First Dinner Party

We hosted our first dinner party at the new house Friday night. It was a lot of fun. We had a great time. I think it was a success. And judging by the empty pitcher of Mexican Martinis and the recycle bin full of beer bottles, I think our guests had a great time also. We had Roger's family over for dinner. It was an assortment of special occasions. We celebrated Roger and his sister Mirna's birthdays. Roger's was February 13th and Mirna's is March 3rd. It was a mini-reunion as Roger's god mother Martha from Puerto Rico who has lived in Oregon for at least thirty years now was visiting. And our family friend Larry who hadn't seen Martha from when everyone lived in Puerto Rico also came. It was also the first time for Roger's mom Laura, sister Cindy, brother-in-law Joey, nieces Ariana and Cyrene and our dear friend Denise, who is like a sister, to see our new house. So there were many things to celebrate. Roger's dad made his famous tacos which were delicious. I wish I would have eaten at least three more. They are so good. As you can see by the pictures, we had a lot of fun and laughter. And it was great practice for having dinners and parties at our new house.

We did have a dining table dilemma which of course did not affect our fun. But it was a little disappointing for Roger and me. We ordered a custom dining table last Thanksgiving. We were told by the designer and their brochures that with a second leaf added it would seat ten people. We were so excited to be able to seat ten. At our last house, and even our apartment in DC, we could only seat four properly. Of course we would pull out every chair we owned to fit more, but it's not the same as being able to seat ten properly. I was really excited about the new table. It was supposed to take 30 to 60 days to be made and delivered. Sixty days past and I called the store and everything was in except one side chair. At first I was like, well it can wait until the one last chair comes in since I figured it would be maybe another week. I called back a week later and it still was not in the warehouse. The dinner party was a week away and I asked them if they could deliver what they had and they did. We would only have nine chairs, but there were only nine adults coming to the dinner so it would be fine. The little girls would not sit around the table long anyway. And I thought maybe the last chair will come in before the dinner and if it didn't it would be fine. Then we found out another person was added to make it ten adults even. We knew it would all work out. We've pulled chairs from other rooms before. No problem. So Friday afternoon I was getting ready for the dinner and I separated the table to add the second leaf. I went to the second bedroom to get the spare chair and put it under the table and it wouldn't fit. There was no way that chair was going in under the table. Talk about not happy.

I went from disbelief to unhappiness to disappointment. And for me, it's worse for me to be disappointed with you than mad at you. I felt betrayed and lied to by the designer. I felt like maybe she told us that just to sell us the extra leaf and two extra side chairs. Then I was very disappointed with the store. But I always had the knowledge in my mind the store would take care of this. Their service in our past experiences with them have always exceeded our expectations. So I knew I had to talk with them, but of course decided I would wait until the next day to do so. No reason to take it out on them especially since the designer we worked with was no longer employed at the store. Roger and I went yesterday and spoke with the store manager. She was well aware of our delayed pieces. We also ordered a chair and ottoman for Roger and the designer told us 30-60 days but leather pieces take 90 days. So either we were misinformed which would have been easy to do since our order was so large or through the whole process we got it confused and lumped it all together time wise. We explained the new dilemma. And of course she was very apologetic and sincere. We talked about our options, returning the two extra chairs and only seating eight or maybe getting a third leaf which she offered to pay for so we could still seat ten. We had already spread the table out at the house to see if a third leaf would fit and it would. She attempted to call her district manager to see if she had any advice since they had never put a third leaf in their tables and none of us were sure it would be structurally sound. They don't even offer a third leaf in these tables because for that length you would normally add another set of legs for support. But her manager was in interviews and she spoke with someone else there who had the idea of us trying the leaf from the floor model in our table to see if it would work.

So we took it home and tried it. It almost fit. All the pegs lined up all around and it slid in fine all around except one corner. There was a piece of the leaf that hit a piece of the table which prevented us from sliding it in. Since they make the whole table and any leaves at the same time, your leaf might not fit into another table. So we went back and explained all this. The whole store of designers got in on the problem while we were gone. They found the brochures that say with a second leaf it seats ten so we're sure that's where the designer got that from but they all agreed there's no way ten chairs could fit in there. And none of the other designers had ever sold it as that. Of course, our designer wasn't there any more. Although we could order another leaf, there might be a chance it doesn't fit. And there's no way the finish is going to match our table exactly because they make each table complete with leaves individually by hand. No table will ever match another table. So the store manager is going to call her manager to explain the whole situation and see what solutions they can come up with for us. She also mentioned speaking with their corporate office about the misleading brochures. I know they will take care of us. It is disappointing but there are a lot worse things in life. This is really nothing and it will get taken care of. I would still recommend this store in a heart beat. And I know I will order furniture from them again. I've got their catalog open right now to see if they have an end table like I want. So as the young folks used to say, it's all good.

A Couple New House Firsts

We got our first electricity bill this week. And it is cause for concern. We had to switch from City of Austin to Pedernales (pronounced here as Perdenales) Electric Cooperative for electricity with this move. Although the City of Austin services us for everything else still, water, wastewater, solid waste and recycling. So we closed on January 23rd and had the electricity turned on that same day. Our first bill was from January 23rd to February 4th, thirteen days. And it was $49.32! For thirteen days?! That's what we paid for one month of electricity with the City of Austin. Scary! Even though I almost never turn on lights during the day, we turn off lights when we leave rooms and we don't keep unnecessary lights on, we have been even more diligent with lights and anything else that uses electricity. And Roger has ordered dimmers for a bunch of lights and fixtures so we have the option of dimming a light, which uses less electricity, instead of just off or on. I'm scared to see a whole month's bill.

We also experienced our first storm in the new house. Tuesday night that crazy storm that was going across the Midwest causing all those tornadoes in Oklahoma came across Texas as well. It was a pretty bad storm up there, but down here it was not as bad. I'm sure some places got hit worse than we did. But what was weird was how we experienced it. In our old house, we would have heard and felt everything. We would have been able to hear and feel the wind and the rain. If we didn't have the blinds in the windows open we would not have known there was a storm. We couldn't hear anything, wind or rain, until the hail started hitting the front of the house since the wild wind was blowing everything side ways. We could see the rain being blown sideways down the street, but we couldn't hear or feel anything. I know, that's good. Let's us know our house is pretty solid. It was just weird, that's all. We watched the local cable provider weather channel as it skirted across Interstate 35. And of course, it only lasted here about five to ten minutes. If you have ever heard that saying, "Don't like the weather in Texas just wait five minutes", it's true.

Hectic Beginnings

Sorry I haven't posted a legitimate post in a while. Things have been a little hectic around here. Not that we thought it wouldn't be but when life gets hectic sometimes you are surprised. I have no idea why? I think every one's lives are hectic these days. Of course because we make them hectic. That's a whole 'nother story. Anyway, I'll try to cover why things have been hectic in as short a post as possible. Yeah, I know, you are all laughing out loud from that.

Okay, so Roger had to work the first weekend we moved into the new house. Monthly server maintenance is usually on the last Friday night of every month. Then he had to work this past weekend also because his company was finally merging networks/systems with the company that bought them last year. Or it was something like that. I'm sure I'm getting it wrong, but that's basically what they did. And he has been working late a lot lately because he was off those two days of packing and moving and it's a busy time for his company. So he hasn't been able to spend as much time doing stuff around the house as he would like and he's feeling a little disconnected to the new house. Hopefully things will slow down enough for him to spend more time at home and do some things around the house so he feels "home". Nothing makes you feel more at home than honey do lists and yard maintenance.

During that week, we also hosted our first guests. Yes, we hosted a friend the first weekend we moved in the new house. But it was easy. Now that we have a dedicated guest bedroom, we don't have to do anything for guests. So you know what this means, come visit us! We hosted our friend Kyla from Nashville for a few days. She was in Texas for her brother's graduation from Air Force basic training in San Antonio and used it as an excuse to catch up with friends that moved to Austin. Then my mom came to visit this past weekend. She helped me make 10 reversible place mats Friday night for our new dining table that was delivered Friday. She was given boxes and boxes of material from a friend so the place mats didn't cost me anything except I had to buy fusible interfacing to give the place mats a crisp shape and so they hold up after multiple washings. We started out sewing in the second bedroom while Roger slept to get ready to go to work Friday night. The second bedroom is still a catch all room right now, but will change once I get everything out of it and get a sewing/craft table. Once he left we moved into the living room and kitchen so we could get our Friday night HGTV shows in while we worked. We are still missing one chair and Roger's living room chair and ottoman. They will be delivered as soon as they come in as I will be calling them every Friday to ensure they don't arrive in the warehouse and sit there forever.

We also had a few friends over for Super Bowl. For a while it seemed like we weren't going to have anyone over for Super Bowl which would have been a first in a long time for us. But at the last minute some friends asked us what our plans were and we told them to come on over. The house layout was perfect for the Super Bowl. We had food spread out all over the island. It is nice to have so many electrical outlets around the island. Makes it easy to plug in crock pots of yummy queso. Everyone sat around the island and in the living room. There wasn't a bad seat in the house. This is the main reason we picked this floor plan. It's exactly how we live and entertain.

I'm still doing lots of little things around the house to make it more of a home. Last week we got the office set up and even put together a bookcase, chair and ottoman from IKEA in the office. Last week was also filled with lots of little things and pretty much all the unpacking was completed. We had some contractors come out to give us a few more estimates for a deck and pergola. Hopefully that will be done soon after we get approval from the home owner's association. This week I will hang pictures, paintings, drapery rods and drapes, shelves, and all those other things that make a house a home. I also have at least one new painting in my plans for the dining room. I can't wait to get started on it. I plan out every step of my paintings, which techniques I will use, what order, etc. Layering is key in painting so I have to plan them out to completion so I don't get things out of order and can't do what I planned. And I have decided to use one technique I haven't used in years on part of the painting in one layer. That technique is crackling. I have seen some paintings recently around town that have inspired me to pull the crackle medium out of my tub of painting supplies. Of course, before I start I'll have to make sure it isn't dried up.

I had to do that recently with my mod podge for a craft I was doing for my dining table center piece. And thank goodness my mod podge was still usable. I'm all about buying as little as possible for, well, everything. I was still researching the center piece for the dining table because I wanted to get the scale right. In my runnings as my mom would say, I knew something would jump out at me either for inspiration or as the actual piece. She and I stopped by a consignment store, Goodbye Hello, on Manchaca Road in our runnings this weekend and found the perfect piece. It's a "boat" of sorts and I thought it would look cool with some big, white decorative spheres in them. I'm not usually a decorative sphere kind of gal but it was just perfect. I searched a few stores and online and I was not about to pay $8 a ball. So I went to Hobby Lobby with coupons in hand and bought all the supplies I needed to cover and decorate styrofoam spheres. I was able to make them for around $3.50 each. I felt so satisfied knowing I saved $4.50 a ball. I'm still working on two, one covered with white yarn and another I will decoupage with white paper.

I know this turned out to be longer than I wanted. But that's what happens when you don't post for a long time. I will try to post more frequently. Hope everyone is doing well. Love you all!

Photos!

Sorry, I haven't posted photos since before we moved. I was waiting for the desktop computer to be set up because I didn't know I could upload my pictures to Roger's laptop. I know, I should have asked him. But better late than never, right?! So here are pictures from the night of packing through today. I will get captions up as soon as possible. Hope you enjoy!

We’re Home

Its so nice to say that. We’re home. For good. It’s unbelievable and amazing. We spent our first night in the new house last night. We both slept so well and never woke up once. It might be because we're so exhausted. Our bodies are aching! And poor Roger has to go back to work today. I will be unpacking forever it seems. The packers packed boxes with lots of paper and the wardrobes only half full so we have tons of boxes everywhere. And although the movers were great, they could not help us unpack because all they do is take it out of the box and set it on the floors and counters. I felt like that wouldn’t really help me and it would be better to keep stuff in boxes and unpack as I go. I think stuff all over would overwhelm me. So our garage is full and we’re amassing large stacks of boxes and packing paper. I am so grateful for both the packers and movers. I’m heading back to the old house today to clean a little and take some furniture to a consignment store. Plus get some groceries! And I’ll be unpacking all day, every day.

It was interesting trying to decide what we should unpack first last night. Some people want kitchen done so they can cook soon, some think clothes should be first. We decided to unpack the clothes so we could get the wardrobes out of the way and Roger would have clothes for work today and late last night and this morning we figured out we probably should have unpacked bathroom stuff so we can take showers and get ready this morning. But thank goodness we packed an overnight bag for our last night at the old house. So we have just enough until I find the bathroom boxes and get them unpacked today. When you have someone else pack your stuff you have no idea what they put in each box or how they labeled it. One of the packer’s first language was not English so what she called rooms and items are not what we know them as so boxes were put in some rooms which actually should be in a different rooms. But we’ll get through it all. Remember my full time job is to unpack us. We are super happy we are moved. We are excited and amazed and it’s awesome! It really is hard to believe we’re here, done, in the new house. The build went by fast but now that we’re in it for real and there’s furniture to make it feel more like a home, it’s just crazy. Okay, I need to get going. I have tons of stuff to do today and there are only so many hours in the day. But I do have to wait for the freezing weather we got last night to slip away this morning so I can drive safely on the roads. You know Texas weather, wait five minutes and it will change.

It's Official

It's official, we are home owners once again. And we seriously love our new house. We have been saying it all night. Roger had to go back to work after we closed and he helped me take a load of stuff to the new house. I spent the rest of the day unloading, painting, and so many other things I can't remember. Roger joined me after work and the work continued. We got a lot done, but it doesn't feel like as much as I thought we'd get done. We stayed up too late but we're just so excited. I'm uploading pictures to Flickr right now, so they won't be done for a bit. But in a few hours you can check the link to the right and see the pictures of all the fun we had today. There won't be any funny comments since I'll be fast asleep here in about five minutes. We plan to have a bunch more fun this weekend. And we'll be posting pictures through out. We feel overwhelmed and amazed at what God has given us. It's just amazing. He is a great God and we love Him!!

A Wake Up

I was going to post yesterday about there being only one more day and a wake up before we close on the new house, but I forgot in all my errand running, furniture picking up and appointments. So you'll have to settle with only a wake up left before we close on the new house. That's fine with me because we are very excited closing day is almost here. We are in week fifteen of the house build. They actually finished last week so it really only took fourteen weeks to build our house. Can you believe it?! Three and a half months. It went by so fast. We had the final walk-through this morning. And there is only one issue left to be resolved and it will be fixed in the next day or two. It might be fixed this afternoon since our construction manager Derek scheduled the electrician to come this afternoon. One of the pot lights in the kitchen was wired along with the pendant lights over the island which is not correct. But it should be an easy fix. There were a few paint touch-ups and the painter showed up as we were thanking Derek and leaving. They plan to clean the floors one more time this afternoon so they will be spic and span again. But the house looks great. We LOVE it. I should have taken some pictures but I forgot. I can't wait to move. We close at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow morning and then we are home owners once again.

Also while we were at the final walk-through this morning, Roger got a call from his radiation-oncologist with his MRI results from last Tuesday. Everything looks normal and shows no changes from his last MRI. So we're good to go for another six months. We knew it would be fine. Our God is good. I'll try to take some pictures tomorrow after we close but before we start doing anything to the house. I am planning to paint a wall tomorrow afternoon so it's dry for Roger to be able to install his surround sound speakers and TV wall mount Saturday. Super Bowl Sunday is almost here. We have to make sure that's all ready. :)

One More Week

We have exactly one more week before we close on the new house. We are super excited. I think we are finally done purchasing items for the new house except Roger is still researching new switches so he can control the lights with his fancy universal remote. But other than that, we are ready. The landscaping and gutters went in Tuesday. They look very nice. I forgot to take pictures when we were there for our preliminary walk through with our new construction manager Derek Wednesday morning. It went very well. There are a lot of paint and drywall touch-ups. I think he noted more stuff than we did. Glad he's looking out for our best interest. We are going to stop by the house this weekend to pick a paint color for an accent wall in the family room. Then all we have to do is wait. Our final walk through is set for Thursday morning then we close on Friday. We have just been amazed at what God has given us. We know we don't deserve any of it, but we sure do appreciate it. So praise God.

Roger had his one week follow-up appointment after his laser eye surgery with Dr. Wong today. He has some dry spots on his right cornea, the same eye Dr. Wong had difficulty with during the surgery. So he has to continue using the steroid drops for another week. But other than that, his eyes are doing great. He's loving his new eye sight.

And I have a prayer request for my dad's health. He found out this week he is anemic. He's been really tired lately, more than usual. They prescribed him medication and hopefully he will feel better soon. My mom got a little scared this week, as did the rest of us. So please lift her up to the Lord also. Thanks so much for praying for my family. I hope everyone has a great weekend since many of you are off on Monday for Martin Luther King Day.

Exciting Times

We are in the midst of very exciting times. First, Roger started his medicated eye drops today in preparation of his laser eye surgery on Thursday. He is super excited. I am excited for him also, but my excitement can not compare to his. He's been talking about how much easier life will be for him to not have to deal with glasses, contacts or eye exams and the like and being able to actually see clearly with no assistance. He can wake up in the morning and see as soon as he opens his eyes as compared to getting up and grabbing his glasses. Maybe this will speed up his getting ready time. We'll have to see about that.

Also, the appliances in the new house were installed last week. And they are awesome! Better than we expected. I guess what we ordered wasn't available any longer so we received different appliances. But it's okay because they are way better than what we ordered. The new house is getting so close to being done. They are working on their punch lists and finishing up all the details. We will have a walk through in about a week or so to give them some time to fix everything we've found to be deficient. We are so close there's only seventeen days until our closing. We can't wait! But on a sad note, we were informed yesterday our builder did another downsizing and laid off our construction manager Eric. So we are now on our third construction manager. Even though they say Austin isn't being hit as bad as the rest of the country with the economic downfall, obviously we're still being hit.

It's Getting Close

We went by the new house today so Roger could see it since he hasn't been there in a week. I was there on Monday afternoon to meet another deck guy for an estimate. We didn't think anything had been done since I was there Monday, but we opened the front door and saw hard wood flooring. You can see pictures we took today at the Flickr link to the right. All that's left are the appliances and carpet to be installed and clean up before we walk through and point out things for them to fix. Right now the closing date is set for Friday, January 23rd. We'll probably move the next week. It's getting close.

Closing

Well, we did our part to close on our old house this morning. The buyer will do his part this afternoon. It feels good to have that done. Now all we have to do is wait for the new house to finish then close on it and move. Sometime around January 23rd. More and more little things are getting done every day at the new house. The water and electricity were connected this week. So we have lights and water. The plumbing fixtures have all been put in. One set has the wrong handles, but the builder has been notified and will remedy that soon. There is one light fixture and one door frame and door to be installed. The fence in the back yard was put up this week. And the travertine back splash was installed on Saturday. My mom got to see that completed when she came to visit Sunday. We gave her a grand tour of the place.

We have already made a list of items we want to get and install the weekend after we close since we probably won't be able to move over the weekend. That will give us some time to get those things done before we move in. It's a long list, but just a bunch of little stuff like replace the vanity lights in both bathrooms, replace the shower heads in both bathrooms, install cabinet knobs and drawer pulls in the kitchen, seal the tile and grout on the back splash, install cabinet and pantry organizers, add an extension to the family room ceiling fan and install a TV wall mount in the family room. It would be nice to move in and not have to still do those things while we're unpacking. I can't wait!

Tile And Countertops

It's more exciting at the new house every time I visit. You think nothing has probably been done since the last time you visited, which is about every other day for us. But then you go and you are surprised by something new. I went by Tuesday evening about 5:30 p.m. It was really too late to go because it was already dark. But Roger wanted me to go by and see if anything had been done. We assumed nothing was done since we visited on Saturday. But low and behold, the ceramic tile flooring in both bathrooms and the utility room was installed. I took some pictures with the flash so they would turn out because it was so dark I couldn't see myself. I didn't notice until I got home after uploading them and looking at the pictures with Roger when he got home that the ceramic tile around the second bathroom shower was installed. It was that dark in the house. So we wondered if the ceramic tile around the tub in the master bath was installed also. Since it was so dark inside, I didn't take a picture where we could see that.

So today I went by during the day to take better pictures and check if the tile around the garden tub was installed which it wasn't. This is when I discovered that the granite countertops were installed. I saw a truck with a few guys standing around it waiting out front of our house. I wondered what part they were working on. I said hello to them and they spoke Spanish so I couldn't ask them as I walked in because I don't know how to ask what are you working on in Spanish. So I waited to find out once I got inside. I was so excited. I try hard to contain my giddiness inside so as to not jump around like a school girl. One of these days I'm not going to be able to hold it in any more and I'm just going to blow. I took a bunch of pictures so I could show Roger. It's super dark when he leaves work so I have to take pictures for him and he waits until the weekend or a lunch break every once in a while to go by the house. I thanked the installers as I left. I can basically only greet in Spanish. I can't wait to see what's new when I go by on Friday.

A Little Snow

We got a little snow tonight. Nothing to write home about but enough to blog about! We started the day very warm and humid and I believe we topped out at 80 degrees. Then throughout the day the winds came and dropped the temps ever so slightly until they got down to the 40s. By that time it was raining and hailing a bit. After I got home from work this evening, I had to go back after dinner to reset our firewalls and on the way home I was driving through some pretty steady hail. Soon after that, it was snowing big wet flakes. It won't stick because it was 80 today, but the weather in Texas sure is interesting... and all in one day.

Holly went by the new house today and they have installed the ceramic tile! It was pretty dark though, so she didn't get good pics. We'll get some more late this week.

One last thing... after years of thinking about it, and the Army ruining my plans for four years, I have decided to get LASIK. I visited three centers in town and I chose not the most or least expensive, but the one where I felt most comfortable. I put in my last pair of disposable contact lenses this morning. I'm truly excited at the prospect of waking up every morning, and being able to see without having to reach for glasses or just see blurryness until I can get my contacts in. It's not cheap, so please join me in prayer that I am making the right decision. My surgery is scheduled for Jan 8. Yay! It can't come soon enough.

Painted

A short update: The new house interior painting was completed Friday. There are still a lot of touch ups, but they will get those soon enough. It looks great and we are more and more excited every time we visit to see what they've done. After all the foot work I did for the inspection repairs that were recommended, it turns out we don't have to do any of them. So all the footwork wasn't a waste since the buyer could see they weren't necessary. For sure, this will be one exciting holiday season for us. What a blessing!

Progress Continues

Progress on construction of the new house continues. Today Roger and I met there at noon to see the progress since our last visit before Thanksgiving. The foundation for the driveway, walkways and sidewalks are being put up. They'll probably pour the concrete by the end of the week. All the doors, wood trim and cabinetry were being installed while we were there. I can't wait to stop by tomorrow and see how far they got. I'm sure all the kitchen cabinets will be done. It's looking more and more like a home every day. We also received a new closing date of January 23rd. Boy are we glad we did the lease back through January 31st. To give us an idea of when we might move in so we could negotiate the lease back with the buyer of our current home we asked our construction manager for a possible move in date to which he said January 15th. Thank goodness we know the reality of construction and with the holidays coming up, we figured another week or two would give us some leeway just in case. And it looks like we needed it.

As for the progress on the sale of our current home, we're set to close on December 17th as long as nothing new comes up. We had four things to "repair" after the inspection but two items were not really repairs but clarification. The other two items are stumping us. So we have called an electrician for a bid to address one item and are awaiting a response from the city water department regarding the other. Please pray for these things to go smoothly. We're hoping we don't have to spend several thousand dollars repairing what we think are unnecessary items.

Drywall!

I have never loved drywall so much! I ran by the new house today and expected the brick work to be still in progress but that's it. I did not expect the entire house to already be drywalled. I guess when I drove by yesterday I didn't look inside well enough. I saw the usual stack of drywall in the garage and assumed they had not started yet. Turns out they started drywalling yesterday at noon and finished the entire house last night. Today they are taping and floating and will probably texture tomorrow. It's so exciting! It looks so different now. I took some pictures and posted them on Flickr to the right. Roger and I are going to stop by together here in a little bit before we head to the airport to pick up his cousin Cara and her husband Jared and their two year old Olivia. We hope the weather holds out for them to enjoy a sunny and warm weekend in Austin. They have been in winter for two months now up in Wisconsin and would love a break.

Accepted

Yesterday we accepted the counter offer to our counter offer. It feels good to know we have sold our house and we don't have to worry about it anymore. We still have an inspection and appraisal but it's pretty much done. We will stay in the house a little past our closing in anticipation of the new house closing. It will make the move easier and we'll only have to move once. We have been extremely blessed with the offer and have to praise God for taking care of this process and blessing us all these years with a great home.

As for the new house, the exterior will be completely closed in by tomorrow. The brick installation began Tuesday. It looks really nice and is so exciting. The dry wall installation has not begun yet even though the insulation was replaced earlier in the week. We're disappointed about that. But it will all work out according to His will. We needed to know about when the house would be done so we could figure out how long to lease our house back and our construction manager told us we should be able to move in January 15th. Roger and I both feel that may be wishful thinking and with the holidays coming up and construction crews heading home for the holidays that may be pushed back a week. But we'll keep wishing.

An Offer We Did Refuse

We got an offer on the house today! I got it in my email, which was new. I had a chance to look it over and gave Holly a call so that she could look at it too. I thought it might be a tad low so Holly and I had a conference call with our agent. First I needed her to explain exactly what the bottom line was. The buyer wanted us to pay all the closing costs and that irked me. But we then found out that the buyer was using an FHA loan and there are some closing cost items that they are not allowed to pay for. I asked our agent for her opinion and she suggested we counter offer by increasing their initial offer by the total of the closing cost. That would give us a higher profit that we believe is fair for our house.

Another issue is that they want to close on Dec 17. Our new house will probably not be ready until Mid-January. We asked if they would entertain a lease-back to us or push the closing date out. We also will use our appliances as a bargaining chip. We were going to sell our washer, dryer and refrigerator but will convey them if everything works out okay.

We hope to hear something back tomorrow! It’s very exciting to be getting somewhere on this sale. We just need to see how things progress. I think this is the buyers first home because I looked his name up in our county’s appraisal roll and didn’t see his name there. And I did another search and he’s either 29 or 30 and apparently single.

If he is not able to change the closing date or do a lease-back, some friends from church have offered us the upstairs of their new house. We’d have to move out of the our house, have everything put in storage and then have it all picked up from storage in Jan and moved in to the new place. But the Army is covering the cost of our move, so we really don’t mind which way it goes. But we really would rather move just once.

More tomorrow!

And yeah – this is Roger… I’m back on the blogging bandwagon again baby!

Adventurous Bike Ride

My normal Wednesday workout would have been a mile and a quarter swim at the pool, but since it's closed for maintenance, I went for a bike ride this morning. And I decided I would ride to the new house in order to have a destination and make my ride more enjoyable and it would allow me to check out any new progress since the pre-dry wall walk through yesterday morning.

I wasn't sure what I was in for, riding on major roads to the house. I have driven there plenty of times and have noticed where there isn't a shoulder in the road and where bike lanes end, but until you are actually on your bike riding it, you don't know what you will encounter. I was a little concerned about the major intersection at Slaughter Lane and Manchaca Road because of traffic. I decided I would decide how I would turn left from Slaughter onto Manchaca when I got to it and saw if traffic would be loose enough for me to venture across three lanes into the left turn pocket. Or if traffic was so dense I would have to take it like a pedestrian and go to the corner, press the cross walk button and use the cross walk to get onto Manchaca. Timing worked out perfectly that I was able to cross the three lanes at a lull in traffic and turn from the turn pocket at the left arrow signal. It went smoothly.

As I got closer to Frate Barker on Manchaca Road, I knew the shoulder would end soon and I wouldn't have much space. I wondered if traffic would be patient with me and safe around me. I didn't have any problems on Manchaca and when I turned onto Frate Barker a few vehicles straddled the line to pass me. It turned out to be an easy ride traffic wise. And it was a good little ride in terms of incline and decline so I got a pretty good workout. It was 3.87 miles to the new house according to the computer on my bike. My GPS watch said it was only 3.82 miles. I still don't understand why there's a difference between the bike computer and the GPS watch. It's very slight but you think they would be almost the same. I'm sure it has something to do with the bike calculates by the turns of the wheel and the GPS uses satellite. Either way it was a fun ride.

The ride back to the house was less adventurous with traffic since I didn't have to cross through the Manchaca Road-Slaughter Lane intersection but just turn right. So it was pretty safe returning to the house. There were some good inclines but I was able to handle them well with all the shifting practice I have had in the last few months of riding again. I'd have to say I have shifting down now. Makes me wish we would have road our bikes more in Northern Virginia where it was really hilly. Oh well, I'll just have to make up for lost time here in the Hill Country. My total ride was only 10.11 miles which is short in my book. But at least I got some exercise in and got out in the sunshine and fresh air. My heart rate got up there and stayed there for a while so I did get a little bit of a workout.

The rafters in the ceiling which were not nailed and some areas not plum, which my dad discovered yesterday at the walk through, were fixed. The electrical stuff wasn't done yet, but as I was riding away from the house the electrician's truck pulled up. So I'm sure they got those done this afternoon. The city inspection was supposed to happen yesterday afternoon along with the construction manager's framing punch list. Which means the dry wall should start being installed tomorrow but for sure by Friday. Yeah!

Pre-Dry Wall Walk Through Done

We had the pre-dry wall walk through at the new house this morning. I am so glad I asked my dad to come for it. He was super helpful and noticed things Roger and I would have never, ever, ever noticed. He found things that were very important and would affect other things eventually. It's always good to have an expert on your side in these situations. So after the few items that were addressed are fixed, the dry wall should start being installed probably by Friday. Our construction manager said they would most likely work through the weekend and finish on Monday. Then all the specialty trades will begin their work. It's very exciting. I had a great day with my dad. We tried out a restaurant for lunch around the corner from our new house to thank him for all his wisdom and knowledge and examing the house on our behalf. We all feel a lot more comfortable about everything concerning the construction of our new home.

On The Market

Our house is officially on the market. Okay, it won't be listed in MLS until this evening but the sign is out front and the lock box is on the front door. If you know anyone who is in the market for an adorable, little house in excellent condition, send them our way.

We went by the new house today and all the issues have been resolved except the surround sound speaker wiring has yet to be moved to their correct places. But it will get done.

Tagged

Our new house front door was installed yesterday and it has already been tagged, probably from neighborhood kids. I'm sure they watch as homes are built and go through all of them while they can still go through them. You know how suburban life is for kids, so boring that they have to find some way to entertain themselves. I don't even want to know what else goes on in those homes. A small area inside was tagged also. I do think it's funny that someone declared their love for someone else in the tagging. We also received our new back door yesterday which I forgot to take a picture of but will next time I'm there. I'm excited about it because it has built in mini-blinds. The back door of our current home has add on mini-blinds and they are a chore to open and close. The surround sound wiring was installed but not in the correct locations. Roger and the electrician spent quite a bit of time and discussion deciding what were the perfect locations for the speakers for the size of his television and obviously the low voltage crew did not get those plans. So I had to put in another call to our new construction manager who I just met Monday to go over the list of items which were incorrect or not installed at all.

And the gas drop was moved away from the back door as we specified at the builder meeting before construction started, but they moved it right next to the master suite window. The construction manager told me yesterday that it could not be within three feet of a window to pass city code so I guess they will be moving it again. The lack of communication between project managers, construction managers, contractors and crew is amazing. The electricians, low voltage crew, plumbers and gas guys are all going to have to come out again to remedy what they didn't do right the first time because they didn't receive our plans. The builder will pay for all those extras, not us. As I said before, glad we can go by the house often to keep an eye on these things. I can only imagine how much more involved it's going to get since the pre-dry wall inspection may be early next week. This may turn into my full time job. And what's even more crazy is the first construction manager told us the house is usually complete 45 days after the dry wall is installed. If that's next week, we're looking at the house being done around the middle of January. And we're putting our house on the market this Thursday. Please pray for the timing of it all.

House Construction Update

We took Roger's dad by our new house yesterday while he was down here visiting us from North Austin. It was kind of fun to give him a tour of the house. It's getting more and more exciting since pretty much every time we go to the new house, something new has been done. The entire roof is completed, shingles and all. So now we do not have to worry about the weather anymore. The plumbing began on Thursday and the electrical was started Friday. The gas lines are in also. This has also given us a chance to make sure they are getting all our special requests and upgrades done. We noticed a couple things on Thursday and yesterday we noticed a few more. So we've made a list for our construction manager and put a call in to him. They did realize the two items from Thursday and were already planning to correct those. I guess it's a good thing that we go by the house often. It's better to catch those things sooner than later. I'm sure we would have caught them at the pre-dry wall inspection since I believe we would go down our list of upgrades and options with the construction manager. But I believe it's better to fix them now than have to delay the dry wall installation. I don't want to delay anything. Check out the pictures we took Thursday and Saturday at the Flickr link to the right.

The Roof, The Roof...

The roof is up on our house! These guys work muy rapido. The entire roof is up. The whole house is framed. They even started putting up the material that goes under the brick and hardie board. And the brick is sitting on pallets beside the house. Check out the pics here. There are only a few things left before this crew moves on to another house and a new crew starts up. We took the framing crew some cold sodas Thursday afternoon. Today we're bringing them some chocolate macadamia nut cookies since they told us Friday they were going to be working today. We're finishing the last project on our house today so it's ready to put on the market. It's getting so exciting now that we can really see the house layout and how fast it's going up. We also realized yesterday that the house across the street and to the left of our new house is also the same floor plan, Anderson, as ours so we walked through it and since it is farther along than ours some of our questions were answered about when certain things will happen next. Three houses from us is another Anderson which is almost complete. You could pick any plan you want as long as it fit on the lot you wanted and there wasn't one already next to you. The floor plan we picked is obviously a popular plan.We know of four in the neighborhood, but we haven't looked extensively. I'm sure there's more. It really is a smart floor plan with no wasted space. So we are super excited!! No telling what they'll get done today. Have a great weekend!

Framing The New House

Framing began on the new house yesterday morning. I drove by after I swam in the morning and wasn't as shocked to see them framing as I was when Roger and I drove by on our way to community group later that evening. The entire house was almost completely framed. Those guys work fast. And they were still working at 6:30 p.m. Roger talked with the guys a lot because his Spanish is great compared to mine. I could understand most of the questions Roger asked but couldn't understand all of their responses. They speak very fast. But they were super nice and I think they enjoyed meeting the family of a house they were building. They were all very young to me. It was so nice to see the walls up because we were having problems understanding the size of the house without the walls. We kept thinking it was too small. A family allowed us to walk through the same house about four streets over when we were deciding on this particular floor plan so we know how it should be and the size of the rooms. But without walls, it looked really small. Now that the walls are up we can see it is the same size as the house we walked through and just what we expected and wanted. It's all very exciting and we're sure everyday it will change. We took some pictures and we'll keep posting them as the house goes up so click on the Flickr link to the right and check back often.

Slab Poured

Yeah! The concrete slab on our new house was poured yesterday. I'm glad we have driven by each day this week or we might have missed it. Roger drove by on Monday and it didn't look much different. I drove by yesterday after leaving the museum from volunteering just to see if there was any change. We knew they were planning to pour the slab this week but were not sure which day. And as I got closer I could see the concrete slab was poured. So after I went to the grocery store, got home and unloaded, I went back by with my camera to take some pictures. I'm going to keep my camera in my purse from now on. And I'm glad I went back by and didn't wait until today because as I walked around the house I noticed pallets of 2x4's in the back yard. They are going to start framing any day now. I'm not sure how long they have to wait for the concrete to set before they start framing, but I will be driving by every day in my travels so I can keep up with it. It's going very fast right now and we're hoping they are able to close the house in before the rainy season starts so the construction is not slowed down by the weather. Once they are completely inside, the weather will not matter. Check out pictures by clicking on the Flickr link to the right.

Ground Breaking

We are so excited the builder broke ground on our house last Thursday, October 9th. We received an email from him Friday morning to schedule our first meeting. And you know I drove by the house during the day Friday. The slab forms were up and the dirt was being loaded in. Roger and I drove by together Friday after he got home from work and the trenches were being dug for all the utilities. We were able to confirm that our backyard is going to be a tad smaller than our current backyard. And we're cool with that. We use our patio more than we use our lawn and we'll be able to have a bigger and better patio at the new house so it will be fine.

Our first meeting with the builder was this morning. The construction manager Matt is really nice. It was a great meeting. He went over every option we added and we asked him about six or seven questions for clarification. He told us they are averaging four months to complete a house so that puts us closing around February 9th which is when we originally figured and they might even complete it sooner. We took a few pictures Friday and you can see them by clicking on the Flickr link to the right, but I forgot my camera this morning so I don't have any pictures. There wasn't a drastic difference from Friday except there are now pipes sticking up all over the foundation and they are getting ready to connect to the main utilities. Matt said the concrete will probably be poured mid-week next week. He will email us about once a week with progress and call us if they need anything from us. We will have a walk through before they dry wall so we can make sure every thing we added like Roger's surround sound speakers, additional outlets and switched outlets, boxes for future light fixtures over the island and the like are where we want them. I'm sure we will be driving by regularly so we'll take more pictures and keep the blog updated of the progress. I can't wait to watch it go up.

We spent most of this weekend completing a list of many small things to do around our current house to get it ready to go on the market. We got most of them done on Sunday and we only have one major project left and one or two small ones. We should have them all complete by next week and our house will be ready to put on the market in early November. Please keep the sale of our current house and the construction of our new house in your prayers to go smoothly and according to His will. Thanks and check back often or subscribe at the bottom of this page to receive posts by email.

Week In Review

Okay, I haven't posted in over a week so I'm going to "try" to make this as short and sweet as possible. If you know me really well, I know you are laughing right now.

So I was finally able to volunteer at a Hurricane Ike shelter. It wasn't what I was expecting but interesting none the less. There were only 78 people at the shelter I volunteered at by the time I got there. And my shift was noon to 6:00 p.m. so most people were gone during the day and only a few people remained at the shelter. They encourage everyone to get out of the shelter and see the city so they aren't confined to the inside of the shelter too much. I spent five and a half hours of my six hour shift hanging out with kids, playing games, watching movies, drawing and doing crafts. We aren't supposed to be babysitters while we volunteer but there really wasn't anything else to do. I spoke with many adults at the beginning of my shift and they didn't need any help with paperwork or filling our forms and they had all the information they needed except I did find out for one man when the buses for Galveston County would be coming to return them. At that point Galveston Island had been opened for people to return but not the rest of the county. So he had to wait another day or two before he could go home. But I was able to use one of the computers at the shelter to see satellite images of Galveston after the hurricane and tell him his home was still standing. So he felt relieved he would have a home to return to. At almost 6:00 p.m. a meeting was announced for all adults so all children were sent back to us in the kid's area which had actually been closed because some parents were not staying with their children and leaving the shelter completely. I ended up staying about 45 minutes longer than my shift because I helped with dinner. Everyone shows back up at the end of the day for dinner. I enjoyed the time I spent there. I wish I could have been more helpful but many of the parents stuck at the shelter with their kids got to get a break and rest so it was helpful to them. I was excited about going back two days later for the same shift. I went home and dug through boxes in the garage and found a few VHS children's movies since they have a TV-VCR combo and gathered a bunch of coloring books and children's reading books we have in a toy box for visiting kids. But then I got really sick with a sore throat, congestion, headache and lovely green drainage the night before. I was hoping I would feel better that morning before my shift but I didn't so I had to cancel. I was very sure the evacuees wouldn't want me there. They have enough going on and I didn't want to add sickness to their troubles. I was disappointed but it took me almost a week before I felt better and getting lots of rest helped.

The next weekend was filled with Mommaerts family events from Friday through Monday. We took Roger's sister Cindy out to dinner for her birthday Friday night to Taverna on 2nd Street. We had a great time and the food was delicious. Saturday we window shopped for furniture ideas for the new house before we spent the night making homemade salsa for Roger's niece Cyrene's first birthday and baby dedication celebration the next day. We spent all Sunday up in Northwest Austin for that. And then on Monday, I took Roger's two aunts, Edita from Panama and Chela from Los Angeles, who have been visiting for several months, sightseeing around Austin. Thank goodness his aunt Chela speaks and understands English because Edita speaks no English at all. We had a lot of fun, took some good pictures, met Roger for lunch and they got to see a lot of the real Austin.

Our community group at church started meeting last month and we are really enjoying it. We meet twice a month on Wednesday nights for bible study and fellowship and the other two weeks we participate in an outreach with our respective neighbors and then the whole group participates in a community-/city-wide mission. This Saturday our whole group mission was to volunteer at our church's monthly homeless grillout in downtown Austin. We helped by bringing water and chips and then working the line in different positions as the burgers were grilled and passed out. I had a great time but I had an easy job. At least it was easy for me. I collected tickets from individuals and controlled the flow as the burgers were done. This kept the grillers from getting overwhelmed and kept the homeless from having to stand around waiting for burgers to be done. So I got to socialize a lot. Everyone was super nice. It really was the perfect position for me. Roger took lots of pictures and socialized while he was doing it. There were people who's sole responsibility was to socialize with people in line so I wasn't the only one talking the whole time. Even the trash collectors got to talk a lot too. I met some really wonderful people. This was my first time to work with homeless people so my fears, expectations and preconceived notions were blown out of the water. It was a really awesome experience and I can't wait to do it again.

We have been really busy, as usual. But we're going to try our hardest to not add any events to the month of October (except for the stuff we already have on our calendar) so we can get more stuff done to our house to make it ready to go on the market. We are excited to say we drove by the new house yesterday after church and the surveyors have been out and have marked the lot boundaries and the house corners. And the house to the right of ours is already up and almost closed in. They are putting the brick on the exterior this week which will close it in completely. That was super fast. It actually took less than a month. And the house to the left of ours is exactly at the same point as our house, only surveyed. We think we met the lady who purchased next to us, but we're not completely sure. You know we'll be meeting her as soon as possible regardless if she was there the same day we started the process. It won't be long before they break ground. We will know when that happens because we have to have a meeting with the builder before they do it. We still don't know if the permits are back from the city, but we'll find out this week. Everything is rolling along smoothly and we're getting more and more excited as time goes by.

One More Step And A Praise Report

Today we completed another step towards the construction of our new house. We met with our design counselor for five hours and made about 40-50 upgrades and options to our house. It was a lot of fun in the end but kind of scary since you're making decisions from very small samples and you won't get to see the real result for six months. But it also added a little bit of excitement to the process. We were quite shocked that we came in under our budget with everything we needed, wanted and desired so we added two luxury items and we were still just over our budget by a tiny bit. So we are completely ecstatic about it and can't wait to see the finished project. You can see a few of our selections in a set called New House on Flickr. We will be posting pictures as the construction takes place.

Our next step is to finalize our loan approval and then another meeting to make sure the builder has all our selections correct before they break ground. We met with a real estate agent last Thursday and were very pleased with him and what he had to say about our current home and putting it on the market. We are going to wait a bit before we do that so we have a chance to stay in our home as long as possible. Stay tuned for more news on the house.

On an even greater note... Our friend Yoli, who had the double mastectomy a couple weeks ago, received her pathology reports today and all except one showed no sign of cancer!! The doctors got it all out and the chemotherapy did it's job. The only pathology report that showed cancer cells were from the inner breast which was removed in the surgery and there's nothing to worry about there. Praise the Lord it's all gone! She is still recovering but doing well. She will begin radiation therapy in about a month. Thank you for praying for her, her family and her doctors.

New House?

Roger and I have been talking for years about moving up to a bigger home and when it came up again we decided to act instead of talk. We started praying for the Lord to guide us on the decision. We were thinking we would be ready to move in 4-6 months. And recently we started looking at homes just to see what's out there, the costs, the square footage, how much work they would need and the areas we are interested in. We looked this week at existing homes for sale and found a few we were interested in and had lots of potential. Most would need at least $20K to make them livable to our standards and all of them had something we didn't like or were major contentions against them.

We never completely ruled out new homes but this week we decided to check out some of the new subdivisions popping up around here in our price range. And yesterday we went and looked at two subdivisions, one practically in our existing neighborhood and another one almost four miles south of our current house. The first one gave us an idea of what we were in store for, but we weren't completely satisfied. Their standards were below our minimums and would cost us way more to get it at least to our current homes' standards. So we ventured over to the second subdivision and I'd have to say we were blown away. Their standards are our minimums. We wouldn't have to upgrade almost anything to get everything we wanted and more. We loved a particular floor plan and found a lot we liked. The prices, incentives and discounts were great. We ended up staying hours longer than we expected. We drove around the neighborhood several times and before we left and it seemed way more friendly than our current neighborhood. People were out everywhere walking around, socializing with other neighbors and lots of people waved at us when we passed by. We rolled our windows down because it was quite pleasant out and drove around slowly to hear how loud or busy it was on a Saturday night. It was so quiet! It's practically out in the country for Austin (for now, at least).

We talked a lot about it last night when we got home and over dinner. We weighed the pros and cons and there aren't many cons. We did a bunch of research and compared the house to the potential existing homes we found and we just can't beat what we'd get with this new house. This would be a home for us that we could live in for a long, long time. We prayed many more times about it and we're still praying for the Lord to close the door if it's not His will. So we're going today to put down the earnest money to lock in the lot, the prices, etc. And after a design consultation, meeting with a realtor about our house and lender, we won't have to worry about it for six more months which is exactly when we felt like we would be ready to move. We are excited about the process and watching it be built. We are excited about what this bigger home will mean for what God has in store for us next in terms of family, friends, neighbors and how He wants to use us. Please pray for the Lord's will to be done. We'll update you later on what we finally decide to do... Thank you.