Many of you have heard how Lynda and I ended up in Weiser—but humor us.
In about 1997, Lynda informed me it was time for a change. My corporate life appeared to be waning, so I was finally ready to listen. Lynda said she wanted to have a Bed and Breakfast. The location was yet to be decided. She attended a seminar on owning and running a B&B, and we took a vacation staying in a different B&B every night.
During a trip to Stibnite and Thunder Mountain, Idaho for the company I worked for, I came through Weiser and thought it was a nice, friendly town. I told Lynda about it when I returned to Colorado. A short time later, Lynda saw a big brick house listed for sale in her B&B magazine and found out it was in Weiser. Sandy Wilson was happy to send glossy photos, and Lynda was sold.
On a trip back from Alaska in September 1997, we drove through Weiser and toured the Galloway House. Having only been through North Idaho, Lynda was a little shocked. “Where are all the trees?”
Did that stop us?
Nope. On New Year’s Eve day, we had sold our house in Colorado and were on our way to Weiser with a U-Haul truck and trailer full of our belongings.
Cold, rainy, inverted—welcome to Weiser!
Two weeks later, snow arrived and didn’t melt until March. I spent time commuting back to Denver as my job was winding down and going to auctions. We got the B&B opened in April and spent the next nearly seven years welcoming guests, cooking breakfasts, swabbing toilets, and doing constant maintenance on that wonderful 100-year-old house.
Finally, in 2004—with Lynda’s continuing back and knee issues, and frankly just wanting more time to visit family (we went from 0 grandchildren to 5 in those years)—we decided it was time to sell. Contract in hand, we looked at each other and said, “What now?”
We just couldn’t think of anywhere we’d rather spend our golden years. So Weiser it was.
Luckily, Steve and Cheri had a spare house, and with a little coaxing, they agreed to sell.
In early 2005, we became the proud owners of the Morris Sommer House, located at 548 W. 2nd St.—an 1898–99 Victorian designed by Tourtellotte & Company. Problem was, it wasn’t exactly move-in ready. Steve had started the restoration with a new roof and exterior paint job. He had also started demo on the lower level.
We continued the demo while renting the small Victorian Billy Elwell House at the corner of West 1st and Court St.
Five years later, after much sweat equity and a thousand (approximately) trips to the dump and Home Depot, we were ready to move in.
We still find projects that need doing, and of course, although the inside of the house is new from the studs out, the outside is still 123 years old.
In the last couple of years, the house has gotten a fresh coat of paint on the outside, as well as a new front porch and railing—just in time for our 50th wedding anniversary celebration.
So now, 17 years later, I think our home is finished… but it may be time to go back and redo a few things—if the old body will allow it.
We still ask ourselves if there’s somewhere we’d rather be, and so far, the answer is still: No.
By Contributing Author Dennis Cooper
September 12, 2022