Adventures in House Hunting

In the last two weeks, we've looked at a bunch of houses.  We've seen houses that look like nightmares from the 70s, 80s, and beyond (not really anything before the 70s...there aren't a lot of houses standing in Anchorage that were built prior to 1970).  We've seen houses that maybe just need a coat of paint (though those houses needed someone to magically make all the rooms bigger), and we've seen houses that need to have all their walls removed.  I thought it would be fun to sneak a couple pictures during the house hunt so you can see some of the interesting things that have assaulted our eyes.

First off, yesterday we went into a house that was an estate sale.  It was a hideous color (can be changed) and the kitchen was a little wonky, but at first blush, nothing to make turn us off completely, especially because it had a fantastic yard.  Then we spotted it:

This picture needs some explanation. First, on the right side is the sauna.  Saunas have actually made appearances in a couple of the houses we've seen.  They were really popular in Alaska in the 80s apparently.  The trick with this one is that to the left of the sauna is a shower.  I guess it's something you might want to have if you had a sauna in your house.  But here's the thing...see that open spot in front of the sauna/shower?  THAT'S WHERE THE DINING ROOM TABLE IS SUPPOSED TO GO.  I  took this picture from the kitchen.  Nothing like a little naked party guest to go along with dinner, am I right?  I am guessing there were some pretty crazy parties that went on in this house.  We decided it was a dealbreaker.

Then we went to the house next door, which was also for sale.  First of all, I need to lecture these people from the comfort of my blog.  People! Stop what you are doing immediately, turn on HGTV and watch one of any 50 shows they have on that network devoted to helping people sell homes! Do it now! You'll thank yourselves!! When we tried to sell our house (unsuccessfully), I followed the mantra I'd heard countless times on those house selling shows - declutter, depersonalize, and CLEAN.  These people missed the memo.  Not only were they IN THE HOUSE when we showed up, but they were packing up boxes and were smack in the middle of a remodel when we got there.  Their house had no business being on the market.  Also, there were some items in the house I just couldn't get past:

The wolf is perched over the dining room.  Appetizing!  To the left is a wild sheep.  The furry thing you see in the top of the picture is whale baleen.  For some reason I actually think those are cool and not gross, but I don't think I'd decorate with whale body parts.  

As we walked up the stairs, we saw this guy hanging in the narrow stairway:

Sorry it's blurry, I was in shock.  The head was really freaking large.

The house wasn't for us.  Though Andy jokes about wanting a ghost in the house for entertainment value, I don't know if I want the ghost of a bison terrorizing me.

We moved onto another house, also full of dead animals.  I saw pheasants in the office, a whole sheep in the living room (way more impressive than just the head in the previous house), and one of pretty much everything else you could ever be allowed to kill in Alaska.  In the crawlspace in the basement they had a whole collection of bearskin rugs.  Sexy.

This was probably the most startling addition though:

Right over the dining room table.  How nice.  It might actually be more disgusting than trying to eat while staring at people shower apres-sauna.  

After that house, we paid another visit to our front runner.  I'm keeping that a secret for now, but I took a ton of pictures.  Maybe I will share them soon...

In other exciting news, Andy, Ripley and I bundled up this morning and went to Flattop to walk around.  As we walked along the trail leading to powerline pass, Ripley wandered ahead of us like he always does.  At one point he turned around the bend and started barking really frantically.  Now, in the years we've had him and on all the walks we've been on, we've never seen Ripley just stop and bark at anyone.  We knew right away he didn't just come across a person or another dog.  Suddenly I realized that one of my worst Alaska nightmares was coming true - HE FOUND A MOOSE! Ripley came running back towards us on the trail while a full-grown lady moose quickly emerged from the trees, following him.  Andy grabbed Ripley by the collar and we quickly jogged back up the trail.  After we got a few yards away, we realized we weren't being followed and we continued back down the trail.  Thankfully this was a near miss, but I'm having second thoughts about letting him off the leash anytime in the near future!