How It All Began:
Here is a brief explanation of how this all started, as taken from an email I sent to some of my family members prior to our departure.
Dear Family, Friends, Interested Parties, and Others:
I’ve been meaning to write this for quite some time, or even longer.
Finally getting to it, and figured I’d share the news.
Back in April or so, of 2022, our landlord in Montrose started getting worried about the well and the septic at the mountain cabin we were renting.
He wanted to change our lease from yearly to month-to-month … which I understood. Like, if either of those two water systems failed, and we were renting with a year’s lease, he’d be in quite a bind to get the problem fixed in a timely fashion, especially in the middle of winter for example.
So we started hunting for a new place to move.
Well, Montrose was ungodly expensive (still is), and any housing was difficult to find (there’s a large population of working homeless folks there).
We looked at other parts of Colorado, and Texas, and Oklahoma, and Missouri … and found housing conditions to be all about the same: expensive, restrictive, and volatile.
And add to the mix our ever-so-cute, albeit cantankerous, puppy-dog Whiskey, who’s not fond of people, or other dogs, or cats, or rabbits or foxes, or just about anything for that matter. And in many instances, he’s considered a “restricted” breed. Whatever that means. Yeah, he’s part Shar-Pei and part Rottweiler, and also parts-unknown. But mostly, he’s just fearful. He had a traumatic early life before we rescued him ~ he’s a Rez Dog ~ and that’s been tough to work with. He would not do well in an apartment.
Eventually, we talked with Kirsten’s dad, Ken, who owns a house in Boise, Idaho. He lives in Colorado, and has been renting the Boise house, or leaving it vacant while he worked on it, then renting it again. For 50 years. Between his tenants and his handiwork (of sorts), the place is a bit “rough.”
Kirsten and I had visited the house in Boise about ten years ago to have a look at it. Ken was in the process of installing new windows, and doing some other work.
At that time it was, in a word, a disaster. (I realize that’s two words, but who’s counting).
But now, because it had been rented for several years since then, and Ken had done more work in the interim, and he said that it was livable, we figured that some improvements may actually have been accomplished.
So we looked at the possibilities like this:
Either the house is —
1) in the same condition as it was in 2012 (unlikely … things like houses ~ rented or otherwise ~ don’t stay static);
2) in better condition than it was (seems more likely, since the most recent tenants were ex-military, and they told Ken they’d keep it up and improve it where possible);
or
3) in worse condition than it was (seems unlikely … to my eye at the time, worse was nigh-on impossible).
After a couple more discussions with Ken, we opted to rent the place.
We spent a hellish month getting packed, making long-distance arrangements for phone and computer connections, etc., acquiring a rental truck & trailer, and getting our selves, our stuff, our puppy and one remaining Jeep moved up there.
In and of itself, the move was a nightmare. More on that another day!
So in mid-August of the year MMXXII (ce) … we arrived at … the Canal Street House … in Boise, ID.
After a brief walk-around, we realized that Option #3 above was, in fact, the possibility that had proven true.
Kirsten had a meltdown.
I fetched my camera.
We both had visions of the Paper Street Soap Company from the movie “Fight Club.”
Then we took our selves, our dog, our stuff, the rental truck & trailer, and the Jeep to the nearest Motel 6. As promised, they’d left the light on for us.
We got some (so-called) food from Denny’s, a bottle of Canadian whisky, and some dog biscuits. And we sat down and discussed what to do.
Since rental trucks & trailers are expensive ~ we were already late returning ours ~ and we had no real alternative destination, we opted to unload the truck and put our stuff in the house.
We would keep as much stuff as possible packed in boxes, ready to move elsewhere on short notice.
Since then, we’ve been overseeing and/or actively working on getting this place into a condition so that it can either be lived in, rented, or sold. It is, and is going to continue to be, a long process.
I’ve documented some of the existing conditions, and ongoing improvements, as we’ve progressed.
I have posted some of the videos on one of my websites; you can see it here:
https://duttonmattor.com/boise-2022/
[discretionary viewing advised]
I still have lots more footage not yet posted … processing and uploading the videos takes a fair amount of time.
And of course, I’ll be taking more as we go along. This ‘project’ may take a while.
But I try to get new stuff uploaded somewhat regularly …
But I wanted to let you know, I guess we’re Idaho-ians now. At least temporarily.
Anyway, I hope you’re all doing well …
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and be sure to splurge on an extra piece of pie for us!