Welcome to LaGrange House

We've been teasing this enough that even some of my oldest friends are saying, 'alright already!' (Barbara Foster) So I won't belabor this or tease anyone any longer. Yvonne and I were recently able to realize a dream. We bought a vacation/retirement home in Astoria, Oregon. Why Astoria? Besides the fishing and the culture and the small town environment and the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean and a butcher shop and a couple of cool coffee shops and the seafood and the relation to all the beaches on the ocean and the razor clams and the salmon... I can't think of any reason.

A sunset view of the Columbia River and bridge to Washington State

We've been looking for a home near and around there for over three years. Yvonne and I both have saved searched in Trulia and Zillow. A new home will occasionally pop and we'd look at it but it wouldn't have those things we were looking for.

What is this criteria?

A view of the water-CHECK

A home with interesting characteristics-CHECK

A home situated so one could walk downtown-CHECK

A home we could afford a down payment on and a second mortgage-IMPORTANT CHECK

This is the view from our house of the river and bridge. Notice the ocean going vessel beneath the bridge.
At this point the Columbia River is 4.5 miles across. 

So about the second week in August this happened.

The home was listed on a Monday.

Yvonne saw it on a Tuesday.

We got serious about it on Wednesday.

We hired an agent on Thursday.

We flew out on Friday.

We saw the home in person on Saturday and made an offer (along with eleven others).

We were nervous as hell all day Sunday.

They accepted our offer on Monday.

The day we put an offer in on the house. Not for the faint of heart. 32 steps from the street to the landing,
then another 13 steps to the front door. 

Yep.  It happened that fast.

The home is a 1900 Victorian and retains some of its charm.

Yvonne is up in Astoria this week taking bids for some extra work that still needs to be done on it: e.g. French Drain, gutters, chimney sleeve, etc. The home was flipped and the flipper was lazy. You should have seen the names the flipper was called by the inspector. He sure didn't like some of the shabby work. Before closing, the flipper fixed and repaired a bunch of stuff, but there's still stuff to be done.

The idea is for us to be able to go there on vacations, as well as our friends and family. I'd rather have the place used, than empty.

Why call it LaGrange house? We have some great friends named Herb and Diane who have a home on the Potomac everyone affectionately calls Cedar Lodge. Far from a lodge, this sprawling manse could house a battalion. Originally built in the 1700s, it's been added on to over the years and is just the most restful spot on the planet. We'd like to create another such spot, only this one one the West Coast.

Why LaGrange? Besides the fact that I like that word, a Lagrange Point in science is a location in space where the combined gravitational forces of two large bodies, such as Earth and the sun or Earth and the moon, equal the centrifugal force felt by a much smaller third body. Lagrange House rests equally between what is and what can be, locked in stasis by the gravitational weight of the past and future. It is a place outside of time. A place outside of enmity. And a place outside of the worries of the world.

LaGrange House. 

And it's ours to share with the world.

View from the third floor window - THIS SOLD IT FOR ME

Other side of the same window

View from a side deck

View from the front steps