NEWSFLASH..!!!

Okay, this is pretty astounding news. We just bought a house. Good grief. Three weeks ago we had just landed in America. I told Alan everything seems so surreal. One minute I'm in Edinburgh, Scotland...and the next I'm in Roseburg, Oregon, USA. Eventually I will truly have to slow down to catch my breath.

Here are a few photos of the house, though not very good ones. It's on top of one of the mountain ridges that overlooks Roseburg on one side and the Garden Valley/Coast Mountain Range on the other.  Three bedrooms, two bathrooms (yippee..!!!!), and many other great features.  It's a beautiful place.

The house looks very ordinary and plain from the outside.

Then you open the front door and see something entirely unexpected.

It's an open plan "great room" style, with the dining room, living room and kitchen all in one big room.  There are three walls of windows, which let in so much light my camera overexposed itself.  Plus, there are two skylights in the cathedral ceiling.  From the kitchen sink you can see out all the windows and you almost feel like you're floating in the clouds.

To the left of the above living room, is the dining room, and more windows.  These have a view over Roseburg.  (The owner had the venetian blinds closed, which is why the views from the windows look sort of fuzzy.)

Front door, stairs down to the laundry room and double car garage, and this cute little niche for a breakfast corner.  Ozzy had to check out every detail, including the chairs.

The kitchen is really big.  I couldn't get the whole thing into my photos.  In this view, I'm leaning against the kitchen sink.

This is a shot over the counter from the living room, and still not showing the whole kitchen.  I can't wait to have all the geegaws from the owner removed so I can get a real feel for the kitchen, the house, etc.  (That mirror to the left is on the wall leading down the hallway to the master bedroom).

And now for the amazing part.  This is one view from the deck--it's easily a 180* panorama.  There is a lake down there, and the Umpqua River.  Believe me, it's a hundred times better in person.  We could hear the cows mooing from a farm way down below, and watched a hawk soaring across the Valley.

View from the dining room, and the front porch, of Roseburg.  We are truly "up the mountain"...and thrilled with the house, the quiet, the sheer luck of finding such a great house.

We won't get the place until the first of August, which leaves us homeless for the month of July, but also allows us time to get organized, figure out what furniture to purchase, and deal with all those other pesky details.  We'll be in and out of my mother's, in the cabin for three days over the 4th, and have a small trip planned to drive through the Redwood Forest, which Alan has never seen.  Hopefully the time will go fast, but not too fast.  I really, really need to catch my breath.