Our Alaskan House Hunt - Part 2

If you want to read Part 1 - Click here. Most photos are from the Internet and were taken by Alaska Virtual Digital Photos - as marked on the photos. 

Before we begin, or conclude if you read Part 1, if you're moving to the Anchorage/Valley area and need a realtor, we highly recommend Mark Mandigo and his team at Mandigo Manor Home Team - Office 907-223-8422.

Day 4 - Friday  found us driving up the  Hwy once again. We met Mark and went into two homes. The first one was lovely, but we really wanted chickens and we didn't want a lot of covenants.

We looked at the last house. It is a bit out of the city, is big enough to fit us all now, doesn't have a garage, garden spots, green house or hut tubs..... At this point we had narrowed our possibilities to three. The home we were about to look at, one that was nice but more money and one that we liked, but wasn't on the market.  This was the least expensive home; given we didn't know the price of the one that wasn't on the market.

If you know us, you know much of our ministry dreams revolve around hospitality. You know we've been living in 350 SF or less for the past two years.  You know our dreams have not panned out - we aren't missionaries in Japan, we aren't traveling around the US - we've been medically stranded by both our health and the health of others.

You may also remember we embraced the minimalist lifestyle, in order to move to Japan. We stored enough to furnish a SMALL HOME when we returned from Japan in 10 - 15 years and gave the rest away. We put our remaining household goods into storage and found out Michael had Parkinsons the next day. This changed our missionary plans.

Imagine our shock when this house fell into place. It's HUGE....we won't build a lot of guest houses and such - but we'll have plenty of room for guests INSIDE.  We have plans to give it a bit more "curb appeal" and we can build our own garden beds, garage and greenhouse. We are already researching wood stoves and such. The family moving out aren't leaving as many things as others were leaving.....so we're in the process of determining what will take priority to do or buy now. LOL

Yes - we made an offer, they countered, we accepted. Unless something unexpected shows on the inspection or appraisal, we will be closing on this home and moving into it well before the kids arrive with their families. It is nearly 6,000 SF, has six bedrooms - and two bonus rooms, it has several "living areas," a HUGE dining room, nearly 2 acres, safe stairs, and a fenced area for kids and pets.

We were all a bit stunned at the size of the entry - must have had institutional use
@ some point - we had looked at a nursing home previously - this is nicer. 

Entry way 

Living Room, Family Room or Game Room 

Bdr 1 with 1/2 bath

Kitchen - fridge goes....

We had been given a table that once sat in Hospitality House in Misawa, Japan. I did not want to get rid of the table and it is in storage. In each house we visited, I wondered if the table and china hutch would fit....not a problem here.....envisioning game nights and dinners....Through the door in the far wall is 2 rooms with an separate entrance to the house. 

Dining Room 

Bonus Room 1 

Looking through bonus room 1 to bonus room 2

Going up the stairs there is a big living area on the left - with a view and a balcony

Family room, Game room, Living room....

 This nook is to the right at the top of the stairs. Down the hall are 3 bedrooms, a laundry room and a couple of bathrooms. 

Bdr 2 

 There is a full bath and a 1/2 bath on each floor - I don't know why. 

Bdr 3 

Bdr 4

Nook at the top of the stairs - I hadn't noted the 3rd floor

Bdr 5 - third floor - 1/2 bath outside the door

Bdr 6 - Master Bedroom

 Photo doesn't do the view justice

Master bath - overwhelming considering the step up from an RV bathroom

Double Vanities 

 The kids say this is big enough to be another room - from an RV closet shared by 5 to THIS

Walk Through Closet

 And lots of moose poop outside....I suggested a cottage business making earrings....

We don't know WHY this is the only house that opened up - but it is. We spent the weekend praying about it. Monday, as we flew out of Alaska, Mark submitted our offer to the sellers. Monday, as we drove down to Oregon, we received a counter offer. Today, 23 May, we accepted the counter offer. Unless something shows up on the inspection or appraisal to stop the process....this will be the home we welcome the kids and their families too when they make their way to Alaska.

Our Alaskan House Hunt - Part 1

If you don't want all the details about the search - and simply want to see the home we put an offer on - click here for Part 2 of the story. 

Details! Everyone wants details! We went to Alaska last week, we looked at 26 homes, we put an offer on a house, we received a counter-offer, we accepted the offer pending nothing unexpected shows up on the inspection.  Sounds simple and straight-forward. It was EXHAUSTING...and it was GREAT FUN!

At JaRissa's starting out - sure we'd get one of our top five!

A word before I say much more - if you're moving to the Anchorage area and need a realtor we highly recommend Mark Mandigo at Mandigo Manor Home Team - Office  907-223-8422.

Hopeful at our first viewing

Day 1 - Tuesday. We had looked at hundreds of homes online. We had settled on about eight we wanted to see. The time to buy a home was now, so that it can be closed on before the kids move up.  We were sure one of them would be the right one.....we had decided land was more important than the house. We didn't want to buy a "mini-mansion," we wanted to have room for the kids to explore, garden etc.  We knew we had a houseful moving with us and needed to fit in the home. A big RV barn would be a bonus.

WHY did we want so much land? We wanted to build a guest home for visitors. We wanted the option of some day having a Christian B/B, or getaway for ministry couples or retreat center....

We fell in LOVE with a home on 9 acres - the owners obviously took great pride in their home and  land.  It was delightfully quirky - a bit "too much" going on with colors, but I could take care of that. After the first day of looking, we were 90% sure this was our home. It had EVERYTHING we wanted - land, hot tub, decks, gardens, green house.....I wasn't quite sure how we'd fit.....but we were brainstorming that issue.

We saw all our favorites in one day! This one turned out to be disappointing - though I love the carved bears.....

At the end of looking at all our favorites, we liked the first one on 9 acres and this home with a fantastic view. This one had 4 acres (though much of it is downhill) and a layout that we could all fit into for the winter. The garage/workshop was GREAT and it had a RV hook up. 

 We spent day 2 - Wednesday -  thinking through the houses. We decided the 9 acre home was our first choice and the one with the fantastic view was our second. Both would work in the short term - and had possibilities for the long term.

The home on 9 acres was on a corner lot. We spent so much time at this home, that we were running late for our next appointment. We drove in and out the same way. We prayed through the night, talked in the morning and decided we needed to drive by both homes again. We drove through the neighborhood and realized our neighbors were wildly unique....across from us was a septic sucking business - that didn't bother us and we knew they were there. From our research we also knew there was a car junk yard next to the home - but there was a privacy fence.  When we drove by we realized things had changed since google earth and Matsu parcel viewer had taken photos.😜 The cars were spilling out gates, into the road, all the way to the porch of the home. The house next to this one was the SAME way - they were cutting down trees to load more cars in when we went by. They weren't very friendly. Next to the septic place was a recycling place. We began to wonder....and then noticed there were many homes for sale in the area. If this place went south, we'd not be able to sell 9 acres in this location.  I also didn't feel it a safe place to raise kids....and our thought was we'd eventually give some of the land to kids to build homes.....

We were sad  - and drove by the other home we liked again. We checked the property from the bottom of the hill, checked the streets around it. We decided it would be easier to buy land if we were IN AK - because we want land, but we want a nice area too.

We went home to think and have fun with JaRissa

Day three - Thursday, we decided we wanted to put an offer in on the home with the fantastic view.....but it wasn't on the market.  They were re-evaluating their asking price and doing a TON of work - gorgeous home - but it wasn't on the market and we didn't know what the price would be when it was. We knew we needed to buy one now in order to have a home by July.

We talked with Mark and told him we'd decided to look for homes with less land. That we still wanted to be able to have chickens.....but we'd buy a small home and place now and then look for land after things settled from the great migration. He sent us links to homes with 1 - 2 acres. Previously, he'd only sent us 3 acres or bigger per our request.  We headed out again.

I'll spare you all the details - we stayed out late into the evening driving by lots of houses which we were now in the running since we were not looking for 5 acres or more.

We drove by this one and both thought, "This may be the one."  We couldn't see much....but we texted Mark and told him we had two more homes to look at.,,,,this one and a smaller one in a residential neighborhood.

*Please note if you happen to have links to these homes - we don't want to share addresses online.

We're in Alaska

This happened a year ago. We are thrilled  Larissa has "Gone Gherkin." She's a class act. She brings much joy, laughter and love to our family. She loves us! and we love her! 

and TODAY we flew into Anchorage. We're spending some time with JaRissa and we're LOOKING FOR A HOME which will serve as a safe landing spot for the Great Gherkin Migration of 2017.

I'm not 100% sure why this is funny, but I made a spreadsheet that listed the homes we were interested in with all the details that matter to us.....this made it easier for us to come up with a short list - which is fairly long. We only need one home. Mark is meeting us tomorrow morning at the biggest and prettiest house.....and has arranged a tour of all our favorites.  It's becoming apparent the choice will be if we want a big home/small land/restrictions or lots of land and a smaller house. NOW, if it were just US we'd go for the land/small house and never look back. ::snort:: 

It will be a busy week. House hunting is the priority.....and then we have a list of other things we'd like to do while here.....check out VA Clinics, check out steel buildings, meet up with friends....but the home will come first. 

BTW flying in Alaska on a late flight is fine in the spring/summer. Everyone is outside BBQing anyway! 

Mother's Day

We spent Mother's Day with some of my favorite Moms - and Bella.  How can it get better than that?

My Mom 

Bre - 6 weeks to go 

In case you missed the announcement - due in late November

 And Bella, too! 

"Home" Again

We woke refreshed to this beautiful view from the windshield! Michael spurred us on to a morning walk before we left Olallie Campground. 

#ViewFromMyWindshield

Raining just a "bit." 

 

Michael schools Stacia on the working of old-fashioned pumps. 

The one "water source" for the campground

It was a quick 50 miles back to Springfield from the campground. Michael stopped for diesel, we discovered, though you can't pump your own gas in OR, they prefer you pump your own diesel. 😉 The boys unhooked Nimo and Michael suggested Stacia and I go visit my mom. This is just what we did, while they went to fill with propane, washed Uchi and did a few other errands.

We had a nice visit with Mom. She has 8 radiation sessions left. Radiation is nasty. Enough said.

We've been gone for three weeks and Bella has changed much in those weeks. She now walks or runs about 90% of the time, has developed new personality and wonderful hand gestures - "What?"  "I don't know" and she signs, please, thank you, more and stop.

AND she has a darling sense of fashion

 Bre's changed quite a bit too! 6 weeks until Gideon is due to arrive. 

Izaak grilled a yummy dinner of steaks and tuna. Arielle came over - and we are thankful she is so close to her apartment as she's so sick these days. She is now 12.5 weeks pregnant, praying she has relief soon from the "morning" sickness that is plaguing during waking hours.

I'll end this post with some video clips of Bella.  It's been a full day - nice to be home and see Mom, Dad, Lorri and the kids. We'll catch up with Cory tomorrow - he was busy working tonight.

Bella's growing walking skills

We Have a Secret to SHARE

FINALLY - the excruciating wait to tell the world is over...... It's actually been a delightful secret these past 5 or so weeks.  One we can pull out, ponder and savor....but now it's time to SHARE with you. 

CoRielle shared their great news with the online world today! Arielle has made her way through her first trimester. They are excited to announce, they are adding to their family in late November.

We do not know the gender of Baby S - they liked the shoes!

Just in case you can't see the darling nose of this little one  - here's the blown up photo.......Baby S at 12 weeks!

We are beyond excited to welcome another Grandblessing to this world!

"Final?" Travel Day

Into every RV journey comes blue skies, bugs and semis

Chocolate covered fudge - last treats for Michael and kids from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory

Snow

Rain 

Michael suggested we stop for the night at Olallie Campground - in the Willamette National Forest. This is a United States Forest Service Campground, with 16 sites, nestled along the Mckenzie River. It is dry camping - though there was a one pump in the campground and a couple of outhouses. 

$18 for a beautiful spot - $9 if you have the National Parks Access card

We had dinner, walked, talked, played games, planned our trip up the AlCan Hwy....easing back into "civilization."

We think we could get Uchi into this site right by the river next time