My Latest Trip To Priest River (Sandpoint, Clark Fork: sale, 2015, city hall)

[sierra don]

Decided to go visit our new home in priest River for a week or so since the original owners finally closed on their new home and were all moved out, 1st time seeing the house empty. Arrived at the property on the 11th and left on the 19th. The previous owner winterized the house for me before I took off to head back south.

The house was empty except for my inflatable bed, a TV and a DVD player, gotta have some entertainment. The 1st few days were kind of weird being in a new place and a whole new state but finally got over that. Had a few inches of snow on the ground when I arrived and over 8 when I left. Had a few days of snow while there and temps ranged anywhere from 15 to 32, also had snow flurries almost everyday except for the 1 sunny day while I was in town.

The house is out there a bit, about 20 miles up hwy 57 but like being that far out of town. One of the things I like most was the complete silence at night and in the AM, actually very quiet during the day, not even birds, probably too cold and snowy for them to be doing much of anything, thought a few crows would squawk and fly by and saw 1 eagle. Had a deer in the front yard Friday night and a small herd in the meadow across the road on Saturday AM, also saw a doe and fawn down the road.

I got my property taxes paid, put the electric put into our name, got a PO Box also (even accidentally found where City Hall is located while trying to locate the Post Office. I saw a flag flying and automatically assumed Post Office, went in and asked to open a PO Box.....ooops) and also got an Idaho phone number w/208 area code. I have been using MagicJack for the last 10 years so I ordered a new one for our Idaho home and set it up last night. Looks like I will be able to use (AIR-PIPE) as our internet provider, gonna miss my comcast high speed (65 mega bits).

I need to get up there again and get my Drivers license and register to vote so I can file my home owners exemption before April. Need to sell our home here before we can fully move in, though I have brought up 2 loads of stuff so far......so far this year (2015) I have put on over 8,000 miles making trips up to NID, good thing I like to drive.

Most likely will update the filtration system for the Well, we did have a Well and water test done along with a home and septic inspection, all good. Unknown to me the original owner had removed the filter from the house water filtration before I got there. I boiled water for instant coffee and the water turned brown, I thought maybe there must have been some residue in the pan I brought. Cleaned the pan and used what appears to be a drinking water spigot on the sink, heat the water and it turns brown again, but not as brown so I used it (looks to have a filter of it's own but probably needs to be replaced).

Took a shower after being there 2 days, not a pleasant experience. The best way to explain the smell (it's what I told my wife when I called her) is imagine being showered by liquid egg farts, not good, but at least I smelt okay after drying off. The orig. owner came by a few days later and I asked him whats the deal with the water, he say's oh yeah I pulled the filter. I guess he was getting ready for the winterization of the place. He said the water was just fine when the filter is in place, I'll have to see when I go back up and put in a fresh filter.

I watched him do the winterizing and it looks like the whole house filter is only a single stage (1 micron spun cartridge) and I should probably upgrade to a multistage unit. Looked at this 5 stage unit on Home Depot for 950 bucks and that may be the way to go, or something similar, still doing research on filtering. I know stuff is still getting by the current filtration, all the stainless steel in the sink drains were brown and one bathroom toilet was stained orange below the water line.

For the most part I just hung around the house cleaning and stuff like that, but did go to Walmart over in Sandpoint and every few days run down to town to get smokes and a few days of Rockstars. Met the neighbor on one side of the property and talked with him for a while, a native Idahoan, nice guy.

A snowblower is on my list of things buy after getting moved up there. I get snow here but I can get by with a shovel, supposed to get 5 to 12 inches on Thurs., had over 5 inches of rain fall yesterday.

I feel very lucky to have a county maintained road to my house (dead ends 2 properties down), and we are a mile from the highway and the entire road is all dirt/gravel. The plows would come through about 7:30 am and sometime in the middle of the night. I know lots of rural property owners have to clear their own roads. I use Dufort Rd. to cross over Sagle to hwy 95 and was surprised to see that is does not get plowed down to black top, it was all compressed snow and ice but well sanded, had no problem driving over to 95. I drove my wife's AWD Dodge Caliber up and while there it never once slipped or spun a tire, responsible driving practices helps a lot. it snows where I currently live and our vehicles are either AWD or 4WD.

Well that's more or less my stay in Idaho, looking forwrd to getting my place down here sold so I can get into the new house full time.

[Teufelshund20]

Thanks for posting, that is where I plan on moving before the summer. I'm in the socialist state of Kalifornia right now but hope to get out of here by the summer. I am looking for at least 10 acres or more (I have two horses and three dogs). Retired military with a budget of $400k.

[Publius4]

Great update Don! I was thinking about you a few days ago. B&H had a special on a DJI Phantom. Almost bought it... Almost. Anyway, I'm glad to hear of your progress. We got a lot of snow over the last couple days in CDA and it's still coming. We are going up to check on our property in Bonner Co. today to see the accumulation there. I imagine your place in Priest Lake is pretty covered.

[sierra don]

Hi Teufelshund20, I'm another escapee from kommifornia and will be so happy when we are finally out of this state. For the budget you have you should be able to get exactly what you are looking for. I paid 214K for mine, a little over 7 acres, 1500 sqft 3 bdrm home, a large garage, a shop, a barn and 3 other outbuildings. It has 2 fenced pastures and 5 acres of forest the previous owners used to have a few horses. Keep us updated on you property search and how it goes.


Hi Publius4, I like B&H, bought a lot of photo gear through them, maybe they will have a good sale on the Phantom after Christmas. I brought up my quad to do some aerial vid but was not able to do so, had a solder joint break free and had no way to re-solder. I started to bring up 2 quads but decided against it, that was a mistake. I look at the DOT hiway cam on 57 by my house every day and it looks like it has snowed every day since I left so probably a good amount on the ground. When the previous owner came by to winterize the house on Saturday he said there was more snow on the ground then than they had the previous winter.

I bet there is a fair amount of snow at your new property, looking at the Sandpoint cam right now and it's snowing downtown. We are supposed to get dumped on tonight and tomorrow, 8 to 12 inches with up to 3 feet at the passes going into Tahoe.

Also, I have not forgot about doing some aerial footage for ya after I get up there, maybe you'll be flying your own by then.

[Clark Fork Fantast]

Thanks for the report, Don, so nice to hear that you're slowly moving your stuff from CA to NID! I can relate to the basic accommodations--we've been bivouacking in our own cabin the last three summers. First summer all we had was an inflatable bed, and two beach chairs! Last summer we'd graduated to a real bed with a real mattress, in a real framed-in bedroom. We also brought a portable DVD player, but we were so tired every night that we only used it once.

This could be the start of a winter with heavy snow! First Street in Sandpoint looks very Christmassy on the webcam. I'm dreaming of a White Christmas next year where we hope our cabin will have insulation, and a wood stove! I couldn't believe how cold our place was at Thanksgiving when I did my inspection visit! Like an ice box compared to the outside!

But it was very pretty!

[MiaMia411]

Make sure your well is chlorinated , can help with the water being fresh coming in and make sure all filters are new as well.

[sierra don]

Hi CFF, Your cabin looks really nice, gonna be some nice summer evenings on that front deck. I used the DVD player mostly as background noise during the day, forgot to bring my radio. I just bought a scanner that also picks up FM and had planned on bringing that up, After listening to the Sheriff frequencies here in Pollock Pines I am surprised at how much is going on around the county, nothing really bad, mostly people being stupid.

Yep looks like a good snow year, even here in the Ca. Sierra's. It's snowed about 5 or so times here at my house but nothing has accumulated and that should change tonight and tomorrow. Will be the 1st white Christmas at my house in 4 years.

You mentioned how cold it was in your cabin, I've noticed how it can be colder inside an unheated building than outside, this house was like that when I did the walk-thru back in '94 and I was doing some stuff in the garage at the Priest River house and felt like I was in a freezer.

Looks like I chose one of the colder areas to live in up there in NID. Since my house is only a few miles from Priest Lake even though my addr. is Priest River, I use the weather forecast for Priest Lake on weather.com. Right now it's 27 at the new home, 29 at Priest River, 30 in Sandpoint and 30 in Clark Fork......my area always shows a few degrees colder than all the other areas. At 33 degrees here at my home in the Sierra's.

Hi MiaMia411, Thanks for the tip on water chlorination, I'm sure that the filter system I am looking at will take everything out of the water that should not be there, a 5 stage system with the 5th stage being an ultraviolet setup that kills all bacteria and viruses. I'd like to avoid chlorine if I can, my water in my current home is a public supply from here in the mountains and they chlorinate it. It's great tasting water but you need to let it sit over night for the chlorine to dissapate.

[Ben's Oval]

Hi Sierra Don,

We are looking to move to Priest River in Hoodoo valley. How is Air-pipe internet working for you?

We work from home and currently get 12mbs down and 3 mbs up ...what is your service like?

[sierra don]

Hi Ben,

Was not able to use Air-pipe, to many trees, no direct line of sight.

Went with HughesNet, getting 12 down and 3 up but using some of the speed tests available I have never seen upload even reach 1 meg. The download is consistently at 12 or above.

Good luck with your move, Idaho is an awesome place to live.

-Don