Old Blighty!

It's great to be back visitng the UK. England is still England and of course nothings changed. It still rains, people still talk about the weather all the time, and my family is as wonderful as ever.

We had great flights and landed ahead of schedule on Tuesday morning, my mum met us at the airport and got there two hours early just in case, she is so funny! Flying over London was quite an view, it looked like a Lego City from above. England seems tiny and pretty, like a doll house village! Incredibly the first day here was sunny and warm, we didn't do a huge amount but had a nice day just wandering around, catching up and walking the dogs at the farm. Next morning was overcast, but with a dry day forecast, we decided to head to the farm. We had the best time the, ethan cuddled, ran and ate, me and mum even got silly on the pedal cars and raced ethan around the track. We walked around the farm and had an amazing view of box hill at the top of the land. English countryside at its best. At the end of the day we headed home, tired but really happy. 

England is different from how I remember it. It's less prim and more shaggy, the hedgerows spilling wildflowers and brambles over the roads and the houses tumbling, squashed and imperfect. England is slightly messy but full of charecter. 

So many fun things planned ahead, here's hoping the current rain lets up soon!

Told you it was Stepford Wives...

This week we have the inspection of the property booked, this means that we will hear about any potential problems or weaknesses and be able to progress (hopefully) with the purchase of the house.

As we go along, we have been looking at the HOA (Homeowners Assosiation) information about things and wondered if we needed permission to put up a shed. We most certainly do, we need committee approval for a shed, not only that but it cannot be metal or plastic, MUST match the house, mustn't obstruct any views, cannot be over 10 x 8ft and so on. It isn't a problem at all as its what we have done anyway but it made me giggle.

In fact you have to get approval for everything from repainting to landscaping and so on. The idea of course is to keep the area pretty and make sure that your neighbors house isn't spoiling your enjoyment of living there. I kind of like it to be honest but it really does make me laugh, I surprised we didn't have to submit family photos for committee approval before we were allowed to buy in the neighborhood! Ha ha ha!!!!

Progress

Today I had to fly back from the barn to pay the cheque into a Land Title office. This 'shows commitment' for the seller for the property. It was a pretty easy system and took no more than five minutes to sort.

The next stage is the property investigation and then, we are almost there!

I noticed today that Ethan has more and more little Americanisms appearing, he was talking about Vy-tamins today... VITAMINS!

Crazy Days- it's a long one.

There has been a sudden and crazy rush in the Hanekom household. As always, we find ourselves in a predicament that needs sorting pretty darn quickly. But, we operate best under pressure!

We had looked into buying in Denver before now, both to allow us to invest in property out here and to have a place to call our own, regardless of whether we end up staying here longer or moving back to the UK and renting it out. We had complications with Visas and so forth so didn't think we could buy here for the time being. A few weeks ago, after having a long chat with a Mortgage Advisor out here we figured a budget and a way to be able to purchase a property in Colorado.

Our house lease runs out at the end of June and we were hoping that we could extend that on a monthly basis to allow us to find and secure somewhere perfect. Of course, the path of any river doesn't run true and the last week, the agent advised us that the best they could do was extend us until the end of July or we would have to sign another full years lease. This would stop us from being able to invest for another whole year which we really didn't want to do.

So, of course a panic ensues and we start frantically house hunting. We had a list of criteria that we really wanted from our house...

1/ The opportunity to make improvements to the property.

2/ Good sized garden.

3/ Garage for Nic

4/ Space for the dogs

5/ Good area; close access to Nics work/ Ethans School and hiking/ biking trails.

6/ A good house for Nerf wars (Ethans caveat)

7/ Family kitchen.

8/ 3 bedrooms minimum

9/ Within Budget- obviously.

Now, the US house buying process is flipping amazing in comparison to the UK. In England there's no way the timeframes would have been possible, but as typical in the US, everything can be drive through fast. Obviously there needs to be time for closing, approval blah blah blah so basically we were left with a week to find a house. Huh! Oh and I go to England next week for three weeks, just to make life easier ha ha!

We spent a frantic few days online shopping for houses, creating lists and meeting with a Real Estate Agent. Here you have an Agent. That agent works with you for every house viewing and puts the offer in, deals with all that side for you. Its great as allows you to build a relationship with them and you can be totally blunt if a house isn't suitable. Our agent Julie is a friend of mine who moved to Colorado from Manchester a long time ago, she is just amazing. She said House Hunting is like Online dating, you swipe left if you don't like it, and click on possibilities. But, it all ends up on a feeling and sometimes you just know.

We spent Friday morning looking at houses. The black gloom began to settle in as nothing sat right. We didn't walk into anything that really excited us and the compromises just seemed to get bigger and bigger. We found two that were possibilities and booked to go back for a second viewing the next day. At home we all felt pretty low, I spent a few hours browsing and booking to go see more homes online. One included a Highlands Ranch house. When I showed Nic the listings later, he began to get more positive as we looked through the Highlands Ranch listing. We had ruled the area out before as it was a bit too 'Suburbia' for Nic, a tad ' Stepford Wives if I'm honest. However, the more we looked at it the more it started to worm into my head. We had booked to view 8 houses after 3pm the next day. I went to sleep thinking about the house and woke up thinking about the house. It was the first house that I had felt drawn to just from looking at the photos.

I messaged Julie Saturday morning to suggest that we start with the Highlands Ranch house that afternoon as we were quite excited about it. She got straight back to me and said that we could slot in a quick viewing in about an hours time! We flew up to Highlands Ranch feeling excited for the first time and finally pulled up in front of something that just sung to me. Looking round was almost cursory as I just knew it had that feel. It was the right place for us, ticked all the boxes and just felt like home. It needs some modernization in areas and the basement is an unfinished space just waiting for us to do. It felt like a happy home. We cancelled all other viewing there and then and arranged for an offer to go in on the house.

Then we waited, all day and evening to hear something back biting our nails and jumping on each buzz or blip of our phones. We knew another couple were heading back that afternoon for a second viewing which meant they were probably keen too. Showing her commitment to us, Julie called at 7.15pm to confirm that it's ours! The contracts were electronically signed online by both parties straight away and job done.

Next stage is the Earnest money downpayment which shows our commitment to the property and the survey on the house. We are keeping our fingers firmly crossed that nothing awful comes up.

If all is well, the house will be ours from July the 20th. Which means our lovely friends Katie and Tom will be the first people to come stay in the new house.

For now, we are keeping everything crossed and will have a busy and stressful few weeks ahead.

Eeeeeeek!

Scorchio!

Seriously, seriously hot here at the moment! Temperatures are set to hit 94f tomorrow (34c) and most of the week has been around 29c with the odd afternoon thunderstorm. I love watching the thunderstorms roll in but boy are they big. Huge lightning blots, hail and downpours which can be pretty scary if you happen to be rolling along the highway at the time.

I have had a great week with Ethan, we have spent some fun times together and he has been pottering up to the barn to help with the pony camps, there is usually someone for him to go off and play with which is just fantastic.

Ruffcutt is rehabbing well on the lunge and finally is starting to have an actual trot rather than his pokey kind of shuffle trot. He is also starting to be able to pickup and hold some canter, it's taking time and I am not pushing him but he is getting there. Well he is getting there on the left lead, the right is still somewhat tricky for him but as he probably mostly did left circles at the track, its no great surprise.

We also have lots going on in the Hanekom household behind the scenes. So watch this space for more news!

Busy Bee

The last few weeks have been pretty busy for me. Finalising details for our UK trip, wrapping up school work and helping at a pony camp!

Our UK trip is looming and I can't wait to see you all! Just a few weeks left now and we will be flying over the Atlantic on our way to be loved by family and friends. I spend time wondering how we will feel coming back to England after a year away and even more, how we will feel about leaving it again after our trip.

Ethan has now broken up for his almost twelve week break from school. He has had a super year and absolutely loves it there. How many kids cry on the way home from breaking up because they are going to miss their teacher and friends? However, we are going to make the most of the time off and already stayed up until midnight last night with movies and a TV Basement Campout. We had fun and ate junk food all night. Having a kid is a great excuse to behave badly yourself!

Oh, and super proud but Ethan made the Honor Roll at school this year, which means he scored consistently high across all subjects. Good kid!

I have also been helping out the past week at a Kids pony club camp. They have two sessions a day. Riding Camp for kids 8 years and over, and Picnic with the Ponies camp for younger tots. It has been great fun seeing the little ones ride, some for the first ever time. Generally its gone really well, I think there has been a few mishaps, as there always is with kids and ponies but lots of smiles all round.

Oh and to top it all off, the weather is absolutely stonking! Sunshine day after day. Nice!

Beautiful backdrop for camp!