Skip to main content

House Closing Date Set for Tomorrow!!!

Things have been just a little too quiet here at Stollen Central lately, what with the coming house purchase and associated packing up of our lives into a multitude of moving boxes and cartons. I see though that many of you are continuing to drop by, checking for the latest news of the Grand Duke Irwin-Amadeus II, his manservant Hives, the Portuguese Water Dogs Max and Moritz, and the continuing build-up of the Stollenian and Zichenauer armies. Thank you everyone for your dedication and continued interest. I certainly appreciate it. I should have things up and running again in the next several weeks, just in time for the summer campaigning season. Please keep checking in for an occasional update.

On the housing front, things are beginning to move quickly. Yesterday, we met at the house with our real estate lady for the final walk-through, and everything was as it should be. I even had a few minutes to myself in the house to measure windows for curtains and walls in the front living room for new bookshelves, which we ordered last night. The Grand Duchess and I have decided to turn this first of two living rooms into a more formal room. Some might have called it a parlor at one time, but we are using the term “library” and will have many (but not all) of our books displayed there on the new shelves.


Tomorrow, we have our closing in which we sign the final papers, take care of the initial payment for the house and a few other administrative details. Then, we get the keys and take possession of the house -- our house. Welcome home! And welcome to Der Stollenkeller too!

We will celebrate by having a pizza delivered to the new digs tomorrow evening where we will enjoy it picnic style on the dining room floor with maybe a glass of wine or two. Saturday, we begin the arduous process of moving all our “stuff”. This prospect is made easier to accept thanks to the fact that we have about three weeks to move our things from the apartment to the house – just three blocks or so away. For the heavy book boxes (there are TOO many of these!) and BIG pieces of furniture, we will bite the bullet and pay to have movers take care of that in a couple of weeks. Frankly, it's worth it to save our backs and fingers!.


So, I guess you could say that things are moving right along here at Stollen Central although things are at a stand-still with regards to painting and gaming. Nevertheless, I’ve managed to dig up a photo of a certain key old school wargamer for your enjoyment. Can you guess who it is?

Comments

guy said…
H G Wells? V pleased the house move is progressing well. We ate fish and chips and drank a bottle of champagne on our first night, sitting in the middle of numerous unopened boxes. It felt v grown up to own a house.

Regards,
Guy
A J said…
It's H G Wells behind that moustache. I hope your house move goes smoothly and with minimum fuss.
....I ate a ham roll sitting on top of a dozen boxes of wargaming books as my wife was still at the old house where she was recovering from only just having delivered our youngest a week before..! Best of luck with the move... with moustache like that it can only be HG??
MurdocK said…
LITTLE WAR HG WELLS.

(of course your picture title did give it away...)

Good luck with the move!
tradgardmastare said…
Give you joy of your keys and the world they will open up for you both!
When we moved a few years ago I laid out the book -filled boxes like a train and my three daughters really enjoyed playing on it for hours.
All the best to you both for the move!
best wishes
Alan
P.S when can we expect more news of your book
johnpreece said…
Best of luck with the move. It always takes me at least a year to recover, but I am sure you will be painting on top of the boxes within a few days.
Bluebear Jeff said…
Hmmm, reading John's comment reminds me that we moved into our new home last May . . . and I still have about 130 boxes (mainly books) that have not yet been unpacked.

We have one largish bedroom downstairs (next to my giant game room) which will be our library . . . currently full of boxes of books.

Congratulations to both yourself and the Grand Duchess. Have a wonderful life in your new home . . . may it bring you both much joy and comfort.


-- Jeff
Der Alte Fritz said…
Congratulations on the acquistion of Schloss Stollen. It is a big day in your life. Looking forward to eventually seeing pictures of the Stollenkeller. We have a formal living room and it never gets used. It would be of better use had we turned it into a library, or dare I say, a wargame room in the manner of Callan.
Andy Mitchell said…
Good luck with the move. Try not to gravitate too rapidly to der Stollenkeller: the Grand Duchess might want you to help with the rest of the unpacking.
Stryker said…
Stokes,
I'm sure that picture is Mr Hanham my old history teacher from 1968 who dabbled in wargaming, no?
Good luck with the move...
Ian
Congratulations My Friend! And as to that "heavy" lifting, I would think an enterprising college professor could manage some "extra credit" and a six pack or two for a few strong backs ;-) Hey, if you can't build their minds, build their muscles!

Sir William
old-tidders said…
Good luck with your house move

-- Allan

Popular posts from this blog

Comfortable Rules for Games of Glossy Toy Soldiers in the Old Style. . .

  Introduction A Tangled Mass is a game of toy soldiers in the old style, set more or less in the middle part of the 18 th century.   Our miniature forces are colorful and, we hope, glossy.  Although the latter, like so much else, is up to the discretion of the players.   But it is the modeling, brushwork, and unit organization of hobby greats like Gilder, Mason, and Robinson that provide our visual touchstone and continue to inform "the look of the thing" even now. Tabletop armies in A Tangled Mass can be historic, semi-historic, or whimsically fictitious, but the more flags and mounted officers, the better.  Formations, while bearing some resemblance to their historic precedents, are generic: column, line, or extended order for lighter types.   Squares, while possible, are less common than during all of that later Napoleonic madness with its guillotines and Spanish ulcers.  And we'll simply choose not to mention patent leather dancing pumps, or that unseemly bedr

Prussian 3rd Garrison Regt. Update. . .

  Still a few small things to do, including apply fleshtone to a left hand on an officer that I somehow missed at some point plus lace on the drummers and officers , but we're very close to the glossing stage. L ots of painstaking work to clean up edges, highlight folds, and touch up various bits and pieces the last few evenings.  My trusty little Sony Cybershot, I fear, has gone to that big electronics place in the sky and no longer seems to be working.  Well, I've had it since 2013, and small electronics don't last forever, so I cannot complain.   With that little hiccup in mind, I snapped today's shot with my iPhone, brightened, and cropped it in Fotor before sharing it here.  Again, the blue is not quite so bright in reality, but the auto-improve, or whatever they call it, makes for nice bright photographs in which everything shows up.   Not long before these are done, and The Young Master was suitably please when I asked him to have a look a few minutes ago. -- Sto

A Break in the Radio Silence. . .

  S till plugging away at the 60 or so Wied Infantry currently on the painting bench as and when work and family life permit. Using three different whites for the clothing, shoulder belts, and officers' wigs plus trying some Army Painter quick washes.   My friend and one-time online magazine co-editor Greg Horne (the man behind The Duchy of Alzheim , still one of my blog and hobby touchstones) suggested I give washes a try a month or two ago, and I think he might be onto something.  Admittedly, he suggested the Citadel contrast range, but what I purchased eventually is in that general direction.  I am especially pleased with the Army Painter flesh wash, which picks out the facial details on the Minden figures very nicely.  I've applied it on top of my usual Windsor & Newton alkyd oil fleshtone and then highlighted the brows, bridges of noses, cheeks, chins, lower lips, and knuckles/thumbs the next day with more of the fleshtone.   Suddenly, and with relative ease, my paint