October

Well I'm finally doing a real "update" and based on the feedback I've gotten, it has been much anticipated. I can't say we have done a whole lot on the house because we have been back in the full swing of things this week. Monday night our friends Ellen and Jeff came by for a little while and we mostly just hung out around the house and watched tv. It was the first night we really could enjoy living in the house without having to work on some project, clean, or prepare for the arrival of guests. We watched some tv that we had DVRed and mostly relaxed. It was a nice evening. It was a good opportunity to really test out the new furniture in the family room, and we definitely like it! It is great for relaxing and watching tv!

Tuesday (last night) we had a delicious (almost) free dinner thanks to Lindsey and Jake! They had a gift certificate to a restaurant called Mirabelle that was expiring on 9/30/08 and really needed to get used! Since they couldn't take advantage of it they offered it to us, and we gladly accepted. I had a delicious pomegranite glazed duck breast and Andrew had a pork chop with red onion jam. We also ordered a bottle of Connundrum, which was a bottle of wine that was given to us as a wedding gift, but we haven't tasted since. It was just as good as we remembered it. We came home after dinner full and sleepy, but stayed awake long enough to catch up on one more DVRed show.

Today was the birthday of my friend Crystal, from work, so after work we went over to another friend's house for drinks and to hang out in honor of the birthday girl. Crystal has twins who are about 6 months old and very, very cute. Riana (the hostest) has a baby who just turned 1 last week, so between the three of them there was no shortage of little ones. Andrew had fun hanging out with all the husbands, and all us girls had a great time as usual. After we left, we did a quick run to the grocery store and then came home and cooked our first dinner in the new house! We have been living here for a week and half but have mostly been existing on mac & cheese, cereal, sandwiches, or fast food. I made a delectable dinner if I do say so myself and right now Andrew is working on the dishes. Since he really doesn't know his way around the kitchen yet, it's taking him a little longer than normal to figure out where to put everything away. Here is a shot of him hard at work.






















The one room in the entire house that is pretty much done is the powder room downstairs. I do want to get a little plant to put on the stand in there, but other than that, the room is done. We just got all the curtains and pillows and accesoried from Country Curtains in the mail the other day, but the only room where I have hung any window treatments is in the powder room. Here is what it looks like! I love it!





























The wood floors have been completed for the most part with the exception of about a 2.5' x 3.5' area in front of the stairs. It would only take us about an hour to finish this, but we just haven't found time for it in the past week. I think by this weekend it should be completed, and I will be so GLAD to have the project done and behind us! Then we can get the baseboards done and things will really start to look finished. Here is all that is left:





And lastly, a shot of the doggies enjoying the new furniture. I think they might even like it more than we do. Macy especially loves it because she can get up on the top and perch up on the cushion and look around the whole room. Or she can just take a nap up there. Either way, she likes it and its great for all four of us to relax on.

ACL Festival 2008

Festival highlights with family, good friends, and good music!!!






Me with my cousins Chip and Vance.














Alison Krauss and Robert Plant were fantastic!!
















Marika and I having a blast!















Andrew and "Cousin Vance" showing off those (white) guns



















Band of Horses, awesome show!!














Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters!!
















Mason Jennings, my all time favorite musician!


















My mom's dress for the 70s, vintage hippie!!!































Xavier Rudd, one of my favorite shows of the festival!!!





















Aubs and Lindsey!
























Andrew and Jake hanging out















Enjoying Day 1 of the festival



















We wished Kyle was here but it was great having the three of us together!!
























It was a crazy weekend but incredibly fun! ACL is always a great time of year and one of the things that I love most about Austin. Aubrey came to town for the festival, so three of the original group of four were together for the Festival. This was the seventh ACL, but only my fifth. I'm proud to say I attended the very first, but sad that I missed two years while living in Virginia. I have to say, this year was better than last in my opinion and maybe one of my favorites of all the ones I've attended. Here is the (long) list of shows I was able to see, whether it was the entire set or mid-run across the park.

Friday:
What Made Milwaukee Famous
Vampire Weekend
Delta Spirit
Bobby Bare Jr.
Hot Chip
Slightly Stoopid
N.E.R.D.
Ryan Bingham
G. Love & Special Sauce
Alejandro Escavado
Donavan Frankenreiter

Saturday:
The Old 97s
The Fratellis
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings
Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears
MGMT
Mason Jennings
John Fogerty
Yonder Mountain String Band
The Black Keyes
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
Beck

Sunday:
Belleville Outfit
The Kills
Mike Farris
Xavier Rudd
Silversun Pickups
Blues Traveler
Okkervil River
The Raconteurs
Gnarls Barkley
Band of Horses
Foo Fighters

The house has been neglected for several days since we had friends in town and spent 12 hours a day at the festival. One of the other weekend highlights other than the great music was spending time with our good friends Steve and Chrissy Holt who were in town from Boston. They made the drive down from Round Rock on Friday morning and we had a great breakfast and had several hours to visit before we headed out to the park. It was so good to see them! They are great friends and we are so glad that geographically we always end up in cities where we can see each other. We have been to visit them twice in Boston and always have a great time. I will start posting pictures of the house again in the next few days. It is starting to feel like home little by little. Check back soon for house updates!!

Pictures Pictures

Not a whole lot of time to write and still much to do! Last night (Saturday) was our first night in the house, but it doesn't really like home yet, mostly it feels like a diaster zone. I think we need some help from FEMA. Here are some pictures of the progress so far at the new house, and packing up at the duplex. Big thanks for Chêz for helping us pack and helping me keep my sanity for a few hours! Also, our movers were awesome and accomplished in 2 hours what it would have taken us 2 day to do! Its midnight now as I'm writing this and of course I have work in the morning and another long day ahead so it's time for me to sign off! Night!

Last Night

Tonight is our last night in the duplex. While obviously we are excited about being in the new house, leaving the duplex is kind of bittersweet. This was our first home in Austin, which marked a new chapter in our lives. We found this duplex on a "house hunting" visit to Austin before we moved, and as soon as we looked at it we knew we had to have it. I have really enjoyed living here, I like the street, of course I like the neighbors, the yard was great, and I'm going to miss it a little. It's going to be weird to come over to see the neighbors and see someone else living here.

We picked up the moving truck this evening and loaded and unloaded one BIG truck load. I feel good about the progress so far, although there is a lot of packing to do still. I keep telling people and I have convinced myself that this won't be too hard since the packing doesn't need to be too elaborate. The movers are coming from 12-3 to move all the big stuff for us, and I think after that the rest will seem insignificant. My goal is to have everything out of the duplex and over at the new house by tomorrow night. It may not look good... but it will all be there. That way we can spend as much time Sunday as we need to clean the duplex and get it looking how it should so we can get back our security deposit!!

My car is running just fine now, all it needed was a jump. It took about 30 seconds to hook up the jumped cables and get it started, so I was glad that crisis was averted. The last thing we need right now is expensive car repairs and/ or to be short a vehicle!

We aren't able to get our cable hooked up at the new house until Thursday so after Sunday I will be without internet at home:( :( :( I will still have internet at work and will be able to post some, but I won't be able to post pictures from work. I'm kind of sad about this since I've kind of gotten in the habit of writing on here all the time. Next weekend is going to be another busy weekend for us, Aubrey gets in Thursday evening and then we have 3 days of Austin City Limits Music Festival!!! This is the best time of year as far as I'm concerned and I can't wait to take it all in and not think about the house!! It's going to be a great festival this year because the line up is awesome!

Ok, well I need to get some shut eye before our long day tomorrow! Think of me and my aching back!

If it's not one thing, it's another...

Well, last night was an interesting night for sure! Andrew's dad got to town around 7 o'clock and pretty soon after that we headed out to dinner. We ate at the Treehouse Italian Grill and sat outside on the patio under the huge Live Oak. It was a really nice, cool evening and the food was great as always. After dinner we went over to the new house to give him the tour. He couldn't stick around too long since he had to drive back to San Antonio, and we wanted to get a little bit of work done, so we said good bye and he went on his way. We decided not to get involved with a big project since it was already late and we were tired. I got started on a little bit of touch up paint in the master bathroom, and Andrew hung the new vanity lighting. The master bath definitely needs a second coat of paint, which you can't tell from this picture. The paint looks thin in a lot of places and it drives me nuts to look at it. It looks like the second coat will have to get done after we move in. We are at the point where we really have to prioritze, and getting packed and moved is top of the list!

So after we got the new light up, we decided it was time to go home. When we got out to the car, we found out my battery was dead! Great!!!! We have a charger thing that you can plug in to your cigarette lighter and it is supposed to charge your battery after 15-45 minutes. Well we gave it a shot but after 15 minutes the car still wouldn't start and we were getting tired. I called Marika (it's handy having friends who are nocturnal) to see if she was at work or if she could come pick us up. Luckily she was not working and on her way home from a friend's house. Marika to the rescue! She swung by and picked us up on the way home! That still didn't solve the problem of my dead car, but at 12:30 we really didn't want to deal with it, we just wanted to go to bed. I sent out text messages to several of my co-workers who live near us to see if someone could give me a ride in the morning. I didn't hear back anything at that time of night, but this morning at 7:15 I got a message back from Jay. Jay to the rescue (again)! Seriously Jay wins the most helpful friend of the year award after helping out with several house projects and letting us borrow a ton of tools.

So now we need to figure out what to do about my car. Hopefully when we go back over to the house after work it will start, or we can jump it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's nothing more than the battery. We are planning to pick up the moving truck at 7 this evening and begin the moving process. Lots to do!!!!

The Saga of the Door

The soon to be new front door.

















Andrew began riping the trim off the inside and outside of the door to remove the old door. There were spaces where you could see daylight through.















Then our old front door sat in the front yard.....















And then we had no front door. It was around this time Andrew measured the new door and found out it was mislabeled, and in fact, too small for the opening. So then we had no front door for a long time while he went to Home Depot. Of course they didn't have the same one in the right size, so we had to make a spur of the moment decision and get whatever we could find that would fit. Of course it was more expensive.



















Jay came over to help hang the door. Here are the boys hard at work. Notice their matching shoes.



























It closes like a real door!














Here is the patch up job we had to do overnight since the trim was not completed and there were still a lot of gaps.





























And this is what the new door looks like from the outside. Not completely done, but looking sharp. It needs to be painted to match the exterior and we will put some kind of covering over the window so people can't look right in to the house from the street. I am really happy we got brushed nickel door fixtures!

THE END!

I wish I had time to write more the past few days, because there has been a lot going on and a lot to report on. Unfortunately we've been going to bed after 1 am every night and waking up the next morning to work 8-5 and then working at the house from 5:30-12:30. That's pretty much been life lately. I will be so glad when this is over!!!! I hit a wall tonight and really thought I might have a melt down. I mean literally crying while up on the ladder painting the bathroom. I'm afraid I'm going to resent the house after all this work!!

I have a lot of pictures to post, but those of you who also use Blogger know that it takes FOREVER to upload them and I just don't have the time. Andrew is still at the house working but I came home early because I really need to get more sleep tonight than I have been. I will be in bed before midnight, and I can't wait! Tomorrow night we are having dinner with Andrew's dad, who is in San Antonio this week for work. He will drive up to eat dinner with us and see the house. Hopefully we will still have time to get some work done because there is still so much to do I can't even think about it without wanting to cry again. I'm not really sure how I'm going to survive the next four days but I guess I will do it somehow. I will be so glad when everything is out of the duplex and into the new house, even if its a crazy mess, I will just be so happy to have it all behind me. Time for bed!!!