Buckhorn couple wins Spruce Kings Show Home

Suddenly they've got options.

The Spruce Kings Show Home Lottery winners were announced at 3:30 p.m. Monday and Kim and Paul Saliken - first time ticket buyers - are the lucky ones this year.

"I'm so excited but I can't get hold of my husband so he still doesn't know," said Saliken, 52, who is a lab tech and administrative assistant at the College of New Caledonia nursing and medical radiographer department.

"I have to tell you I have a cold, I was laying in bed and I looked at the clock and it was past 3:30 and I thought 'oh well, we didn't win the show home. Oh well, we donated 100 bucks.'

"Two minutes later the phone rings and I yell at my son 'I'll get it!' and I answer the phone and it's Mayor Lyn Hall and I think no way! Ahhhhh! Wow! I'm still shaking!"

With their lives happily entrenched in rural life in Buckhorn, Saliken said she didn't think they'd be moving into their new Links Drive home valued at $495,000 with their 21 chickens, four dogs and two cats.

"We're going to sell it," said Saliken, whose husband Paul, 52, works for BC Hydro as a high voltage technician.

"We really love our rural lifestyle and we wouldn't want our son to switch schools and we love the Buckhorn community and my husband is part of the volunteer fire department and all of our great friends are here."

With the windfall, Saliken said education comes first. Daughter Sydney, 23, just graduated university but sons Blaine, 21 and Alex, 11, will benefit.

"Then a vacation is the next thing," said Saliken. "We've been to Maui before and we loved it but I think we might want to try something different. Maybe Costa Rica or something like that. We'll just grab the kids and go. We've been tossing around a few ideas but now this opens up a few more options."

Housing choices are up in the air, too.

"Our house is pretty old and it needs some serious work," said Saliken.

"So are we going to fix up what we have or put an addition on or are we going to see if there's a nice place in this area that we're going to buy - I have no idea. We have options - instead of asking ourselves 'do we do the deck this year?' - we have options. There are no words to say how blessed I feel and how appreciative we are to be the recipients of the house."

The Mega 50/50 lottery was also drawn and June Knowles was the winner.