First things first..thank you for visiting! Welcome to my very first blog post! I'm glad you stopped by. Pull up a chair, let me pour you a cup of tea (or whatever. It's virtual so you can have anything you want!), and let's get to know each other.
I'm Gwen, and I live in the Southern part of the US, am married ( nearly 30 years now!), and have 2 grown sons, the oldest of whom is married to our lovely daughter in law. I love DIY projects, genealogy, gardening, Bible study, and a couple of new ventures. More on that later.
As an American girl of the 60s/70s, I grew up with Disney cartoons~~Snow White, Lady and the Tramp, Cinderella, and Peter Pan. One of my favorites was Peter Pan, mostly because of Wendy and Tinkerbell. Wendy was so motherly and responsible. An admirable quality, in contrast with the mischievous Tink! When Wendy sprained her ankle, the Lost Boys built a small house around her, right where she was! It was for her protection until her ankle healed. Because of this story, a play house became known as a wendy house. Here in the US, we kids didn't call our play house a wendy house, but that's what it's known as in the UK. So, as an admitted Anglophile, I have adopted this name for my little blog.
I love houses. All kinds. From modern Frank Lloyd Wright houses, to Greek Revival mansions, to quirky Victorians, to log cabins. There is beauty in all of them. It would be hard to pick a favorite. And with the current real estate market being what it is, houses are quite a bargain. At least for the time being. Soooo, for the last couple of years, we have been trying to find an affordable (cheap!!) vacation home. There are some incredible foreclosure deals out there, so we took the plunge and offered a contract on one. First was a beach house. Didn't work out because the bank would not negotiate at all. Next was a house on a river. We waited a solid year for the bank to tell us something. Anything. Nothing happened there either. Couple more tries, and no results. Then we found this log cabin in the mountains that we both fell in love with. We offered a contract, and it was immediately accepted. But closing was delayed for eight long months. There was lots of red tape because of it being a foreclosure, and we were discouraged that things were not moving along very quickly. Several times we talked about withdrawing our offer, and finding something else. But we loved it so, and it really was a great deal. Never mind the sorry state it was in after sitting empty for 2 years. We decided to stick it out, and finally, on April 27th, 2012, after eight months and a day, we closed!
Now what have we got ourselves into?? The poor house has been vacant for 2 years. It's overrun with mice. The carpenter bees are making holes everywhere in the eaves. The new master bedroom addition was never finished, and only has the outside walls up. The well water is muddy. The driveway has caved in and needs replacing. But it's got great views of the mountains. The whippoorwills call in the evenings, and the deer play in the front yard. Sigh...so it will take some work, but it will be worth it. At least I hope so!
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