We never really noticed the house that would be our home until after the "For Sale" sign appeared on the lawn. Our daughter attended pre-school right next door and we had walked past it many times, but we had somehow missed it. The house was understated and slightly anonymous in the procession of beautiful and stately historic homes on Willson Ave. Partially hidden behind tall bushes, it's unadorned profile and faded beige siding paled relative to the charasmatic SAE frat house just across the street. Yet there was something about the house that felt like home.

For several years, we had been waiting for something we could afford in the Southside historic district to come on the market. The subdivision we lived in was very nice and well mannered, but we felt slightly isolated there.

We wanted to live downtown.

The house was a short bike ride to our jobs and Longfellow School was only a few blocks away. When we walked up the front stairs, the hanging porch swing and creaky screen door reminded us of a favorite song:

"The screen door slams
Mary's dress waves
Like a vision she dances across the porch
As the radio plays"

We hired the home inspector, the radon tester, the tree people and the Roto Rooter guys. Other than some typical asbestos wrapping a central heating duct and the sagging living room ceiling, the house seemed in good condition. We weren't ready to move in yet, so after closing, we rented the house to four engineering students from MSU.

A quick trip to the historic preservation archives revealed the centenial timeline of 810 South Willson Ave. The house had been built in 1904 for Robert Black, a bookkeeper with the Golden Rule Store. Only a year later, Mr. Black flipped the house to Robert Cooley, a zoology professor and head of the Biology Department at what was then known as the Agricultural College. In 1909, the professor installed newfangled indoor plumbing and connected the house to the state-of-the-art Bozeman central sewer system. Professor Cooley eventually became the State Entomologist, and he spent the rest of his career searching for a cure for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Subsequent owners included Dr. Andrew Kelly, a physician, Walter Teslow, the founder of Bozeman Feed and Grain Company, Keith Brown and Vivian Bridaham, owner of Sotheby's real estate agency. We bought the house from Vivian in April 2006.

Above is a "before" photo of our house. Looks charming, no? Why on earth did we start messing with it? Well, though we believe in the ideals of living in small spaces, we had been ruined by our 4 bed/3 bath subdivision house with the 2 car garage and bonus room. Condensing down to the 3 small bedrooms and 1 bath was going to be challenging. There would be no room for relatives who came to visit, and we really didn't want to share the one bathroom with Minna. Our king size bed wouldn't fit in the master and a the closets were small. The kitchen was in need of updating, with it's big wood burning stove. The mortar and lathe plaster walls bulged from behind the faded wallpaper, and the house smelled musty.

We started asking around for a builder familiar with renovating older homes. We heard about historic home specialist Richard Pence of NorDesign and hired him to draw up plans for a remodel and addition. We defined the scope of the work and our budget. Dick estimated 6 months for construction, starting in the Spring. We'd envisioned Minna opening presents under the tree by Christmas! So naive we were.

In May, our renters notified us they were moving out. We called Dick to let him know we were ready to start. Unfortunately, Dick wasn't ready for us. He and his crew were in the midst of another project, a large stone house on the outskirts of town.

One afternoon, eager to get started, not wanting to wait for our builder to finish his last project, I grabbed my Dewalt and began drilling out the long galzanized deck screws from the back porch, which had alwsays seemed awkward to us. This is where our family room would soon be built, and it had to go. Michelle and our four year old Minna caught builder's fever and came over to pitch in too. Ever mindful of doing her part to save the earth, Minna scoured the ground for loose screws and tossed them into a coffee can. Michelle carried planks of Doug Fir deck board and stacked them by size for future reuse.

It took us the rest of that day to disassemble the top section of the multi-level deck, and when darkness fell, we stood back to admire our handiwork. Like our Montana forefathers, pioneers of the frontier, we were a hardy, self-sufficient, determined bunch; our sweat and a few rudimentary tools were all we required. We swelled with pride at our accomplishment of the afternoon.

The next morning, my left hand swelled with pride, and the blisters and splinters in my right hand nearly prevented me from picking up the phone to beg Josh and Ethan to to do a little construction work for us.

After Josh and Ethan disassembled the rest of the deck, we moved inside and probed the 103 year old plaster and lathe walls. With a claw hammer and assorted implements of destruction, we hacked into the interior walls... intially because we were curious to see what lay behind. Later, because it was fun. Plumes of dust spilled from the windows like a house on fire. Celluose insulation, made from shredded 50 year old Bozeman Chronicle, spilled from behind the lathe. Asbestos wrapped heating ducts were revealed like mumified Egyptian royalty. Porcelane nob and tube wiring strung from joist to stud threatened to electrocute us. Chunk by chuck, the plaster walls fell, revealing the true skeleton of the house. Osteoperosis had surely settled in. The need for a more aggressive renovation strategy was becoming evident. It seemed clear we'd be reinforcing the bearing walls and replacing old plumbing, electrical and insulation to current day standards.

The living room ceiling seemed sligthly exhausted have done service as the bedroom floors above, came out next. When the dust settled, we discovered that the ceiling joist beams were spanned to the point of cracking. With a lust to modernize during the 1940's, a prior owner had installed central heating ducts, sawing out several critical load bearing studs in the process. With walls and ceiling plaster now largely gone, it seemed ludicrous to try to save the remaining walls covered with yellowed and curling wallpaper over cracked plaster. Several dump truck loads of debris later, we were past the point of no return. It pained us to send so much home sweet home to the landfill, but it seemed unavoidable.

With the house now down to the studs, we moved outside to continue the de-evelolution of 810 South Willson. The wood siding was looking questionable. The paint was flaking off in places, and an unsightly cottage cheese texture product had been sprayed on to extend the life of the siding. On close inspection, it was evident the house had been painted so many times that the paint would no longer stick. It was time to pull it off life support.

In a week, we had the siding removed. The wood skip sheathing was punctuated by rows of 3 inch holes where insulation had been blown into the walls from the outside. With the trim now gone, we pulled out the single pane, double hung windows, most which were painted shut and inoperable. We also unhooked the old furnace, water heaters, dishwasher, range, fridge, washer dryer and assorted cabinets and countertops, hoping Restore, the Habitat for Humanity recycled building materials store in Belgrade, could use them. "We'll take windows and doors if they're in good shape, but we can't use your appliances unless they're pretty new... but our insurance liability prevents us from taking anything that runs on gas." They scheduled a truck to pick up the windows, and we dragged the rest out onto the front lawn, a "FREE" sign hastily scrawled, giving permission to driveby scavengers. Within days, nearly all had found new foster homes.

The house now looked embarrassingly naked, it's private parts exposed for all to see. Inside, enough studs, ceilings joists and roof rafters were missing, cracked or sagging that the thought of an 6.0 temblor made us wince. It was time to call in the professionals.

Dick Pence sent his son Mark and co-worker Tucker to begin the business of repair and reinforcement. For much of October, November and December, from the outside, the house looked as if it had been abandoned after some unknown disaster. But unseen progress was being made inside and out back. Excavating and concrete trucks came and went. Massive "Glue-lam" beams were inserted to strengthen the joists and roof truss work. Rows of 2 x 4 studs were nailed into bearing walls, replacing and reinforcing ones that had been weakend. By the time the first snow fell, the framing of the house was done, strong and straight. The house was now ready for another hundred years of providing shelter. Finally, Mark and Tucker began constructing our new addition, the place where we would soon sleep and shower, our plan to add 1,000 sq. ft to the original 1,900 finally taking shape.

The new Pozzi windows came in shortly after the New Year, and the guys installed them in a week. Next, they poured new concrete footings out front, and began the process of reconstructing the house's most dominant feature - the big front porch. The house was starting to look like a home again.

With exterior framing nearing completion, it was time to call in the subcontractors, starting with the siding. We knew we wanted to use fiber-cement board siding and we settled on James Hardie because of it's reputation for being a "green" material. But what color would the house be? What size siding exposure works best? What type of trim and shingles looks good? And most importantly, who should we hire to install the siding? To be continued...

It was the kind of Winter native Bozemanites would consider typical, with lots of snow and numerous nights of subzero temperatures. All over town, people were turning down their thermostats, knowing $400 utlity bills would soon be arriving in mailboxes. Many mornings, Mark and Tucker needed to spend the first hour clearing fresh powder and ice. Progress slowed, but by the end of the month the rebuilt porch was finished. It was time to move back inside and get ready for the subcontractors.

After considering the alternatives, we chose James Hardie siding. Hardie Board is a composite mix of cement and wood byproducts. Nationally, Hardie Board is the best selling siding brand, but in Bozeman, it's only now starting to become popular. Hardie comes with a 50 year warranty and is available pre-painted in a wide range of colors.

We knew we wanted to hydronic radiant heat from the beginning. The type of equipment and the methods used to install them are critical decisions for an energy efficient home. To help us with those tough calls, we tapped Steve Little of Warm Floor Systems. Steve specified a Triangle Tube condensing boiler running at low temperature, and a combination mix of staple down imbedded in lightweight concrete, and staple under with aluminum fins to disperse the heat, plus a Myson radiator in one of the downstair rooms where access was limited.

For insulation, we selected Livingston based BioSeal using a water borne closed cell 2 lb foam.

When one applies urethane insulation to the envelope of a home, often the house becomes so air tight that one needs to install an air exchanger to remove inside air and bring in fresh outside air. A heat exchanger eliminates much of the heat loss during this air exchange. We asked Wayne and Ken from Baker Light Industries to install our heat exchanger system.

Christie Electric will be wiring us up and Williams Plumbing will hook up our bathroom and kitchen pipes. Williams will be routing the shower and tub drains so the water can be reused for toilet flushing. To accomplish this, we purchased a gray water tank from Brac, and ours will be among the first legal gray water system in Montana since the law was passed in 2007.

Orion Thornton of Independent Power Systems will be installing a 2 Kw Photo Voltaic Electric system on our roof, and Todd Hoitsma of Liquid Solar Systems will be installing a solar hot water panel. These systems promise to significantly reduce our electric and domestic water heating costs.

Additional subcontractors will be chosen in the weeks to follow.

Michelle spent days researching fixtures for bath and kitchen. She visited all the usual local plumbing haunts, and surfed the "PlumbingForLess.com" type websites, eventually selecting fixtures she found at Montana Tile and Stone down near Four Corners. With a limitless number of options to chose from, faucets, sinks and toilets are among the most difficult decisions one makes in the housebuilding process. While there's not much "green" in the plumbing sector, we did go with Toto's Aquia dual-flush toilet.

While cruising Montana Tile and Stone's showroom, I developed a crush on a glass shower door. This was not just any glass shower door, mind you. This one was the Jessica Alba of shower doors. Sleek and shiny with oversized brushed stainless roller wheels, the glass panel whispered open silently and smoothly... I wanted to shower with it every day... until I heard the price - $3,500! OK, so maybe that Andy Warhol soup can shower curtain from Target will be just fine.

With all the money we saved by not buying the Jessica Alba shower door, we could afford some nice bathroom tiles. While the final decision has yet to be made, we're leaning toward American Olean ice white 3 x 6 subway tile for the walls, and a Pinwheel pattern for the floor accented with colorful recycled glass "dots" from Refuge.

We launched BozemanHouse.com in late January, and at first the search engine robots couldn't find us. We continued to toy with the layout and design. When the 'bots finally began to visit, our ranking improved day by day. These days no website can survive without impressing the Google 'bots. Within a month BozemanHouse.com had nearly a thousand visitors. It's now ranking #1 for relevant search keywords like "Montana Eco Renovation" and "Green Countertops Bozeman."

Then, on February 20th, the Bozeman Chronicle ran a feature story about us in the Lifestyle Section. The next day, NewWest.net did a blurb. Not surprisingly, website traffic spiked as word about the site spreads. We're thrilled to see people interested.

With a typically snowy March, the siding and shingles took Dave and his excellent crew from Covers All Siding the entire month to install. The roofers struggled to keep snow and ice off the roof while they installed the composition shingles. But by the first day of Spring, the house was gift-wrapped in a handsome shade of gray/green. Mark and Tucker stayed busy framing the front and back porch. Inside, the plumbers plumbed pipes, the electricians pulled wire, and the insulators covered everything in a thick coating of lovely urethane foam. Meanwhile, Michelle and I shopped - sourcing bathroom tile, bathroom fixtures, kitchen appliances, cork flooring, wool carpeting, and cabinets. The light at the end of the tunnel was finally visible... while our bank account was rapidly disappearing.

On April Fools Day, the exterior siding and shingles were finallly completed. Inside, the foam insulation was sprayed, and it was time for Steve Little to begin stapling down the pex tubing that would be the heart of our heating system. By the end of April, we expect to have the concrete floors poured and the drywall hung.