House Update No 8 & Mortgage Update

House hunters (well, we could not think of anything to say?!?!)


More pictures of our home build. Again, not much to report as we could not get into our house over the weekend, but here's a couple of outside pictures for you all......













The guys working on the house in the pictures are installing the sidings onto the house. Don't ask us what the UK translation is for sidings...we don't know (hehehe!!) Basically the bottom half is framed in brick and the top half in sidings which are like sheet metal slats inserted and overlapping each other.


Staying on the same topic about houses, we went to sign our mortgage papers during the week, but the lending bank SCREWED up the paperwork. We have hired the services of a mortgage broker (free of charge, they get paid by whoever they recommend for you) who you meet with you and discuss your mortgage requirements and search on your behalf for the best deals.

Turns out the lending bank (no bank names mentioned here just in case they are watching!!) received updates on our house build from our mortgage broker, but they had not entered this on their system (GGGRRRR!!!)


See...not all in Canada is perfect.....


The bank are in the process of resolving this issue, but with just under 3 weeks to go before we move in, Elaine & I were starting to panic. But people here sometimes don't sign mortgage papers until on the day of closing on the house (closing=completing). And that is not an issue.

Anyway, we will keep you abreast of more updates soon.


TTFN

House Update No 7

Hello there!

Just a quick note to say that we have FINALLY got into the new house to take some internal pictures.

Our house build is on track for Dec 18th...so not long now.

Here are some shots:

Elaine in our kitchen

Our en-suite bathroom, with Whirlpool bath and shower (the shower will have a glass frame fitted):

Brian on the floor top with railings now fitted (UK translation = railings mean bannister):

The fireplace is now fitted as well downstairs:

And finally a photo from the basement:

See you all later!

House Update No 6

Good day!

We hope that you and your families are all well, and thank you for taking the time to view another update on our blog. This is a quick update as we cannot show you pictures from inside our new home, as the house now has doors and windows, these are being locked everyday by the builders when they finish their work.

We turn up after work during the week to see what work has been completed and we can't get in!!! The only time we can get in the house really is on a weekend, on the chance that the builders are working overtime then.

Only a couple of photos to show this time (thank goodness we hear you shout!!!) below:

Our new address in Kitchener.......

And finally a picture of the outside work completed so far:

See you all soon.

A Weekend Break....

Hello everyone,

We had a weekend break to cottage country last weekend (October 31st). We drove to a place called Oxtongue Lake, in Muskoka. It is about 3 1/2 hours drive north of Kitchener.

We had rented a cottage for the weekend with Bob, Lorie and their two children, Jeff and Elysha and Elysha's friend, Bethany.

We had a great time together and here are some pics from our trip below:


A view of outside of the cottage and the dirty 'Emery' mobile:







View from the deck at the back of the cottage, looking between the trees at Oxtongue Lake:





The posse is here!:








A view of Oxtongue Lake:








We visited a park called Aconquin Park on our break which is about 20 minutes drive away from where we stayed, and the website for the park is below:


http://www.algonquinpark.on.ca/index.html


This part of Ontario is considered 'Cottage Country'. Basically, a place where people might buy a holiday cottage, and spend their weekends there whenever they can. This has pushed up the price of such property in this type of area.

We walked a trail called 'Lookout' where along the route, you can stop can take view of the park in all its natural beauty. Again, pictures are as follows:

A view from the Lookout trail:









Brian pausing for a moment of reflection:








The posse is here....take 2!:








We had such a good time time that we are already looking into going away again next year!

This is Brian & Elaine signing off until next time.......

The White Stuff Is Back!!!!!!

People,

IT'S COLD!!!!!

We woke up this morning to a bit of the cold, white snow outside.BBBRRRR!!!! Summer is officially over. Now long think coats and woolly hats are in order.

Apparently, it has not snowed in the province on Ontario for the last 7 years in October. There seems to be a trend here.....

We had the worst winter here in several years when we landed here in January...now it has snowed in October.....have Elaine and I brought bad weather with us or something???

Hope everyone is well and look after yourselves and each other.

Until the next time.......

PS.....The day after we posted this....the snow melted!

On The Trail....

Everyone,

Today (Monday 13th October) as our last update stated that this is Thanksgiving day, it is a public holiday here....the last one before Christmas.

Elaine and I spent the day just chilling out...we went to watch the Kitchener Rangers (again!!!) play the Guelph Storm. The Rangers won 3-2 by the way (GO RANGERS GO!!!!)

We then decided to go for a walk for about 1 hour, as the weather recently has been fantastic. Today in Kitchener, the temperature reached 25c!!!! In the middle of October!!!!

The trail we did was a part of the Grand Valley Trail (see a previous update about this, trails, etc.) which is not far away from our new home, about a 10-15 minute walk.

Check out some of the pictures below that we took on our walk:

Brian enjoying the view......

Elaine taking a well earned rest, with a beautiful view behind her....

And last but not least, a shot of the 'fall' (autumn) colours along the Grand River.

Thanksgiving Day

Well,

Hello again, folks! Hope you are all well.

Today (Monday 13th October) is Thanksgiving day. A day to give thanks to what you have. Which is usually family and friends, and anything else in between, such as wealth, a roof over your head, etc.

Thanksgiving in Canada started with an explorer called Martin Frosiber (who was English, by the way.) who held a celebration of thanks in 1578. It was held in the area, which is now called Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada.

We were invited to Bob and Lorie's place yesterday for a Thanksgiving feast.
We had soooo much food. Some of the traditional foods prepared are sweet potato with brown sugar and pecan nuts, a small turkey (well, Elaine and I saw this 'small turkey' and it was enough to feed a small army...only joking Bob and Lorie!), salads, desserts....we could go on.....

Bob and Lorie have become really good friends to us, and although we have only known them for about 6 months, we feel that we have known them a lifetime. Their kindness to us know no bounds, and we are very lucky to have them as friends.

Thank you for everything that you are and everything that you do, Bob & Lorie!

But wait......no pictures??? Yep....guess what, we forgot our camera!!! Lucky for anyone reading this blog (no...no....no more pictures!!!)

Anyway, until the next time........