We were incredibly lucky with the house that we found here in Maryland. The owner was keen to get someone reliable in and paying rent, and was prepared to offer the house at a very low rate to find a tenant quickly. Part of the bargain was also that we had to put up with the final bits of construction. When we got here, we only had a dirt track for a road (which you can see below) and no garage. The road was paved (bitumen) just today and the garage is nearly finished. I'll post some more photos when everything is complete.

There have been some other bits and pieces along the way... the place wasn't cleaned after construction, so even now, we are still dealing with the odd spot here and there of builder's dust. If you've ever dealt with it before, you would know it hides everywhere! So things have been a bit "hands on" almost as if it was us building the house. The nice side of this is that the owner let us have a say in carpet, window coverings and the knobs on the kitchen cabinets. All of the inconveniences are definately going to pay off though. This is a beautiful house!

Wildlife is copious around this area. We have an entire community of squirrels all around us, two redtailed hawks nesting above us and a young buck wandered through our back yard early in the morning last week. There are numerous other types of birds, many of which I don't know the name of, but I'm delighted to see them whenever they come by and visit. I saw my first skunk (living- I've seen plenty of dead ones sadly) and narrowly missed it on the road. I was very thankful for the couple of inches I missed him by, as I'm sure it wouldn't have made the car smell very nice! Also, it was lovely to see one up so close, but from the smell-resistant inside of my car. If anyone's seen "Over the Hedge", this one looked just like the one from the movie!

We've been very grateful that the heating in our new house works well. We've got down to -8C at night here and have had a few days with highs of 2. No snow yet, but the locals tell us it's likely this year.

Anyway, here's some photos of the house:

Outside
Click on the pictures below to have a better view of them.

View of our driveway. This was about the time we were getting ready to move in. This changed to beautiful autumn colours, and now is very bare!



View from the porch (aka verandah), looking back at the driveway. Notice the difference in the colour of the leaves! This is a small example of the number of cars from the construction crew we've had here.

View of the front. This is what they call a "Cape Cod" style.














View from next to the future garage. You can get a glimpse of the big back yard. This looks very different now. The garage is nearly finished and our backyard is quite a quagmire from the builders and rain we've had.

Inside

Standing at the foot of the stairs looking
back at the living area. No the piano is not in two pieces! Just issues with my stitch program.

Kitchen and living area.

Master bedroom.






Master bathroom. Lovely big bathtub!











View from the top of the stairs.















The gamesroom/study.