Dream House Minus Dream Location

Thursday finally brought us to Prince of Wales Island.  The ferry from Ketchikan was more travel through thickly forested islands.  The clouds hung low the entire time.  Upon arrival at Hollis, we called our new landlord and arranged to meet him at a spot on the highway, where he would lead us to what we had been calling the Dream House.  With a little luck, we found him, introduced ourselves, and began following him down a gravel road.  Deeper and deeper into the forest we drove.  After about six miles, we turned off the main road, followed by several forks in the road, and I began to wonder if I could even find my way out without help, let alone find my way back in.  Finally, at about eight miles off the asphalt, ending in half mile of rock road instead of gravel, we arrived at the house.  We were more than a little surprised at how far it was, and couldn’t help wonder how long that trip would take in winter!

The house itself looked as nice as it had on the Internet, no doubt, with beautiful wood siding, nice wide front porch, dormer windows, forest green metal seamless roof, and nice wood touches. 

Our host gave us a tour of the house, and it was beautiful inside, too, from the large open-beamed living room to the large modern kitchen, and beyond.  He showed us how to use the wood-burning heater, explaining that the oil-burning one was just too expensive to run during the winter.  We walked the site, which was very rocky, and scattered with construction material and equipment. 

Even after the tour, doubt continued to grow that this would work for us:  it is much farther off the highway than we had understood, much more remote.  Seeing the entire picture, and realizing how different this would be to us, we suddenly felt very citified, and way out of our comfort zone:  remote it was (yes, it was remote!), despite being able to see at least two other homes nearby through the forest.  We couldn’t help thinking how much worse the 22 minute drive would be in the winter.  Our host’s son even mentioned it was passable about 80% of the time during the worst of winter!  He would know, as this had been the family house while he was growing up, from age 13 on.  I don't think Kathy's new job would accept 20% snow days during the winter, or any other season. 

We tried to think rationally, factoring in that we might be very tired and not in the best mind, that we could adapt, that we would enjoy the surrounding forest, but our trepidation just kept growing.  I felt an opening, and the strong urge to be honest, and told our host that we were having second thoughts.  I explained our position some, and apologized for this news, and he answered he appreciated hearing this now, instead of even the next morning, since he had to leave the next day.  We said we would sleep on our decision, but felt it would not change.  He took the news very well I thought, considering he had no other options at this point.  We had pushed him to lease a house he was trying to sell, but having very little luck doing so.  He did say he appreciated the heads up, giving him at least a little time to make alternative plans, if we felt the same in the morning.  His son had arrived in the mean time, and I talked to him a little, trying to get a sense of how bad our changing our mind might screw up their plans.  He was neutral though, and showed no reaction, only saying that he wished he had his act together, because he would like to own it.  He and his wife and kids had recently moved back to the island from the lower 48. 

Friday morning the dogs got their first look at a deer, through the deck French doors, and started barking and growling.  It was just a yearling, if that!   We both woke up feeling the same strong reluctance to living in the house.  The landlord had said he would be back in the morning to talk to us.  He had not said what time he was coming back; we were now in full scramble to find a place to stay, with the day escaping and the weekend coming.  It was already 9:30 AM.  We wrote him a note with our decision, reiterated our reasoning, apologized profusely, and asked him to call us if there was anything we could do to help winterize the house, which is what he mentioned he’d have to do if we didn’t take it, although we wondered why this was necessary in July,   We would call him later to make sure he found our note.  As if to affirm our decision, we got our second look at the underside of a car which had apparently slid off the road months ago, flipped on its side, and stood against a tree on its right side, a fearsome reminder of how treacherous the roads could be!

Kathy had stayed at Shelter Cover Lodge when she flew up for her interview, and had a great dinner there, so she made reservations for us.  She also found they had another, less expensive lodge, and so booked us a room for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights.  Finding a place to stay through the weekend took some pressure off our housing situation.  The Alaska Pacific Lodge is a fantastic place, right on the water, not far out of town, and beautifully maintained.  The cost is very reasonable, too.

Next stop was to buy find new cell phone service.  We picked up two new smartphones to go with the two new cell numbers, and were back in communication with the rest of the world.

We still have some work to do, but making progress.