After over 8 lonnnggg months of scraping, sanding, and priming the Gibson Mansion Paint restoration work is complete.
In May of 2007 the crew of 6 began scraping and taking layers of 100 years of paint off and in some areas just sanding the bare wood. Of course it was also one of the hottest summers in Missoula, so being against a white house that draws heat and using heat guns it was a grueling task….but so worth it.
It went from every extreme with the weather, like I said the 105 degree days in the summer to finishing in the end of October in snow and freezing temperatures. I can honestly say I don’t remember a painting project where you had issues with it being too hot to paint and then to cold to paint.
The end result was beautiful, Gibson Mansion Bed and Breakfast now almost radiates with a shine so bright you have to wear sunglasses! It is amazing how it transformed all the ornate details of the exterior. They just don’t do that kind of craftsmanship anymore.
Weddings at the Mansion are by far more elegant with the renovations! It is wonderful to see the Historic mansion being used as a backdrop for outdoor wedding and special events.
It was a gorgeous weekend, after a week of snow and temperatures in the 40′s, here in the Missoula valley! With clear blue skies and warm sunshine we headed for one of the many day hikes out of Gibson Mansion Bed and Breakfast’s front door. 
The early wild flowers in bloom where so spectacular, with the fresh mountain air. The creeks are flowing heavy and COLD with the winter snow melt, it was just warm enough out that it tempted you to stick a toe in the water. However our 8 month old black lab thought it was plenty warm enough to enjoy a dip. 
It makes us excited to reach our goal of hiking everyone of the hikes in the book “Day hikes around Missoula Montana” by Robert Stone. There are 85 hikes in this book, all within one hour or less of our front door! We have done probably half of them and love getting out in the great outdoors. The book is great in letting you know what the elevation gain is and how long it will take to do the hike. We did the Larry Creek hike today, and it was a nice easy hike and great to start the season out.