TWO NEW CHAIRS AND A POTENTIAL NEW HOBBY

OK, going to get back into posting.  Now fun stuff from our new house where we LIVE!

For our closing, I wanted to get something silly but memorable.  More on that further down.  We did need some new furniture.  We decided to get rid of our couches from the apartment since they were older and so we donated them to a women's shelter, where hopefully they will have more continued life.

With a larger living room in our new house, we decided to add a couple of chairs for both of us to sit in.  We found these:

We wanted something that looked like they belonged and were durable.  We settled on these.  They are a great color and so comfortable.  They also look great side by side.  But the best part?

They are also recliners!  This the standard position but they actually lay all the way back and almost flat.  Screened in porch open, birds chirping, a cool breeze...I have a feeling we'll doze off here quite often, ha.  Anyway, we need to get a proper table between them but this little one works in a pinch.

 

Now, for the quirky closing surprise:

I knew when we saw these chairs last Spring, and decided to get them for when we moved in, we needed something fun to sit there and do while watching TV.  So, I found these!

They are beginner crochet kits!  Made for anyone/any age, well I guess that covers us, ha!

Each kit has everything included, the yarn, a yarn needle, crochet hook, all the stuffing and things that go with it, they even have a pre-started piece.

I got the bee for me...

...and the baby chick for 2nd Man.

We have both watched videos of people crocheting and always thought it would be fun to learn.  My Grandmother crocheted, we have a lot stored away, and I remember many times sitting in their living room, both in their recliners (are recliners an age thing? I digress...) watching TV and she was just doing it like a machine.  Who knows if we'll catch on and want to do and learn more, but maybe between the two of us, one will go on to make new stuff.

Either way, it will be a fun adventure this Winter!  Stay tuned for that, ha.  We also got two new couches more on those later.  We're slowly (very slowly) getting settled in, but everything is just as we dreamed it would be, we are very happy. 

THE ANNOUNCEMENT YOU ALL HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR

 We closed on Wednesday...

We had packers on Thursday...

We moved on Friday...

This was our first sunset, Friday evening...

This was our first sunrise, Saturday morning...

Many of you have been following along with us since the very beginning of this journey.  Ups and downs, success and setbacks, joys and sadness, but like all journeys, it was always one step forward, even if two steps back.

Our blog header says documenting our journey from a high-rise apartment in downtown to 11 acres in the country.  Well guess what?

We made it.

We are living here.

We now live on 11 acres in the country!

More later this week, it's been chaos during the move and unpacking is a nightmare but it's all worth it.

Now...I need to change that header. 😁

NO TRUER WORDS

 

10:30am today...

😁😁

DRIVEWAY AND SIDEWALK NEW HOUSE UPDATE

Here is one of the last things to do.  We opted for some concrete work in various locations (more on the other location in a future post).

The main thing we wanted was a place to park the cars and a sidewalk to the front porch.  This was a few days ago.  We hired the same concrete contractor that did our foundation to do this.  He drew out a plan and we said "go for it!"  He sent us this picture during the day so we could see.

Here it is just after the concrete was poured and smoothed out.

Here it is from inside the garage.  We had them make it a little wider than normal to give us plenty of space and it's 30' long to give more space that way.  We will park in the garage of course but this will be nice for unloading stuff and of course putting them there to wash and clean, including the farm truck.

Look at the awesome new flower bed I have!

If you click to enlarge, you. might see the two pipes they put in for us.  They are essentially drains so that the flower bed won't fill up with water toward the house.  It naturally slopes away so the water will also drain out and into the front yard.  Also makes it easy to pass things under the sidewalk, like cords or plumbing.

Oh the things that will happen here!  See the electrical outlet there on the wall?  I chose that not only so we'd have it handy for the driveway if needed, but also so I could have a water feature in that spot!  A fountain most likely.  Something with a gentle trickle or cascade.

It's going to be really fun to plan this out next Spring.  Well, I suppose the planning can happen this Winter and then the planting can be next year!

WHOLE HOUSE FILTER AND BONUS PICTURE NEW HOUSE UPDATE

Here is something else we had done.  It started with a plumbers loop.  A what?  That's OK, we hadn't heard of it either, ha.  This is what it is:

This was right after it was done.  It is where the water comes into the house from the well but instead of just going straight into the house, this "loop" allows you to put something in between the incoming water and the and the rest of the house.  That something is where our whole house filtration system will go.

This is what it looked like with the drywall in place around it.  Nice and neat.

Shortly after this, we needed to have our well water tested so they could determine the correct filter system for our house.

We ordered the top of the line kit from a third-party company that does this nationwide called "National Testing Laboratories".  The kit tests for everything in the water.  Lots of specific requirements for testing.

This was the kit.  Each bottle had to be filled, directly from the well (no hose) and there were lines on each bottle and strict rules to follow.  Some were filled to a line, but one had to be filled so full that there was no gap between the cap the water, but you couldn't let it overflow because there was a powder inside that mixed with the water.  Then a frozen portion to keep everything cold during shipping and it had to be shipped overnight.

Oh, and it had to be shipped after 12:30pm to make the window for the next day (to minimize time in transit).  To be overnight, there was a window of time for days of the week, to make sure it didn't sit over a weekend.  For us, we really only had Mon/Tue.

So, I headed out from work for a long lunch break, drove out there, filled the bottle per the instructions and stopped by FedEx on the way back.

After a couple of weeks, we got our report back.  

These are our results.  As you can see, like we said, they test for EVERYTHING, ha.  All was good, only a couple of things that were slightly over the minimum detectable levels, but the water filter guy told us he'd drink right out of the well as it is so that's good. 

We ended up with this:

I know, looks complicated right?  Ha.  2nd Man is in charge of this!  We will have three stage filtering.  By the way, this also bypasses our outdoor faucets, so watering plants won't speed up the filter usage.  We'll need to replace these about once a year.  We also had them go ahead and put the pipe covers on since it's the garage.  Just in case!

They said our water will be as good as any bottled water you get at the store.  It's fresh from the ground and filtered.  Since we already have this machine, and we love having it for instant cold and instant hot water, we will just fill our 5-gallon bottle with our own water from the tap and then be able to keep this and use it.  In fact, we already planned ahead for it in the pantry with a space and an outlet.

The filtration guy said he sees a lot of water test results from wells, and ours was one of the best.  That makes us feel good.  Maybe we should bottle our own water, LOL!

OK and for those needing house updates, here is a bonus picture:

You saw the porch the other day, here's is a bit more of the finished front.  All wood details done!

This are happening fast.  News coming soon!  

ALOHA PEPPERS

Middle of the week house break, ha.

I saw these in our local HEB the other day and I thought, what the what?

I wasn't even sure what it was at first.  A weird apple?  A strange tomato?

I turned them over for the sticker and it's a pepper!  A beautiful pepper I might add.  Of course, I had to pick up a couple to expand our horizons, ha.  I got home and did some online research.

They are called Aloha peppers (in Europe they are also known as Enjoya peppers and originally Striped Holland Bells).  It is a bell pepper variety with distinctive red and yellow stripes.  They originated in the Netherlands from a natural hybrid/mutation of a yellow pepper that produced red stripes.  Their walls are thick, making them great for stuffing, cooking and of course eating raw.  They have a sweet crunchy bite with a bit of a citrusy note.  The best part?

They are stunning when cut up!  I was hoping to try growing some in the future but being a naturally occurring hybrid/mutation, the seeds inside are growing from the yellow portion and the red stripes are just a mutation that will not happen again.

*update* there are, apparently seeds available for Striped Holland Bells!  We just might have to try growing them when we get our gardens up!

We'll enjoy them when we see them.  They certainly are a conversation starter! 

SOME HIGH TECH STUFF PLUS PORCH REVEAL NEW HOUSE UPDATE

At the end of this post, a surprise outdoor picture! 

We were at the farm, well, there and a mall and back to the farm, ALL day Saturday.  The low voltage install guys were there doing all the stuff the tech side of things.  They had come out a few months ago, before drywall, and put in all the wiring for alarm, wi-fi, internet, some exterior cameras, and the in-ceiling speakers.

We stayed for a while to answer questions about various things and options and then we went to a mall to roam around while they did their thing (no place to sit, 2nd Man said we should bring some lawn chairs, ha).  We ended up leaving after dark.

The back porch had two ceiling speaker connections, and they put those in for us.  They are connected to a sound system in the a bedroom, and we can push music from our phones, playlists, podcasts, stereo, whatever.  It's SO awesome to have music outside.  I can be watering the fruit trees and hear music.  We only put speakers in the living room and the porch.  If we need music in the bedrooms or bathroom, we will use an Alexa device.  The living room speakers will eventually be used mainly for the surround sound of the TV.  We'll have two in the ceiling behind where we will sit and a sound bar under the TV.

See the other little box on the wall?  That is an outdoor wi-fi access point (WAP).  We have one on the back porch, one on the front of the house and three inside the house.  It allows the signal to reach everywhere without slowing down so 2nd Man can work from home (and me when needed) wherever we are in the house.  It also makes sure the signal is strong no matter where you are (sometimes a house can have dead zones or drop zones where you don't get a good signal and then if multiple people are using it at the same time it's slow).  The outdoor ones have a theoretical range of a quarter mile.  This means I can have internet access outside in the barn or shed, I can have wireless trail cams that connect to our network, a weather station (DEFINITELY getting that at some point soon), anything that might be gardening related, etc.  It should be fun to figure out.  We are sort of future proofing things as tech changes.  

The most important thing we need is internet access.  Can't work from home without that and rural choices are very limited.  There is no real fiber optic out there and the closest thing they have to it, WE would have to pay to run the fiber optic line a quarter mile down the driveway to the house.  HUGELY expensive (several thousand $$) and, we're guessing, fraught with problems (underground issues).  The cable company out there is painfully slow so that was not an option.  We opted for Starlink.  We checked on Nextdoor for the farm and everyone said it was the only choice for stable, fast internet and they raved about it.

Here is the antenna on the back of the house after they installed it.  Looks big but it is not at all (I zoomed in for the picture, ha).  We have run speed tests and WOW, it's crazy fast.   We have 1gig from ATT in town and this was coming in almost as fast as that.  We are very happy about that.  I took my laptop and stood at the island in the kitchen and had super fast internet.  In fact, started this blog post from out there, ha.  If we're going to be remote and rural, we need reliable internet, rain or shine.

And now, something cool for all you non tech-types bored by the first part of this post.  We'll reveal a bit more of the house and save the big finish reveal for, well, when it's finished!

But here you go, for your patience in getting this far...

...the front porch has been painted and is finished!  We are SO pleased with the way it came out.  It looks even better than what we imagined in our minds.  The white railing and columns just pop.  A friend of ours said "it looks like AI!", ha.

There are SO going to be some hanging plants here.  And rocking chairs.  And a bench.  And a small table.  And a rug.  And whatever else inspires us, ha.

Hope you like it as much as we do!

FYI, for those asking, closing is coming...

KITCHEN TOUR WITH APPLIANCES NEW HOUSE UPDATE

 All of our planning has paid off...we have the kitchen we've always wanted!  All appliances were put in so here's a tour.

Stepping into the kitchen, here is where it starts.  Some cool floating shelves, 2nd Man wants to put some of our prettiest sets of mixing bowls here, vintage and new.

Dishwasher is in.  It's always fun to have a brand new dishwasher to use for the first time.

Next to that is one of 2nd Man's dreams...

...a farmhouse sink.  It's huge and deep and for the first time in 26 years together, we have a single basin sink, no divider in the middle.  He can't wait to wash pans in here!  At least that's what he said, ha. 

Coming around from there, here is the side,  and you can see lots of storage.  Look!  A glimpse of the floor!

Then, here is 2nd Man's pride and joy...or maybe the second pride and joy (more on that next).  It's a 36" induction cooktop.  We've had induction at the apartment for a couple of years and we LOVE it.  We don't have gas out there so it's the next best thing.  For those that haven't cooked with induction, it's amazing how fast water boils.  And the heat, because it's heating the pot and not the cooktop, is instant on and instant off.  Being 36", we have plenty of of room for multiple pots and pans and there is even a bridge section for a griddle or long pans.  Above that the pot filler he has always wanted and a really nice (and powerful) vent hood with lightning.  We also love how the tile backsplash came out.

Moving on down, lots more counter space and storage and then...

This!  It might be 2nd Man's main pride and joy.  We definitely upgraded here to give him the double ovens he has always dreamed of.  The normal plan has the oven microwave combo but we decided to have them put in the double ovens.

Here they are opened.  They are convection (for his baking) and have other awesome features like air frying, steam cooking and even dehydrating.  It should be an awesome appliance to have.

Next to the ovens will be the refrigerator.  We're getting the same brand so handles and style matches the other appliances throughout the kitchen.

Standing on the inside of the of the island...

Check this out!  I got my wine fridge!

Here it is on the inside.  It holds 52 bottles of wine!  You can also use one shelf to put in canned sodas if you want but we'll have a garage fridge for that.  This will be nice to have and we've already preordered some wine (two cases of a dozen each) that are all assorted: whites, reds, rosé, moscatos, even some sparkling.  That will only be 24, we have lots more space, ha.

And on the other end, THERE is the missing microwave!

 But wait, it's not just a microwave...

...it's a microwave/CONVECTION OVEN combo!  So we now have third smaller oven in the kitchen!?!  This will be nice for small batch baking, cookies, a pan of brownies, etc.  There will be a learning curve for sure!

Here's a view of the other size of the island.  Glass front cabinets (that will also be lit) for our collection of enamel cookware.  At the end you can see the overhang we added where we will put a couple of stools and I can sit there and blog while 2nd Man is cooking or snap beans or we can even sit there and eat dinner without having to take it to the table.  It's the perfect kitchen for us and we got everything we ever wanted.

OH the meals that will be cooked in here!  

SEPTIC INSTALLED NEW HOUSE UPDATE

OK, we know you all probably want to see more of the inside and that's coming but it's all part of the process and here is the septic system.

We weren't able to be there when the hole was dug, we would love to have seen that.  They put it on the side of the house.

Here it is.  Grass will fill in around it and I'm worried about mowing around them and of course, when edging, I don't really want to chip up these tops.  SO...

...I'm thinking of building a flower bed of sorts around this but no plants, just a border and then filling it with weed block cloth and a load of gravel.  Then, I can just edge around the border and everything is safe.

Since this is an aerobic system, we have a pump tank that will push treated water through this new sprinkler system and spray it out into the yard.  Each of these arrows are the pop up sprinkler heads.  Most people (2nd Family included) set theirs to go off in the middle of the night so they aren't sprayed unexpectedly when walking/mowing the yard.

This is where all the technical parts are.  Once we move in, the septic installer company (who are also contracted to come out for the first two years to do our quarterly maintenance) will come to our house and give us a "Septic Tank 101" class.  For example, what to do when that red siren on top goes off, ha.

We're new to septic life, but we've already been learning about what NOT to put down the drain.  It will be a learning curve for sure.

Here is the end result.

ANOTHER pile of dirt, ha!  The one in the front has covered over in grass and weeds and now, it's a mess.  This one will stay this way for an awhile and I will use it to fill in some low spots around the yard.

Here's a bonus outside tech thing.  Another item the builder includes a "whole house surge protector".  So, before the electricity makes it into the house and to the appliances, it flows through here.  If there is a surge or lightning strike, it prevents the surge from reaching the inside of the house and harming appliances, etc.

OK, next post we'll move back inside!