New Home, New Job, New Car

 The past few weeks have been quite eventful for us! To start, we had been looking for a new place to live because our landlords were set to return for the summer and we couldn't really stomach 2 moves in a 2 months (plus moving back in the weekend before we left for CO in July). A natural gas pipeline is being built down to Homer so there is a huge influx of workers in addition to the normal summer influx. Thus the rental market was an entirely different beast this summer compared to last. We looked at probably 6-8 places with about 20 other people looking at each one. Having a little guy that looks like this apparently scares landlords, I can't imagine why:

We were about to settle for an overpriced duplex in town with hardly any yard when we caught a break. I happened to be on Craig's List during breakfast one morning before work at 6:30 and saw a new posting for a cabin on the bluff. Grant emailed right away, the owner called us by 7:15 and said it was first-come, first-serve so it was ours if we wanted it. And he loves dogs. We sealed the deal by having a home-brew with him which further solidified we had found the right place. Fast forward to last weekend, we moved to our very unique little cabin. It sits on the bluff right at the mouth of Kachemak Bay and Cook Inlet with views towards Seldovia and of both St. Augustine and Iliamna volcanoes. The view is breathtaking to say the least and Hank has lots of room to roam around. There is, however, one minor little catch: the bathroom is not connected to the main house. While this takes some getting used to, many people here use an outhouse which makes ours having heat, a shower, washer/dryer and a 2-person jacuzzi tub downright luxurious. 

Main cabin with "guest cabin" on left

"Bath house" 

Living room with ladder to our loft bedroom

Giant kitchen!

Inside of the guest cabin/office. That's right, if you visit you get
a whole separate cabin to yourself!

Just in case, an outhouse with a killer view and a kiddie outhouse

It's hard to capture the view entirely but here is a little sample of Illiamna from the deck:

Getting to see that view makes those walks to the bathroom just fine! 

The first night we stayed in our new cabin, I woke up to hear rustling outside my window and found these two visitors welcoming us to the neighborhood:

Momma Moose jumped the deck in one graceful leap

Baby Moose not so sure about it

Looks oddly similar to the technique Hank uses to walk on the deck

We thought our bushes needed water but now we see where the leaves have gone

In other news, Grant got a job working full-time for the summer doing landscaping for the Kenai Peninsula Borough. Not only is that his area of expertise, but his hours are the exact same as mine so we get to have 3-day weekends together still! Due to the heatwave that I've heard has even made the news in Colorado, his farmer's tan is back in full force as it has been in past summers. Phew. He's just hoping there is some rain eventually so he doesn't have to water all the school fields by hand seeing as there is no such thing as a sprinkler system in Homer. 

With Grant getting a job and our commutes to work being slightly more difficult by bike than our last place, we bit the bullet and bought a "new" car. A co-worker was selling her 2001 Subaru Forester to make room for a 3rd baby so we were lucky to avoid any car-buying headaches and actually found an AWD car (these do not go for sale very often here). I would say we are now the quintessential Alaskan family with our pick-up and Subaru, however, I believe the same could be said of Colorado's choice in cars as well. 

So, there's a quick update on our life happenings. My parents and Tyler are getting in late tonight for a week of fishing and sight-seeing and we are super excited to see them! Thinking of everyone in Colorado and hoping those fires go out quickly!