Perfecting new skills

This weekend was a working trip at the house.  Friday we drove over to Waco to start deciding on the flooring.  We were to meet with a decorator but didn’t think to call first and make sure she was available.  When we got there and asked for her, we were told she was out on an appointment.  I said no problem; we will just look around and get some ideas.  Jay says, why don’t you just make an appointment and come back tomorrow.  Hello, we just drove all the way here- I say, no lets look around together first and then I will come back tomorrow.  He looks at me and says, it’s your house, pick out whatever you want and promptly sits down at a table ignoring me.  I get his attention, throw him one of my “don’t start with me” looks and said (gritting my teeth) please come in here and look at these samples with me.  Knowing better than to create a scene he grudgingly came to join me in the sea of samples.  We did find one sample we both liked. Then I said okay, you have given me some input, we can leave.  Of course now that he was more in the swing of things we also took a quick look at carpet for the bedrooms picking out a couple of things.  I set an appointment for 10:30 the following morning and we left. 

Next morning we thought AJ was going to be there at 8:00 am to go over the cabinet design.  At 9:00 I called Stanley and he said that AJ had some things he had to do at the shop and wouldn’t be there until late morning.  Well guess I wasn’t going to make my 10:30 appointment.  Called Donna (the decorator) and explained the situation.  She said no problem she was there until 2:00.   I told her I would try to be there by 12:30 to give us enough time.  At 11:00 AJ and Stanley finally arrived.  I was a little annoyed, but when I saw what he had designed, my annoyance waned and I started to get really excited about the Kitchen.  He was able to incorporate almost all of my customized cabinets and drawers.  His computer program has a 3D feature so I was able to see what it was going to look like from all angles and as we discussed changes he was able to make the changes to the plan.  At 12:40 I said I have to leave now!  We hadn’t even discussed the bathrooms or the utility room so I left Jay to go through those.  After all if Kitchen works, I’m going to be a happy camper, the rest will just fall into place!

I didn’t get to the flooring place until 1:15.  Not leaving us a lot of time to go through the volumes of choices.  I started by showing her the house plan and then showing her the vinyl plank we liked.  You guessed it, it was the most expensive one there is.  The cost for what we liked was basically the same as going with wood floors (but the maintenance is still easier).  She showed me a lot more and we pulled samples to take with me.  Oh and the carpet- Also the most expensive.  No one can accuse me of not having good taste- problem is I only have a beer budget.  Needless to say, no decision was made, but I did narrow down the options.

Sunday morning we got up early to work on honing my wiring skills.  Turns out that the guys who do the cable and Internet wiring are very expensive and charge by the drop.  We have planned for a lot of drops because I want both cable (or satellite) TV in most all of the rooms, including in the kitchen and master bath.  We also had to pull the wires for the surround sound speakers in the Great room and out on the patio.   I have helped Jay pull cabling and wiring before, so we knew we could do this.  Four hours later, with no screaming at each other we had completed our task and had wires traveling along the rafters to most every room.  Good job, Laynie and Jay!

Designing the kitchen and meeting Goldberg

Things are moving along quite well.  We went down last weekend to meet with the cabinet guy and to attend a graduation party (fish fry) for a couple of our friends’ kids.  We had a great time at the party and met a lot of new people. Being raised that you never go to a party empty handed I cooked up about 6-7 dozen tamales and Jay made salsa.  The fish was really good, and I think the tamales were a hit because they were all gone in about 15 minutes.  Belinda and I do make good tamales!!  The salsa lasted through the night, but nary a drop was left when the party ended.  The most entertaining parts of the party for me were the two babies I got to play with and a little duck name Goldberg.  Goldberg was the only animal allowed to roam around the party and he entertained the kids while eating anything given to him.  He was especially fond of rum cake (who can blame him it was yummy).  The dogs were penned up and were going crazy wanting to get at him.  He seemed to know he was safe from them would venture fairly close to the pen as if to taunt them.  Goldberg was going to go home with one of the guests who has a lake and other ducks for Goldberg to make his new family.  All and all it was a great evening and going home was easy, hopped in the gator and rode through the pasture back to the cabin.

see Goldberg sitting between Julie's feet

I met with AJ, the cabinetmaker to design my kitchen cabinets.  I had spent a number of hours on the Internet looking at different ideas for drawers, cabs and layouts.  I think I had printed out over 50 different ideas. He must have thought I was a crazy person.  We waded through my pictures and talked about what things were important to me.  Finally we had a game plan and he said he would have a 3D plan for me the following week.  I have decided on painted cabinets instead of stained wood, lots of drawers and a place for my cookbooks, S&P collection and all sorts of specialized drawers and cupboards.  A kitchen where I can find all my utensils- what a concept!  We also designed the bathroom, utility closets and mud room.  Next step for me will be picking the flooring.  Now that ist going to be a daunting task.  There are so many different flooring options and so many options within each of the flooring types.  So much easier when I was working and the choices got narrowed down to what was the best vinyl for the price and apartment carpet, is just that apartment carpet, pick the color and move on….

A few current pictures of the house -

Front door installed

looking like my little house!!

Windows in my office

View from one of my office windows

Hey guys, i would love to have you post any comment you might have.

Looks like it's going to be a good year for Jelly

The cactus is in full bloom this year and at the bottom of each bloom is a baby pear.  We all know what happens to those pears- they get bigger, riper and become Little Piece of Texas prickly pear jelly!!!!  How exciting to be able to harvest, roast and mash them all in one place this year.   Anyone ready to place orders????  Also for those fans of the mesquite bean jelly, I have a new place to get mesquite beans so we will have lots of that too! 

 




 This is really just a small sampling, the cactus is everywhere.  Good thing I found a use for the pears or these plants would be a pain in the ass (sometimes literally) because they spread like crazy.

It's moving along rather nicely

We went down this weekend to check on the progress and things are looking good.  We now have most of the roof decking on and had to make a decision about arches in the hallways.  Since I wanted to go with rounded corners on the walls we decided the arch would carry that design element from room to room.  Also turns out the interior doors I chose have a little arch element in the top panel.  So now it all flows.  
 

Archway to back of house

The coolest back porch!!

Can't you just picture the rocking chairs on the front porch like at Cracker Barrel

When we talked to Stanley (our contractor) he told me I had to decide on trim fixtures for the bathrooms.  Did I wanted single or dual controls for the showers and did I want one shower head or two or a rain shower head or a handheld unit.  Did I want the shower to go up 10 feet or  only 8 feet.  Was I going to want marble or tile in the shower.  So many questions, so few answers.  I had no clue what I wanted- except for the tile vs marble enclosure question.  No debate it was to be tile!  Well before the weekend was over we made a trip to Home Depot so I could look at the options.  All decisions made. Single, one head, no rain shower, tile and only 8 ft inside shower- rest of bathroom is 10ft.  We were also looking at ceiling fans and bathroom lights and kitchen lights and fixtures and tile and flooring- So many decisions and so many choices my head is spinning!

On a lighter note it was a beautiful weekend, the weather was perfect!  Our neighbors from Dallas, Laurie and Jeff came down on Saturday to check out the progress.  We had such a fun visit touring and heading in to McGregor for BBQ.  Now they are thinking about a visit with the dogs once the house is completed.  I'm excited for that!  Unlike the city, here they can run around and explore to their hearts content.  Of course we were all speculating on what their reaction to the cows would be.

It's looking like a house

Wow, It's really looking like a house now. It is incredible how much changed in one week.  Jay went down on Friday and sent me a few photos. 

 I had made plans to travel down on Sunday with Jay's cousin's Allison and Andrew.  It was the first time they had been down and just loved it.  Now I think they are going to be counting the days until we are done so they can come and stay for a few days.  Good thing they don't mind small bedrooms.

The weather was perfect and Allison took a moment to just relax under the trees in the hammock. 




 Kristin stopped by on her way back from Austin and spent the afternoon with us.  

Kristin, Laynie and Allison

Jay resting on the porch swing at the cabin

  Walking through the house you can finally get a feel for the interior and the room sizes.  Here are some photos of what we saw.

All I can say at this point is I love it!

The Man Palace (So much more than a man cave)

West side of Bldg

A lot of people have asked me to post some pictures of what I lovingly (okay not so lovingly) refer to as the Man Palace at Millerville.  Jay has wanted a man cave since the beginning and has spent many hours over the years designing exactly what he wanted.  Since the man can’t settle on just one hobby, the place kept growing to accommodate all of his interests and the result was a 3200 sf building with room for his model train layout, radios, guns and a workshop to build the wonderful bookcases and other well built furnishings he loves to create.  Now every woman I know thinks like I do- “Why does he need that much space?” Then every guy I know, says, ”How cool is that!”  Well it is very cool.  It has rooms for everything including his office so he can continue to work once we move, to keep supporting his hobbies.  He has done the majority of the work himself (walls, painting, some of the flooring, electrical etc.) and it is truly spectacular, but I still don’t get the need for 3200 sf- thus the nickname “the man palace”.  Bear in mind our new house is only about 2600 sf.   In the pictures you also need to notice an antenna tower (currently we have that one plus 3 more and hopefully no more!)  This is still a work in progress so none of the rooms are completed yet.

East side of Bldg

Office area with bookcases- because books are our friends and you don't throw away friends

Radio Room

Workshop

Model Train Layout room

Moving Right Along

Wow, they put down the bottom plates to lay-out all the rooms.  Seems like it was just yesterday that they were pouring the concrete.  Oh it was!  Monday or Tuesday they will begin the framing.  Jay sent me these two photos. When I looked at them the bedrooms seemed smaller than they looked on the plans.  I immediately called him and when he answered the phone he doesn’t say hello, he says Stanley says NO! and starts laughing.  He knew I would be calling and had told Stanley something to that affect.  I said that I needed a picture with someone in the bedroom so I could visualize how big the room really is.  He say’s “it’s small, I told you it would be”.  I said I just need to know I can get a double bed in there with a nightstand”

 They took the picture and then I felt better. It is little, but it's a guest room.  I want my guests to be comfortable, but not too comfortable..... Remember you are coming to visit me, not camp out in the bedroom! 

 Next time I see it, should look really different.

Lonely Helen and One eyed Fred

Though I am a city girl, I do enjoy that our neighbor has farm animals.  He is a great guy.  He takes care of Hamburger and Helper for us along with his cows plus he has pigs and some chickens.  He has guinea hens, a broody hen and a rooster.  The hen’s name is Lonely Helen and the Rooster’s name is One Eyed Fred.  Who says you can’t have names for your animals…..  Anyway, Lonely Helen wasn’t laying any eggs so Darvin told her, either she starts laying or she’s gonna be the chicken for chicken and dumplings.  A few days later, surprise, there were eggs.  Then a few weeks after that, lonely Helen must not have been so lonely because she laid about 7 fertilized eggs.  I guess One Eyed Fred finally saw Helen with his good eye.  As I understand it the whole mating process takes about 30 seconds, so how excited can you get???   Anyway, back to Helen.  She has been brooding those eggs and won’t let Darvin near her- probably not much nicer to Fred!  We were all excited that we were going to have chicks.  Okay, I like living vicariously through my neighbor, all the fun of farming without really getting dirty.  Thursday night Darvin stopped by the cabin after work to see our progress.  Sitting on the porch we asked about Helen and the soon to be chicks.  It seems a fox got into the hen house and killed Helen and broke open all the eggs.  Poor Helen, we are going to miss her. 

Pouring the Foundation

On Thursday afternoon they began pouring the foundation.  We began the morning waiting for the cement trucks to arrive.  When they hadn't arrived by 1:00, Jay and I took off for Waco to pick out our doors and windows.  As we were headed down the road we saw the first trucks headed towards the property.  They  finally started arriving at 1:30.  We continued on with our mission knowing it would take at least 3 or 4 hours to pour the concrete.  So far picking what we wanted has been the easy part of this process.  We found our windows and the doors that lead to the patio right away.  There was a little discussion about what we wanted for the back door off the mud room, but it was an easy pick too.  Now for the front door.  This had to be the right door and I was worried we weren't going to see eye to eye on this pick.  The sales lady helping us pulled out a catalog of front doors and there it was on the cover.  Both of us at the same time said that's it!  Then there was a short discussion about the hardware.  I said I wanted satin or brushed nickle.  Jay says with a questioning look, "you don't want brass?"  "Hell no", I said.  I have had all the brass I care to ever have.!  He looked a little disappointed but I hate the way it looks once it starts to tarnish.  there's a reason we took it out of all those apartments.

 So now we head back and the place is jumping!  One concrete truck leaving, one ready to come in and two down on the site.  Wow they move fast.  Yes, it is starting to look like a slab for a house.

The concrete guys were busy until after 7:00 that night.  Just before they left we went over to the guys and asked if we could put the date and our initials in it.  Like a cornerstone we did it on the NE corner of the slab (actually on the porch).  Here it is!

Cows in the Bluebonnets

 In the springtime in Texas people love to photograph their young children sitting in the bluebonnets.  Since our children are grown now (however, I do have a picture I will post on another day) I am posting a couple of pictures of the cows that graze on our land, affording us our ag exemption. The two on the left are our new additions- Hamburger and Helper.  One should never get too attached to the livestock!

 

Adventures in building a house!

So we have begun the construction of our home in the country... Crawford, Texas to be exact.  We purchased the land 8 years ago and have slowly been constructing what I have come to call Millerville.  First we (by we, I mean mostly Jay and his wonderful friends) built a log cabin.  You see I am not from the outdoors campers.  To me roughing it means Best Western- no room service.  I love the outdoors as long as I don't have to pee in the woods or sleep on the ground without a roof.  Once the cabin was complete and we could spend the night at our place, we had to build a storage shed. After that came the Barn, which houses the 4-wheel gator, Jay's temporary ham radio station and lots of boxes of "stuff").  Then two years ago Jay began construction on (what I lovingly refer to as) the man palace.  Why Man Palace instead of Man Cave you ask?  Well what would you call 3200 sf full of man toys from radios to guns to trains to a workshop?  To give you perspective, the house we are building is less that 2800 sf.

We signed documents for the construction loan in early March and work commenced a few weeks later. Trampling through the trees and bramble, Jay and I marked off the corner points of the house and then the construction guys came in and cleared the site.

Clearing the site - Amazing how quickly they were able to clear out all the trees and whatever

All cleared!

Contractor Stanley and Plumber Randy

Forms Set