Planning is underway.

Last Saturday we sat around a table in our builder's office going over details of the basic layout for the house.  We have a plan, but of course it's not quite the way we think we want things.  In preparation for this meeting we had done a walk-through of a couple of houses with basic floor plan.  One was a little larger and completed, and the other slightly smaller and under construction in the dry-wall stage.  Those 3-dimensional experiences were to help us visualize what was drawn on paper.

We made the greatest number of changes to the second (aka bedroom/office) floor.  As a reminder, the design if for garage and flex space on the first floor,  master bedroom and two offices on the second level, and kitchen, dining, and living space in one big open third level.  Of course second and third levels have porches on the Gulf side.  We added a small balcony off the offices on the bay side (that's the West side facing Corpus Christi Bay).  There'also a small deck off the kitchen -- which would also give us a view toward the Bay.  Then, over the living room porch, so up at the forth level is another deck.  That will give us a 360 view and a full view of the sky as well.

We had expected to go with the builder to his architect this week to get started on more technical plans, but the architect is on vacation this week!  So, that activity will wait until next week.  It may take two rounds with the architect, but that we'll get us to the stage of having plans we will show to the HOA Architectural Committee (aka developer).  Those will also be what we will show to the bank to get a loan.

(We just had a discussion about the difference between decks and porches...  Alese says a porch has a roof and a deck does not.  What do you think?)

Watch here in coming weeks as the action picks up.

A phone tip.

If you've been calling someone and they don't take your call, it may be because they don't have news and don't want to talk with you.  One thing you can do is use *67.  Enter *67 before you dial the number and it turns off caller-id for that call.  It means the person on the other end doesn't know it's you calling.  Of course, if they're like me, they may not be willing to answer a "blind" call.  But if they haven't been answering before, nothing ventured nothing gained.

It worked for us, and we got a status update.

Big Happenings on Mustang Island

On this past Saturday, we met with our builder, Nick Lorette, and rebooted the process begun last year to design and build a house on our lot. It left us both with a very giddy, giggly, OMG feeling all evening. He's even going to directly speak with the neighborhood architectural control committee to clarify some of the funky building restrictions. Given we'll be the first to build in the neighborhood, he's hoping he can push one of the restrictions to be a bit more logical.  We enjoyed showing him our design changes to his initial draft floorplan done sometime around August or September last year. Not only did he agree our ideas of moving rooms around and their layout were just right, but he thrilled us with his ideas of doing multiple bump outs all about to give the shape more charm. What fun this is. Afterward, we kept changing our votes on which part of that meeting was our favorite part of the day.   Once he settles with the ACC, he'll draw and present us with a new floorplan to react to. We'll take it to the existing house the original floorplan is based on, and will spend the afternoon comparing and contrasting the details for a revised, further personalized version. After a conversation and tweaking with Nick about our changes, it'll be ready for the architect, who will likely need to do tweaks before we're ready to roll.  How long will this take? Weeks. Could it be months long? Possibly.  Disclaimer: Ray will undoubtedly respond with a different version of his impressions of the meeting and timeline.

In other news, we enjoyed our weekend ritual of driving into our neighborhood, slowly inching past our lot, and then down the street to the end of the culdesac, a trek we'll one day routinely take up and back to the beach. We didn't get out and walk the property this time, but we did the drive-by version of checking out the lowering of the ponds' water levels, and imagining the changes in store for the hump of sand where our house will be.

Below are a few of the birds we saw on our drive-by. Yes, of course they're out of focus. There was a limit to how well Ray could drive and take photos of less than friendly birds who wanted to keep moving just out of range. There were at least another half-dozen types that simply left the area. The killdeer and egret are obvious, but help me ID the last two on the right: a meadowlark and savannah sparrow?  The latter are small and wren-like, and number in the dozens every time we visit.

This is going to be a full week at work, so I can't predict when I'll show you my new native and adapted plants I'm gathering for our future landscaping. Later.

Corpus Christi -- Alese's selected highlights of our first week

Yes, we’re here.  And so is all our stuff.

You may recall reading that we donated, gave away, or sometimes even sold more than half our furniture, clothing, and possessions during four different stages between August and March, each time being stricter and more critical.  Even so, we’ve had to come up with innovative ideas to stow our possessions (from a four bedroom house with six walk-in closets and two pantries) into a small two bedroom house (with one 3’x6’ storage closet, two 1920s circa clothes closets, and no pantry). Bedroom #2 looks like a blue light special of Walmart plastic tubs stacked high.

We made a great deal of progress this past week putting things away and repairing/customizing this old house, built in 1926.  It fit right in with the months of remodeling practice we had this past fall.  As we put things away, we make decisions about which are priorities inside each box and what are their logical destinations, not necessarily working to empty a box just to empty it.  It’s a challenging memory game: where did I see the dustpan, scissors, hair brush, nightlights.

Meanwhile, we’ve been learning our way around town.  We’ve tried other than just the closest HEB and Walmart to see which are and aren’t the best and worth the drive, and how to get from here to there using main streets, highways, and back roads.  Adventurous exploration is such fun.

Wichu made it through the remodeling and house selling phases surprisingly well, and the 3-plus hour trip down here was a simple time of patient waiting.  His entry into his new reality was a little rough, spending his first night hidden behind the toilet, and would have been ready to come out, but had to take a break in Liz’s future apartment while the movers brought everything in.  He spent the next day in the closet and much of the week under the bed, but he’s past his worrisome bulimic stage now and is enjoying exploring every little thing and spending long periods in the windows watching the world outside.

I can retire my crown as Drought Queen because the drought here preceded me.  The difference in weather is a significant change from the previous week at our chilly, Live Oak-y Austin yard.  We’ve had extremely windy conditions (40mph) and quite warm temps (mid-80s today), and the slow-leafing deciduous trees in the yard allow the sun to fill the yard and house.  

I'm writing this on late Sunday afternoon. Ray went back to Austin mid-morning to his temporary quarters to resume his Austin job, and this routine will become familiar to all of us over time.  It's just me and Wichu in the house.  It's an interesting coincidence that I'm living within a mile or so of where I used to live back in the mid-70s, and yet it's difficult to find anything similar to that time.  

I start back to work tomorrow after two weeks away in mind and spirit, and I'd rather be emptying those last boxes, but after such a long, very hard effort to get to this spot, I'm pleased to feel complete relaxed contentment with exactly where I am this moment.  

Yes, we're now in Corpus Christi -- Ray's post

I assume Alese will eventually get to posting, but just wanted to make it official. Our movers arrived on time on Sunday morning, and the truck was fully loaded by about Noon. There were a few things that didn't fit. They hadn't been sure if we could fit everything into one truck, so brought a second one in case. When they heard Liz was moving they suggested putting the few remaining things (mostly outdoor furniture) in storage at her place, and then bringing it down with her move, which would save money on this move. (A smart play on their part. That assures them of more business moving Liz.) So, we saved $600 on a second truck -- which will probably go to support Liz's move. We drove down that afternoon each in our own vehicle. Alese's was full of plants. We arrived about 5. The movers arrived about 12:30 on Monday and were done unloading by about 3:30. The past few days have been taken up unpacking, arranging furniture and boxes we won't unpack, and getting TW to install internet and cable. So now we're on broadband and don't need to be concerned with the data costs on our iPads. We had expected to use both the garage and the spare bedroom for storage and didn't really know how much space that would all take. It turns out we could have brought the queen mattress for visitors -- which would have added to the need for a second truck. (We only brought one twin mattress -- no box spring -- because we thought the spare bedroom/storage room would be inundated with boxes.) We are officially in Corpus. We closed on the Austin house yesterday. That house is now officially and totally sold! I'm still working at HT until the end of this contract. That will be the end of May. I'll be staying at my sister- and brother-in-laws house in Austin during the week and driving home to Corpus Christi on weekends. I may switch cars with Alese on occasion to bring some of the things we'd like to have before Liz moves down... end of April. Photos and prose from Alese will follow, one of these days. Ray