Next chapter - selling the house

[Dave W]

Hi everyone and sorry for the usual silence - just a little bogged down in life. After much humming and harring about renting or selling Mum's house, we suddenly got a serious offer to buy it from one of her neighbours. We got three valuations from estate agents and she's happy with the average of the three, has a mortgage in place and a solicitor lined up.

So I'm knowing sorting out my own solicitor via a friend who used to work for one of the big local law firms. Any experiences anyone has of conveyancing under EPA would be very welcome - what are the things to watch for, what can I do now to save grief and time later, and so on?

The Furniture Re-Use Network are coming to take most of the furniture away on Friday, so that'll be another hurdle crossed. If only I felt like it was getting easier ...

In the meantime, Mum seems happier in the home now, and is bonding very well with the staff and has made a new friend (a very proper gentleman called, we believe, Eric) among the residents who she can sit and watch films and listen to music with. She is getting more and more confused, sadly (she was very upset that her long dead husband hadn't been to see her last week, for example), but is generally in reasonable spirits.

No time to write more right now, but all the best to everyone here and good luck on your individual journeys.

Dave

 

[dmc]

hello dave

nice to see your still around, good luck with the sale, im afraid got no advice to offer, but was wondering where you were.
so glad your mum seems to have settled at last, and good she has a friend too.


p.s.
how are your acers doing, i got one in the summer(its called dave ) as you inspired me to get one but its lost all its leaves is this normal or have i done something wrong
take care xxx

 

[Brucie]

how are your acers doing, i got one in the summer(its called dave ) as you inspired me to get one but its lost all its leaves is this normal or have i done something wrong

yep, acers drop leaves which is why the colours are so fantastic at this time of year.

below a picture of my favourite acer taken this time last year, at the house I sold earlier this year. It is next to the arbour I made for Jan when she became afraid to move farther down the garden. The last pictures I have of Jan at home are seated in that arbour....

 

[dmc]

phew!!
thanks for that brucie, i was really worried id finished it off, here's a picture of mine taken earlier this year, (with leaves)
yours is a lovely colour do you have any in your new home?
take care x

 

[Brucie]

Hi Donna

Yes your acer is lovely too - palmatum, i think?

My new garden is sooooo different from the old one, which was 400 feet long, with woods, ponds, terraces.... and a heck of a lot of work to be done!

New garden is less labour-intensive, and I love it. We're just putting in some decorative lighting, which makes it magic at night as well.

Here it is as it was in the summer. From country garden to town garden.

Plant in the centre is a pittosporum, which is a good replacement for an acer - we really don't have space for acers here!

 

[Dave W]

Acer madness!

Wow - I've got everyone talking abut acers!! What a wonderful way to respond - and bless you. Daft as it sounds, that's the nicest thing that's happened all day

And I've never had a tree called after me before (a cocktail and pudding yes, but not a tree), so I'm hugely honoured. It is a palmatum, judging by the photo, but it looks quite upright - I'm guessing it might be a variety called inaba shidare (whick means, I think, 'with leaves like a rice plant' in Japanese). I have one here, which was just turning a wonderful scarlet when the winds really got up, and it's looking a little bald now.

But for the last two weeks we've had a spectacular blast of scarlet from another acer - one called chitoseyama ('Chitose Mountain', where it originally grew), which is an absolutely beauiful tree. The leaves start of a deep salmon pink in spring, darken to a very deep dusty brick red, and then slowly turn a sort of sage green before autumn comes around.

If I can get out in the garden with the dital camera before they're all totally bald, I'll upload some pictures soon.

And thank you - I'm going to bed with a big grin now. Most unexpected

 

[Margarita]

Must say What lovely photo

 

[Skye]

Bruce, I love your garden, it's so peaceful. Ours is too big for me to cope with on my own, so it's going to rack and ruin. I'd love to move to a more manageable place, but John doesn't want to move, and I don't want to upset or confuse him. Reliable gardeners are hard to come by these days.

Can I enter the photo competition? This is our cherry tree, taken this morning.

 

[Dave W]

Sorry this message isn't about trees

Well, much scrabbling in the filing later, all the forms are filled in and dropped off, and with any luck the solicitors now have all the info they need to confirm they're happy to take money off me for chatting to another solicitor and filling a couple of forms in. It doesn't feel like 'whoppeeeeee' exactly, but I guess it's progress after a kind.

As my acer palmatum Red Pygmy is finally starting to turn gold, I shall have to nip out the back with camera next time I get home in the light. In the meantime, here's a link to a picture that shows you what it kinds of looks like (the URL is entirely coincidental, by the way!): http://pics.davesgarden.com/pics/jhayes5032_1131930072_654.jpg - and I wish my garden was as neat and lovingly tended as Bruce's looks. So peaceful and serene. I've been too low the last three or four weeks to spend time out there tidying it up. It's ok, but it's not going to pass for immaculate ;-)

(You can tell we're British can't you - chatting about gardening on 14 November!!)

 

[jenniferpa]

Dave, that link isn't working I get a message saying
Unauthorized Access - embedding an image from someone else's website is bandwith theft!

Edited to add - but not if I copy the link to a new page and press refesh - how weird is that>

 

[dmc]

hello all

brucie your garden looks lovely, the pittosporum looks like a lovely plant, i'll keep my eyes open for one, for next year, and i'll be sure to call it brucie!!

glad we put a smile on your face dave, im very intrigued about the cocktail and the pudding sorry to have hijacked your thread by the way!!
i had trouble opening the link to your pic also


hello skye
your tree looks lovely, so does the weather, its cats and dogs here good for the plants not so good for my joints!!
happy gardening all xx