named it Majestic Meadows for the meadows overlooking the nearby mountains. We plan to spend more time outdoors and look forward to hiking, biking, kayaking, and xc skiing in some beautiful places. We’ll explore our property, take walks in our neighborhood and venture farther out. Our land gives us room to roam, and the shape and topography makes an interesting walk in the woods. There are multiple recreational areas offering these activities within 45 minutes of our home, including Flathead Lake, Whitefish Resort, and Glacier National Park.
As you can see in the site plan below, our home sits on a ridgeline close to the eastern border of our property. It features several meadows: one overlooking the mountains and the others in sunny spots to the south. The meadows sit in a valley created by small ridgelines on both the east and west sides of our property. Privacy is guaranteed with our forest of pine, spruce, fir and larch trees. The larches turn a beautiful golden color in the fall before shedding their needles for winter. Existing game trails offer connection points for a planned 1-mile loop around our property.
Vignettes featuring shady and sunny spots will beckon you towards awesome mountain views or quiet glimpses of meadows. We will thin out trees for their health and to open up meadow and mountain views, but we won’t be clear-cutting trees. Removing dead trees and small saplings close to mature tree helps ensure a healthy forest. We’ll also limb up some trees for the views and for our trail. Keeping healthy trees is critical to stabilizing the sloped hillsides around our home and property. Once construction is done, we’ll add deep rooted plants for additional stabilization. These plants will add color, provide food and shelter, as well as interest year-round.
Pro Tip: To spot birds, keep a few sturdy tree snags visible from your house. These spots making perfect perches for owls and other birds.
Property pictures below from top left: large meadow with Swan Mountains beyond, slope on the north side of our home, view from north meadow, view to the east, current road, and meadow to the south.
Firewise
We will be using the Montana DNRC fire preparedness guidelines for our home and garden. We’ve designed our house to be more fire resistant, like installing 1/8″ soffit screen covers and minimalizing wood on the outside. In addition, we’re adding five feet of gravel surrounding our home. Placing landscaping farther from the house is fire smart, makes home maintenance easier and creates great views from interior windows. If maintained, the loop trail encircling our property will help act as an additional firebreak. If you’re in a wildfire area, consider following these Firewise practices within 30′ of your home:
- Remove all dead grasses, weeds, plants, and foliage.
- Keep lawns and native grasses mowed and water all vegetation regularly.
- Grow non-woody, low height, herbaceous plants.
- Provide at least 18 feet of space between remaining shrubs and trees. Increase spacing on steep slopes.
- Store firewood or other combustible materials at least 30 feet away from your home.
- Remove limbs 6′ to 10′ from the ground.
- Remove branches that overhang or touch the roof, making sure there is at least 10′ between the structure and the nearest branch.
- Clear vegetation around fences, sheds, outdoor furniture, and play structures.
- Create fuel breaks with non-flammable walkways, paths, and driveways.
See helpful Firewise graphics and get more information below:
https://www.mtfireinfo.org/pages/homepreparedness
The Garden
After the house is completed, we’ll turn our focus to the garden and its connection to the house. Covered porches at the entry and back of the house provide protection from the elements, creating inviting spaces to enjoy the views and wildlife watching. In the garden surrounding the house, we’ll create spaces to sit in the sun or be sheltered from wind. We’ll create immersive spaces full of native plants offering something to see all year long. A landscape full of wildflowers, colorful shrubs, and trees will provide shelter and food for wildlife. As mentioned previously, our soil is rocky, so we want to make sure our landscaping investment in plants, blubs and seeds is not wasted. We will mark, dig out and put garden soil in planting beds before we install any landscaping.
We’ll find a sunny spot, close to the house for an edible garden and shed. The shed will be placed on the north side and adjacent to the garden, surrounded by an electrified 6′ fence to discourage deer and other critters. We will be able to grow all kinds of food, including pears, plums, apples, blueberries, and various vegetables. We’ll start small and if we enjoy it, will add to the garden and invest in a greenhouse.
You can learn more about mountain landscaping in the post below:
Design Update – Granite vs. Quartz
We’re changing out the quartz in our great room due to concerns it can change color due to heat from the fireplace. That means, we also need to change the counters and backsplash in the kitchen. We’ve found some beautiful granite options. I fell in love with MSI Amazon Green with its deep, rich green, complemented by intricate patterns of black, white, and gray. It looks fantastic with the warm, walnut kitchen and living room paneled wall. Unfortunately, we felt the green was too limiting to our decor and color choices today and in the future.
We have chosen ST Stone’s Black Forest for our kitchen and fireplace surround. It is a striking natural stone with a deep black base featuring dramatic white and gray veining with occasional golden accents. We’ll be looking for slabs with the gold accent for the warmth it provides in the slabs. We prefer leathered granite, which has a textured, matte finish similar to leather. It’s durability, easy maintenance, and customizability are exactly why this countertop material is becoming more popular.
While all leathered granite has a textured finish, the amount of texture is entirely customizable to personal preference meaning leathered granite can go from being very lightly textured to heavily textured. We’ll stay on the light end to add character without going too rustic. The method used for leathering helps highlight the stone’s natural beauty and closes the stones pores, making leathered granite more resistant to stains.
We are truly locking in design choices now. Leah, J Martin Builders has ordered all our plumbing fixtures and Joni, Joni Stoll Design is finalizing our order for the Bubble Chandelier in the dining room. These women are crucial to our team and we’re grateful for their help. During our next trip we’ll be meeting them and a local company for blinds, both motorized and manual. We’re still looking for the color inspiration for our color palette, but everyone agrees that we need a warm white for the great room. My hubby, Jim would be happy with all white walls, but I want a colorful home. Joni and her partner, Kate will help us choose our palette, which we’ll use for wall colors, fabrics, rugs, artwork, and accessories to coordinate all our spaces.
As I’ve mentioned in prior posts, our home is Mid-Century Modern inspired. MCM design used lots of color, including primary and deeper, saturated colors such as green, orange, yellow and more. Once we’ve finalized our color palette, I’ll use the 60/30/10 color rule to make sure the colors are spread throughout the house. For example, in the pictures below I’ve used white on the walls (60%) and mixed in blue (30%) and orange (10%). You could also change up the combinations, colors or even percentages. The trick is to find your inspiration piece, whether it’s artwork, fabric, wallpaper or something else to build your own color palette.
Current home pictured below:
Check out my post below to learn more about color:
Next time, I’ll share an update on the build and budget, which could be impacted due to increased tariffs from the current US administration. Stay tuned by subscribing below:
Design, Garden, & Travel by Majestic Meadows 
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