All I want is...

The past few weeks I've been thinking "all I want is a little house and a baby, and maybe a dog too." Isn't that crazy? This from the lady who stays in the same sity for maybe a year before wanting to move again. I'm also the lady who has never had a long-term job before and is just getting started on this thing they call a "career" and a "life." I still want to travel and have hobbies and stuff, but I think I also want some permanance in the most basic areas of my life. This desire has only been perpetuated by recent things I've read about and seen on TV: House Hunters couple having their first baby and buying a little place in Arlington, VA; blogs about fixing up houses; the Alaska Real Estate website; baby product commercials; ads for puppies needing homes; Jim buying Pam their first house on The Office. You know, the usual stuff. These are all really big decisions and big changes, but honestly they're not that crazy. I don't want a mansion, I just want a little house with a strong foundation and a good roof, and a yard for Leigh's garden. Even if it's hideous, I'm happy to put the effort and love into making it a home. I don't want an expensive pure bred puppy either, just furry little buddy that we can love and play with. As for the baby, well I what can I say? I'll love the little thing no matter if it's a boy or a girl and I have no illusion that this kid will look anything like me. I just want one, eventually, when I have a permanent job so I can, you know, provide food and stuff... Anyway, it's hard to realize that a lot of people my age already have these things nailed down. For some reason it's been a longer journey for me (law school, moving a lot, no possibility of accidental babies) and that's OK, but what's a little less OK is knowing we're not nearly there yet. To have a house in this market we need to save a lot of money for a downpayment, and without a large gift from family it will take us at least 2 years to get there. For us having a baby will be costly too, as well as inconvenient. Since adoption is a $20k+ affair and we don't have a male friend in mind to provide, um, chromosomes, we'll be buying the um, chromosomes, from a bank (about $900 a pop!). Anyway, it's going to be a journey and I just have to learn to be patient and try to keep my jealousy at bay. In the mean time, this gives us a few more years to enjoy our youth before really settling down. I can take solace in that. A trip to Southeast Asia will be easier without a small child, or even without knowing we've left our small child with the grandparents and feeling guilty while eating our 400th bowl of delicious noodles before visiting a 1,000 year old temple in wonderfully hot weather. It will be good to get that trip out of our systems before having to completely alter our travel profiles from "young couple treking the world" to "moms treking the world with kids," which will inevitably require some changes in form and function. Now back to the present: I have one more day at work before my week-long vacation to Oahu, Hawai'i. I can't imagine that anyone has ever been so excited to go to Hawai'i before! This doesnt' meant that Hawai'i isn't great, because it is really, really great, but it means that I am just THAT EXCITED to have the time off, the warm weather, the good food, and the relaxation. I plan to do a lot of nothing: reading, sleeping in, laying on the beach, listening to music, hiking, eating, repeat. Divine.....

Seward's Day

Just a very quick post today: It's Seward's Day, an Alaska holiday having something to do with founding the territory or some such thing. So I have the day off from work, which is great because I had a lot to do. Today I've slept late, packed for Hawai'i and cleaned the apartment. Later I'll cook dinner and maybe run some errands. It's been lovely.

Hello, Brick Wall, Nice to See You Again

I am two weeks away from my much-needed vacation. When I flew to the U.S. in May I went straight to the beach with my family. That was my last vacation. Since then I have driven across the United States, worked my hind end off at the farmer's markets in Seattle, then drove from Washington to Alaska. Upon my arrival in Alaska I immediately started working 9-5, Monday through Friday with my only breaks being bank holidays. I haven't left Anchorage since I arrived, aside from driving to Willow for the day to see the start of the Iditarod Dogsled Race. So it's been almost a YEAR since I really took time to decompress by going "on holiday."

So I guess you could say I need a break. In fact, I need a break so badly that I'm starting to get into a real funk in every aspect of my life. I'm unmotivated and uninterested in my work, the days all run together and I just don't care anymore. My attempts at diet and exercise have gone completely out the window the past few weeks. Initially I skied 3 to 4 times per week and ate "clean" about 80-90% of the time. I felt great, had tons of energy and was seeing results. Since about 3 weeks ago my skiing has dwindled to almost nothing and my eating habits have only been "clean" about 50% of the time. I'm really starting to notice a difference in my overall healthy feeling, how my clothes fit, everything! Plus my skin is pasty and unhealthy looking from being deprived of sunlight since October. It has been lovely and sunny most of the past few weeks, but it's going to take some serious Vitamin D to get back on track.

So yeah, I've hit a brick wall. My week off from work can't come soon enough. My week away from Anchorage will be not only welcome, but needed. A girl needs a change of scenery on a fairly regular basis. Unfortunately I've deprived myself of this far too long for any person to stand, particularly me, being a restless and easily bored person. Oh well, lesson learned: plan a trip at least every 4-6 months with weekend getaways in between to break up the monotony. Next year I will be more mindful of my emotional travel needs: weekend trips, a long Christmas break, then a 7 month deprivation followed by 3 weeks in Southeast Asia... that's more like it!

Soooo Lazy!

I have been the epitome of lazy for the past few days. Last week was on the slow side at work, so I can only mentally list a few professional accomplishments, but at least the days passed quickly. During the weekend I went for a short ski, did a ton of baking and cleaned the apartment with Leigh. That's pretty much it. I've also been eating a lot, which isn't good seeing as I was finally making some progress in that area... and we're going to Hawaii soon!

We also drove out to Chugiak to have a look around and really like it there. We are thinking of moving there sometime in the future. The houses are beautiful and appear to be custom built, a nice change from Anchorage's endless rows of square, brown boxes we call houses. It's about 20-30 minutes drive from dowtown with great views of the mountains and near the Chugach State Park. There are also a few municipal parks with hiking/skiing trails nearby. Overall it seems like a nice, quiet place to live.

But that's all in the future. For now I really need to focus on getting my week going. I have a few projects at work that need my attention and I really need to fit some skiing in this week. Most likely there won't be any skiing to be had after the end of next week. Spring would be a welcome change, but part of me is really afraid that next winter I won't have the slightest clue how to ski and will have to learn all over again! Leigh and I are planning to take weekly classes next Fall to learn the technical skills and how to skate-ski, which will be a lot of fun! We also recently joined a local Nordic Ski Association, which has many perks including discounted use of a cabin in Hope. We're heading out there in September for some late season hiking but maybe we'll go sometime this summer to commune with the bears as well.

The Renter's Blues

Leigh and I have been going back and forth about the most lately is housing. We live in Anchorage, the most populated and most "American" city in Alaska. We have Target, Sears, WalMart, Costco, chain restaurants, two malls, etc. However, we have an extreme lack of decent housing options. Property is extremely expensive here, considering what you get for your money, and it doesn't matter if you rent or buy- you WILL pay more than what the property is worth.

Apartments and small houses in Anchorage run $850-2,500 per month. If you want a duplex unit it will cost you roughly $1,500. These prices are pretty standard regardless of neighborhood or whether the property is updated at all. Let's just say there's a lot of shag carpeting and 15 year old dishwashers out there!

Buying houses in Anchorage is a big deal too. The price for a medium to large house is about $250,000-300,000. You can get a tiny or ramshackle place for about $175,000 if it has a yard. Compare this to the remodeled duplex (each unit had 2 bedrooms and it was one street over from a very popular park) Leigh and I almost bought in Buffalo for $175,000. Repos come pretty cheap, but the bank wants cash only sales for those. Last week I saw a listing for a one bedroom house with a little yard for $141,000. Not bad, right? Well this house has a total of 312 square feet of living space! It's the size of a backyard shed, but at least the interior is beautifully redone. It would make a wonderful playhouse for children.

Leigh and I rent a small apartment in Midtown East. Our neighborhood is pretty sparse and it's only redeeming quality is a nice view of the Chugach mountains from our porch, but a nice view isn't exactly novel in Alaska. We are a block down from a liquor store, a post office, and a really run-down trailer park. How did we find this gem, you ask? Before leaving Seattle we assessed our financial situation to find that we couldn't afford to just show up in town without a place to stay. Hotels in Alaska are too expensive and we had Juneau the Cat with us, so we needed a place to crash land after nearly a week of driving and camping. So we looked online, called around on Craigslist to hear "NO PETS" and be hung up on several time and then finally resorted to the Weidner Group Properties. Now we live in a tiny one bedroom in a massive apartment complex. This is not a deal-breaker in-and-of-itself, but upon arrival we were greeted by 520 quare feet of old, dingy carpet, cabinets and countertops made of the ugliest particle board with lamenant "wood grain" for decoration, and a mere 2 small windows to ventilate the entire apartment. If I lived alone, this would be fine, but I don't. There are two of us and a cat. We need space, or at least a more functional version of the space we have!

Not only is the apartment itself disappointing for the $955/month we pay (this includes a pet fee and most utilities, plus use of the "club house" which is an utter piece of shit that I've never found a reason to use), but the Weidner Group can't be bothered to provide us with certain promised services like SNOW REMOVAL (this is Alaska!). Then this weekend some workers started drilling around the area that normally houses our dumpsters. Eventually they needed to remove the dumpsters, so now we don't have dumpsters and nobody has told us when to expect them back or where to find dumpsters on other parts of the property. Frustrating!!!

The worst part is that this is completely typical in Anchorage. One or two huge companies own all of the more affordable housing that allows pets. They charge what they want and treat tenants as they please with very little backlash. Leigh and I have decided to move at the end of our lease (August 2011), no question. We are preparing to have to pay more for housing to get a place closer to work or at least in a nicer area (near parks/trails) and pay our own electric and heat, but we'll have the same budget next year as this year so we can't go too crazy. Anyway, now that we live here we have more flexibility to look for private landowners, etc. We are hoping we can see what's available at the last minute, so July or so, and extend our current lease month-to-month if we don't find anything by the end of August.

Our wish list includes:
-2 bedrooms (we need some quiet space, plus we want our friends and family to visit!)
- larger kitchen (currently we have a tiny alley style kitchen with old appliances and a bar area that we use as our kitchen table because there's no space for a table and chairs)
- a dishwasher that actually gets the dishes clean
- near downtown, Turnagain, or Kincaid park- basically the West side
- in-unit laundry or at least in the same building (right now we carry our laundry down 3 flights of (icy) stairs and drag it across the parking lot to a separate building, which is often a place that transient people use to stay warm)

That's it! Not too demanding is it? I hope we can find this, or something similar, for roughly $1,000/month with at least some utilities included. Our thought is that we'll continue to rent for another year or so. If we love our next rental we'll keep renting for a while, but if not we'll take a look at our savings and maybe buy a small place here. I posted last week about a cute little log cabin in a decent neighborhood. That's what we'd be looking for: a small, reasonably priced property in a decent neighborhood with a lot of DIY fixer-upper potential. For now, I just want to find an apartment that doesn't make me feel cramped and depressed.

Life Update Twitter Style:

• Decent weekend, but almost completely wasted my Saturday by trying to sleep off the previous week
• Went to Wasilla and Willow on Sunday. Great, sunny weather, fun time seeing the Iditarod start!
• Completely exhausted today, getting a sore throad and persistent headache. I might try to go skiing anyway to get some exercise, but I'm pretty sure I'm getting sick.
• 4 weeks till Hawai'i. I can't wait! I really need some time off before I forget what that feels like. I also really need some sunshine, good eats, and fun activities.
• I plan to start swimming in about 6 weeks. There's a group here called SWAM, part of the US Master's league. Should be fun. Young Lawyer's softball also starts soon. It'll be great to play summer sports again.
• I really need a nap....

My Domestic Itch

I love real estate. I love real estate TV shows (like House Hunters and House Hunters International), open houses, and looking at online real estate listings. Houses in need of an upgrade are like big puzzles where the solution is how to get the most out of the property. It's fun to imagine ripping out entire rooms to replace the hardware, repaint, put down new floors and then imagine enjoying the space or eventually selling the property at a profit. I also love seeing updated homes that others have successfully brought back to life. It's really one of my favorite things.

Only trouble is that I have no money, so all of my ideas stop at the edge of my imagination. Now that I work full time and am getting my student and personal debts in order, I can make some plans for savings and such, but I'm just getting started so I still feel completely limited. Leigh and I are doing a great job of budgeting ourselves, living within our means, and starting a substantial savings account. If all goes well we should be able to put a down payment on a property within the next 2 to 3 years. Otherwise, if we are happy renting a place (which is far from the case at the moment, but we're moving in the Fall so maybe...), we'll continue building our savings for several years to put toward our dream vacation/retirement/investment property. It's all up in the air right now, and that's fine, but I'd just like to have some options.

What spurred this post? Well, as usual I've been trolling the real estate websites. Partly out of curiosity and partly because a friend of mine has expressed interest in buying a house in the area sometime in the next year or so. I look at places, send her links, or just oggle at the possibilities/cringe at the lack of quality homes in Anchorage. Until last week, when I found this listing. It's an adorable two bedroom log cabin style home in a decent neighborhood. Originally listed for $121,000, now reduced to $108,000.

Leigh and I drove by it yesterday to find that nobody lives here and there's a foreclosure sign on the front door. We snooped around, looked in windows, etc. All-told, the house has 1400 square feet of living space divided between the main floor and the converted attic space. The yard is enormous and contains a small shed and a very large shed (which I'd like to have moved or removed entirely), both look brand new. I wonder if the large shed could be dismantled and sold? The house also has a very small attached garage space, which might find a better use as storage for bikes and skis and such, since it would be a tight squeeze just getting our little Toyota Yaris in there everyday.

The interior looks pretty good, as though someone started updating it and then ran out of money. The bathroom needs to be ripped out and replaced and the hardwood floors in the bedrooms need to be sanded and refinished, but otherwise the main level is perfect.

See how nice the kitchen is? I would have sprung for nicer countertops, but these will do just fine. It also is lacking a dishwasher, but that's a quick, $300 fix. No problem! The interior walls of the livingroom could use some drywall and a nice paint job, again, something I could do myself. The back door leads into a very large mudroom area with w/d hookups.

This is a picture of the attic space, but it hardly does the room justice. Altogether the attic is about 600 square feet. Again, this is bigger than the apartment Leigh and I currently share. From the outside one can see two very large windows providing natural light to this space. Also, some basic flooring has been laid down. All this space needs is some carpet or hardwood and finished walls, perhaps running some wire for electrical outlets in the walls. Initially I imagined this would make a great guest sleeping/"Emily Cave" because I'm always whining I don't have any space for projects and such. Leigh, on the other hand, always manages to take over the common spaces with her OCD version of organizing things. I'm always getting into trouble for not knowing where to put things because, you know, my ability to read minds is so powerful that this is a completely reasonable assumption. Anyway, it would be great to have my own space.

Then I realized this wasn't entirely fair or useful, so I now dream that this space would be a guest sleeping/TV room space. It would also be great for a kids' playroom or generally for flex space, leaving the living area on the main floor for quieter pursuits like reading or working from home. Basically, this would be the perfect little house for a young family who doesn't mind doing some fixer-upper work on weekends. So what's the problem, exactly?

Well, to start the era of $0 down mortgages is long gone, and for good reason. Ironically, if we were to put down just $1,000 on this house and take out $110,000 (to cover the property and closing costs) our monthly payment would be just under $800, which is $200 less than what we pay for our shitty 500 square foot apartment on the other side of town! However, even if we got a mortgage at $0 down to cover the property cost, I doubt we could get any extra money to cover the more costly repairs like the bathroom. Secondly, the neighborhood is fine but not great. I can't help but imagine that we'd buy the place, but $50,000+ into fixing it up and making it perfect only to sell it at a loss or break even because buyers wont' want to pay the appraised value on a small property in that blue collar neighborhood (which also borders a kind of shitty neighborhood).

Another major problem is the long list of caveats in the listing: "for sale as-is" and "the value is in the land" and "distressed property." How distressed? I have no idea. Perhaps the fact that a bank is selling the property is leading to all these warning signs just to cover their asses, but I'm hardly in a financial state to take such a risk at this point. While this investment could be a wonderful adventure with a great financial pay-off in several years, it could also lead to financial ruin for Leigh and I, as it seems to have done with the previous owner.

Basically, we shouldn't be taking any risks like this right now. In two years we'll revisit the idea and it's very likely we'll find a very similar property (albeit for a higher price because this is Alaska and everything is crazy expensive) will fewer "distressing" problems and hopefully in a better neighborhood. If we never find our ideal house to purchase here that's OK too, we'll just buy a place in Mexico!

Now we just have to hurry up and wait.