Done?

Update #7 from Alese:
The FINAL week. Really.

It's been a couple of weeks since the last update, when so many big changes were happening relatively quickly after weeks of reconstruction, sanding, and painting. It felt great to see the changes and have all the floors done, and then we hit a couple of snags, and progress slowed.

The first issue was the kitchen cabinets, which didn't turn out well because of the paint sprayer malfunctioning and spurting out little blobs at the end of each spray. The contractor made a plastic bubble around the room and started over, re-sanding and repainting.  That took out one of the three workers and added a couple of days.  Then a week ago Monday night, the same primary worker who was going to do the bulk of finishing work, had a bike accident and broke his hip.  That has meant the other two can work no quicker than two-thirds their planned speed. Big sighs all around, but Ray and I and the contractor all agree we care less about how long this is taking and more about focusing on doing high quality, completely finished work.

When I can't control a certain aspect on my life, I find something else to control that I can. No, I didn't cut my hair, I rearranged our small living space. I picked up a couple of metal shelves to raise the coffee maker and toaster oven up off the bathroom counter, and now cups can fit underneath, giving us more real estate on the counter.  And I stacked a few boxes higher into corners, which gave us a little more floor space. 

Last Thursday, Nov 8th, the upstairs was declared officially DONE, and on Friday, the carpet installers arrived. We'd put them off over a half-dozen times, so this felt big. Bigger still was Saturday, when we moved furniture out of the attic and into the upstairs rooms! We now have the front and back guest rooms with their main pieces of furniture. The third side bedroom needs furniture and a sense of purpose, which will be your job to help us envision. 

Ray and I managed to get the furniture out of the attic without hurting any painted walls or backs, though my brain can't seem to gauge where my head is and bashed it into the attic ceiling. Three times. While in the attic, we were able to do a nice inventory of what's there, what can stay there through the move, what needs to go elsewhere, and where my knee-high, high-heel boots are now that the cold season has finally arrived and sandals need to hibernate for a while.

The big news for today is... drum roll... the contractor claims he'll be DONE with the downstairs today, done with the project, in a couple of hours. They're finishing touch-up painting and caulking right now, plan to move the fridge and stove back in, will hang towel racks and a last bathroom mirror, and will be ready to move the big furniture we need help with back into their places.

No photos today, but watch this space for before and after photos soon. 

To entertain you till then, enjoy this simile of the Vanessa Atalanta we've been enjoying in our back yard these past weeks.  (Oops, it has background sound, so turn it off first if you don't want to hear it.)

Update #6:
Painting is done except for touchups, and major activities begin

Things are happenin' now. We have counters in, the backsplash almost all up, and flooring starting to be laid. The upstairs carpeting comes next week.
This has been a big week of big changes. Even some of the post-construction cleanup has started. Tuesday completes week four, so we're getting close to the end. It's odd how easily living in this small space has become a comfy routine.  

See a few other  photos of progress inside and reality outside of the house.

We're pleased with the way things look and the quality of the work. Ray says the kitchen counter should be impressive as folks round the corner into the room. The contractor is picky and has a glitch in the process, isn't happy with the way the wood floor looks, and is going to redo a portion. We have a new hobby of finding little things we need to buy (stairway banister supports, metal kickplace for the front door) that mean a weekly trip to Lowe's and/or Home Depot to give the credit card a little exercise.

The best part of life right now is we've augmented in a couple of ways what was already a shared healthy positve attitude. Not only do we see multiple reminders every day that things are all working according to our plan, and we're happily enjoying the current moment, but we're also already enjoying the feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment that we plan for the future. Why wait till it occurs when we can live that happiness now every day. Sweet. 

It's been a startling cold week, which is bigger news in some ways that the construction. Even the cat doesn't want to go out -- astonishing. Give us those 90s over these 40s anytime, some of us say.  I won't thaw until we're back to the 80s mid-week.

Update #5:
Painting is almost complete

I thought I'd be showing you the lovely ivory walls today (whose color actually looks more the color of butter), but the tape and protective papering isn't off yet, so lets wait till next week for the full effect. Even though we're still in a drought, it actually rained and drizzled, disrupting the schedule. Good news, bad news.

Meanwhile, we've settled into a comfortable routine and found other ways to occupy ourselves  that are a part of the grand relocation plan.

Even though the Coastal Bend area isn't terribly dense, we're finding a small but steady stream of advertised educational employment opportunities for Ray, so we spend part of each week drafting letters and resumes, and looking for that next posting.

Life inside our cozy living space had only one area larger than a narrow walkway, so -- why not -- we took on the task of ordering, constructing, and placing in that space a chair that we ordered online. One of our previous living room chairs died (we will not speak of that horror), so we decided to replace it for use now and for staging purposes.  

See other photos.

I realize my need to take certain cherished plants with me from state to state isn't logical, but it comforts me and gives me a pleasure much akin to taking along pets or children. Over the weekend, I dug up and potted an array of red and pink-purple-orange lantana, caesalpinia pulcherrima youngsters I just planted spring of 2011 (aka Pride of Barbados to us Austinites), cast iron plants that need shade that I'll have little of, a segment of a stately variegated ginger that was just a baby when the sellers stuck it into a corner, and ajuga that's been my companion all the way from Massachusetts in '91. I predict circumstances will make it impractical to see them all safely transported and eventually planted on Mustang Island, but it felt wonderful to be doing what felt like a step of preparation for our new lives. And nothing is better than digging in dirt and potting plants on a perfect 85 degree, breezy, clear Texas fall day. 

A noticeable challenge is is keeping the floor clear of mud, wet Cedar Elm leaves and seeds, and crumbs, which are hard to clean with a broom that hardly fits around the table legs and boxes. Ray, learning from his son Derek's success, purchased a robot vacuum that helps lend a hand with the mess. Jetson fans will understand we really had no other option than to name her Rosie.

Next week is to a big week for Luckenbach Lane. Upstairs carpet, kitchen and bathroom counters, and -- so the contractor claims -- even the downstairs flooring is due to go in. That's a mighty big plan, fellas. We'll be hopeful and patient.

Update #4: Texturing is done, painting has begun.

The photos accompanying this posting were supposed to show the wall texturing phase of the remodeling project, an exciting and riveting scene, right?

Unfortunately, after Flickrizing, cropping, and captioning them, I somehow deleted the whole set, except for a few odd photos.

Imagine scenes of walls covered with speckled dots. Imagine large, room-filling painting trestles standing silently. Look what boredom I saved you from.

The next shots coming by the start of next week should show the beautifully consistent, plain walls of the upstairs after the painting phase. If the rain holds off, we might even have a bit of downstairs painted walls to feature.

Life is good, creeping at its petty pace from day to day.

Packing and deconstruction: Early September through early October

Update #3: 
Packing is over and the deconstruction of the current home has begun.

Between the last posting and this one, we packed everything in the entire house and crammed it into the attic until that was full, then put the rest in the garage. Plenty of room after we donated everything we haven't used in the past year.

Meanwhile, we've made choices, gotten estimates, and negotiated better prices (Ray says: "This woman wins in price negotiations; she's dangerous."  Alese responds: "Just tell them what you want.").  We've ordered carpeting, flooring, and counters, and bought most every doorknob, faucet, and handle that Home Depot and Lowe's had in stock. 

We had the trees trimmed to allow the house to been seen from the road, and, to show their support, those nice county road folks decided to resurface our road amid the excitement and multiple trucks out front.  

See other photos.

Ray says: "It wouldn't have happened without Alese's hard work." My response: "I love to organize a big project, and we'll never get down to Mustang Island until we've made this house gorgeous and sold it."

Now we've retired to the master bedroom and bath, where the daily essentials were all waiting for us, and we're going about living our lives in a tiny space till the remodeling is done.

Meanwhile, back in Austin...
      

See other photos depicting chaos.

We've been preparing the current homestead for the coming remodeling.

The chronology of why remodel and how:

• We need the equity out of this house to build the new house.
• To get the best price for this house, we must make it gorgeous and move-in ready.
• The remodeling project is loosely scheduled to begin on or about the first of October, and last six to eight weeks.
• We'll live in the master bedroom/bathroom during the majority of that time, and use the bedroom side door to access the back deck, driveway, and fridge in the garage.
• Thus the need to pack almost everything we own NOW and be ready to temporarily stack it in the garage.

That means that much of our current spare time and energy is spent inventorying and packing possessions in order of how frequently we need to touch them, low to high.

• I've packed and labeled most of the few things we can live without till we get to Mustang Island (like knicknacks, swim fins, coolers).
• I'm now packing things that will come back out after the remodeling (paintings, dishes, cold weather clothes -- most everything really).
• In the bedroom tubs go the things we need to live on for the two months of construction (paper plates, toaster oven, cat food, ibuprophen).

This method of staggered packing feels more time-consuming than just packing everything in sight like we'd do in a conventional, simultaneous move of all possessions to a new home.  But inventorying and planning for retrieval is a good investment for the future unpacking.

But wait... news flash:

Just talked to the contractor and confirmed the first week of October to finish packing. A due date can add the structure and motivation to move this to completion.

Photos from our Mustang Island visit, August 3-10, 2012

We went to Mustang Island on August 3 throught 10, 2012, for our yearly late-summer vacation. Ray will add his own version of details, but here are a few highlights: This trip was more about conducting business for our future move one day to a new home on Mustang Island, and less about vacationing. We met with a banker, had dinner with new friends we met on our last trip in July, toured and considered ideas of the unique house of another new friend we met last April, went to the local UU church, and introduced ourselves to ten new folks. A significant hightlight was touring the house (see those plans) our builder asked us to consider as one to customize for ourselves -- very exciting! Betty and Ernie joined us for a few days, but not only did we basically ignore them to vacation on their own, I'm not yet able to locate the photos I took of them. Now we're back to reality, continuing to pack everything we own so we can begin to remodel our current house next month, make it gorgeous, and be ready to put it on the market in February 2013.

See a few more photos I took of Ray during the trip.