Herons are back at Independence

Posted on by Ian C.

One effect of Hurricane Irma last summer was to destroy the original Heron nest in the tree behind our home so we wondered if the Herons would return. Now we see they’ve moved to a smaller, lower down, nest in the tree in front of the original one – and today I’ve been able to capture some photos of one parent flying in and joining the other:

 

In the very cold (for Florida) weather last week, I also got a picture of the Heron in the nest, perhaps sheltering chicks with wings stretched in a sort of igloo (I don’t know if there are chicks, but this is what I interpreted!):

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We now own two homes!

Posted on by Ian C.

Closing at Stanton Estates did not happen yesterday – the problems found by our inspection were too many – but with the biggest issues now resolved, and three people working on the home still, we were finally ready to close this morning. Various papers reviewed and signed, lots of money moving from one bank to another, and handing over of the keys … our new home is now ours!

Stanton Estates is now ours

Our current home has an offer from enthusiastic buyers currently renting, so in a month or so we should be back to owning just one house again …

UPDATE: With less cold weather, we’ve now opened our new tree in the front:

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Stanton pre-closing inspection

Posted on by Ian C.

With closing supposed to be tomorrow, we had a final, professional, pre-closing inspection this morning – and a surprising number of issues were found, that we didn’t know about. Very worthwhile having this inspection!

Issues included broken roof tiles, missing eave / soffit pieces around the roof, non-working hot water, cracked tile grout, circuit breakers that don’t trip when tested, and even a vent fan that spews attic insulation (it’s supposed to be vented *through* the roof to outside but maybe it isn’t!). Other issues we already knew about, like a missing shower door, sunken pavers on the driveway, gaps on the stairway trim … To be fair to Jones Homes USA, the inspector did say that the home was basically well built with no major issues, so that’s good to hear!

For your “entertainment”, here’s some pictures that the inspector took:

 

 

Unsurprisingly, Jones Homes called to move closing to Friday – which is fine by us!