The Yellow Desk

Lake house, Toledo house, lake house, Toledo house… it’s all we could think about. Which one did we love more? Did we want to put an offer on the Toledo house so that we didn’t lose it? What I really wanted to do was finish our trip, drive the 13 hours back home to Southern California and after getting some much needed down time, *then* make a decision. Unfortunately, the world doesn’t wait and we would have to make a split decision after we received a dreaded phone call. Fir

We left the house where we had been dismally embarrassed after sitting in their driveway for almost a half-hour before we realized it was occupied and NOT for sale! There was still some daylight left and we had one more house to see in Waldport. It was the definition of a fixer-upper with missing walls, no insulation, a hole in the roof, no flooring, no appliances… essentially a project. BUT the price was so low and the house was so big and so close to the ocean, we just had

We had dreamed up the idea of moving to Oregon and had started our road trip up the coast to begin seeing homes for sale. Having already fallen in love with the lake house, it really set a high standard for everything we would see afterward. The idea of having a dock on the lake, the serenity and peacefulness of the forest, were incredible hurdles for the other homes to bound over. We had just left Florence and were headed for Yachats (pronounced ya-hots), another great beach

Ever since our move to the Oregon Coast, living on Ten Mile Lake, surrounded in beauty, has really inspired me to start cooking again. Prior to our move, I had become stuck in a rut that often consisted of convenience foods or things that I could put together in a matter of five minutes or less – bean burritos, nachos, pretty much any quick and easy Mexican fare. It was simple to run out and grab a bite to eat or to order in pizza when I didn’t want to spend the five minutes