FOR ROHAN!

The Flag of Rohan.

This flag looks Amazing on the house.  I don't know that the quality will hold up to the winds, so it may be a weekend and special events flag.

I will use one of the American Flags for daily use and the Serapis flag for Brew (hopefully soon) days.

If anyone knows where I can get a Prancing Pony sign for my basement, please let me know.

Rohan Banner.

I was finally able to get the Rohan banner I wanted for the fireplace.

It looks really good in the house.  Now we just need to do something about that fireplace.  It is not becoming for a house in the Eastfold.

Christmas time!

Almost done, I thought I would share what we have done so far.  We are going to add wreaths to the smaller dormers soon.

Rain Chains

Today we had new gutters hung by Honest Exteriors and were finally able to hang our new rain chains.

They look Great.

The gutter company representative said he had never seen Rain Chains before and said they looked really neat.

$$

Oh my goodness, buying a house is expensive.

And heating oil is expensive.

And electricity is expensive.

And gas is expensive.

And food.

And pets.

You get the idea.

I had great plans for gorgeous Christmas decorations in this amazing house.  That is expensive!  

And Gilbert won't let me put colored lights just EVERYWHERE!  There's no accounting for taste ;-).

So we will have to take it slow.  This accumulating of Christmas decor for a house three times the size of our last house. 

I'm not mad though.  Because we have heat and electricity and food.

I'm just going to share with you a messy picture of our tree.  Which is 6 feet tall and shorter than my son who didn't even have to stretch to put on the star.

Oh my.  It looks so itty bitty.  I'll share some more pics as the month goes on. We are supposed to get gutters tomorrow.   Then we can hang the awesome rain chains we bought.  And the icicle lights.  Woo hoo! 

More posts soon.  Stay classy San Diego,

Marty

Dwarf tree

We Did This

For five years, while we were living with my mother-in-law, my husband kept talking to my daughter about getting her a dog of her own.  Our family dog really belongs to our son.  SO, when we moved, a month after we moved, we went and got this LARGE puppy at the local animal control.

Training, or re-training, a dog sized animal is harder in some ways than training a little puppy.  Their potty training accidents are larger.  Their mouthing issues pose more painful consequences for the trainer.  Their jumping on visitors habit is worse because they aren't a tiny thing that only comes up to the knees; they can get face to face with a guest pretty quick.

All that being said, he is a really sweet dog and very smart.  I think he's going to be a comfy addition soon.

Marty

Injured Deer.

Yesterday evening I decided to go with my daughter to walked her new dog.  While we were in the woods we ran across some deer which is not unusual because we have a lot of deer around the house.
We were very excited to see this buck laying in the woods and try to get closer when we realize something was wrong.
I held her dogs leash while she tried to get a little closer and noticed that the deer was struggling to get up.

My daughter took her dog back to the house as I tried to approach the deer.

As I got closer it look like the deer have gotten stuck under one of the dead trees.
I was able to get right up next to the deer and found that there was something wrong his hind quarters.  His hind legs were not moving at all.

It appears as though he must have been hit buy a car and broken his back.
I was shocked that he that far away from the road but it was the only thing that made sense.  How else would he have broken his back and it looked like there was impact on his left side hind quarters.

I called my neighbor who is a retired sheriff to come over and put the deer down.  It was very unfortunate but we didn't want to see the deer suffer.

We took the deer to a local butcher to salvage and meat that was not damage d from the believed car impact.

I felt this was the right thing to do instead of leaving him there to rot.

Settling in.

It's been a while since I posted on the site so I thought I would update everyone.  Currently I've been working on fixing doors and squeaky hinges My son's door is sticking and I may have to remove the frame and rest it.
We have also had to reseal my daughter and son's bedroom windows.  I also have to do this to all the windows on the outside which means removing the trim resealing them and then putting it back together.  Shouldn't be too hard but I'm not too crazy about getting on ladders and hanging from the side of the house to pull trim off.

I'll try and post some photos so that you can see the work that we have to do.

A place to call HOME.

It feels nice to finally be able to call a place Home.

We are coming up on 3 weeks now since we move in and love or new house.

There are still a lot of boxes in the basement but we are slowly going through them.

First Cold

We've had our first cold in the new cabin.   Gilbert started feeling under the weather Friday.  He's been trying to rest so he can be ready for work Monday.   But it's frustrating to him.  He has lists of things to get done.

Jordan had his first "sleepover" in years.   I think they had a good time. 

Daily Grind

I'm sitting at my make-shift desk this beautiful Autumn day.  The window is open and I can hear the neighbor's rooster crowing.  I never thought I would ever say that.  The dog has been barking at the neighbor kids who are outside playing.  The breeze is cool and smells wonderful.  And this is my view.

Log Home Living

So.  A thing I am going to have to get used to is that people LOVE a log cabin.  Delivery people and service people and visitors.   They love it. 

I am a very private and reserved person.   So getting used to the wide eyed awe of people who come see the house was a shock at first.  The random people.  Not my family.  

So I am trying to learn to take it in stride and share my love of this log home with other people.  And not think the furniture delivery guy is casing the place for a dubious visit later.

Neighbors

Well have talked with our neighbor for the last couple days, I must admit is a lot younger than I thought he was when I first remember meeting him but I was probably just overwhelmed by the whole house move and not really paying much attention.

He's very active 50s - 60s year old man and a great neighbor.
We are very fortunate to have such a neighbor living next door.

Our First Home Cooked Meal!

Burgers on the cook top were great.  Can't wait to try cooking with the grill on the back deck.

Second Night.

Yesterday we finished moving everything into the house.  There are a few odds and ends that we need to grab from Annapolis, but we are now in our new home.

Thank you to all our family and friends for all the hard work and help making this happen.

We are all exhausted and will take it slow unpacking today.

Most of all we Praise the Lord for our new home.

God Bless!

First Move Day.

Saturday was a LONG day.  We started moving around 10am and got done around 9pm.

We are exhausted.

But the house looks great and we are happy to be here.

Our New Home!

Our beautiful new home.

1 Day till Move!!!

Today we head to the Bank to pick up our check, head to the new house for quick inspection, go to settlement, go back to our new home ( hurray ) and clean.

Then we Move In!!!

2 Days till the move!!!

Tomorrow is settlement and Saturday is the move.
In two days we will be in our own home.

Praise and thanks to God!

3 Days!!!

Our settlement is Friday at 1 p.m. Then we will head down to the house to clean and prepare for a move on Saturday.

This is the furniture that was there when we looked at the house last year.

4 Days!!!

4 more days till settlement.

We still have a little more packing to do.
Everything else should be in order for settlement.

5 Days!!!

Today the wife will be making sure where the bank has all the documents they need.

We still have a little bit of packing to do.

Friday is settlement and Saturday is move day.

Days 6 & 7!!!

This weekend has been about, packing, packing and more packing.

I have to say, my wife has been on top of packing the most.  Without her we would be really behind.  She has been amazing through this process.

We are all looking forward to move day.  Can't wait for settlement on Friday.

8 Days!!

This time next Friday we should be at settlement.  Hurray!!!

Sorry, I need to get some more pictures.

9 Days!

The Banks appraisal came back with no building issues.  It appraised for the same price we offered for the house a year ago.  Marty needs to become an appraiser.

We also had a mold test done and that came back with no harmful molds.

10 DAYS!!!

Ten days from now we will be settling on our house.  We are VERY excited to say the least.

No, the Deer heads do not come with the house.

Two Weeks till Settlement

October 3rd will be here soon.

It's crunch time to get things packed this weekend and next week.  We want to be as prepared as we can to load the truck after settlement.

As my wife mentioned, I sprained my ankle on Monday and have been resting it all week so that it won't interfere with the move.  This move is very important and I don't want to be the cause of any delays.

As for the banks, I believe we are in a good place and they have all the documents needed.  My wife has done an amazing job of staying on top of that.  Thank you sweetheart.

Hopefully we get a lot done this weekend.

A Wife's Worries

Maybe "This Wife's Worries" is a more accurate title.  Because I tend to be a worrier and not all wives or women are.

Worry:  That loft area(pictured in the last post) is going to be our homeschooling area at first.  I'm worried it won't be big enough.
Response:  We have the whole house at our disposal to use as a school room.


Worry:  We don't have a dining room table.
Response:  A good friend has a bunch of old barn wood that he wants to get rid of and has offered it to us.  My husband will make us a table.  And maybe a bench.  Hint?


Worry:  I haven't rented the moving truck yet.
Response:  Oops, better do that.


Worry:  Husband sprained his ankle Monday.
Response:  Oh my gosh, God, please heal his ankle.


I could go on, but don't want to bore you.

We're continuing to get paperwork in to our lender.  That all seems to be going alright except our bank statement for our checking account is about ten days late coming.  And I can't find the statements for the 401k.  I know I've seen one in the last 6 months but I can't figure out what I've done with it.

Marty

Package Delivered

This morning I had to take a detour to work.  I have to swing by the back to drop off the loan papers for the Loan Officer.  She will be in the office tomorrow but hopefully this way, it will be on her desk for her first think tomorrow morning.

I hope everything is in order and that we hear back in a day or two.

We are also having an air born mold test done today for our records.  A swab test was done months ago by the previous potential buyer, but we have come to learn that swab tests are not reliable.  Hopefully the air test comes back negative.

Waiting on Inspections

Apparently the Loan Officer is out till Tuesday.  However, this will give us a little time to get the inspection reports back from Amerispec.  These need to go to our Bank ASAP.

I know, it seems endless.

Inspections Completed

So yesterday I spent most of the morning at the house with the home, water, septic and termite inspectors.

The water, septic and termite went rather quickly.  The home inspector was VERY thorough, which was great.  It gave me an idea of what I needed to work on once we get into the house.

It is bit of a laundry list, but all things that I can do over time.  There were only a few items that I need to hit before the cool weather sets in.

Anyhow, we will give the bank what was requested and see where we go from here.

I am praying that there will be no more hangups, and that we can stick to the 10/3 settlement date.

Next Steps

Now we start down the path of making this Dream a Reality.

First on the books is to get the inspection scheduled.  My beautiful wife has already made arrangements for an inspection for next Tuesday.
The home was recently inspected, but we just want to be on the safe side.

Next is a water test, which is also in the process of being scheduled.

This all has to be done in the next 14 days. (Shouldn't be a problem.)

Then we have to get all the financials together, which is mostly just basic stuff at this point since we already placed a contract on this house almost a year ago.

The Bank has put a 10/3 settlement day out there and as long as there are no hangups, then we should have no problem meeting it.

APPROVED!!!!

Contract has been approved.  Now for inspections and settlement.

No word.

Well the banking day has come and gone and we have heard nothing on the contract.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

Closer???

The latest from the sellers Bank is that the documents have moved on to the second team and we should know if they are approved this coming Tuesday.

And they call it a Short Sale.

Hopeful

Well, last week was a bust.  We never heard back from the bank on the counter offer.  My frustration mounts everyday we don't hear anything.  I am trying to be patient but it is hard when you are so eager to move.  I pray everyday that we will hear something soon and that God will help move this along quickly.

So, I start a new week with high hopes and faith.  The sooner we get in the lease it will interrupt the school year.

Contract Update

So, yesterday we were told that because of new regulation the bank must send the contract back to us so we can counter.  Even though  a this point we all have already agreed on the terms.

So we should receive the contract today to send back to the bank today or first thing tomorrow.

I know... it's silly.

Still Waiting.

So, we still have not gotten word on if the bank has accepted the terms of the contract.  Frustrating to say the least.  I was really hoping that we would at least know something today.

But, on a good note, I did finish the front doormat.  I was going to add more to it, but I think in this case less is more.

Now, the idea is to use similar verbiage to the text on the door at Moria but with a Rohan twist.

First trick was to find out what the words on the Durin doors at Moria said.

"The Doors of Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak, friend, and enter. I, Narvi, made them. Celebrimbor of Hollin drew these signs."

Now to make it fit for Rohan and our house.
I decided on the following (yes I went all nerd on this project)

"The Doormat of Meduseld.  Speak Friend and Enter.  Gilbert of Annapolis drew these signs."

Anyhow, I thought it was clever.

Home made doormats.

To pass some time while waiting on the contract information, I decided to start working on some doormats.  I am no professional but thought it would be cool to make doormats to go with the house and the Ronan theme.  I finished one on Saturday and hope to get the second one ( more complex) done some time this week.

Let me know your thoughts.

Purchase Contract Review.

The contracts are in for review and should be completed by the end of the week.  Hopefully no changes will be needed.

No word yet.  Hope to have an update in the beginning of the week.

This is it!

This is the home we have been looking at for some time.  We are in the negotiation process and hope to hear something soon.

Purchasing a Log Home.

This page will document the process and construction efforts it will take to make this dream home become a reality.