June 8, 2005

I love this weather. This is awesome. It is especially appreciated as I hear about 90 degree temperatures in Ohio. I hated 90 degrees. I hated 80 degrees. I sweat like a pig at 70 degrees when I am biking or hiking. I think it hit 70 once since we have been here. Every night it is in the low 50’s, occasionally the 40’s. Daytime highs are in the 50’s or 60’s. I think it may have rained every day since we arrived, but it drips for a few minutes and it is done. There have been a few almost downpours, but they didn’t last very long. I know this sounds miserable to many. I suspect the people who love hot weather think I am as crazy as I think they are. That’s pretty crazy, by the way.

The constant light is almost a non-issue. Sure, I wake up in the morning and have no idea what time it is, but I have yet to accidentally sleep till noon or find myself wide awake at 3:00 AM. It is very nice to not have to worry about sunset when planning activities.

The real estate thing has taken over our lives. Once it gets into your head, you can’t stop until you are done. We spent the better part of the last three days looking at condos with our agent. She has done a good job of providing us with data, explaining the local market, and helping us to get comfortable with a fast paced market. Our previous real estate experiences have not prepared us for a new listing that gets six showings and an offer on the first day, before we even notice that it is on the market. I guess you have to check the listings every hour.

Last night we kept our agent out until 8:00. She went along with everything with a smile. She was getting a little slower and not matching us step for step as we went up stairs and downstairs, running back and forth between units. She did pretty well for someone self-described as easily meeting the criteria of over 65. She has been patient as we leaned one way, then another, then back again. We finally walked into a unit today and told her that we wanted to make an offer.

Yes, we made an offer on a two bedroom 1400 sq ft condo in the far southern part of town. Our criteria seemed simple. We wanted convenient, hassle free living. Many of the units were in strange neighborhoods with funneling streets and long traffic lights. We wanted a layout that was functional for us, and generally desirable. Many of the units had strange quirks like laundry equipment stacked in a closet in strange locations. We wanted easy parking, preferring a two car garage. We saw units that made it difficult for the owner to have more than one car. Some of these units required some slick maneuvering just to deal with one car. We wanted to not have the nicest unit in the neighborhood. We wanted to be the ones bringing down the neighborhood for a change.

We bid on a unit that only had one real compromise. We had hoped for a two car garage, but this one only has a one car garage that is over 30 feet deep. If we buy a short car, it will fit in with our truck. The outside parking, though, is ample, with room for two cars right outside the unit and some additional parking in the complex.

There is much to like about this condo. The layout has nothing weird going on (after looking at many units, the lack of a problem is something to like). It is spacious. The kitchen is huge. The rooms are airy and bright with adequate windows. There are a few glimpses of the mountains out several of the windows. The walls are finished in standard Alaskan texturing with curved corners.

The bedrooms are both upstairs along with a large closet that will hold a side by side washer and dryer. There is only one full bath on the bedroom floor, so there is not a separate master bathroom, but that makes one less toilet and shower to clean. The master bedroom is huge, not as big as the one I built in Newbury, but then that was just silly. The main living floor has an open great room and kitchen. The kitchen tucks back a little, so the dirty dishes aren’t sitting in the family room (well, I bet there will be some dirty dishes in the family room, but that is just a lifestyle issue). There is a half bath on the main living floor. The bottom level houses the entry way and the 30 foot deep garage complete with a fish cleaning station (ok, it’s a laundry tub, but our agent pointed out that it would be good for cleaning fish and I agreed).

We were also excited by the location. It is only a short distance from Turnagain Arm and some million dollar houses along the shore. There is only one stop light to get onto Minnesota (the main highway on the western side of town) and maybe 3 lights to get to the Seward Highway. These are both quick moving, low traffic roads. Minnesota will take us up to the airport in less than 10 minutes and either highway will take us to downtown in about 15 minutes. The Seward Highway leads quickly into the wilderness to the south of Anchorage on the Kenai Peninsula.

The demographic data for the elementary school ranks this as one of the most affluent areas of town. The high school is brand new and serves some of the rich people who live on the hill, as well as the aforementioned shore dwellers. There are some older homes and apartment complexes in the area, so we won’t be the only ones bringing down the neighborhood. Anchorage has the most diverse and mixed population I have ever seen. We just found it comforting to know that people with nice houses were willing to pay a lot of money to live in this area.

The complex is brand new and occupancy is expected to be at the end of the month. The complex is small, with only 20 units. This gives us a better say in the neighborhood and makes us feel a little less like a number. Some of the condo associations have hundreds of members. I am sure there are minuses to a small association, but we are more comfortable in the smaller group.

We are anxiously waiting to hear if our offer is going to be accepted. They were asking $184,900. The data we have tells us that all new units sell for the asking price, but we knew that this unit had a sale fall through at $179,900 and the builder was just trying to get a premium for the last available unit of that floorplan. We are expecting that they will accept our offer, especially since we are attractive buyers with a 72% down payment, but we are anxious nonetheless. We gave them until noon tomorrow to consider our offer.

Yes, we are going to take out a small mortgage. We could write a check for the whole amount, but then we would have to hurry up and find jobs and that is just not the plan. It took awhile for the mortgage person to understand that not only did we not have jobs, but we weren’t even looking until September. Once they got it, they took a look at our other assets and said OK. With the mortgage, we will have a year and a half to find jobs without having to tap into any of our medium term assets.

Now we are just keeping our fingers crossed. None of our other options at this point seem nearly as attractive. We hope we get it.