The next step, Portland!

SO last year, right around now, Linz and I were in serious discussions to take over a small motel in Seaview, WA. The place had a lot of charm and was in a great spot, but it was pretty run down, owned by a fellow that no longer cared about the business. All was looking well, and we had extremely high hopes for the year to come.

Well, turns out that the owner did have a love of something related to the motel, the almighty buck. Once he started asking for more than we'd agreed on, more than we could have afforded comfortably to give, things fell apart. In retrospect, this was a good thing, it would have been a lease to own deal and frankly, we would have been miserable trying to run it while he still had his fingers anywhere near the property in any way.

Since then, as a slightly vindictive side note, the motel has gotten some very unfavorable reviews and is still for sale, now for quite a few years.

After the motel deal fell through, we had a pretty rough year, a few setbacks, though looking back, it wasn't as bad as it seemed at the time, and we also managed to start new goals for our future; writing!

We have both written books, as well as started on multiple others each. Lindsay is in the process of finding an agent and has had a few favorable responses so far. I submitted my book, The Whispering Ferns, a kids ghost story/mystery to the Delacorte Press New Writers Contest. I lost and amusingly, after the contest ended with no winner announced, they ended the contest for the future, after 18 years. My book is apparently that bad, ladies and gentlemen! Ha!

So 2009 seemed rough, but was filled with some nice milestones all the same. I'm pretty sure that my busted arm in December helped make it out to be bleaker than it was; December and January just aren't the best of months for us!

Towards the end of the year, Lindsay and I decided to try and transfer with my job to the Oregon/Washington area. We really love it out there, We're enchanted with the ocean and the lush forests, I love the rich culture of myth and irreverent history of the area too.

So we took a trip out there and checked out a few areas, applying for transfers when we got back. Unfortunately, we have bad timing with this kind of thing, just a few months earlier, Walgreens, my job, instituted yet another ill-conceived money-saving plan with the structure of their stores. In every store, as Assistant Managers left or were fired, rather than promoting, transferring or hiring new managers, the stores were ordered to create a new position in the stores, something called a Shift Leader. This position is essentially a manager with all of the responsibility and expectations, but none of the support, ability and pay.

This also means that for me to get a transfer into any established store, that store would have to lose two managers and not have any immediate local replacement or be willing to choose me instead. It didn't seem hopeful, but we tried anyway, contacting every store in the area, throwing the net far and wide.

Then, on a whim, we threw the net a bit wider and we pulled something fascinating in from the depths of the ocean, an offer. And not just an offer, but an offer from a district manager that is personable, friendly and funny, who seems excited about the idea of working with me, in an area that could mean a lot of opportunity for me if I choose to progress with Walgreens.

It's a pretty short deadline though, he needs me out there asap to aid in building and setting up stores where once there were none, so we've been scrambling to pack and prepare.

Our plane leaves on the 27th of January. Our plan is to fly there, stay in am monthly rental motel for a bit while we look for a place to live with our pets. Once that's secured, we'll fly back to Poky, buy a new Element and drive the kids and a few additional essentials out to our new home.

Where's that you ask? Well, if you read the title of the post, it should be somewhat clear, It's Portland! What isn't completely clear though, is that on January 27th, we're flying to live in Portland, Maine! 

Yeesh, this is going to be one exciting new year! more as it comes, but wish us luck, and stick with us as we document the trials and tribulations of moving 3,000 miles away from any family and friends and attempting to become published authors, debt-free, and eventually, owning our own motel! 



And yes, I am aware that we are unabashed dreamers, but we figure someone's dreams have to come true every now and then, why not ours?

A Dream On The Verge

This is a difficult post to write.

After 4 months of intense discussion, excitement, frustration and hope, the motel we have been attempting to enter into a Lease To Own agreement with has fallen through. While I will undoubtedly go into more depth when I reach the motel in the stories, ideally after I've had some time to separate myself from the emotion, the short story is that he wanted more money than we had to give, and we started to have some real doubts about the stability of the property, both the buildings themselves, and the owner.

It was an incredibly difficult decision to make, but we reached a point where we could see that more time discussing it would only be delaying the inevitable, and make ending it harder for us. This motel was the only one we contacted, out of 20 that was willing to consider a deal with the amount of money we had to offer.


Of course, we're nothing if not persistent, and we are determined to run a motel. It's our dream, and we are confident that we could excel at it in ways never imagined. Between our artistic ability, dedication and friendliness, all we need is a chance. There is one other property we are looking into. It's smaller, and less than half the price of the other, and after a lot of reflection, we've decided that not only are the buildings in better shape, but we like the area well enough to try for it. The problem is that the owners aren't interested in a Lease To Own, or other owner oriented plans, essentially, they want to get the money and forget about the property.
Throughout this entire process, Lindsay and I have been explicit in wishing to do this ourselves, relying on help only in a moral support capacity, but we have come to the conclusion that we need help if we're to achieve our dreams. We are currently looking into lenders, SBA, Government-assisted loans, hard money people and every other conventional methods we can, but we have come to the conclusion that if we are to find the 20% we need to secure a loan, we are going to have to ask people for assistance.


If any of you, my friends and family, know of any angels out there willing to invest in our future, at a good interest rate, please fire us off an email at avalon_ink@yahoo.com. We are hoping to find one single investor for the property, but we are willing to take on multiple investors to reach the amount we need, if we can find them.

Thank you!

Kristopher & Lindsay