MORE PACKING DONE UPDATE

 Saturday was a good day.  

It was cool and I was able to get a lot more done than previous weekends.  It's not just the heat, I'm used to that from mowing and actually, inside the house is still pretty cool with the windows open and it's nice.  But, we both work long days during the week and so our weekends have always been the time to relax and do fun stuff and mentally unwind.  The last couple of weekends, it's been a struggle to get motivated.

I think I finally figured out what happened.  We had done a little bit everywhere but not a lot in one room or the next and the next etc.  Plus all horizontal surfaces (including beds) were covered with stuff we moved from elsewhere, empty boxes we had been gathering for the last six months just stacked up and laying around, and already filled boxes and bags also sitting around.  You had to walk around and over stuff.  It made it feel more daunting than it was.  Seeing that, I realized it was time to switch strategies.

I started by moving all the empty boxes outside to the porch.  Then I took all the soft goods (blankets, quilts, kitchen towels, blankets, pillows, etc), organized them,  and put them in those plastic totes instead of where they were piled or stored.  I took them and filled up the truck.  I moved the totes to the barn instead of the storage unit.  It was a couple of trips back and forth.  Then I tackled the rest of the closets and knickknacks sitting around, wrapping them and boxing them up.  Also, my crafting area that had boxes with all sorts of supplies, I packed all of those up.  I loaded the truck again with more boxes and made two trips to the storage unit.

I didn't get a lot of pictures, I was on a roll, ha.  Here are some of the boxes and items I took to storage.  We really like to use copy paper boxes for small stuff because they are sturdy and have handles on the ends.  There is about the same amount on the other side.  Still a big storage unit which we need to put some of the big furniture in here.  Smaller things like small end tables, etc, we'll keep in the barn.

Here is the only pic I got of one of the rooms.  This is master bedroom.  Oh, I stripped the beds of blankets, quilts, comforters etc.  One of my coworkers is going to take this bed frame and mattress and box springs for her son (he needs a new bigger bed, he's a teen now).  We're keeping the guest room bed and most of the furniture in there for the new guest room.

The plan is that this week, I'm taking off Wednesday and I'll get up like I'm going to work (early) and instead, drive to the farm and spend the day (and try to beat rush hour) to finish up as much as I can.  I have lots of books to pack up and still need to get the mudroom cleared out.  We think with one day of that, we can go Saturday and finish it all up.  Then we can have the movers come get the big stuff we're keeping and then it's on to the next phase.

GOOD FOOD AND HOBART SUNDAY

 Hope you all have had a good weekend.  It's been beautiful here.  Yesterday we made great success in getting the house more emptied.  We worked hard and today we decided to rest.

Recently, 2nd Man decided to make some matzo ball soup again...

...because sometimes it's nice to have something simple and lite.  This was homemade chicken stock, carrots, fresh parsley and some matzo balls.  Yummy and filling!

Hobart loves when 2nd Man cooks because there is heat in the kitchen and when we bake or roast something in the oven, well, this is his favorite spot.  When we need to get something into out of the oven, we just slide the mat away (with him on it) and then slide him back when we're done.  Because...

#notspoiled

CHRISTMAS TO EASTER HOLIDAY DECOR TRASH TO TREASURE

Regular readers know that I have a favorite place to look for bargains...our downstairs trash area!  Our building has trash chutes on every floor, and they feed into a separate room.  But for boxes and other things that people can't put in the chute, there is an area (indoor) near the loading dock where people can put the things they don't want.  I've found quite a few cool items over the last few years.

Recently, I saw the familiar green of Christmas and figured it was a smashed-up tree.  I saw the other package on top and wasn't sure what it was but I was intrigued.  I grabbed them both and took them downstairs to our storage unit.

This is the Christmas greenery, turns out it's an 8' long tree garland, like the kind that might go along a mantle.

Here is a closeup.

It will be great for decorating, and while we won't have a mantle or a staircase, I bet we can string some lights on it and find the perfect spot for it!  Around the front door perhaps?  Along the top of our future sliding wall doors to the back?  Heck, it could be outside on the screened in patio!

And speaking of decorating, check out the other one:

I started to pull this out of its neatly wrapped packaging but then decided against it since it will just be moved at some point in the not too distant future.

This is probably about 8' long too, it's folded into at least two sections, maybe three.  Better to wait until it gets out there and go into our Easter decor box but here is a closeup:

Look at this!  It's so pretty and obviously, never been used.  They are little, speckled eggs and greenery with some flowers sprinkled in, all in wonderful Easter colors.  Why someone bought it, never used it and then just decided to throw it away, we'll never know.  But hey, their trash is our decorating treasure at the new house.

MASTER BEDROOM NEW HOUSE TEASER

 Yesterday was kind of a bonus day, if you missed it, check it out, we put up our rural 911 sign.  Today, we'll visit the master bedroom. 

 It's a good size, 15'9" wide by 16'3" deep.  It's quite a bit bigger than our last house and a little bigger than we have in the apartment now.  It'll be a good size for us and we have a king size bed so it'll fit well. 

You go down a hall off the living room and enter the bedroom.  The entrance to the bathroom is the same wall as the entrance to the room.  Closet is at the back end of the master bathroom.

This is a photo from the model.  We won't have this color flooring and the walls will be a different color but this is the size.  On the far end are the windows (we opted to have a continuous window sill) and of course our windows will have the divided lites in the uppers.

This is a mockup with furniture (not ours, ha) but this is a king sized bed (what we have) so it fits well.

Also, we will not have carpet, in fact, opted for no carpet anywhere in the house.  Now that doesn't mean we won't have rugs, of course we'll have plenty of those, probably even one under the bed like in this picture so we don't step onto a cold floor.

2nd Man will be working from home full time so his office space will be in the study.  I will be able to work a hybrid plan (or on monsoon rain or ice days, ha) so I'll work from home on occasion...and will need a space away from his space so we don't get in the way of zoom meeting or phone calls.  Our thinking is that I'll put my desk under the window.  It won't be a full time set up, on the "at work days" it'll be a normal desk. When I work from home, I'll just be using my work laptop there.  Above is the desk I'll use.  This isn't our photo but this is the style of desk we have currently and 2nd Man will get a new one.

We also opted for a ceiling fan.  We're Texans after all, we can't sleep without ceiling fans, ha.

We also added four recessed lights for extra lighting when needed.  We'll still have table lamps but it's nice to have extra light and let's be honest, building a house from scratch is THE best time to put in whatever you think you might want later on.

As for other things in the room, we're having an up high mounting reinforcement (behind the sheetrock) made for a hanging television (on the wall across from the bed).  We're also having CAT5e lines put throughout the house (to help with work from home as well) and so there will be two outlets in the this room.  One for the (smart) TV and then one under the window where the desk will be.  We also added more electrical outlets to the walls, because you can never have too many spots to plug something in.

For those wondering on the electrical plan what the SD/CO icons mean, those are "smoke & co2 detectors".  Lots of those throughout the house.  

We know, the bedroom is kind of boring but we're teasing different parts each week so we still have a few more rooms to go, before we get to the KITCHEN!

And don't even get us started on the pantry, ha!

9-1-1 SIGN PUT UP

We will probably have the new house teaser tomorrow, it's been crazy busy and I didn't finish the post.

But in the spirit of updates on the new house, here is one of the recent things we had to do; we had to get an address sign put up.  Not just any address sigh, we have our number on both sides of our mailbox...but this is something different:

We must have a 9-1-1 sign to be exact.

Since we are rural, the emergency services for our county wants all homes to have a reflective sign posted at the entrance to their property.  It's highly reflective and can be seen during the day and at night in the event of police/fire/medical emergency.  Our builder, and indeed all subcontractors, also require it to be put up in case of an emergency on the site.

Our house number is blocked out here for privacy reasons of course, but it has huge, reflective white numbers.  You order the sign from the county ($25) but what they don't give you when you pick it up, are any sort of mounting brackets (?!).  There is one hole on each end, but the sign is horizontal, and it's supposed to be on your mailbox post (which is vertical).  They don't allow them to be mounted sideways and that wouldn't work any because the you couldn't see both sides.  After some research, we found that you need to use what is called a "wing bracket" (hey, we learned something new, ha).

I ordered it and got it put up.  Dad always told me, if you have the right tools, you can do anything.  He left me a LOT of tools, ha, so I grabbed what I needed from the barn, some deck screws (weatherproof), hex head bit, drill bit, cordless drill, etc and headed to the mailbox to get it done.

I got the bracket up first (using deck screws so it'll last as long as possible).  After that, you just slide in the sign and use a hex bit to turn screws that hold it in place, tightening the sign.

And just like that, our sign is up, and we are compliant with the county (and the builder).

One more step on the journey!

GOOD FOOD AND HOBART SUNDAY

 Another week has flown by and it's still hot here.  Come on Fall, we are ready and waiting!  This heat is slowing down packing up the house.

The other night, we had roasted chicken.  We took the leftover meat off the bones and the next day, 2nd Man made this...

He mixed it with some frozen veggies and used a low fat cream of chicken soup and seasonings and added in 2% shredded mozzarella and topped it with mashed potatoes (brushed with olive oil instead of butter).

It was a wonderful chicken pot pie/shepherd's pie fusion.  It's so good.  With a nice salad to start, we ate on it for three days.

Shepherd's Pot Pie?  🤣

 

I was working on laundry and tossed some towels on the floor to add to the laundry basket.  Then Hobart found them and curled up to sleep.  I delayed washing those items for a few days so we didn't disturb his new favorite sleeping spot until he was done using it.  Because...

#notspoiled

NEW STAKES ON THE PROPERTY

More things happening!  We had engineers out to the property and they planted some more stakes.

Electrical pole location!

Well, at least the temporary pole.  We submitted a request to have the power line disconnected from the house and rolled back up onto the pole and that will be done soon.  This is where the builder will put a temporary pole for use of power during construction.

The well location!

This is going to be where the well will go.  They will put a concrete pad around it but we are responsible for the 'shed/building" over it.  We'll have to see how big it is, etc and figure that out later.  It will be behind the garage near the rear corner of the house (quick access to it from the garage).

The septic tanks!

And this is the spot they determined for the septic tanks.  They are currently permitting with the county and working on the design.  We'll post when we have that information. 

Things are happening!

GUEST BATHROOM NEW HOUSE TEASER

Well, last week we posted about the master bathroom.  We'll have two baths in the house and this is the second one.  The house is split so that the master bedroom and master bath are on one side and the guest rooms and bath are on the other side of the house.

This is the bathroom that will have our only bathtub.  It is a bathtub shower combo of course, with a single sink vanity and elongated toilet.

This is a photo of our floor plan's actual guest bathroom.  We'll have different colors but this is what the layout will look like.  Our mirror will be framed (like the master bathroom) in the same color as the cabinetry and we'll have a different light fixture.  Also, our tile in the tub/shower will go all the way to the ceiling (again, to reflect the master bath).

We're going to have our shower rod mounted high so that we can have long shower curtains like this.

Speaking of decorating and choices, these are the colors we chose for this bathroom.

Now the cabinetry won't have the grooves like in that picture, but they will be this gray color, just like the cabinets throughout the house.  We'll have the same soapstone black countertop as the master bath, but we decided to make the floor a bit different by having this black and white design tile.  We thought it would be nice (being the guest bath) to have something with some impact and style for guests.  The tub/shower tile surround will be the gray one on the left side of this picture (and remember, will go all the way to the ceiling). A little extra price for maximum impact.  Same fixtures as the master bath and same knobs and cabinet pulls as well.

Now there is a cool built-in cabinet at the other end of the bathroom but...

...that bottom section is a hamper/laundry compartment.  Sure, if we had kids and a family, it might be good to say "hey, put your dirty laundry here".  But for us, storage is much more important, so we are changing this to just more cabinets with shelves, all the way down.  Storage, storage, storage!

We need to stock up on those pandemic supplies of toilet paper, just in case, LOL!  But seriously, we do have a lot of quilts and blankets that will need to be stored and the more space the better!

LET THE PACKING BEGIN

  It was a busy weekend. 

Thankfully, the weather cooperated and my mowing last weekend worked out great because...

...the grass has not even grown.  In fact, areas are turning brown (lack of rain/seasonal).

But we're OK with that.  Here in a month or so, it's ALL going to be a mess, ha.

The weather was cool which was good and so I had to figure out a plan of attack on how to start tackling the house contents.

We have this new storage unit and that will be for the majority of what we are keeping.  Mostly the big furniture.  It's 10x15 (and climate controlled).

I decided that instead of making half a dozen trips back and forth there, I would just start sorting and packing, starting by taking all the pictures/artwork off the walls (that we're keeping) and put them aside.  Then I started emptying drawers.  All the kitchen drawers and then any furniture that had drawers and again, what we're keeping, I stored in boxes.

Then I started on the closets and got all three emptied and sorted.  I filled up two contractor bags with trash, and used another one to put soft goods in, pillows from the couches, some loose blankets and throws, etc.  We'll bring those back into town so they'll be safe from mice.  We're not keeping any of the curtains.

We figured the barn is a good place for the pictures and flat items.  The hottest part of the year is over and let's be honest, with the house not having a/c or heat, the barn is just as good as the house has been. Plus when the house is done, it'll be easy to bring things back, a little at a time.

So I got all of those items moved to the porch and backed the truck up, loaded it a few times and drove it to the barn to unload it.  Here's a picture from the last trip, ha.  It worked great and we still have room in the barn for more stuff.  We'll see what all we can put in there.  The more we can put in there, the easier (and less crowded) it will be in the storage unit.

All we need to do is keep packing and sorting. A couple more weekends and we'll be done (and if we have to take a day off during the week, we will).

Speaking of boxes and packing supplies, we have been amassing a large amount of packing stuff from, you guessed it, the downstairs "trash to treasure area" at the building, ha.

Here was a recent haul.  Found several boxes, packing paper and even two giant rolls of bubble wrap.  All we had to buy was a roll of packing tape, ha.  It'll all come in handy for the farm now and later next year for the apartment when we move to the new house.

Things are getting real!

GOOD FOOD AND HOBART SUNDAY

Almost October!  Where DOES the time go?  Today is time for some good food and some Hobart!

I found this at the store the other day:

Had no idea that Tony Chachere's had a no salt seasoning blend.  We tried it...

2nd Man used it on some Mahi-Mahi and pan seared it with just a bit of olive oil and oh my gosh it was so good.  He served it over couscous with mixed veggies.  It was a complete meal and so delicious.

And here is Hobart...sometimes he sleeps in the chair on his afghan and sometimes he sleeps on the floor next to it.  Cats are like that, choosing wherever they feel comfortable.  And of course we let him, because...

#notspoiled