BIGFORK - A Bigfork family is in the process of building a tiny home and needs help winterizing the exterior portions of the project with winter fast approaching.
With time running out, they put a call out asking for community help and quickly heard back from friends, family, neighbors, and even teachers from their child’s elementary school who were willing to lend a helping hand.
As the snowline slowly starts to slip down the local hills, work still needs to be done for the Blake family.
“We’re finishing the exterior because once the snows come, we need to have the windows installed, the door installed, hopefully, the siding will go up in the next couple weeks, we might be doing that in the snow,” said Mariah Blake.
Born and raised in Kalispell, Mariah always knew she wanted to raise her family back home in Flathead County.
“I think this is where we are meant to be, where we feel the happiest and I’ve always had the mountains in my heart, I just love it here,” added Blake.
After living near family in France for four years, Mariah and her husband Thomas decided to move back to Montana to raise their son Rowan.
They quickly realized rent and real estate had exploded in the Flathead, they transitioned to building their own tiny home.
“We don’t want to have to pay $1,000, $2,000 in rent every month, you know we would much rather invest our money in something we can have for the long term,” said Blake.
While they build, the Blake’s are staying in a camper on a friend’s property. The goal is to have the tiny home’s exterior winter ready in the coming weeks.
“Get to a place where we can work on the inside through the colder months and then hopefully in the spring really get it finished so we can live in it.”
Rowan’s P.E. Teacher Bud Gaiser received word that the family needed help winterizing the tiny home. He answered the call, no questions asked.
“After school, I’m the crosswalk guy and she came over and flagged me down and told me that this was happening today, and I certainly didn’t want to miss it,” said Gaiser.
Longtime friend Tazia Wisdom traveled from Missoula Saturday morning to help work on the home.
“This has been Mariah’s and Thomas’s dream for a really long time, so it meant a lot to come up here and support that,” added Wisdom.
Mariah says the dream of building their tiny home would not be possible without the support of her fellow Montanans.
“Especially in times like these, I think that it's especially important to have that, and I just feel so blessed that we do have that, it’s pretty incredible,” said Blake.