2005 Christmas Letter Coast in order to be closer to many family
members and live in a milder climate than
Colorado. High on our long list of requirements for
a new community were a local college or university,
a Unitarian Universalist church, a compact city
Well, another year has flashed by with astonishing rather than a metropolitan area, and reasonable
speed. housing costs. When we happened through
Here's the executive summary: We've moved to Corvallis, Oregon, in May, 2004, we liked what we
Corvallis, Oregon, and purchased a house that we saw and ended up staying there for several nights.
are busy fixing up, or at least making livable. Here Back in Golden we continued to research Corvallis
is our new contact information: and became even more enthusiastic. Warned that
3010 NW Johnson Ave., Corvallis, OR, 97330 we should "experience the rain" before making a
(For mail: PO Box 548, Corvallis, OR, 97339) move to the Pacific Northwest, we visited again in
Phone: (541) 758-2699. February, thanks to the hospitality of Sandy and
Dick Helmick, members of the UU Fellowship of
Naturally, February was one of the driest months Corvallis who generously offered to let us house sit
on record for Corvallis, but we did decide after this their house for two weeks.
second visit that this was the town for us, rain or no
rain! For the next two months we were totally focused on
We returned to Golden, fixed up our house, put finding a house to purchase that would come as
thousands of pounds of stuff in storage, worked close as possible to matching our long wish list.
with a professional "stager," put our house on the We wanted a house that we could live in for a long
market, closed the sale in mid-June, and drove time, so it needed to have the master bedroom,
both cars out to Corvallis. There we rented a kitchen, living room, and laundry on the ground
townhouse with a huge three-car garage that was floor. There needed to be sufficient space for all of
soon fully packed with boxes and furniture off of a John's science-education stuff and wood-working
fully-loaded moving van. tools. We also wanted to be within walking
distance of Oregon State University, the UU
church, and downtown Corvallis. When a house
near OSU came up in late August, we didn't
If you're interested in all of the details, read on: hesitate! This house is the best fit to our long wish
list that we have yet seen.
During 2004, we took advantage of being retired to
make two long car trips around the northwest and
north-central parts of the country. As we traveled
we contemplated making a move to the West
Although the sale closed in late September, we finishing up her masters in counseling at JFK
didn't move in until the end of October, as we first University.
wanted to deal with removing the asbestos tiles
and installing new vinyl flooring in the entire
basement, the laundry room, breezeway, and
kitchen. We also installed new gutters and
rerouted much of the roof drainage away from the
house and out to the street gutter. (The house was
built in 1952 with the sewer line and rain gutters
both draining through the same pipe to the city
sewer. The basement was dry until last year, when
Bert and Taya
this pipe collapsed during a rain storm, causing a
backup of rain water into our basement.) Elizabeth finished up at Cal State Monterey Bay
with a BS in environmental science. Her daughter,
There are still quite a few issues to deal with in the
Kyla, is a charming 8 year old, and very flexible, as
house. The kitchen and bathrooms have never
you can see from this photo.
been updated, so they are in need of thorough
overhauls. The windows need to be updated. The
landscaping had not been maintained for a few
years, so Jan has her hands full there. We're only
Kyla, Jan, and Beth
two blocks from OSU, so there are quite a few
student rental's nearby. The kids are fine, as long
as we don't have to listen to their music through
Nils, Kristi, and Bjorn (now 19 months old) recently
our living room walls. We live in the College Hill
moved to Redmond, Washington. We visited them
Historic District, and the neighborhood association
at their beautiful new house at Thanksgiving time.
has been working on the noise issue with the city
council and the police.
Even with all of the packing, moving, house
hunting, upkeep, and unpacking, John managed to
keep up with his seismology education activities,
teaching teachers in Costa Rica and Chicago, and Bjorn, Nils, and Kristi
teaching kids at a Port Townsend day camp. He
even managed to attend the American Geophysical Nils works from home with three companies that he
Union meeting in San Francisco this year, which has helped found. The work involves computers
also provided an opportunity to stay with Taya and and streaming video, but that's the extent of my
Bert in Concord. Bert is an attorney and Taya is
understanding of it. Bjorn is one of the cutest kids
ever, as you can see from these pictures.
Nils, Bjorn, and John
We are currently visiting Jan's mother in Portola
Valley and we'll all go to her brother's house in
Roseville to celebrate Christmas with Phil and
Louise, and their children, Blake and Melanie.
One big disadvantage of moving is that we're now
farther from the Quinlan family in Colorado (Aunt
Lola, Uncle Marvin, and cousins with great kids).
Hopefully we will be able to get back there
sometime, or entice some visits to Corvallis. John
did get to catch up with Dan at the AGU meeting
earlier this month.
Jan & Bjorn
We hope that 2006 will bring all the best to you and
yours and that the World will become more
peaceful!
John & Jan