new pics!

Has it really been 8 months since my last post? Guess I never got around to taking new pics. Starting your own business seems to take up quite a bit of time... AND I'm teaching an art direction class this semester as well (as if I didn't have enough to do already).

Houses have been popping up all around me. I think there are around 30 homes closed and occupied, and another 20 under construction (and 100 more planned). If you're ever in austin, come check out the neighborhood. I like to tell people it's like driving through a Tim Burton movie set. I'll post some shots soon. Meanwhile, here ya go:

the living room:



rufus on the stairs:


the office:


2nd floor view of the front yard:


entryway (2nd floor):


front:


back:

oh yeah... I closed

Sorry I haven't posted in so long. The last few weeks have been absolutely nuts.
Here's what's been happening:

Tuesday morning, 4/24: I closed. Finally.
Tuesday afternoon, 4/24: I moved. Finally.
Wed. 4/25: unpacked a bazillion boxes
Thu. 4/26: left for LA
Fri 4/27-Sun 4/29: furniture-shopped and goofed off
Mon 4/ 30-Wed 5/2: helped my friend Stacy pack for her move to austin
Thu 5/3-Sat 5/5: drove back to austin w/ stacy, 2 dogs, and 2 cats
Sun 5/6: introduced Rufus to his 5 new (temporary) roommates

Since then I've been going to the house every day during lunch to meet with floor contractors (who are still fixing the scratches in the floor), sheetrock contractors (redoing some really bad patch jobs), landscapers, pest control people, window blind people, and concrete repairmen. Weekends have been spent making multiple trips to Home Depot, Target, Ikea, and Stacy's storage unit.

Oh, and we've killed 3 scorpions in the last 2 days. One was in Stacy's closet. Yeesh.

As soon as they finish the floors I'll post new pics of the house WITH FURNITURE.

closing AND moving tuesday

Seriously. No, really. I AM closing tomorrow. I had my final walk through today, and was able to condense the 3-page list to just over 1 page. It's mostly cosmetic stuff, which they'll continue to work on after I close.

So. Closing is at 9 a.m. Movers come at 1 p.m. That bottle of Clio I've been saving gets opened around... oh... 7 p.m.

And only 10 months and 8 days behind schedule.

inspection went well

I had my walk-through and inspection today. The final list was ONLY 3 pages long... maybe I should go back in different light and look again. Surely I missed something... My inspector found quite a few things too, but nothing major. I'm supposed to close by friday. Cross your fingers. And... I bought myself a housewarming present on ebay last night:

um

yep, that's a bat. Cute, huh? I hope he doesn't decide to make my house his permanent residence. Although he'd probably take care of the mosquitos...

final walk-through and inspection monday

final... riiiight. There are quite a few cosmetic issues still to fix, and the fence is only 1/3 done, so my tentative close date of wednesday will be more like friday (april 20). It better be friday. The movers are coming the following monday.

Here are more pics of the front yard.

as green as it gets

...at least until I get my solar panels.

Yep, it's landscaping time. Looks like Ivan and his crew have some kinda funky sunbeam pattern planned for my front yard. Or maybe those are landing strips for the aliens, like the Nazca lines in Peru. I assume he's filling those empty spaces with gravel... Not what I expected, but it could work, especially with the tree/driveway thing. And it looks cool from upstairs.

The fenceposts are also up, so you can see the size of the back yard. Rufus will love it. As long as I get some shade trees up for him to pee on.

the driveway, part 2

I now have a driveway. They did a pretty decent job curving it around the tree. I'll have to lop off a few of those lower branches, but width-wise there's plenty of room to drive (9'). I guess I'll need to ask an arborist about replacing those 2 sections of concrete next to the tree with the grasscrete stuff.

Oh, and I have appliances! Check out that bad-ass Jenn-Air range. Now I'll just have to learn how to cook.

They've also stained the interior doors and installed the hardware.

They're still working on the bathroom tile... sigh...

I should close next week. I think.

the driveway

the forms are almost done, but it may take a few days to pour the concrete (the ground is still wet from the last rainfall).

not closing tuesday

There are a few things still left to do, so they're pushing the closing date to the end of the month or first wk of April. Here's a whole mess o' new photos - low-flow toilets, new tile, faucets, silestone countertops, final cabinets (with the right doors this time), the revised forms for the driveway... and one shot of the guys finally countersinking and spackling over all the nails and getting ready to repaint (yes, the whole house). Sweet!

house numbers

Funny how just a few pieces of aluminum makes it all seem real. One more month and I'll be moving in...

the race is on

I think the builders finally looked at the calendar and realized my closing date's only 3 weeks away. Both exterior and interior stair treads and railings are finished. They're about halfway through installing the kitchen cabinets (but they put the wrong doors on - again). And the bathroom tile is done except for the grout. The lower 3rd doesn't quite match but Julie promised me when they grout it, it won't be noticeable.

the tree is staying!

Sweet. After discussing several scenarios with Nelson, Ron, Larry, Julie and Ivan, we are going to leave the tree AND widen the driveway, except for a U-shaped cut-out around the trunk. We are also looking into installing a section of Grasscrete or some kind of porous paving material so the roots will be able to get some water (and so they won't crack the concrete. Here's a rough idea of what it will look like (click on the jpg to enlarge):

no more sycamore

I just found out the 50' tall sycamore tree in the front yard has to be cut down to make room for the driveway. They've offered to give me a replacement tree (or two) that I can put anywhere I want. But it won't be as big, so I won't be getting all that shade.

Obviously, I'm not happy about this. That tree is one of the main reasons I bought - and actually got in a bidding war for - this lot. It's probably the biggest and one of the only original trees in Agave. But now that they're building the forms for the driveway, it really is right in the way. The pics show how they've had to bring in the left side - it's supposed to be 12' wide, but where it curves around the tree it's only about 9.5' (they'll widen it to 12' after the tree's gone).

For the record, I was originally told by my first project manager that they would create an easement onto the property next door, so that the driveway could be moved over and not interfere with the tree. I did not get this in writing, unfortunately, and now he swears he doesn't remember saying it.

Here are the pics.

new cabinets, a bar & stair treads

They've finally started installing the new IKEA cabinets, and are building the bar that separates the kitchen from the living room. They've also installed the stair treads. I think the material is called Parallam - it's a composite made from recycled wood. Neat stuff.

Oh, and FINALLY (after several phone calls and emails) they covered my bamboo floors with cardboard - more than 2 months after they were installed. They're already scratched, of course, but at least this will prevent future damage.

More waiting

Nothing has happened since my last post. It's been almost 3 weeks. Yes, we had some ice and the entire city shut down. But that only lasted 3 days. And they could have at least started the tile work in the bathroom.

Oh - actually, 2 things did happen: (1) there was a leak in the north wall because they forgot to seal around the front door. The rain got in, causing some of the sheetrock downstairs to sag and peel. And (2) they neglected to put down any kind of protective covering on the bamboo floors, and the workers have been walking all over it and have scratched the hell out of it. So that mid-march closing date? Not gonna happen.

Silver lining: I hired an independent inspector to take a look at the cracks in my walls last week. He confirmed that it's not a major problem; the wood was likely just a bit wet when they installed the sheetrock. So when it dried, it contracted and pulled some of the seams apart. No biggie.

Check out this photo from an old Eames furniture catalog.

Closing pushed back to mid-March

Yup, it's true. Here's what's happening this week:

- The new tile has arrived. Demolition / installation will begin tomorrow.
- Insulation will be blown-in in the attic
- The stair rails will be painted
- The new kitchen cabinets still have not come in.
- I found several cracks in the sheetrock (over a dozen). Hopefully it's just a bad sheetrock job. The project manager's checking it out, plus I'm having a contractor friend of mine come out friday to take a look.

Meanwhile, I'm wishing there was a store like Denmark 50 in Austin. If you're into the Danish Modern thing, this will make you drool.

you need this

Found this today on mossonline.com. Who doesn't need a $15,000 chair made of stuffed alligators? Also comes in sharks & dolphins, teddy bears, dolls, and the "all of the above" chair. Did I mention it's $15,000?

new tile

Awesome. The tile supplier agreed to cover the cost of redoing the tile in the master bath. The new color will be a lighter sky blue. I hope it won't push my closing date (Feb. 6).

bamboo floors and bathroom tiles

and... new cabinets. The colorblind Polish supplier was sent to swim with the fishes, so we're all getting Ikea cabinets now. I chose the Adel cabs in medium brown, which should be installed later this week (translation: a month or so). And the counters will be a slightly speckled white Silestone. The 2 pics show the Adel cabinets in somebody's house in New Jersey. I love Google Images.

They're installing the bamboo floors upstairs, and have tiled the bathrooms. The blue in the master bath is darker and more purple-y than what I picked... but it might be ok. I'm going to wait until they install the cabinets before I decide if I want to change it.