Just signed contract to buy a house in Heron (Missoula: sales, appliances)

[Clark Fork Fantast]

Gotcha, that's a bit of a different story. I'm glad my impression (of the implication of the Amber Bear in the bear story) was wrong. I remember that place on 200, with the animals in cages. Next to the old Boar's Breath, right?

Hope the senior center bill passes!

[Room512]

The Amber Bear Inn is a beautiful place to stay and Nancy is very friendly but a little too "gossipy" for my taste, but that's a small town for ya. Anything you say in public will be repeated.

Dawn - we're all very interested to know if you are still planning to move to Heron.

[Clark Fork Fantast]

Room, thanks for your perspective, and welcome to C-D! We'll swing by the Bear first chance we get in early summer, and have our feelers out! If we have friends visiting, we'd like to be able to put them up nearby. We're in-between the Diamond T guest ranch over in ID (very nice place, cute cabins, but no restaurant) and the AB.

[Room512]

Thanks for the nice welcome, Clark Fork! The Diamond T is a great place and the owners are really nice people. I wonder if Dawn has visited the property yet. I liked what you advised, "Trust, but verify."

[Mr Miker]

Dawn has kind of disappeared from this thread. I wonder if they backed out or if they are blindly jumping in without regard to what they've been told. There is "I like living in small towns" and then there is "I live in Heron" and you can't fully comprehend it until you are here. Good example-I got stuck at a train that was stopped on the tracks the other day. Do I go 25+ miles out of my way to either Noxon or Clark Fork just so that I can get somewhere that is less than a mile away from me on the road? Thats the kind of stuff you don't realize is part of daily existence when you buy a house site unseen.

[Clark Fork Fantast]

I guess we'll never know if Dawn bought the place or not, but at least now we know that there's a handful of Clark Fork Valley people here on C-D, part- and full-time!

[dawnterese]

Yes, I disappeared for a while, but I am back!

We closed on the house and the paperwork was completed Friday, so for better or worse, we are moving to Heron in about a month.

Thanks to everyone for the information. It is invaluable. I appreciate the words of warning as well as the encouraging words. We are going into this with our eyes wide open, although you never REALLY know how things are until you have actually lived there for a while.

We look forward to maybe seeing some of you around town

[Clark Fork Fantast]

Dawn, good to hear from you! And congrats on closing! Now that you're committed to a course of action, it's time to focus on all the pros: There will still be snow on the Cabinets when you arrive (and maybe on the ground, too...), and the mountain views will take your breath away; the Clark Fork River will be spectacular, running fast with spring runoff; the days will already be long, and the evening twilight will linger. The air will be clean, and the wind will smell of spring. You'll probably see deer and elk moving about in the early morning hours. Yes, the roads will be muddy, but they are probably done repaving the Clark Fork Road (right, full-timers?). There will be a house waiting for you (and we'll keep our fingers crossed that it is in good shape). You'll be home.

Keep us posted about the good and the not-so-good! Remember to label all moving boxes, and keep a "hotbox" with essentials for everybody for the first night, so you don't have to rummage through a dozen boxes to find toiletries etc.

[Mr Miker]

You're getting here at the perfect time, spring has pretty much sprung. There isn't any snow in the valley except for a couple small patches here and there. This is a good time of year too because you'll be able to tell the swampy spots on your property and know not to put your driveway or any buildings or garden beds or what ever in those places.

[dawnterese]

Thank you for the welcome! We are looking forward to the move and have already spoken with a few of the neighbors around our new home. The cost of moving about 2000 miles turned out to be very high, even using ABF U Pack, which we've used before and was always the most affordable option. Given the cost, we were considering maybe just hitching a small trailer to the back of our vehicle for clothes, paperwork, etc. and just buying new furniture out there. Are there any furniture stores that would deliver to Heron out that way? If not, I suppose we just bite the bullet and move the stuff we have.