My hubby, Jim and I are thrilled to finally be in NW Montana and look forward to moving into our new home build on August 15th. We’re in a rental in Downtown Kalispell now, which is great for walking to restaurants and shops. We’re only 20 minutes from the house, so it is close enough to check on the build daily. The rental is completely updated and includes everything we need; laundry, kitchen, living room, two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Our niece, Ciarra is visiting soon, so it’s important for her to have her own bedroom and bathroom. In today’s post, I’ll share helpful build and renovation tips, as well as build and design updates.
Pictures of the neighborhood around our rental near downtown in East Kalispell:
Build & Remodeling Tips
I looked at hundreds of online floor plans during the creation of our new home’s floor plan. We never found one that fit all our needs, so we considered hiring an architect to design a house for us. After careful consideration of our budget and needs, we decided to create our floor plan using SketchUp software. A good architect will charge 2% or more of your total build cost, so by designing it ourselves, we saved at least $20,000. We created five different SketchUp floor plans before we finally created one that worked for our build site and would meet our functional and aesthetic needs. Jim did a lot of research on proper building techniques and International Residential Codes (IRC) to make sure our floor plan was actually buildable. In addition, my Interior Design training was extremely helpful in creating a functional and beautiful home. Just ask Jim, how many times I said, “We need more and bigger windows.” Finally, we hired a local Design-Build firm, J Martin Builders who were able to turn our floorplan into construction plans, including framing, floor, ceiling trusses and other build details. We are in the final stage of the build and are really happy with the J Martin build team and their subcontractors.
View from the house:
Tip One: Don’t get locked into your first design or floor plan. It is important to be open to alternatives that could work better for your build site, lifestyle and budget. Below is one of our early floorplans, which had some disadvantages, including being too long for our site, as well as awkward hallways, driveway and approach to the house.
Tip Two: As you’re working on your plan and design, you’ll want to carefully consider recommended clearances for pathways, kitchens and bathrooms. The last thing you want is an awkward kitchen, bathroom, hallway, entrance, or stairs. To ensure good design for functional bathrooms and kitchens, I recommend hiring an Interior Designer who is a certified Kitchen and Bath specialist. You or the designer should follow clearance and other guidelines from National Kitchen and Bath Association https://nkba.org/planning-guidelines/. The picture below is a SketchUp rendering of our Mountain Modern kitchen, which includes a walk-in pantry (not pictured). The other two pictures are with the upper cabinets and hardware installed.
Tip Three: Don’t rush the design and planning phase. Jim and I had a lot of experience before we started this build, including two large home additions, designing and renovating two kitchens, as well as designing and renovating two entire homes. In the past, we’ve made some mistakes by not being aware or following design recommendations in NKBA or basic Interior Design guidelines. For this build, we did our homework using reference materials from local and IRC codes, NKBA, and Build Reference Books. My Interior Design training, as well as online sources, such as other Interior Designers, Instagram, Pinterest, and Houzz were all critical to a successful and beautiful design. If you want online help with a floor plan, check out Julie Jones of Julie Jones Designs on Instagram or her website http://www.juliejonesdesigns.com.
Pictured below is our last kitchen renovation, which was perfect for the little beach house we recently sold. This small but pretty and functional kitchen includes a pantry and lots of pull-out drawers. Learn more about functional kitchen design in the post below:
Tip Four: Identify your design style and/or the style of your existing home. Once you know your style, you’ll be able to narrow down your selections to create a cohesive design. For example, we both love Mid-Century Modern design, so we used that style to create a home inspired by MCM architecture. That means our home has simple lines, large windows and lots of natural materials. Identifying your style, whether it’s traditional, modern, MCM or something else will help you create a floor plan and design that you will love. If you’re renovating, you should consider the current style of the house to find inspiration for your design. For example, if you’ve got a traditional home, modern elements may feel out of place. Think about how you want your space to feel. We wanted ours to feel serene, cozy and relaxed. To learn more about our MCM design style, check out my post below:
To find your style and learn more about designing functional and beautiful spaces check out my posts below. You can also access all my posts, free of charge at the end of each post.
Tip Five: Do your research before interviewing and hiring a contractor. In prior posts below, I shared tips for finding the right property and contractor. In the first post, I share what Pros and Cons to consider before purchasing land. I also share how we found our contractor and more about the design/planning process. In the second post, I share more details about our design plan and how we used it to interview builders.
Build Update
Now that we’re in NW Montana, we’ll visit the build site every day. This week the painter started the exterior paint. Y’all, it looks fabulous! The Jasper paint by Sherwin Williams looks even better in person than it did in our SketchUp renderings. The house is surrounded by Douglas Fir and Tamarack, so the dark green color helps blend the home into its natural surroundings. Our build site manager, John did an awesome job finding natural exterior stone veneer that matched our vision. The stone provides a nice contrast to the Jasper and black trim paint, plus the stone grounds the home to its surroundings. The fir wood front door package, as well as the posts and beams add another natural element to the design. John worked with Sherwin Williams to create a custom stain that will take some of the red out of the fir. As you can see in the pictures below, the stain softened the color and made the wood appear browner.
The cabinet, tile and lighting look great in the guest bathroom. Joni Stoll and her team at Joni Stoll Design helped us source local materials, including the porcelain tile in the guest bathroom. The large format tile (24″ x 48″) was used on the floor, then runs up the front of the tub and walls in the alcove. The warm beige color compliments the DeWils walnut vanity and SW Greek Villa wall paint.
We are in love with our tile choices for the primary bathroom. The 24″ by 24″ terrazzo on the floors is also continued four feet up the walls. It looks great with the Montgomery Ribbon wood look tile placed just above the terrazzo. We talked with John about some minor tile misalignment in the primary bathroom. He had already spoken with the subcontractor about fixing it for us. We chose matching metal trim for both bathrooms instead of mitering the tile. Mitered tile edges are fragile and difficult to do well, which means they are also more expensive. You’ll need to miter or buy tile or metal trim pieces with any tile material that does not run all the way through the product. For example, the terrazzo runs all the way through the tile, so the edge looks the same as the top of the tile. No trim is needed for terrazzo.
The subcontractors installed the stone countertops this week, which includes the kitchen, laundry, and both bathrooms. We’re also using the perimeter stone, Cambria MacBeth quartz behind the range, which will be grain-matched for a clean, seamless backsplash. The leathered Alluvial quartzite pictured below is going on the island, fireplace surround and top of the TV cabinet. You’ll see our countertop stone installed in the kitchen, bathrooms and laundry below:
Adding walnut wood paneling in the living and dining rooms brings a natural element and warmth to the space. Bringing it to the ceiling draws your eye up making the space feel larger. The walnut paneling will match the DeWils kitchen cabinetry on the opposite side of the great room. Multiple windows, including two 11′ by 7′ window packages, as well as walls in SW Greek Villa will provide plenty of light to contrast the wood. The SketchUp rendering of our great room gives you an idea of what it will look like when complete.
Interior Design Update
The Interior Define Sloan sectional is complete and will be delivered on or just after our move-in date. We really liked the feel of the chenille fabric and neutral color in Flax for the living room. Warm pops of light rust and cool green will be featured in a 9′ by 12′ wool rug, pillows and throws, as well as two Interior Define Gwen accent chairs in walnut and Rust velvet. The local new and vintage furniture shops have a great selection. I found accent tables, wool rug, nightstands, lamps, pillows, concave mirror and the Franciscan Madeira Earthenware dish set at Honey’s, Kalispell Antiques Market, Look See, Conlin’s, Ciao’s and HomeGoods. There are a few furnishings we need to get quickly, but many others can wait, which allows us to take our time furnishing the house. You can see my finds in the pictures below and I’ve included a link to help you identify quality furniture in the post below.
The Bigfork Festival of the Arts is this weekend, so I know we’ll see lots of beautiful artwork, including paintings, photographs, sculptures and more. There are many talented local artists in the Flathead Valley, including Kira Fercho, John Isaiah Pepion, Susan Wechsler, and David Dragonfly to name just a few. I’ll be looking for a large piece of art to go over the fireplace. Wish me luck!
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You can also find me on Instagram at @majesticmeadowsmt
Design, Garden, & Travel by Majestic Meadows 
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