We made it
We arrived in Wallace around 12:30pm and with all the snow it looked and felt like Christmas.
Living room
Carolyn and I unloaded a sofa and chairs from the trailer. Then we moved everything but a couple of heavy items into the house.
Early 1900's cabinet maker's benchMy next door neighbor helped me carry the workbench base and a router table down into the basement. When we were here last time at Labor Day, the workbench base was too wide to fit through the two doors into the house. At the end of that trip I had to take the base home, knock the mortise and tenons apart, trim 3" off the depth of the cabinet, and reassemble it. While I was at it I built a storage unit of drawers to fit in the base. Like the rest of the workbench, the drawers are made of fir floorboards. On Saturday afternoon we washed the walls of the back bedroom with TSP to prep for painting. Then we took down the drapes and brackets in the windows facing the street. Finally, we knocked apart the entertainment center left at the house and loaded the pieces, the drapes, a couple of sofa chairs, and more into the truck for a run to the dump.
Wallace in the late afternoon
Even though Wallace is only fifteen miles from the Montana border, it's in the Pacific timezone. At this time of year, it gets dark early in Seattle, but in Wallace, 350 miles more east and surrounded by mountains, it gets dark ridiculously early. Notice the snow is plowed to the center of the road, even on our neighborhood street. Later a front-end loader will scoop up the snow and pile it in various locations around the town. On Saturday evening Carolyn and I walked over to the high school to watch a high school girl's basketball tournament. Wallace ended up winning the tourney. The teams in the tournament have to travel from far away towns such as Plummer and Sand Point.
Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes
On Sunday morning we got ready to go to church. I brought a suit and earlier in the week bought a new white shirt. We brought an ironing board and iron to leave at the house. When I unpacked, I somehow forgot to pack my new shirt. What to do? All I had packed were t-shirts and ski clothes. Nothing was open in Wallace where I could get a shirt. We ended up driving to the Walmart in Smelterville, I got dressed in the parking lot and we made it to church. After church we took Gypsy on a walk on the rails-to-trails Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes.
Wallace in the snow
Old Northern Pacific train depot
Painting the floor
Our main goal of this trip was to paint the back room, from floor to ceiling. For the floor we had to decide between tougher oil-based paint versus faster drying latex paint. We went with the oil-based paint which turned out to be a big mistake. The paint can label said it took eight hours to dry or recoat, but after 24 hours, the paint was still tacky. We had to do other tasks each day waiting for the floor to dry. As a result, we got a lot more done than we had originally planned.
First coat complete
We ended up painting three coats on the floor. By using fans and turning the heat in the house up to 80, the paint was dry enough to walk on by Thanksgiving Day. On Monday afternoon I painted two coats on the two doors we removed from the back bedroom and then painted the quarter-round shoe molding we'll install later around the baseboards. On Monday evening I went over to the neighbor's to help them move two couches and then set up their new Sony GoogleTV.
Salvaged materials
The front door on the house seemed like it was out of the 60's and didn't match the rest of the house. A couple months ago we went to Second Use in Seattle to look for an old door that matched the house. We found an old door, a chair, and some recycled molding we'd need to finish the back bedroom.
Patching the old doorknob holes
The new old door was larger than the existing front door. I had to trim it down to size. I removed the old putty from the windows and reglazed them. Then I patched the old doorknob and lock holes with butterfly patches on both sides of the door.
Installing the original door hardwareOn Tuesday I removed the existing door and installed the new door. I moved all the hardware from the existing door to the new door. This side of the door is finished with polyurethane.
Outside of the new door
The outside of the door is finished with four coats of white paint. On Tuesday night, Carolyn made Cincinnati chili and we had our next door neighbors over for dinner.
Another view
We also installed new curtains in all the upstairs and downstairs windows facing the street. We found the card catalog in the basement of Carolyn's parent's house. Carolyn's dad used the card catalog to organize research (on Escalante and Domingas) long before computers were available. A stamp on the bottom of the box says it came from the junior high Carolyn went to. I made a base of tapered legs and tenoned skirts out of white oak.
Wallace High
By Tuesday the temps warmed up above freezing and it rained and rained and rained and melted most of the snow. We walked to the hardware store everyday except Sundays and Thanksgiving Day for tape or a drill bit or paint or something. On one visit I asked if I could see one of the pistols in the glass case by the register. The woman at the register said sure. I stood there waiting for her to get the keys, unlock the case, and hand me the pistol. Eventually she said, "It's open, help yourself." Small towns are so different than big towns. While at the hardware store, I noticed a sign for a blood drive at the high school. Around noon I walked to the high school to donate blood. I went to the office and asked about the blood drive, expecting to have to check in and get a visitor's badge. The women in the office told me to head to the school's library (unescorted). Again, it's a totally different experience than in a big town.
Carolyn's jogging route
Before the snow melted Carolyn took advantage of a one-mile stretch of covered trail under I-90 to run back and forth. In an earlier post I wrote about the original intention of building I-90 through the center of town. The townsfolk reacted by getting all the buildings put on an historical register. The highway engineers redesigned the road to skirt the town, but it would have to be elevated over the existing railroad tracks.
Northern Pacific tracks
This photo shows the tracks a hundred years ago where Carolyn was running today. The train station is on the left, the same one in a few pictures up above (but the station has been moved). Deregulation of the railroads in the 70's allowed railroads to abandon non-profitable routes and by the time construction started on the elevated highway, the railroad had pulled up their tracks.
Heading toward Mullan
By Wednesday much of the snow had melted and I rode my bike while Carolyn ran up the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes toward Mullan. As we gained altitude we eventually hit the snow line and after another mile, turned around for Wallace. Meanwhile at home, all the rain caused water to leak into the basement. The concrete basement floor is sloped such that all the water is directed to a sump where a sump pump will pump the water out. Unfortunately, the installed sump pump is meant for a deeper sump and the switch that turns on the pump requires more water pressure before it will kick in. I found three brand-new sump pumps with mechanical float switches in boxes on a shelf in the basement and after another trip to the hardware store for a back-flow valve, installed one of the new sump pumps and it works.
Looking up the street near the house The clipped tan building on the left is the post office, about a block from the house.
Giant post office
I went with Carolyn to the post office to mail a card. The post office is huge by any standard. The staff has been downsized to a single employee.
Another view of the post office
The woodwork inside the post office is very detailed. On Thanksgiving Day the back bedroom floor was dry enough to walk on in socks. I masked the walls then painted two coats. Carolyn fixed a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. We talked to our kids (all in Utah for Thanksgiving) and families on the phone. Then we masked and painted the upstairs hall walls. In the early evening, our neighbors invited us over for dessert with their extended family.
Lookout Pass skiing
Early Friday morning I cut and installed new shoe molding in the back bedroom. Then we drove 15 miles on I-90 to Lookout Pass on the border of Idaho and Montana. There's only a single stop sign between our house and the slopes. The week of rain in Wallace was a week of snow at Lookout. The ski resort only has three chairlifts, all old-school double chairs. The resort straddles the Idaho/Montana border. This is the lift from the base called the "Idaho Side".
North Side
This run took us down to the North Side lift. I believe that's a tailing pond from the Lucky Friday mine down below.
Carolyn on the Idaho Side
The snow was surprisingly good and the ski area exceeded our expectations. We had a great time. Carolyn is such a good skier, learning to ski at Sundance as a little kid, thanks to her dad.
Montana Side
This run leads down to the Montana Side lift. The view is looking up a canyon of the headwaters of the St. Regis River. There are several lakes worth hiking to up there.
Painting the woodwork
We came home from skiing in the afternoon and painted two coats on all the woodwork in the back bedroom.
All done!
Another view
We admired our work for two seconds and then headed upstairs and painted two coats on the hall ceiling.
Painting the upstairs hall door
It's now Saturday and we've been in Wallace a week and we're just about painted out, but have one last task to paint all the woodwork in the upstairs hall. I've removed the door to make it easier to paint. I removed a mirror on the door. The previous painter just painted around the mirror.
Old lock
The old lock has been painted over many times. Carolyn had me remove it so we could bring it home, strip off the old paint, and paint it black. The doorknob is made of porcelain.
Storage area behind the closet
I took off the doors to the storage area behind the closet, and the closet door, so I could paint them. Carolyn got freaked out by the open storage area and she refused to go into that area of the house until I put the door back on--even though I hadn't painted it yet.
Painted storage door
Painted hall
We painted the hall walls, ceiling, and woodwork.
Another view
This is the other end of the hall. The walls are really light gray, not tan like in this photo.
Wallace map from 1949
When we first bought the house, Allison found this 1949 map of Wallace rolled up on a high shelf in a closet. The map shows the underground water system serving the city.
Another view
We framed the map and hung it in the living room.
Old Wallace photos
Carolyn purchased several digital photos from the University of Idaho's Barnard-Stockbridge collection, Paige helped her upload and print them at Costco, and we framed and hung them in the dining room.
Library, top left. Old high school (now demolished), top right. Train station, bottom left. Wallace,
bottom right.
Smashed truck
On Saturday afternoon a woman came to the door and asked if that was our truck parked out front. She said she was distracted turning onto our street and sideswiped the truck. She has insurance and the truck is getting fixed.
Wardner Canyon
Later in the afternoon we drove to Kellogg for some errands. We also drove up Wardner canyon to see what was there. On Sunday we went to church. We took Gypsy on an off-leash walk up the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes to the old Golconda mine site and back to Wallace. On Monday morning we did some paint touch-up, re-hung several painted doors, packed up, shut down the house, and drove back to Redmond. It was a fun and relaxing week in Wallace, but as soon as we got in the car and started driving home, I could feel the responsibilities of life start piling on. It was one of the fastest weeks of my life.
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