A work-mate of mine is working on approaching life with a positive attitude. Personally, I respect the effort; reading his list below, you’ll see he’s really stretching to find positive things to say. On his drive from Peters Creek, about 1/2 hour north of Anchorage, he wrote the following 35 reasons to be thankful for the rain and I want to share them

The wet ground is pushing up mushrooms!

with you.

35 things I’m grateful for on a rainy day – by Rob King

1. We have a great roof that doesn’t leak a drop
2. I don’t have to water the lawn
3. The air smells clean
4. Its not snowing
5. I look out my office window at lush green
6. Rain encourages me to go to the gym
7. We have reliable cars and don’t have to walk in the rain
8. My car has a front windshield (saw one yesterday that didn’t)
9. Good Windshield wiper blades
10. It discourages me from taking the day off – promotes responsible behavior
11. Our home lot drains well
12. Our trees are growing well
13. Fire danger low
14. No smoke in the air (last year we had forest fires)
15. I don’t have nearly as much wet grass to mow as my neighbor
16. A free fresh water rinse for the four wheelers and boats
17. Fall rainbow fishing
18. Bilge pumps
19. Weather complainers are easily identified
20. The sound of rain on the deck is soothing
21. It’s too muddy to work in the yard
22. Fishing spots are less crowded
23. Good summer tires
24.  Bugs are kept at bay
25. Indoor plumbing
26. Hiking in the rain is kinda cool
27. Less people on the trails
28. We own good rain gear
29. I love my Muck boots
30. Four wheeling in the mud is fun
31. Not suffering from the effects of global warming
32. Indoor sports
33. Don’t have to take the kids to football practice
34. Bad hair is acceptable
35. A warm dry, bed and someone to share it with

Rob King

Thanks Rob.  You rock.  Thank you for setting a practical example of seeing the positive side of a rainy gray day.

An early morning view of Big Lake from the front

The location is always the first thing I consider, because other things can be changed if they are up to your personal taste.  This townhouse would be considered a second home, one because it’s on a recreational lake and the design of the home lends itself to a recreational use.  It is located on Big Lake, about 10 miles west of Wasilla.  The highway is paved right to the front door – nothing rustic here!  Check the lake view from the massive front windows!

The “specs” on the townhouse is 3,600 square feet, not including the garage.  The top floor is a wonderful Master suite including a vaulted ceiling,

Elegant Gourmet Kitchen

The livingroom with small view of the large windows

fireplace, and a walk out to a private deck, which would be perfect for your hot tub or completely private sun deck.

The main floor floor has massive “floor to ceiling” windows facing south and west for the best sun exposure.  You can see down the lake and to the east to Mt McKinley on the horizon!  The kitchen is amazing with custom made cherry cabinets with many custom features that you would expect in a high in gourmet kitchen.  The counter tops are slab granite. 

Nice Master Suite

The lower level is perfect for a recreational home!  There is a overhead door (like a garage door) which opens to the outside patio!  You can pull your lawn furniture and water toys out the door and be ready for fun!

There is a full kitchen on the lower level, in addition to the nice gourmet kitchen I mentioned previously on the main level.  On the rear side of the lower floor is  very nice theater room completely built out with theater seating, screen in place and ready for use!

If you want a second home to get away from it all, this townhome would meet all your criteria!

Kristi and I figured it would be a great surprise if we actually took a motor-

The start of the adventure! Yea, I looked scared!

home trip.  We decided to take a tour of National Parks in Utah.  I had done those destinations alone in previous summers on a motorcycle I keep at a friends in Montana.  Kristi got on the Internet and located a 2001 35 foot class A motor-home for rent in Salt Lake.  I was tasked with planning the route and scheduling the motor-home parks.  It’s important to note, we’ve never done a trip like this and I had previously never even driven this sort of motor-home, much less run the generators and handle the water and septic issues.

We flew to Salt Lake last week with our son Cody and one of his friends.  We also brought along our older son, Ryan who is finishing up his college in Portland Oregon, but was out for summer break.

Picnic-style dinner in Bryce Canyon

We didn’t let much grass grow under our feet.  As soon as we arrive, we picked up the motor-home and after a fast orientation, set the GPS for southto Bryce Canyon!  We arrived at late in the day and found the camp ground where I had made reservations.  We learned that evening that much of motor-home life comes naturally.  With a couple of tries we had leveled the motor-home on our camping pad, hooked up the electric, water and sewer and let the livingroom slide out, expanding the living area by twice the size.

The next morning we hopped a shuttle and headed to Bryce Canyon.  We had read the National Park guide which recommended a rim hike.  After loading up on bottled water, we decided that would be a good use of time, and run some pent up energy out of our three boys.  The rim walk was spectacular!  We hadn’t been to Bryce before, but looking back over our trip, we determined Bryce was one of our most enjoyable stops!

The next day we headed to the north rim of the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona.  Our camp ground was more basic than the park we left the day before, but adequate.  There is a shortage of camping spots on the North Rim, and our spot was 40 miles from the Grand Canyon.  We were able to build an outside wood fire, not often the case we were to learn, and we were able to roast hot-dogs, marshmallows and make home-made smores from gram crackers, Hershey bars and marshmallows!  Our fire got so large from burning the huge pine-cones we collected, one of Smokey the bears representatives paid us a personal visit to ask us to “tone it down some“, which we did.

The third day we headed north to Page Arizona, home to Lake Powell, the huge, and beautiful man-made lake made when the Colorado River was dammed up to collect water for irrigation and for hydroelectric uses.  We took  a nice long hike and even got in an early morning run before the sun got too hot.  It was 100 degrees by noon!

Off Road Jeep Trip!

The fourth day we drive up to the town of Moab Utah.  Moab is world famous for it’s mountain bike trails and off road jeep trails.  After locating our camp ground, we ditched the motor-home and rented a 2010 Rubicon jeep!  We were enjoying our camping trip, but it sure felt nice to run errands, like restocking food and water, from the jeep and not driving the “big bus”! 

After our morning run the next morning we headed to Arches National Park, home to dozens of natural red-rock arches and amazing natural rock formations in the Utah desert.  We parked and took a 7 miles hike, appropriately named “Primitive Trail”.  We all learned something about taking such a long hike in 100 degree desert sun.  Seven miles proved a lot longer than we originally thought and after running out of water, we started hallucinating about what was for dinner and regretting any water we’d wasted in previous days!  The scenery was fantastic and we’ll remember our hike and experiences for the rest of our lives! 

A hike in the desert - Arches National Park

The next day was the 4th of July.  We loaded up the boys in the jeep and headed for a remote area where you can “off-road” with the jeep.  We found some very rugged trails we could really put our rented jeep through it’s paces.  We had spots we had do drop below 4 wheel drive and into 4 wheel Low and gear way down to get through the rough terrain.  The boys were energized and loved the bouncing around in the desert.  My wife, Kristi, constantly was telling me to slow down and be cautious.  I let her drive and all the caution flew out the window.  We all got a bouncing from her much greater than I as able to do with her in the back seat!  :)

That evening, thanks to the city of Moab, we enjoyed a nice fireworks display to end our 4th of July celabration correctly.

The following day we made our way back north to Salt Lake,where we flew home the following morning.  The Wolf family had a great 2010 summer break that we will remember fondly for years to come!

Large views and a massive "great room" feel

We recently listed a home that I am really proud of!  The home was built from huge Douglas Fir logs from  Homer Alaska. The logs are massive!   You can look at the main site to learn more about the company that provide and frames the homes.  The site is called www.AlaskaTimberFrame.com

I have to say, as I prepared for the appointment, I saw the “specs and vitals” on the home, such as “3,700 sq. ft. home, 3 acre home site, built in 2003″.  The home in located off Homestead Road in Peters Creek.  The thought ran through my mind that this will be an expensive house in a area where home sales have been slow and the market flat.

Check out the huge log steps!

When I arrived at the house, I quickly realized, I had stereotyped the house!  I was nothing like what I had in my mind!  This is log home structure with open beams, log stairs, very private and serene setting  and a nice view of Cook Inlet and Matanuska River!  Check out this virtual tour of the house!

This home really is a lifestyle.  This is for folks who don’t want to be in the hustle-bustle of town and want the privacy and quiet that a three acre home site will offer.  This is what some people expected to find when they moved north to Alaska!

Just sitting in the huge living-room, over looking the view, and tucking your legs under you as you open your favorite book is like a vacation.  This home could be good for your soul!

Whittier Alaska small boat harbor on Prince William Sound

Whittier Alaska is a very scenic small town and harbor located about an hour from Anchorage, and a gateway to Prince William Sound. 

Just the drive is somewhat of a unique experience.  There is 2.5 mile tunnel you have to go through to get to Whittier.  The tunnel is an engineering feat being the longest tunnel in North America.  It is a single lane.  Each direction is open every 1/2 hour, so you can plan your arrival to the mouth of the tunnel.

Whittier is located in Passage Canal in scenic Prince William Sound. 

Alaska Shrimp caught in shrimp pots an hour away from dinner!

My brother in law, Rick Stonke, keeps a boat in the Whittier small boat harbor.  This past weekend he took the family along to pull his shrimp pots.  Check out the bonanza of monster shrimp we shared for dinner! 

I love Alaska all the time, but especially  the summer time!

Families with young children pay attention to sex offenders

Many people carry the new Internet enabled “smart phones“; programs are easily downloaded that tie into the State registry site and show where registered sex offenders are in relation to you and your smart cell phone.

It would appear as if the list of people registered as sex offenders has exploded over the past 15 years!  This isn’t because the number of high-risk perpetrators is increasing, but that we have lowered the bar of what constitutes a sex offender.  A person can wind up on the sex offender registry for urinating in public or, in 32 states, for “streaking” in public.  A person who gets caught with a prostitute can be placed on the list.

Probably the most problematic group of “sex offenders” are teens.  Teen boys that get caught having sex with younger girlfriends can be classified as a crime, even if it’s consensual.  In Texas alone, there are 4,000 registrants who landed on the list as juveniles.

A recent assessment of registered sex offenders in Georgia found that less than 1 percent were “predators,” defined as people who are driven by compulsion to commit sex crimes.

Round-the-clock media coverage of high profile abductions and murders has contributed to the general sense that society has run amok, when in fact violent crimes rates in most areas are generally lower now thane been since the ’70′s.

Sex offender registries are controversial by nature and some say, can generate more confusion than clarity.  For example, there are a growing number of cell phone apps that take information from the State registry site and place dots where the registered offenders are around your location. With this widely available technology people can get the idea some neighborhoods are much “scarier” than they might really be.

It’s been said that a better list would be to limit the list to the 1% of truly creepy individuals who really are offenders, rather than the teenager who made some poor choices on the list or the goof-ball who thought it would be cute to streak across the stadium naked.

The dots on your cell phone app might lead you believe the area of town you are in is worse than it may really be.

Dramatic Entry Way

Does Anchorage Alaska have quality custom homes?

When people are moving to Alaska for the first time, and they think of Alaska homes, what thought comes to mind?  Do they think of a log homes on remote sites in the woods?  When they think of high quality “dream homes“, do they envision even bigger log homes on even more remote home sites?

Of course there are individuals in Alaska with discriminating tastes and those at the place in their lives that they can afford their idea of a

Unrestricted views!

dream home.

Homes come in all prices in Anchorage, just like they do anywhere.  There are always exceptions to any rule, but basically the “upper-end” of Anchorage market is $1,000,000. 

In 2009 – 2010, there was about 1 sale each month on the average of homes exceeding a million dollars. 

A home exceeding a million dollars will be high quality and may be unique, reflecting the personality of the builder, architect and home owner.  These homes would typically have very high quality finishes.  They would be a minimum of $5,000 square feet. 

High ceilings & superb quality of finishes

Views would be important, as would the location.  If the property was down-town Anchorage, the views would be unrestricted Cook Inlet views;  If the home was on the hillside area in Southeast Anchorage overlooking the city, the views would be “loud and proud” and without restriction.

In any market and in any location there are always people who want a home with disctinct features and high quality finishes. 

The Dan Wolf Team was proud to have sold three of the 12 homes that sold over a million dollars in Anchorage in the past year!

If you want to see what homes are for sale in any price bracket, search here.

An executive view from a downtown Anchorage Penthouse home

The individuals who like executive condominiums are specific in what they are looking for – it’s usually a lifestyle decision. They can afford anything they want, but they specifically want “location, location, location” as well as top amenities. What they want to avoid is home maintenance, of the outdoor variety such as shoveling the snow and mowing the lawn.

Anchorage real estate agents sell about 90 condominiums properties every month; the average sales price is $190,000 to $250,000. These aren’t the condominiums I’m talking about in this post.

A special view from an executive condominium in downtown Anchorage

Executive style condominiums begin in price in $450,000 range and continue up in price. In Anchorage, executive condos are a very small portion of the market. There might be only one sale a month over $450,000, and slower at higher prices.

I saw a wonderful penthouse condominium in a downtown property last week. The location was downtown Anchorage with massive unrestricted views. The quality of the finishes was exquisite. This particular executive condominium had underground parking with an elevator to the condo units. There are commercial business’s on the ground floor. The access to the residential condos above are limited by keyed access in the elevator.

This lifestyle isn’t for everyone, but it is perfect for individuals who want a high quality location and home, without the hastles of common exterior maintenance.

At first I thought it would be corny, but when I watched it to the end, I realized it was very well done and was inspiring.  To me it said, “If you don’t buckle because its the law, then buckle for your family.”

The facial expressions of the driver and his family are priceless and really strongly convey the message.

In light of all the traffic accidents we’ve had on the Seward Hiway over the past year, it certainly can’t hurt to show this reminder.

Memorial Day!

My good friend and veteran, Kirk Alkire, emailed out a timely reminder of the holiday.  Kirk served in Iraq in the US Army as a First Sergeant.  Kirk lost five soldiers in 2007 when  they were ambushed at Karbala, Iraq.  One soldier was killed instantly while four others were taken prisoner and later executed. 

When Kirk’s tour was over, he and three friends traveled to each of the four executed soldiers home towns to meet with their families.   Kirk needed to pay his final respects to the soldiers and their families.

We all know that Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for those who have died in nation’s service. 

As a civilian, having never served myself, it is especially easy to forget the reason for the season.  That’s why I wanted to send out this quick story hoping you, with me, won’t forget those who served, as well as their families.  For every soldier lost there is a mom, dad, sister and brother who also pays a price.

In his email, Kirk asks us to pause at 3pm Monday, Memorial Day,  for one minute of silence in honor of the fallen.  This is called the National Moment of Remembrance where millions of Americans take a minute together, wherever they are, to pay their respect.