Check out this beautiful new listing!  Easy to live in house with fabulous views!

Orcas Island Washington

https://759PioneerHillRoad.wreproperty.com/index.html

Another happy couple in their new home!

Is it time to discuss YOUR move to the San Juans?  Call me and we can talk about the process.

#orcasrealtor #islandlife #extraordinarycommunity

Relax and enjoy the view

Happy homeowners!

Cozy home in the woods.

Like so many of us, as the year comes to a close I am reflecting on 2021 and looking forward to 2022.

While 2021 was very challenging for humanity, and my island community, I am choosing to remember the bright spots.  On a personal level, I started a new career, spent the first full year in our new home, welcomed a great-granddaughter, saw my best friend become a nana, watched our son continue to grow into the role of a homeowner, connected with old friends, and felt the joy of the sun on my face and the sea at my feet.

Our community hit some high points, also.  We have the highest rate of vaccinated individuals in the state, we found safe ways to come together to celebrate high school graduation and other milestones, we cheered for our State Soccer Champs, we helped our neighbors in ways large and small, we greeted each other with smiles behind our masks, we provided care to our most vulnerable citizens, and always remembered that we are an extraordinary community of (mostly) ordinary people.

In many ways I’m happy to put 2021 behind me, but I won’t forget the blessings it brought to my life together with the trials.  I am so very fortunate to experience good health, to know my family has made it through the pandemic intact, to have people in my life to share love and support, and to live in a place I treasure.  Certainly 2022 will have its tribulations, and I hope I can meet them with courage and grace.  But mostly I will continue to be grateful every day for the people I love and the place I call home.

When Orcas Island, and much of Western Washington and beyond, experienced record rainfall over November 14^th and 15^th, there were any number of road washouts, landslides and other water-related emergencies.  For those living on the far southeast part of Orcas the rains proved to be catastrophic.

Doe Bay Creek scoured out the culvert it normally runs through under Point Lawrence Road, taking a large section of the road with it toward Doe Bay.  Point Lawrence Road is the only access to about 200 homes beyond Doe Bay Resort, and those people were now cut off from the rest of the island and all its many services.

But, once again, the extraordinarily close community came to the rescue when neighbors banded together with Doe Bay Resort and the Orcas Island Community Foundation to build a pedestrian bridge to cross the creek just downstream from the road.  Within 24 hours of the rain stopping, people were able to get to the grocery store, doctor’s appointment or job.

This willingness to roll up your sleeves and find a solution is what attracts so many to this island of natural wonders.  Sure, we have beautiful lakes, miles of hiking trails, and a cute, friendly village, but what makes Orcas Island so special to those of us lucky enough to call it home is the extreme kindness of those who share it with us.

If this sounds like the kind of extraordinary community where you would like to live and play, please reach out to me by phone or email – I’m sure we can find your piece of The Rock!

One of the things I love about living on Orcas Island is the temperate climate.  Here it’s the second week of November, and I can still plant my spring-flowering bulbs!  I enjoy my garden year round, but there is something special about being out on a crisp, sunny fall day.  I’m planting for Spring, there is Fall color, and places where Summer hasn’t quite let go.  It’s truly magical!  Call me today to get your piece of paradise!

#orcasislandrealtor

Just sold this lovely piece of the rock to a couple who will build their dream home here.  I can’t wait to welcome them as residents of our extraordinary Orcas Island community!

Beautiful west-facing waterfront property on Eastsound.

https://www.homesnap.com/WA/Orcas-Island/3-Sunlight-Cove-Road

#islandlife #orcasislandrealtor

Photo credit:  NWMLS

Our family has vacationed on Orcas Island since the 1990’s, staying for a magical week each June at Beach Haven Resort on the island’s northwest coast.  One of our many annual traditions, on the Friday before we had to leave on Saturday, was to motor by boat around the west and south sides of the island to the public dock at Olga.  We would tie up our boat and then hike the long dock to the end of Olga Road.

In earlier years we would often stop at the Olga Store for a little shopping, maybe an ice cream cone.  After the store closed for the last time, our yearly hike would continue up the hill to the Artworks Gallery and lunch at the Café (first Olga Café, then Catkin).  In all those years, we never imagined we would one day call Olga home.

And yet, here we are!  And one of the first things we did was become donors to the Friends of The Olga Store Building.

The Olga Store has a long and colorful past. Olga was founded in 1860 and named after the mother of the first Olga storekeeper, Anthony Ohlert. This small hamlet has retained its rustic beauty for more than 100 years.

In the early 1900s, The Olga Store was located in a different building nearer to the beach. It moved in 1937 to the current beloved building. As a general store, it was the hub for the east end of Orcas Island. The store was close to the dock where fresh strawberries were shipped to Seattle markets. The mail would arrive by boat before it started coming from Eastsound by road.

The first Olga Post Office, established in 1890, was initially housed in a log cabin at Buck Bay, then later moved to the current Olga Store Building. The Post Office was moved across the street to its current location, and the store evolved into different establishments: a lunch nook, a fine dining restaurant, and a general store where you could get homemade ice cream.¹

What is so amazing about the Store in its current incarnation is pure Orcas Island.  A committed group of community members determined to preserve the Store building.  It all began in May 2019 when the current Olga Post Office building was put on the market, with the lease ending in October 2019. The situation became urgent, both to save the building from development and to ensure that Olga retains its post office as the focal point of the community.

Friends of the Olga Store Building moved to reclaim this beloved space for the community in 2019. On January 21, 2020, after 10 months of persistent organizing, fundraising, and becoming a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, they purchased the building with hundreds of donations from those who shared the dream.

They envision a revived historic East-end community anchor, housing The Olga Post Office and Orcas Food Co-op, an inclusive and welcoming place to receive mail and sip coffee.²

The expectations for the resurrected building are high, which is causing many Olga residents to re-think listing their home for sale.  The very real possibility of a revived Olga Store is a great reason to remain, or become, a member of this forward-thinking community.

For more information, click here https://www.theolgastore.org/

1 – Edited excerpt from Images of America Orcas Island, published by the Orcas Island Historical Society and Museum, page 29.

2 – Edited excerpt from theolgastore.org