Bike Repair

My bike needs a tune-up. I am cheap, and I've been searching for a free bike tune-up event. Should be easy to find in Portland, right? Like trying to find a free dog vaccination clinic. Everyone in Portland has a bike and a dog.

Anyway, I found a free bike clinic earlier this week that was part of a Levi's special event, but the line was too long so I left. I found another group that offered what I thought was free bike tune-ups Saturday mornings, so I went this morning to Bikes for Humanity PDX. Turns out they don't offer free repairs per se, rather, they have you volunteer at their bike restoration shop, and in return for every two hours of volunteer work you get one hour to work on your bike in the shop.

I really like this concept. I know nothing about bike repair, so I decided to volunteer and earn some personal repair time. Steve gave me an excellent overview of the shop's workflow, then put me to work cleaning an old-school Schwinn cruiser. I had a great time, and learned a little about brake systems in the process.

When my two hours were up Steve let me put my bike up on a stand and we tackled the gear shifting system. Turns out it was a hot mess, but Steve fixed it! He explained every step to me in hopes that I'd retain the info and help others. I must admit...not much stuck. I don't know why, but I have a hard time retaining mechanical information. 

I was so happy I earned my bike's repair. It feels good to work. I certainly got more out of the experience than a free repair. And I got much more than I would have if I simply dropped the bike off at a shop and returned a few days later with my credit card. 

You can check out the group's site here.

Thursday Night

Portland is having an unbelievably nice summer. It has only rained once since I got here nearly three weeks ago. It has been sunny every day. It has been warm, but never really hot.

The first two weeks I was here I was frantically searching for a house every night. (BTW: We'll know tomorrow night if the Colorado buyers are going to actually buy our house. At that point we'll also know if we are going to buy the home in Sherwood.)

Tonight I had some free time, so besides doing the dishes, taking out the trash, and ironing some clothes I decided to take advantage of both the nice weather and the free time and ride my bike up to Portland State University. I also wanted to get some exercise after eating an entire Trader Joe's frozen pizza all by myself. Here are some photos I took on my journey.

 I love the name of this church: The Old Church

 This is some guy's pet. To me that's different.

 Inside joke alert: Chanel, they really did remove the center panel of one of the doors!

I want to remember how cool it is to have my own apartment in downtown Portland. I also want to remember that at times it can be a little boring. I don't want to spend any money, so shopping is out. And I run almost every morning, so I get my fill of the great riverfront and beautiful forestry nearby. I really miss the kids and can't wait to be back with them again. Then I'll wonder what on earth I did with all my free time while I was a bachelor in downtown Portland!

Head Up High

It's been a difficult few weeks. Work is beginning to become work (honeymoon is ending). The potential buyers of our Colorado home are having second thoughts. I need to find a place to stay from August 21-29 because my corporate housing expires and I'm flying to Colorado to drive to Oregon with the family on the 30th. Things are stressful. 

Last night I just wanted to give up. I closed my eyes and prayed that this was all a dream, and that I'd open my eyes and be in my bedroom in Firestone. I'd go back to life before Portland. I opened my eyes and I was in my apartment. I considered just quitting and returning home to Firestone and searching for a job in Colorado. I knew it'd be career suicide to leave a job 2 1/2 weeks into it. I knew I'd have a ton of money to reimburse WK and that I'd probably never get a job at a big shop again. I didn't care. I just wanted to be home and with my family again. I went to bed.

This morning I woke up and decided I would try to make things work out. I prayed for help. Then I got this simple email from my dad:

Hold your head up high and stay focused buddy !

That is the entire email. He had no idea I was having troubles. But that simple email provided me with such peace. It helped me realize that everything would be just fine, and that I couldn't sit around feeling sad or overwhelmed. I need to hold my head up high and stay focused. 

And that's just what I'm going to do. And everything is going to be awesome. I will be with my family soon. Work is going great. I'll find a place to stay for that super small amount of time. If these buyers back out of buying our home we'll just rent it out and rent a house in Sherwood and we'll be fine. I have so much going right for me, and the best part is it's only going to get better.  

It's going to get better! And I'll be much stronger, humbler, and more patient after going through this trial. I love my life. I really do.

Here are a couple photos to remind me of what it was like to walk to the grocery store and walk back to my apartment. Number 1104 at the Wyatt in the Pearl District, downtown Portland.

Monday Evening Bike Ride

Chanel's Visit / Random Thoughts

Chanel flew in Friday for a weekend visit. While I was waiting for her in the arrivals section of the PDX she sneaked up behind me and scared me big time. I yelled so loud I made the woman standing next to me jump. It was pretty hilarious. Any time I scream like a little girl on a carnival ride it's pretty hilarious. I can't explain how HAPPY I was to see her, to hug her, to be with her. She looked absolutely beautiful.

We drove back to the apartment and I gave her a quick tour. Then we drove down 13th Avenue and she dropped me off about two blocks from the office so she could hop on the freeway and check out the house in Sherwood.

Chanel did not instantly fall in love with the Sherwood house or neighborhood.  I didn't fall in love with Sherwood, either. We are not convinced that we are going to love Sherwood or even Oregon. The problem is Colorado spoiled us. It is, in our opinion, the best place on earth to live. If we are going to be truly happy in Oregon we're going to have to find a way to stop comparing the two places. And in regards to Sherwood, we need to keep reminding ourselves that we chose Sherwood because of the great schools and very safe neighborhoods.

This will be particularly important to remember when we write out a mortgage check that is much higher than the ones we wrote while living in Firestone.

Firestone. It is so bizarre that we love that tiny town so much. We despised it when we first moved there. About two days after moving in we went to a carnival in a field next to Safeway. We each got about 500 "goatheads" stuck in our shoes and feet, and some of us even started bleeding. We have never been able to keep our bike tires inflated for very long thanks to those goatheads. We went to a "honey bee" festival at the junior high school and it made us so depressed. The town smells like cow poop at least 75% of the time. There is virtually no shopping there, and very little to do other than visit the small rec center or hang out at the library. I honestly don't know why we love that town, but we do. We truly do. We love the ward, we love the elementary school, we love walking through the neighborhood, we love our park, and we love our house...the same house that we didn't even love when we bought it.

And at the same time, believe it or not, I am looking forward to our new life in Oregon. I can't imagine having a better job, and I'm looking forward to watching our kids shine at an excellent school. I'm looking forward to making our new house our home, meeting neighbors and ward members, shopping at Trader Joe's, going to the Portland Temple with Chanel, driving to the coast, riding our bikes to the movie theater...I just know we are going to have a lot of fun here.

We are in a tough transition period right now. I still don't know where I am going to live on August 21, which is when my corporate housing expires. I don't know when I will see the kids again, but I know it'll be soon. Lots still up in the air, but I believe these issues will be solved this week.

Friday afternoon I gave Chanel a tour of the office. I was especially excited to show her the free Coke vending machine. After work we walked to a Japanese restaurant and had a great dinner. Then we drove to Trader Joe's in downtown Portland.

On Saturday we went for a run along the Willamette River on our way to the Portland Saturday Market. The market was still being set up, so we ran to Powell's and picked up some books for the kids. After Powell's we went exploring and came across Mother's Bistro & Bar. It was packed with a 40 minute wait time for seating, but we figured it must be good if people were willing to wait for so long! We put our names down and killed some time by walking to Voodoo Doughnut. Neither of us are huge doughnut fans, so we didn't wait in this line very long:

We headed back to Mother's. I want you to understand what I am about to type: Portland has the best food in the world, and Mother's has the best breakfast in the universe. We were so entirely blown away by our amazing food that we still can't stop talking about it. We both had omelettes and potatoes, and we simply could not believe how great they were. Killer. This meal made us very, very happy.

 Chanel is so wonderful and so beautiful. Looking at this picture makes me so bad wish she was here with me right now.

After Mother's we headed back to the Saturday Market. It was cool, but we decided it'd be more fun with the kids so we walked/ran back to the apartment, cleaned up, and drove down to Sherwood and checked it out some more. We walked around the outside of the grade school and found it nice and spacious, with lots of fun stuff for the kids to do during recess.

After our visit to Sherwood we went to the Nike Store in Beaverton.

Nerd

We picked up some stuff for us and the kids (and ourselves, of course), and then decided to drive to the coast. When we realized how long it would take to get to the coast we instead drove to Salem and checked out the capitol building. Then we drove back towards Portland and made a pitstop in  Lake Oswego, where we had dinner at Chevy's, a place we haven't eaten since our early college days in Vegas. We loved it and totally pigged out on chips, salsa, flour tortillas, and our dinners. Muy bien!

Perhaps you didn't know this about us, but you have probably picked up on the fact we are huge Trader Joe's fans. We are thrilled that there is a TJ's in LO, about 15 minutes from our house. Here's a photo of Chanel flexing her bicep in front of the store:

We came back to the apartment and watched the local news. We got up super early and went to the airport for Chanel's 6am departure. She's home now with the kids. It was pure heaven having her here.

After going to church in Sherwood I had to return the rental car. I am going to miss that car, but I am looking forward to riding my new bike around town. I felt this sign in the elevator of the rental car return epitomized the extent to which people in Portland try to be nice. A simple note simply would not do.

New Bike!

I found a great road bike on Craigslist last week, but at that point I was still trying to sell my mountain bike in Colorado so I didn't buy it.

This afternoon someone bought my mountain bike. I checked Craigslist and the bike was still available! I was shocked and excited and literally ran almost 5 miles to the person's house after work. I fell in love with the bike and bought it. It's an Orbea Cabestany. The guy I bought it from said he picked it up while he was traveling in Malaga, Spain.

The best part? The guy had dropped the price $40 since I saw the post last week!

The bike is a classic road bike, and it rides smooth. Here's a shot of me at a stoplight as I was riding it home.

Things are working out so well for us. Things are falling into place so smoothly. We are so blessed. I can't wait to take this bike out for a long ride. Maybe I'll ride to Eugene next weekend! It's only 128 miles...one way.

House Hunt Is Over...We Think

We sure had an exciting beginning to our week.

On Monday morning I drove out to Sherwood and looked at a four bedroom house. It was definitely the nicest house I had seen in Sherwood. Chanel and I decided to put an offer on it. We were aggressive and asked the seller to cover all the closing costs. In the contract we told the sellers they had until 5pm Tuesday to get back to us. 

So Tuesday afternoon rolled around and we hadn't heard anything. We assumed that meant they weren't going to entertain our offer, so we decided to check out some houses in Vancouver. We found a HUGE house and decided that since the Sherwood people never got back to us we'd pursue the Vancouver home. Later that night our Oregon Realtor told us we'd have an answer by Wednesday morning. We said fine, but we were all set to buy the Vancouver home. 

On Wednesday morning our Washington Realtor said she heard two other offers were coming in on the Vancouver house, and one of them was for full asking price and zero closing costs assistance. If we were to match that offer we would have had to bring a lot of money to closing. The bonus with the Sherwood home was the fact it qualifies for a USDA mortgage, which requires zero down.  

Also on Wednesday morning we were told the Sherwood owners countered with a very acceptable offer: raise the price of the home a bit and they'd cover closing costs 100%.

We chose Sherwood. Later in the day our Washington Realtor told us the other offer on the Vancouver home fell through, but by then we had decided to stick with Sherwood, even though our mortgage would be a bit more.

What a relief! We finally found a home. What an answer to several prayers, offered by us and several friends and family members.

Yesterday our Realtor provided us with an inspection report done on the home in early July. Some of the findings freaked us out, the most troubling was the fact that raccoon had found a way to get into the crawlspace! Wow, that really freaked me out. We heard today that their entrance point had been sealed up. That's a relief.

This morning I signed the mortgage paperwork. Next Wednesday the inspector is going to do a follow-up report for us. We also have a mold specialist coming in to make sure there is no mold in the house. 

It has been a busy couple weeks, but everything is falling into place so nicely for us! We may even be able to rent the house we are buying in Sherwood until our closing is final. 

Now my focus will be on Chanel. She is flying up for a weekend visit, and I am crazy excited!