As of today, I have been living in the new house for one full week and left California almost 2 weeks ago and what a jam packed 2 weeks it has been.

I loaded up my car and Erich loaded up his two Sundays ago and on Monday, May 22 we both set off for Texas.
We decided to both drive as I needed my car (of course) and there were large items that would not fit in my car that Erich would put into his mini-truck.  We planned on following each other and using our flashing lights we would signal when to get off the highway for gas, rest stops or food.  And when ever one of cars needed filling, we would fill both as that would mean less leapfrogging of getting gas. 

The first day we made it Tucson after over 12 hours of being in the car. The drive is normally about 7 but there as a double big-rig accident outside of Tucson that shut down the highway and brought everything to a stop and crawl but we finally made it to our hotel.

Tuesday, after breakfast, we stopped into see Kevin and Danielle of Potter USA.   It was a great but short visit before we got back into our cars and headed further east. Our goal was Fort Stockton, Texas and this was to be the "longest" part of the trip. Again it was uneventful - no rain storms, no car trouble, just lots of stops for food, gas and bathroom breaks. 

Wednesday was the last leg of the drive and the shortest. We left Fort Stockton before 9:00 am and made it to the house by 3:00 pm.  Our contractor and his family was there when we arrived so it was nice to see them and say hello and go over a few things. After that we headed into New Braunfels where we had a hotel reservation because we were not going to spend the first few nights in the house as it would take a few days to settle in. 

Thursday it was back to the house where the mover were waiting for us so they could unload. It was a few hours of directing them as to where to place things and running around staying on top of it all.  By the time it was all done, it was late afternoon and we tired, hot, and sweaty.  We went back to our hotel to clean up and have some dinner.  

Friday the unpacking started despite being bone tired.  Along the way I started another punch list of the little things that need fixing.

Saturday we checked out of the hotel and went to the house and MOVED IN. The unpacking continued along with a side trip to Home Depot for things we need around the house and to the grocery store.

Sunday we were beat so we did minor things around the house and knocked off early to watch TV and rest.

Monday we finished a few more tasks around the house, did a shopping trip to another grocery store and I prepared to go to work on Tuesday.   

Here is a short video of a family of deer that was taking a walk through the neighborhood. Open it up so you can hear the sound. 

I have lived in California for 

• 1,153,612,800 seconds
• 19,226,880 minutes
• 320,448 hours
• 13,352 days
• 1907 weeks and 3 days
• 36 years, 6 months, 22 days including today.

I moved to California (arrived) on October 31, 1980. That date is significant to me because my family and I moved into the house I grew up in on October 31, 1960 (I was 4 going on 5).

I was moving from Denver, Colorado to Santa Barbara to start a new job. 

Tomorrow morning, I will be leaving California and making the move to Canyon Lake, Texas and I start a new job there on Tuesday, May 30th. 

U-Haul has taken away just enough of our house so I can live in the new one until we sell this house and can move the rest of our belongings to Texas. We are aiming for late July.  

My next post will from the new house, see you all then, y'all. 

The house in Texas is "DONE". The last few things to be taken care of are on the punch list and our contractor is working on them and should have them done by the end of the month.  Which is when I will move in.

YES! It has happened. After several interviews with various companies - some where I did not get passed the first phase and others where I was flown in and given really, really, really hard coding exercises, and others where I did the interviews via Skype; I was finally presented with a job offer which I accepted and will start, again, at the end of the month.

Now I am frantically packing up part of the house so I can move, now, and the rest of the house will be packed up and moved, along with my dear husband later in the summer. 

In other news, the California state legislature has been at it again. Governor Moonbeam signed a bill to raise gas taxes and car fees to fund repairs for our transportation infrastructure  We already pay some of the highest fuel taxes in the nation and that money is supposed to go for transportation infrastructure .  
So why are we being taxed twice?  Well but our legislators have a habit of "borrowing" that money and never put it back - I call it stealing.  

The other reason for this bill is that the tax revenues from the current tax have fallen off.  WHY? well there are several factors: 
1) cars are more fuel efficient thus less gas is bought and less tax collected.
2) they (the state government) encouraged every one to get hybrids or electric vehicles which also resulted in less gas being bought and less tax collected. 

So not only will this bill raise the gas taxes and vehicle registration fees, it will also tax those who have electric vehicles to make up for the gas they are not buying. 

Personally I think some of this money will be diverted to the "Browndoggle" also known as the not-so-high-speed train to NO where - that is transportation after all, right? 

With all of this happening, I am once again, very glad to leave this state. But I will miss my friends. 

For the fun of it. Here is a picture of my mother at a Texas road-side sign, back in the early 1950's when she and my father did a road trip across the country and back to New York. 

 Last time I posted pictures of the house but this time, I posting the other pictures of our trip. As always, the Bunny came along and had a grand time and he drank too much. ON the way back, we stopped in Tucson to visit Kevin Potter and everyone at PotterUSA. 

We took another road trip to Texas a few weeks ago and saw the progress on the house.
The new roof is done
The exterior of the house has been painted
The kitchen is almost done - no appliances yet
The flooring has been put down in the family room
My studio has been painted and laid out - now to install the cabinets, heating and cooling, and the fume hood
and so much more...
Here are some more pictures of the house and some more deer that were around, and the snow we encountered in New Mexico but luckily not a blizzard like last year.

It has been two months since our last visit to Texas and so it was time to visit again to meet with the contractor and check on the progress. 

All the plumbing and re-wiring has been finished; the new stairs put in; the laundry closet was built; new duct work and downstairs air handler. All the flooring tile has been put in for the main rooms; the kitchen cabinets and back splash tile has also been installed.  We just have to have the guest bedroom and downstair bathroom finished.  Then the work upstairs can start. The odd extension on the workshop in the back yard has been removed as well as 2 of 3 trunks on the tree leaning on the workshop.  We have also completed the purchase of the 1/4 acre lot next door which will give us a full 1/2 acre of land.  This lot will be cleaned up and a parking area graded for my future studio visitors. We will also take down the chain link fence between the two properties and possibly extend it around the new portion.

​SO here are even more pictures of the inside work and the outside and some of Bunny Bravehart who came along too. 

 Our real estate agent and friend Gonzalo when to the house on Friday and took this video what was being done.  ​Enjoy.  NOTE: There is sound and it is loud. 

We went back to Texas to not only see the progress of the house but to meet Nathan and his wife Ely who is assisting with some of the design items.   Their website needs some work but I can help them with that at a later date.

So, what did we see? 

Oh, walls were removed as well as insulation and the ceilings and the entire kitchen.  All of the removed drywall and other stuff was in the yard for final haul away. 

We walked the house and talked about the changes we wanted and their ideas for changes - All of which we liked.

The prior owner used low grade PVC pipe for the water through out the house so that is being replace with PEX.  There was dead empty space found between walls and other walls were just plywood with no structural support - so we can make some rooms a bit bigger; and we are moving the laundry room to make the guest bedroom bigger plus putting in a pantry. 

Before we went Ely sent over pictures of cabinets and stain that were similar to what we liked at the big box store and we selected the one we want so they could be made by their cabinet maker. The kitcken cabinets were actually made and waiting when we arrived. Ely had also brought floor tile and countertop samples based upon the samples we had found; allowing us to make the final choices for the kitchen. 
​
We came home Sunday. 

We found a general contractor! He has been calling every few days to give us updates and to make suggestions about changes based upon what he found in the walls.  To say the prior owner built a kludge is an under statement.

Last week, Nathan pulled up the carpeting on the main floor and removed the old kitchen cabinets. These will be reused in my new studio which is phase 3. 

We went to Home Depot to pick out a style of cabinet plus a stain color. We also selected a formica counter top, nickel pulls and knobs, a floor tile and back splash tile. I bought samples of each so we can give them to Nathan as guidance; he is having a local (to the house in Texas) cabinet maker build the cabinets and use a similar stain color. Nathan is also suggesting a granite counter top and other flooring tile.  

The final decisions will be made next week when we take a trip out to the house, yet again, to see all these options in person. 

I have, based upon Nathan's measurements, selected the appliances: Range, Dishwasher, Range Hood, Refrigerator, and the Washer and Dryer, Sink and Faucet. All of this will be bought once the cabinets are ready to install and will be delivered to the house for Nathan and his team to install. 

What else are we doing besides the kitchen? Widening the stairs to the second floor; adding/relocating the laundry room; relocating the pantry; installing new upstairs and downstairs air handlers; finishing the master bathroom as this was not done as part of the purchase; removing a false wall and making the living room bigger; add tile to the fireplace and add a hearth to it, as this was not done too; and lots of little repairs to the walls. 

Once the main house is done, then there are repairs to be done to the outside, the car port widened for too cars, and a nice paint job. This will be phase 2. 

Phase 3 will be my studio.

I was going to take the 1200 sq. foot free standing workshop at the back of the property. We were going to add a 3/4 bathroom and a small water heater to have hot and cold water for a big sink for cleaning of metals, patina, etc. EXCEPT we now found out that the septic tank is UP HILL from the workshop plush we might have to drill through some rock to get to it.  Thus the decision has been made for me to take the 800 square foot bonus room in the house.  This is on the main floor and it right across the hall from the downstairs bathroom; it will be next to the laundry room too which will mean it won't be too expensive to run water pipe to the sink and to drain it into the septic. This will actually be much less money to do.   We need to seal the floors to reduce moisture; add a split system; install the cabinets; lights; tables, chairs and other workbenches. 

Erich - a.ka. "the shop elf" will get the workshop for his weight room and electronics hobby stuff and as general storage since we don't have a garage either. 

Enjoy the some of the before and after demo and a few other odd pictures!

again?
Yes again! Between Christmas and New Years we went to Texas again. Much has been happening.

First - we bought a THIRD house but this IS (really it is) the one we will move to when "we" retire. The house is almost 3,000 square feet if you include the bonus room and then there is the 1200 square foot workshop at the back of the property.   The house needs a bit of renovation but we knew that going in and the price was very low because of it. 

Secondly - we will be selling the second house we bought for two reasons. The HOA is a PITA. We have a neighbor who is part of the issue. He reports the slightest noise or issue the renters, of our house, cause.  I will tell you that both of us are not fans of HOA's but we had heard this was an OK one but I guess not. It makes us not want to live there. The second reason is that selling this house will free up a lot of cash so we can do the renovations on the new house. 

We left on our road trip Christmas day and on the second day between Tucson, Arizona and Fort Stockton, Texas we experienced a high plains blizzard. It started on Saturday December 26th. First as we crossed into New Mexico we had some rain then it was sleet and then big snow flakes but nothing was sticking to the ground. When we crossed into Texas, it has stopped but it started again just outside of El Paso. By the time we got to Fort Stockton is was 28 degrees and the wind was blowing bad.

We woke up on Sunday the 27th to the actual blizzard, 27 degree weather, about an inch of snow on the ground and a cloak of ice on the car. I had to crawl into the car on the passenger side that had less ice and force the driver side door open. I got the car started and turned the defrosters on full blast since the ice on the window was probably a quarter of an inch thick. Almost an hour later with lots of scraping, the window was clear and we could hit the road and luckily we had an all wheel drive car. 

See that blue area? That's where we were. 

The roads were not closed but there were not a lot of cars driving and the I-10 was not being plowed but the trucks and cars that were moving had made a small track we could also follow. So it was 40 mph for most of the day with the snow/sleet/slush/rain and high winds battering us as we went. We saw several accidents along the way - mostly single cars or pickup trucks that had spun out. Along the way we would get in lines with other cars and big rigs and just stay together until the big rig would struggle to go up a hill dropping to as low as 30 mph and then we would speed up and gently pass them cause remember we did not have to get up to 60mph, we only had to be faster than them - so one car would pull out and eventually all would and we could get past the big rig. As we got closer to Texas Hill Country the storm became rain with thunder and lightening. What should have taken 4-5 hours was almost 8 hours.    

Monday was dry and we had no issues in New Braunfels. We went to the new, new, new house to start the walk through for the renovation changes.  We completed this on Tuesday with a very, very long list of lots of little things to do and fix plus pictures of the worst things in case we need them for reference. We also spent more time in both New Braunfels and San Marcos just wandering and looking in shops to familiarize ourselves for the future.  

On Wednesday we headed home - arriving in the afternoon, New Years Day. 

I now have a complete list of the work to be done - actually there are three list. One list for the house which we will renovate first. Then we will do some work outside the house which is the second list. The third list is the renovations on the workshop.  These are now with our contractor and we are awaiting estimates for cost and time which if all goes well, the work will begin at the end of the month.

Here are some pictures of the road trip, as usual.