Update

The weather continues to be nasty.  Most of the snow is even gone.  It's hard to believe that it's December when it feels more like April outside (though this does feel like a very Oregon December: 43 degrees and raining).

We wanted to update everyone on the house hunting saga.  Last week we had our home inspection and it was not good.  There were undisclosed leaks in the roof, which would have required major repair, and one portion of the house was sinking and did not seem to be structurally sound.  While we had planned on taking on a project in the form of a big cosmetic overhaul and some potential bathroom/kitchen updating in the next couple of years, a new roof and foundation was not on our list.  There was also a long laundry list of small things that the owners would have had to fix just to allow the house to transfer at all, including some bedroom windows that would not open and some electrical issues.  Our realtor and the incredible home inspector both thought it was wise to pass, and we pulled out of the deal as quickly as we could.  Although we were initially sad, we both feel really relieved that we dodged the bullet with this one!

In happier news, we have an offer in on another house that we saw a few weeks ago and really loved.  It's smaller than the ugly house, but it needs very little work and has an incredible private treed lot with a ton of potential.  If we get this house, the outside may be our big project...just like the house in Salem (well, not that bad, the owners seem to have a good concept of landscaping, but I see room for improvement!).  Keep your fingers crossed that negotiations move smoothly, and when we have some news, we'll share with everyone.  I guess the good news is that if you come to visit us, we won't make you pull paneling or wallpaper off the walls to earn your keep!

Wildlife Park

The Riordans are back in town and we've had a great time visiting with them.  They graciously invited us to their family holiday party back on the 23rd and since then we've seen a lot of them during our time off.  We even invited them over to our rental to hang out, and we don't let ANYONE into our house, so we obviously like them.

We'd planned yesterday to head to Hatcher's Pass to go sledding, but when we woke up, it was 45 degrees and very windy outside.  It seems Hawaii decided to send Alaska a mean weather present this year, which is really throwing a wrench in our snowshoeing plans!  So we decided it might not be the best idea to play around in the wind and rain, but we met up at Hilltop to take the dogs (Ripley and Nuka hit it off like old pals, despite only meeting a couple of times over the summer) for a walk and to plan the day.  Anna's brother, Andrew, was with them and he had never been to Alaska before so Brian wanted to find something ultra touristy.  We settled on a trip out to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Portage.  The five of us (and the two dogs) jumped in the Subaru and headed out.

We thought it was more of a zoo, but it was a drive through park where you can get out and look at the animals.  To say that the weather conditions were less than ideal for this outing would be an understatement.  With the warm temperatures, the snow that was on the ground from before, the high winds, and the rain/sleet that was falling, it was basically treacherous.  We still had fun checking out the wildlife though.

Elk! Haven't seen one of those since Oregon!

Pretty nice digs, huh?  (Also, did you know that elk and moose were friends?  Here they are!)

MUSK OX! I love the musk ox.  Our back up option was to visit the musk ox preserve in Palmer.  That's still on our Alaska to-do list.  Maybe when the weather improves.

Baby moose! Why are there baby moose in December?

A grizzly bear being smart and sticking to the cabin.

As I mentioned, the roads in the park were total ice rinks.  Thanks to careful planning, I was wearing my running shoes.  Anna, Andrew and I spent most of the time there trying not to break our necks.  Brian and Andy had no issues walking on the treacherous roads.  I think Alaskans are born with magic balance or something.  They were generally several yards in front of us on the trail.  See?

Anna and Andrew trying to keep up.  I was far behind.  No surprises there.

As a tough love measure, Andy made sure to park as far away as possible from anything we wanted to see, so we could skate around on the road.

The preserve is known for having a large herd of wood bison, which are extinct in Alaska.  (We saw a whole lot of them on the ALCAN in Canada...remember?)  They are raising them, growing the herd, and plan to release them back in the wild when they are ready.  Pretty cool!

The pamphlet, and several signs, explained that it was "unethical" to harass the animals.  Here's a picture of Brian teasing the elk.  I think he made some inappropriate comments about the one's mother.  

The preserve also had two lynx, which are the only wild cats in Alaska.  I hear they have sightings of them in town even!  This one growled at me when I got close, which is why I took a blurry picture as I was peeing my pants.

Black-tailed deer (or so Andy says, he never turned around so I could check).

Anna and Andrew with the black bear.

Despite the horrible conditions, we had a great time!  Maybe next time we'll check it out in the summer...

Wintertime Activities

After our day of relaxation we headed into town because the REI gift cards from Andy's parents were burning a hole in our pockets and there was a SALE.  Now, we'd been pondering cross country skis for months because we needed a good outdoor activity, but I was a little hesitant because I didn't really want to have to learn something new (my attempt at trying to snowboard after being a lifelong skiier was a disaster and I didn't feel like a repeat) and because they are pretty expensive and I was worried I'd hate it and then be stuck with a bunch of ski equipment we wouldn't use.  When we walked in the store we found an awesome compromise:

SNOWSHOES!

Sorry for the poor photo quality!
I didn't have the nice camera with me and it was getting dark!

We've already taken them out twice, and they work great and are not hard to use.  The best part is that there's no learning curve and it's an excellent workout.  Win win! We're hoping to take them out on a bigger excursion while we're still off work, maybe even to Portage, but the weather that way has been nasty (raining! In December!) and I don't really feel like hiking around in the rain.  Next time we take them out we'll take the fancy camera and get some better pictures.  We love our new gear!!

Christmas Staycation

Andy and I are in the middle of our time off work for the holidays.  Everyone kept asking us what we were going to do with all the time off (no work after December 21 until January 2!), but the truth was we made no plans. We mostly just planned to relax and think of some fun outdoor activities to try (assuming the weather cooperated).

On Christmas morning we woke up and opened presents in our PJs.  Ripley got a three-foot bully stick, which we probably shouldn't have given him, but he really loved it.  And the cats enjoyed how the end wiggled around while he chewed on it.

Andy's parents gave us an autographed copy of "When You Are Engulfed in Flames" by David Sedaris.  We LOVE him.  I love his message to us.  The answer is no, David.  Never.

Andy's mom also sent him the most amazing picture book of pictures that his grandparents took when they homesteaded in Alaska.  My silly blog cannot do it justice, but I think it may be worthy of its own post soon.  It's an incredibly precious gift and we have loved looking at the photos after the last couple of days.  Thank you thank you thank you!!

In my family we draw names, and my brother-in-law, Mike, drew Andy.  Andy loved all of his gifts of course since those two are so similar.  He got a sweet camping pad and new camping lantern, a Naylor beer sign which is now proudly hanging in our kitchen and an "Archer" pint glass.  Mike turned Andy on to Archer (a hilariously inappropriate cartoon series) last Thanksgiving when we were visiting Mike and Kelly in D.C. and Andy's never been quite the same.  DANGER ZONE!  My Uncle Jim, fellow Alaskan, drew my name and I got some headlamps (now I don't have to share with Andy!), new measuring cups and spoons (can't wait to throw the loose crappy plastic ones away) and some money to spend at a local bookstore, Title Wave Books (good one!) and some excellent Alaska-specific book recommendations.  The dangerous thing about trying to go to Title Wave, though, is that it's right next to REI, which is our latest obsession.

Since Christmas is also my birthday, I got extra presents, too, including some cash and and some incredible loungewear from my parents, a couple of amazon gift cards which I want to spend on everything, and a rolling pin from Mike and Kelly that I can use to roll out dough or keep Andy in line. With the gift of the rolling pin, I also got the gift of ridiculous packaging:

 That box had been sitting in our closet for about a month.  When I told Kelly that the gift she sent came in a giant box she was, understandably, confused since the present was actually not so giant.  At least it gave the cats something to play with.

After opening presents, we took Ripley up to Flattop to walk around before our planned day of Christmas movies and leftovers of our awesome Christmas Eve prime rib dinner.

Flattop was nice, but a tad windy.  Not so pleasant.

It started lightly snowing at Flattop.  By the time we got home and had some breakfast, the snow really started to come down.

We even played frisbee in our tiny yard, which Ripley loved.

The weather (and our feeder) brought the birds in droves.  These are all redpolls:

The bird feeder is Zeus' favorite.

After all the excitement, I got to settle down by the tree (sadly, no fireplace in our rental) with a nice glass of 12 year old Redbreast Irish whiskey, which we discovered on our honeymoon.  Mmmm.  We watched Love Actually and Die Hard, which are Christmas traditions in the Naylor household, and watched the snow fall.  We ended up getting about four inches over the day and it was so pretty.

Hope you had a Merry Christmas.  More on our staycation to come!

Diamond in the Rough?

So, we wanted to wait awhile to post about the house until things were a little more settled, but since we're under contract and we've put down the earnest money it seems pretty settled if you ask me - We found a house!!

I know it might not seem like we were looking for long, but I saw every house that hit the MLS in Anchorage for the last six months.  I knew what was out there, what the prices were, and where we wanted to be.  I drove around neighborhoods and we set pretty solid criteria for exactly what we wanted.  When we finally took the plunge and called our realtor, I had a couple of contenders in mind.  Also, inventory is pretty low in Anchorage because the market never really crashed up here.  As you saw from the previous post, there were some fugly houses out there, but we decided ugly was workable as long as it was something we could handle (i.e. cosmetic and light construction...we weren't looking to tear down any walls).  I first spotted this house months ago.  It's been on the market forever and once you see the pictures you may have some ideas why.

So here she is from the outside (I pulled this picture off the MLS, and the picture was taken in July when the house first came on the market):

It's not the most modern, exciting house, but the curb appeal isn't bad.  It could use a coat of paint, but the yard is actually fantastic (oh, and I know it doesn't look like it, but it DOES have a garage...it's just around the back.  A garage was a must-have).

Here's where things get scary.  You might want to send your kids into another room before you move onto the interior pictures.

Right when you walk into the front door, you're punched in the face with everyone's favorite 1970s decorating feature: PANELING (I can't in good conscience call it "wood paneling" as this material is definitely not made from trees.)

Oh. My. God.

Now I think this picture, which the listing agent foolishly put as second on the slideshow, is what has kept this house on the market since July 3.  What's awesome(ish) is that this is really the only place in the house where there's any paneling (admittedly, it would be much more awesome if the paneling never existed in the first place).  I guess if you think about it though, it's a nice way to scare away unwanted guests.  Sadly, the house is a split-level, but the foyer is really large and it's not like our rental where you come in the door and you're immediately greeted by the stairs.

That's the view from up the stairs (sorry for the dark photo...I had the pocket point and shoot camera with me) - you can see there's a big space inside the door.

When you go up the stairs, you get to the VERY BEST PART of the whole house.

The living room is absolutely huge, with soaring ceilings, complete with (unlike the paneling) real wood beams.  The size of the room is hard to really grasp from the photo until you realize there are 4 couches and a grand piano in the living room, and basically a dance floor sized area in between.

If you're sitting on the couch, you can see the beautiful fireplace:

I wasn't being sarcastic when I said the fireplace was beautiful - it just needs to be cleaned, and we need to take the other paneling down.  I guess I lied - there is more paneling than just in the entry.  But there's potential and this is an easy fix.  Also, it's wood burning and I think the stone is pretty nice.

That area you can see to the right behind the fireplace is the dining room.  It's connected to the kitchen and it's a great space.

Note the build in storage for dishes, etc. and the beams continue into the dining room/kitchen.  Also, note Andy and Jamie, our realtor. (Go ahead and ignore the light fixtures.  Those are hideous).

Here's a better picture of the kitchen.  Again, cosmetic changes are in store, but nothing a little wallpaper removal, some new appliances, and a coat of paint (on everything) wouldn't fix.  We got this.

There's a little laundry room tucked behind the kitchen.  I think it would make for a good pantry if we could relocate the laundry to another place.  For now, it's a fine spot.  Nothing we can't live with for for foreseeable future.

The dining room also has beautiful windows and access to the deck.  In the winter, the house has great views.  You can't see very well from the picture, but from this angle you can see sleeping lady and downtown.  The lights are probably really pretty at night.

From this angle, just to the right of the neighbor's house, you can see Mt. McKinley.  Again, not great in the picture, but I promise it's there.

First order of business: run next door and chop down that antenna.  I'm pretty sure they aren't using it!

Unfortunately, in the summer, you lose the view, but there's lots of trees around.

Exiting the kitchen and heading down the hallway (and past closets! glorious closets! Our house in Salem didn't have any closets outside of the bedroom.  Closets are such a luxury!) you come across a bedroom:

And a full bathroom (I guess technically 3/4 because it has a shower but no tub...something we might change in the far future, though I can tell you that wallpaper's not long for this world):

Have I ever ranted about how much I hate pedestal sinks? Well here goes:  I HATE PEDESTAL SINKS.

Here's another bedroom on the main floor that they're using as an office.  It's actually a decent size, it's just (like all the other rooms) totally full of crap.

Here's the master bedroom - it's very large and has nice windows.  It even has a master bathroom which is unusual for a house built in 1976.

Master bath:

Note the bar by the toilet.  Just in case you sit down and can't get back up...or maybe if you need to brace yourself when you're doing your business?  You decide, I won't judge. 

 Those hexagonal sinks are pretty stylish, huh? Just like the rest of the house.  Totally. Updated.

Here's the other half of the bathroom.  Weird house quirk - bathtub, but no shower.  Something that can be added later.  Not so annoying since the main bathroom has a shower and is about 10 feet from the bedroom.  

God, I wish someone had given this woman a wallpaper intervention back in the 80s.

So heading downstairs from the foyer, there's even more house (I know, it's kind of hard to believe...this house is not small.  We need to have some kids or turn it into a hostel for German tourists or something).

Right under the living room is the family room.  What I love about this house is that even though it's a split level, when you're downstairs you don't feel like you're underground.  In our rental, you're eye-level with the ground and it's really odd.  This downstairs is light and bright.

More wallpaper, more hideous furniture, more ugly carpet.  All will be exorcised from the structure.  Does anyone know where I can find a young priest and an old priest willing to perform the ritual?

A different view: The fireplace upstairs has a twin!

Back behind the fireplace is a wee teeny room.  It's "technically" a bedroom because it has a window and is, apparently, more than 70 square feet in area.  This is where the guests we don't particularly like will be staying:

Don't worry, just because the room is closet-sized doesn't mean it didn't get totally covered in wallpaper.
This lady was thorough.  And a little bit crazy. 

To the other side of the family room is a really large bedroom with an attached bathroom.  This is where the favorite guests will stay (you might want to print this out for future reference if you come to stay with us so you can see what we truly think of you).

See? Big room (full of crap) and a nice bathroom.

OH MY GOD THE WALLPAPER MUST STOP.  Oh and look another pedestal sink. God.

That's about it for rooms downstairs except for this little highlight: (Ignore the boxes.  Can you tell what it is?)

We'll try to use it once...just to say "hey, our house has a sauna!"  I think eventually it might be a good place to put the washer and dryer.

Downstairs there is also access to the garage.  Inside we found a treat - and it comes with the house!!

BOOM. SNOWBLOWER.  Andy is thrilled.

So that's about it for the house.  We couldn't really see it because it was snowy outside, but the yard is (from the pictures anyway) totally amazing.

I think we'll have to wait a while until we can see if these pictures are accurate.  If the yard looks big, it's because it is.  The house sits on a 1/2 acre.

And for those of you who know Anchorage, it's located on the hillside on Main Tree Drive, just a bit off O'Malley.  Here's a map...and something funny:

The house I've just showed you is "B." "A" is the house Andy grew up in.  The two houses are .7 miles apart from one another.  12 years after leaving Anchorage, it looks like Andy's heading back to the old neighborhood.  Sweet huh?

Hope you liked the house.  Come and visit! I promise we won't make you spend your visit removing wallpaper...unless you really want to!