​As co-owners of ReMax Real Estate Team in La Grande, Shawna and Randy McKinnis both bring almost 30 years of experience each in real estate.  That, combined with Randy having grown up in the area and Shawna a 1993 transplant, gives them a depth of knowledge about the local housing market and all that our area offers that is unrivaled.
 
Their mission is to enhance their clients’ lives by becoming their real estate solution source by providing client education, investment strategies, superior service, and exceptional results to each individual client.
 
The highly professional ReMax agents and staff are dedicated to making the real estate experience memorable and enjoyable.  Their agents live, work, and serve in the local communities and have the experience to get the job done in today’s market, pairing each client with the right agent for their unique needs.  In addition to exceptional marketing strategies to help a client sell their home quickly, the ReMax Real Estate Team offers the latest technology to make the process of finding a home easier than ever.  Each client will gain access to cutting edge map search technology, our state of the art app, current market status reports, and more.
 
The ultimate goal of the ReMax Real Estate Team is to create lasting personal relationships, as well as to be lifelong advocates for each client.  With their experience, tools, and know-how, the ReMax Real Estate team will continue to have as their top priority making the process of buying and selling a home as simple and stress free as possible in the years to come. 

This last week has been action packed—first Crazy Days, then the return of Studio-Tru to La Grande and, as an added bonus, Goss Motors was celebrating their 100th anniversary.
 
The Crazy Days Street Festival, held on Friday and Saturday, July 15th and 16th, was a lovely way for members of our community and region to meet and greet and indulge in a bit of shopping.  Friday was the day for Adams Avenue merchants to hold sidewalk sales and there were lots of great things on offer.  Seguing into Saturday, the Timber Cruisers Car Club lined Adams Avenue with two rows of classic cars—and since I grew up in Michigan, I always appreciate a great car show.  Every era of motor car development was represented, all lovingly taken care of or restored (some quite fancifully).  The fun continued throughout the day with great food and drink and lots of children having a great time while their adults browsed through the many beautiful crafts on offer from artists from around the region.  

​It turns out Cheri has recently been into competitive natural bodybuilding and I used to do this in the early 1990s…so there was a lot of catching up to do. The shop is elegant and the haircut turned out perfectly.  As the recipient of several bad haircuts in the last five years, it was a delight to be able to give her very basic descriptions and end up with what I had envisioned!  Cheri’s daughter, Cassidy Hisgen, will be joining Studio-Tru in September, so there will be a double whammy of talent on offer.  Check out the Studio-Tru website at https://www.studiotrusalon.com.
 
Next week, in the spirit of the summer season, I will be visiting a couple of the parks we have in lovely La Grande, with a special emphasis on Downtown’s very own pocket park.

​Established in 2018 by a group of six experienced realtors in Union County, Blue Summit Realty Group serves Union, Baker, Wallowa, and Umatilla Counties.  These realtors are all well connected and established in the community and they are a team of the highest producers in the region with decades of proven experience.
 
Blue Summit Realty Group’s stated mission is to provide their clients with the best and most comprehensive real estate services available in Eastern Oregon. They are full-time realtors who are energized and determined to help their clients achieve their dreams of home ownership.  They are competent, organized, and confidential in their dealings with each client.
 
On offer at Blue Summit is a wide range of services from comprehensive market analysis and listing and buying agencies for all types of real property to staging assistance, and much more.  The Blue Summit team is expert in all areas of real estate, including homes, land, commercial, farms, and ranches.
 
Ever innovative and creative, Blue Summit’s goal is to help each and every client achieve their dream of home ownership.  Toward that end, they are completely networked in the community with relationships that assist their clients.  They are on top of the latest technology in order to facilitate seamless and professional transactions.  Most importantly, the realtors at Blue Summit Realty Group are honest and confidential and will handle their clients’ real estate business with care and consideration.
 
Given Blue Summit Realty Group’s motivation, connectedness, professionalism, and ethics, they will continue to deliver the ultimate in real estate sales and service in Eastern Oregon for years to come.

​Allied Mortgage Resource is a division of Mann Mortgage, which is a family-owned company that emphasizes community relationships, honesty and integrity. Founded in 1989 by Don Mann, the company has been committed to hometown values, solid partnerships, streamlined processes, and cutting-edge technologies.  Above all, they are committed to helping qualified borrowers in their communities obtain the dream of home ownership.
 
From a single loan officer in the late 1980s, Mann Mortgage has expanded to include 55 branch locations and 500 employees in 12 states and 12 states that are licensed states.  These coop branches enjoy a strong reputation built on depth and breadth of expertise, as well as enduring industry partnerships.
 
The mission of Allied Mortgage Resource is bound up in the ethos of the founder of Mann Mortgage, Don Mann.  He modeled his mortgage company after a 1950s era farming coop.  With the pooling of resources, lending could be kept personal and local.  Based on Don Mann’s original business model, the mission emphasizes sharing collectively, thus benefitting everyone.
 
Allied Mortgage Resource offers a full complement of mortgage options from conventional loans, VA loans, and FHA loans as well as construction and renovation loans and reverse mortgages.  They take pride in their many five-star reviews, as well as being named as an MPA 2021 Top Mortgage Employer, a USDA Top RD Lender, and a 2021 Outside Best Places to work recipient. 
 
Allied Mortgage Resource is also integrally involved in our local communities through civic organizations and nonprofits.   With the emphasis on a culture of working together with the community and their clients, their goal of helping more people own homes is being realized.
 
With Allied Mortgage Resource’s dedication to community and its reputation as a superior workplace, the future is increasingly bright as they strive toward fulfilling their mission and meeting their goals.

​Over the past couple of weeks, Downtown La Grande has been graced with two new shops, each serving a unique clientele.  I visited both late last week, just in time for Bout Time Boutique’s grand opening and Savage Serpents had opened a few weeks earlier.  My little jaunt also coincided with the Union County Chamber of Commerce’s First Thursday event, “Sip, Shop, Repeat Local”, a wander around Downtown La Grande sipping wine on a beautiful summer’s eve and occasionally shopping experience.  After first visiting Bout Time Boutique, I made my way to Savage Serpents.​
 
Bout Time Boutique’s opening has been eagerly anticipated around the region, as there has not been many women’s clothing stores in Downtown LG for many years.  Reyna and Craig Moschkau moved back to La Grande in 2020 and, through community involvement and just talking with people around town, found a desire for more retail and decided to fill the need for an affordable and high quality women’s clothing store. The Moschkaus wanted to give their customers a retail space where they could explore and try on things at their leisure.  
 
Bout Time Boutique has lived up to everyone’s expectations! The selection of clothing and accessories is thoughtfully curated with all ages and sizes in mind and presented in an elegant and accessible manner.  The style is casual Western chic with a bit of Boho to mix things up.  The actual store is tastefully decorated and just a delight to be in.   Well done!

In 2013, after receiving his degree in Electrical Engineering, Tim Osterloh founded Clank-Tronix.  He started out with a mission to provide local electronics repair services to all of La Grande with a special focus on video games.  This has expanded to where Clank-Tronix carries a great selection of used gaming systems, including brands like Atari, Nintendo, Play Station, Sega, and X-Box.  They also carry most hand-held systems like Gameboy, DS, and PSP.
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They also currently have hundreds of video games, including the classics such as Atari, NES and Odyssey, as well as newer games for Xbox One, Wii U and Play Station 4, along with games for the handheld systems.  In addition, Clank-Tronix will also fix your broken console locally instead of you having to mail the hardware to some distant company. They also have an active presence on E-Bay with constantly evolving merchandise. 
 
In the same building and under the same ownership is The Archives Book Store, managed by Stewart Kirby.  Besides an eclectic mix of books, The Archives also has a rich and varied selection of vinyl records, board games, and comic books.
 
The folks at Clank-Tronix and The Archives have an ongoing goal of making a living doing what they are passionate about by being the only used gaming store in the region and the biggest bookstore in Eastern Oregon.
 
This utterly delightful duo of stores, catering to the inner adventurer and explorer in all of us, fills a valued niche in Northeastern Oregon and is renowned for its friendly and knowledgeable staff.