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.