The house story.

I was sitting in our house in San Antonio reading Southern Living. Austin was about 4 and he was playing with his micro machine cars on the fireplace.  I ran across a house plan I fell in love with.  I tore out the plan and placed it in a binder and labeled it "Dream House".  As I found other things I wanted in this dream house I put them in the binder too. Each time we got transferred I brought up "Dream House" but we always had a week to find a house and a month to move.  The binder got forgotten and packed away.

 We have been here 12 years, Austin is now 27.  About four years ago they started Vintage Township (http://www.vintagetownship.com/).  I fell in love with the place and started driving out there every week when I had a chance.  After about 20 houses had gone up, one that was under construction caught my eye.  It seemed vaguely familiar. When the kids moved out, I was cleaning a closet and came across "Dream house" again. And THERE was the house I had seen in Vintage.  Last summer Vintage township was in the Parade of Homes, and Jim and I went.  I was talking to a builder's wife and she said, "We built this house across from the pool because it is like living in a resort.  Our grandkids come over and can go just across the street to the pool."  There was one lot left across from the pool.

In a couple of days I went out and looked at the lot again.  I could see the little house on that lot and my granddaughter and daughter walking down the stairs to go to the pool.  I called Jim nd told him to come out ASAP, I had found a lot. We put our money down that day.  My dreams of having grandchildren come are gone, but Jim and I will still enjoy the pool.

The front of the house

In the hearth room looking up to the library.

In the hearth room--the arched doorway to the left is the entry and the one to the right is the dining room.  All of the downstairs floors will be hardwood.

The dining room--pass through window into the kitchen

The fireplace is two sided like one I saw at my Aunt Treva's house when I was eight.
The doorways go out onto the dining porch.

I found this range top in a picture in Southern Living--tore out the picture and----

found this island there too.  It will be stained red.  I got the idea for the butcher block from my daughter's kitchen.

The kitchen has all drawers in the bottom cabinets--also my daughter's idea~!

The pullout drawers in the middle will have doors over them.

The stairway in the entry . 

The downstairs bathroom.  A full bath so Jim can come in and clean up without destroying the whole house first.

Jim's study--you can see the "three over one" windows.  I got that idea from driving around looking at the old bungalows in Seattle.  He wanted a study big enough for his TVa nd a comfy sofa--a man cave.  The closet is huge and hass enough room for all of Jim's samples--or it could be a great playhouse for a grandchild.  In the hallway across from the study is a huge closet with shelves way down low.  It is the "Maisie" closet for all the toys Erin had me save. So if we ever have a grandchild that is allowed to come to our house we will be ready!

The master bedroom looking into the masterbath.

The tray ceiling and crown molding in the ceiling.

The master bathroom.  The left sink is higher for Jim.  The whole first floor is handidcap accessible in case we need it one day.

The little potty room

The Jan half of the Master Closet--the Jim half is the same.

The back door/mudroom/laundry room

I wanted wooden stairs--so they are wooden to the second landing.

Then they are only wooden on the sides with carpet in the middle--cheaper that way and besides they can't be seen from the entry hall anyway.  The upstairs is all carpet.

At the top of the stairs you can see the "library" area.  It looks like something died there but it is actually glue that was used to hold the posts until they were nailed.

My desk and small bookcase, two tall cherry ones will go on the white wall in the foreground.  This idea came from the Moore Memorial Library in its original house.  The children's books were all in the attic.  The first place I loved to read.

The guest room which will have few visitors since our daughter no longer comes home and Ausitn can only get away occassionally.

My sewing room--fully dedicated to quilting and other sewing projects!!

And finally looking from my desk, back to the stairway.  It is not a big house but it has all the special things.

Finally we will have a house we didn't have to pick outin 5 days, with other people's dirty carpet, and weird color choices.  All the dirt and weird colors will be our very own!!

SURPRISE!!

I was talking on the phone when the doorbell rang.  I opened it--and there was Austin in his Texas Guard Uniform!  What a wonderful surprise.  He had been in Brownwood for the week at annual training, and set aside a couple of days to visit with us.  I think Sooner had premonition he was  coming--she left the yard and  headed to the end of the street to greet him.  He picked her up on the way to the house.  We enjoyed having him here for three days--he took off this morning for San Antonio.

Designing the New Kitchen

In planning my new kitchen I really had no opinion--a kitchen is a kitchen.  I had a huge kitchen I really loved in Beaumont in this old tired house we bought but other than that nothing.  Fortunately I have a friend and a daughter who had remodeled and planned their kitchens. 

Daughter, Erin and her hubby had bought a 1950s house.  They gutted the entire kitchen and started over.  what they ended up with was still a tiny kitchen, but modern, very efficient and fun to cook in. She first introduced me to a gas stove.  I had always been a little apprehensive about gas until I used hers.  I fell in love with it.  In remodeling their kitchen they had put deep drawers in the bottom cabinets.  Those were so convenient--no more crawling on your belly to find the muffin tin--everything was right there in full view and organized.  The other thing she had was one cabinet with a butcher block top.  So great not to have to crawl around on my belly to dig that out either. They had added a tile back splash and built in their microwave.  Every inch of space was used for this perfectly efficient modern kitchen.

Then my college roommate Janis had remodeled her kitchen.  Of all the things she added she said the most important was a "drawer" that pulled out for the trash can. She also had a deep pantry built right in the main part of the kitchen with large lazysusans for easy access to everything.

The reason we were moving in the first place was to downsize, and make the first floor "universally accessible".A.K.A handicap accessible for Jim.The new house is about 30% smaller than the old one, as is the kitchen. 

This is the right side of the kitchen.  The house is a Southern Living plan.  I got a picture of a hood over the stove out of Southern Living and had the carpenter copy it.  It is not finished in this picture but will have corbels on each side and a metal shelf above the stove top.The cabinets are beaded board and have not yet been painted.

Another challenge in the kitchen was, I didn't have room for a pantry.  So instead I used Janis, idea and built a cabinet in to use as the pantry.  It is to the left of the refrigerator "space".  There are two shelves at the very top behind the two doors, then the microwave space, beside that is the space for cookie sheets, muffin tins, then below are the  four pantry shelves--each one will pull out for easy access.  The pull-out shelves will have a door that covers them. So in spite I having a small kitchen, I still have plenty of counter space and everything that I need, thanks to Erin and Janis!

Duck Season--or Rather Duckling Season

Jim and I were heading over the the new house to have a look at the cabinets.  He glanced over and there was a Moma Mallard and her ducklings. 

The mom has the Mallard markings but they are very, very pale in off whites and tans--like she is an albino duck.  The father has all the bright Mallard colorings.

Yesterday as we came by, a truck was stopped in the middle of the road with no other traffic--then we saw the family---Mom, Dad and 11 little ducklings-- all waddling back across the road to the side of the lake.