Homer Alaska

In August we went with Gavin's mom and dad, Maurice and Melissa, to Homer for an overnight visit. The drive to Homer is absolutely breathtaking. The mountains that line the drive are I.R.S., Mount Illiamna, Mount Redoubt and Mount Spurr. The drive along the Russian and Kenai Rivers keeps twisting and turning through the mountains. The beauty of the summer and the fireweed is so alive and vibrant it almost looks like a painting. Once in Homer there is the Homer Spit that is a small penninsula lined with quaint shops, fishing charters and the famous Salty Dawg Saloon. The Salty Dawg Saloon is a little cabin under a light house that has really low ceilings and is pretty dark. The walls are covered in dollar bills and women's undergarments. Each dollar is signed by the person who visited the saloon and has his or her hometown scrawled across the front as well. It is neat looking at all the places people have come from to have a beer in the saloon. The light house portion is what really intrigued me though, and I snapped picture after picture of the tall statue. The harbor is lined with boats and fishing vessels of all shapes and sizes. There are new, shiny ones, and old, rusted ones. Plus, further up the spit is a graveyard of ships. The skeletons of the once seaworthy vessels lie beaten, aged, broken and retired as they seem to seep into the spongy earth of the beach. I find the harbor a fun place to do some people watching as the boats and charters come and go. The fisherman and their sunaged skin, and knarled hands of experience lend an air of belonging to the Alaskan wilderness. They are strong even in the worst weather, and give the tourists a reason to come to the spit. The tourists, like ourselves, are easy to spot as we just do not fit into the harbor scene. Plus, we are all snapping pictures of other people's fish as the catch of the day hang on the prized gallows. Nehemiah found this to be the coolest part of his day. In fact, I had to go stir him out of his reverie for he was so intrigued by the fish he had blocked out the entire world. We stayed in a small hotel/cabin that openned up to a view of the bay. We could walk down onto the beach and enjoy the fresh, clean air. We awoke early and took the kids down to the beach when the tide was out. This allowed them to find some cool shells, and view some different kinds of snails attached to the rocks. We also spotted some jellyfish. It was a great learning experience for all of us. We had such a fabulous time, and really enjoyed our time there. When we lived here before we spent three or four days camping down on the spit, and took a halibut charter out. It was amazing, even though I was seasick after 20 minutes outside of the bay. We plan on doing this again this next summer if Nehemiah is old enough. He and Gavin can go get our catch of the day, while I hang out with the girls. Enjoy the pictures of Homer and the Homer Spit!

OH NO ALLIE HAS A PAINTBRUSH!!!!

I am known among close family and friends for my extreme incompetence with a paintbrush and an iron (Which is another story altogether). I usually spill more paint on myself, the floor and on things not intended for paint, than I get on the walls. I am always covered and spend weeks trying to get it out of my hair. We have even had to replace carpet after I have attempted to wield my weapon of choice; the roller. I am not an edger either. I have always been impatient to get things done; therefore, painting is very hard for me. I have a lot of issues trying to take my time and go slow.

However, I knew I was going to repaint our home, and wanted to do a nice job this time. So, first I called a painter and asked for an estimate. For $7000 and the cost of materials I would have a professionally painted home. Yeah, I do not have $7000 just lying around, so I decided it was time to get serious about this endeavor. I am an educated and determined woman. I have trained myself to do a variety of things, so I used my techie skills and found a whole bunch of websites about painting. I scoured these sites, and watched 30 videos on painting, "cutting in" (Yeah, I even learned new vocabulary!), sanding, using tsp to prep the walls, taping, and even one on how to tape a plastic sheet to protect the floor. I also read some how to tips and went to Valdspar.com to get some great ideas for color schemes. I really wanted to do my best at this job. This may seem like overkill, but believe me if you have seen my handiwork, you know that I probably needed to buy the Painting for Dummies book I thought about purchasing.

So anyway...

Every time we have moved we make it our first priority to get the kids' rooms set up first. They do not need to feel unsettled any longer than they have to. Therefore, the past three days I have filled my time with painting two rooms. (The girls share a room because they "just enjoy having someone to play with all the time, and at night it is not as scary.") I have never taken more than a day to paint anything. I also never taped before, or prepared the walls. So the entire first day I spent it patching holes, sanding, wiping down the walls with TSP, and taping. Then on Monday and Tuesday I painted their rooms.

Wow! There is a reason the painter charges $7000. I cannot tell you how much work it is to paint when you have three kids running in and out every five minutes to have a look or to beg to help. However, they would also hit a wet spot on the wall or trim on their way in or out of the room, so I kept having to touch up spots. It was a slow, slow, slow process. I had to do double coats on everything, and the wainscoting on the bottom of both walls required 4 coats. The small details we added to give the room flare were enough to kills my wrists. In fact, my size 4.5 wedding band was stuck on my finger this morning, because my hands were severely swollen. If any of you are Friends fans, my right hand looked like Chandler's after he had played Pac Man all day long. Needless to say, I realized what muscles I have not used even for Insanity lately.

Irregardless of the aches and pains, the spilled paint, touch ups and stress of trying to provide entertainment for a 10, 8 and 4 year old , I finished painting today. It looks absolutely beautiful. I am so impressed and proud of myself, I even thought this could be a good summer job for me... Then I laughed hysterically as the thought passed as quickly as it had come. I do believe it helped that we have not had our own home in a while, and I am plain sick and tired of living out of suitcases. So, I want to move into the house where it feels warm, inviting and relaxing.

Evelyn and Lilyan's room is a soft purple, with white wainscoting and accents are in hot pink. Inside their closet I drew a big flower, and some abstract designs to incorporate their personalities. Nehemiah's room is Nautical. It is blue on top,white wainscoting and accents in a bright olive color. Is is very "outdoor fisherman/ beachy," and he is all about those things.

Next I moved on to the Master and Office. The office windows are surrounded by Lilac Bushes so my inspiration led to me paint it a lilac color and white. It is BEAUTIFUL, and welcoming. I unpacked Grandma Margaret's collection of bells in this room on a little shelf. The bells are from all the places she has visited, and there are four from Alaska. They really make the room homey. The master bedroom was going to be gray and have a blue focus wall. I painted the focus wall and then the gray. Well, once the gray was up it looked as though it had a soft purple tinge next to the blue. So, back to Wal-Mart for a paint that did not clash. I was determined to find something that was not purple so I would not have three purple rooms. However, when I went to get my wallet out of my purse an antique purple paint swatch fell on my seat. I felt my heart speed up and I realized I had found the perfect color. Although, purple it was dark and romantic. I just knew it would make our room a soft sanctuary we could enjoy in the winter and summer. It definitely turned out well.

Next, I went on to paint the touch ups upstairs. I needed a focus wall in the dining room and decided red was the color that would make it all come together.Well, I realized red is the hardest color to paint. It took me six coats, and after Gavin installed a new register cover and put a hole in the wall it will take me more coats and another can of red paint. Growl. However, if you do not look at the golf ball sized hole it looks AMAZING!!!!!! Thankfully, my mother-in-law, Melissa, knew exactly which wall would look great in red from her previous visits. Thanks Mom!!!

I started on the touch ups only to realize the paint was faded and I had to repaint the entire upstairs. So, I spent two days painting the upstairs and entry way to make it look fresh and new. I am glad I was forced to do so by my desire to have a house that did not look like a safari of leopard prints. It looks so incredible and clean now.

I was ready to scream with painting, and Gavin took over and painted the basement. I sat on the couch, and watched him paint his way around the room. It is Mid Day Mocha and very pretty!

All the new doors are in and the house is painted. I did not destroy anything, and it looks great. The new carpet really adds to the homey feel. Although, did you know you are not supposed to remove tack strips when you remove carpet for the new to be laid down...? We could save $300 tearing out our old carpet, and being farm kids we do not shy away from a little savings with some hard work. So, we did just that, and removed EVERYTHING. Well, when the installers came they charged us $350 for putting down new tack strips. I thought this was an included cost, but Lowe's does not feel that way I suppose. All well, it is nice, and once they fix their ordering mistake we will have carpet in our room. They forgot to order the upstairs bedroom (master) and so we have to wait for another month to get the carpet shipped up here.

I am just happy to have new registers, fresh paint, soft/clean carpet, and new six panel doors to add to the luster of our home. So, if any of you want to visit we are ready for you now. The guest room is pretty, and comfortable with closet space.

The history and story of our home in Alaska

We bought our home a five years ago when we lived here last. It was a fixer upper with character; in a beautiful town just outside of Anchorage. It had some issues, but growing up as farm kids we are not afraid of a little hard work. The yard was a coveted lot with trees, sledding hill in the back yard (important when a lot of the year is spent in snow cover), a great yard to play in, and on a quiet cul-de-sac.

We both decided it was perfect. When we were looking at it, I stated that one of the four bedrooms was painted like a nursery so we better change that before we moved in. Little did we know at the time I was pregnant with our third little blessing, Lilyan. A few weeks before we moved in I found out we were pregnant and the nursery was already painted. Therefore, painting that room was one less thing we had to do when we moved in. However, it did not all go that well. We ran into a lot of issues with the "little fixes." As anyone who has ever renovated knows all too well, how those "little fixes" can become huge projects.

We started in the kitchen, as it was a scary little hovel area that smelled weird to put it mildly. We decided to take down the cabinets, and install new. So, we tore them down in good spirits only to find black mold. Well, this was a huge problem so we called a contractor to discuss a price to put up new drywall. Gavin had just had shoulder surgery and could not lift very much, and I was pregnant as I stated before. So, the contractor seemed the way to go. The contractor came in and took a look at the mess that was our kitchen. The verdict was a little less than doable. It turned out he would take three weeks to do it, we would have to buy the materials, hang the cabinets, and do most of the finish work for just under $8,000. Just like most young couples, this was a shock to the system, and we could not get by with this figure if we wanted to eat for the next four months. Plus, the length of time we would be living without a functional kitchen was far too taxing.

So, we did what most sagacious children do, I called on one of my heroes; my dad. I told he and my mom I had a deal for them. I would pay their way up to Alaska, and we could be tourists by day and carpenters by night. Of course, that would mean five hours of daylight to see the vast beauty that is Alaska. They readily agreed and flew up to help out a few days later. Praise God for mothers and fathers.

We worked on the kitchen until the wee hours of the morning, and then slept in. When we got up we had a few hours of daylight and we charged into the tourist destinations with gusto. We were able to see some amazing things in the few hours of daylight, and I will never forget the awe on their faces as they viewed the great landscape of snow covered mountains. Although, one of my favorite memories was trying to get my mom to realize that when I said the snow was deep that it was REALLY DEEP. However, she soon figured out what I meant when she was trying to leave a trail to get a better view of the Little Susitna River by Hatcher's Pass. She ended up sinking up to her waist, and I was laughing so hard I could barely hold the camera to snap a picture. This river is one of our favorite destinations, and if you ever visit you will be carted there for some great views, and delicious water.

After a week of really long hours of work, we finished the kitchen. It was beautiful, and without the amazing skills my father possesses we would not have had such a great area to come together as a family. Plus, after we had ripped all the walls out the weird smell was gone! That was a huge plus, when you are pregnant and any smell makes you nauseated. So, after a week my parents had come to the rescue and flew back home. We were left with an awesome kitchen, and they had a stack of pictures that would never fit into one album alone.

Gavin and I continued to work on our home as the year went by. By the time we had decided it was time for Gavin to get out of the military and move back home, our house was transformed. Through lots of painting, two new bathrooms, new laundry room, and small fixes we had a great house. We could not bear to get rid of her though, and put it up for rent. It was rented within a few weeks, and we still had a place to call ours if we ever got back to Alaska. We left great neighbors, a cozy home and went home to Iowa where we spent the next three years getting by, working really hard and floundering with a direction.

However, God works in mysterious ways and the lab Gavin built, while in the military, turned into a contracted civilian position, and he was called to interview. It happened so fast, but the opportunity was too good to pass up. It was a bitter sweet move because we left behind our entire family and all our friends. However, one thing that gave us solace was knowing we had a place to call home waiting for us. God does things at just the right time too, because the renters were moving out in July to PCS. So, while we were waiting for them Gavin's colleague needed someone to house sit and take care of her dog while she was gone to a conference for the military. So, thanks, to the Lord's forward thinking, and the Major's kindness we have had a place to stay until our home was vacated.

As of Sunday, July 10 it became "ours" again. Although, we have some things to fix from the renters, and some cleaning to take on, we are so happy that we made the decision not to sell. After some new paint, new carpet, landscaping, and we replace some broken windows she will be even more inviting than before.

So, here is the open invitation...if any of you ever get to Alaska we will have a great guest bedroom available :) Plus, you will have some tour guides willing to drag you around wherever you would like to go. In fact, I will be posting some more information on not only the transformation of our home, but also the great sites worth seeing. So stay posted. Praise God daily, love him always, and share Him with everyone.

Peace and Prayers,
Allie Gardner