Adios Old House

Hello all.... Brittany here. Since we have yet to have a tutorial on how to upload pics to the blog, I have hacked in to provide some enjoyment. I have tried to tell him that people don't just want to read all of these things, they want to SEE them! So, here you go. You can thank me later.


This is what happens as a result of the dog running away... We think he had some unfinished business he had to clear up.


Grandpa's tree. One of our best memories is when he built a tree house for us, but did not leave a spot to get down! We will never forget him getting stuck in that tree.


One last climb up that tree. And yes, Philip was there thanks to the magic of Photo Shop.


Family pic in the backyard.


A man and his pond.


Goodbye bedrooms.


These are not entirely accurate -- these rooms have been painted / wall papered / redecorated many times..



I am not fat, I am pregnant.


And this is why you hire movers.

When I was in Austria this summer

Now that the move crunch is passing I want to go back and share with you all some of the amazing experiences I had while in was on sabbatical this sumnmer in Austria.

I stayed in an amazing place - called Schloss Mittersill. It is now the home base of a Christian Conference center for pastors breathing new life in to the Christian church in Europe. It is 5 hours (by train ) south east of Munich,Germany and 2 hours west of Salzburg, Austria.

The "castle" sits on a hillside just above the little town of Mittersill, at the base of the Alps! It was originaly built in the 13 century. In the 14th century the peasant form the town got upset and burned it down, 50 years later they were "invited" to rebuild it! In the 17th century witch trials (and executions) were held in the dungeon. During WWII it was taken over by the Nazi's and used for Medical experiments. In the 1960's it was a popular destination for the Hollywood elite such as Bob Hope, Clark Gable, Sophia Loren etc.

While I was there a class was in session for Campus ministry leaders from universities through out Eastern Europe. It was taught by a professor from Oxford. I sat in on a number of the classes and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I had occasion to share meals and conversation with young men and women from Georgia, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Bulgaria. They were full of questions about the USA, Texas and our Presidential election.

Watch next time for photos!

Rambling about adjusting to a new house

Well - we are finally in the new house.
We have slept there for about a week...
We have also cooked there, cried there, argued there,
cut the grass there, spilled there, the dog has teeteed there, we laughed there, had an accident involving alarms there!(more about that later)

So - I guess it is becoming home?!

Today was a really big day - we got our TV, phone and Internet hooked up - hoorah!

Other new home ramblings...
we had to get a new home phone number (we had our old one for 24+ years!)
our mail is still not arriving,
I am still not clear what day is garbage pickup?

So far the neighbor to the left is very nice,
the neighbor to the right asked me to stop hammering the other night at
9 pm cuz I was keeping her awake!
the neighbor across the alley has 4 little dogs!?

I have buffalo grass/turf in my front yard, and
I have sprinkler system for the first time but don't know how to use it?

There is a really good Chinese restaurant just around the corner,
the grocery store acrss the street is expensive but the people are very nice
(almost too nice)

I rode my bike on the bike path early yesterday morning -

and finally I now can get to work in 13 minutes, from our old place it usually took 1 hour!

IMPORTANT when buying a house!

I will start with the good news -we have sold our house, officially closed and have the money in the bank. We are now renting our home back on a day to day basis but have to be out by 12/midnight Sept 15!

Now for the unsettling news...we learned Friday at 5pm of a hitch in the sellers paperwork of the house we thought we were buying. What it apparantly comes down to is the sellers grandson thought he had power of attorney for his grandmother when in reality he has guardianship status. IF he had Power of attorney he could sign for his grandmother, as a guardian her can NOT do anything without the go-ahead by the courts!! What does this mean for us?

Our current contract is dead and we will have to re-do everything. In the meantime our seller had to get their act together with a judge to see how they can proceed. Word on the street is that is could take weeks to settle.

We have asked if they will lease the house to us, we hope to get that issue settled either Monday or Tuesday - argh!

Stay tuned for further details.

SOLD! Now what?!

We are scheduled to close on the sale of our home and the purchase of our new house within the next 9 days! I have not done this in 25 years so I am asking for your advice - what should we do first?

We are getting bids for having the interior of the house painted as well as getting proices for new flooring. It would be great to have it all done by the time we move in but that does not look likely! At best we hope to have all the painting done before we move in, the floors we want will have to be special order so we are looking at 3-4 weeks before they arrive.

Any suggestions on movers? on comparing prices on Dish or Cable. High-speed internet?

I promise - details and pictures on my great trip to Austria and Germany will be on my blog real soon.