Kevin Nohr and Barb Anderson, both 43, count themselves blessed after finding their place in the Marysville area's Aspen neighborhood.

That's partly because they recently lived in a recreational vehicle in Algona, near Auburn.

"We got tired of camping," Barb said.

But there's more to it than that, and the couple's experiences illustrate how life often revolves around chance.

Kevin was born in Minnesota and grew up in Bothell. Barb is from Germany. They met at Boeing, where Barb is a 737 production supervisor in Everett and Kevin is a fabricator in Auburn.

They ended up in Aspen via a circuitous path. Kevin was laid off from Boeing in 2002, took a job with Lockheed in Texas, then returned to the Seattle area and temporarily ended up in the RV. The couple's goals were constant, however.

"I knew eventually I'd move back to Everett," Barb said. "It was time to move back up here. I had my job offer in Everett."

Kevin has a round-trip commute of 123 miles. He said the question was whether he'd have long workday drives or Barb would, and he didn't want her commuting a hundred miles a day.

Kevin said they had looked at 100 to 150 houses before buying.

Then one day Barb was visiting a friend in Marysville, and they decided to take a drive that led them to Aspen.

"I fell in love with the kitchen and the part of the house I could see," she said.

"She called and said, "I found our house,' " said Kevin.

They moved in last August. Since then, they've sold the RV, Kevin has built a shop and put in a backyard patio, and now he is working on an outdoor shelter for neighborhood barbecues.

"Everyone's waiting for me to get done with the log shelter," he said.

They're happy in their home, and things such as a community phone list are beginning to be produced, adding to a sense of neighborliness.

"I like it," Barb said.

Kevin even said he's philosophical about such growth symptoms as traffic.

"Washington state traffic will always be Washington state traffic," he said. "People adapt, and people change, according to their needs."