Almost There

We're mostly moved in. Most of our furniture and boxes are at least in the proper room. Most of the discarded packing paper has been bagged up and tossed in the garage. Most of the blinds have been hung. I'm mostly happy with our new house. There's almost enough cabinet space and almost enough natural light.

Everyone warned me of buyers remorse. And sure enough, after a few days of this is our house euphoria, remorse has set in. I drive by blocks and blocks of old houses on my new commute and they make me a little sad. Even the ones that are a bit run down have enormous trees and countless windows. They probably have original wood floors, weird nooks in the kitchen and cabinets and telephone shelves built into the hall. Of course that's along with their cast iron pipes and shifting East Austin foundations.

Then I remember that our house doesn't require fixing. The yard is great big and Dog already loves it. Dog and Little Cat also love thundering up and down the stairs. We've met our friendly neighbors across the street who told us about the farm we can walk to for fresh veggies, eggs and milk. I'm quite sure the remorse will fade as we get everything unpacked and all the empty boxes go the way of craigslist. I'm a certified nester and when my nest is in disarray I am too.

Picture: Big Cat feels about the same way about moving as I do. She spent almost 2 days in that cabinet.

Done and Done

As of about 1:30 this afternoon we are officially homeowners.

Adoption Day

I watched a family being born today.

Just after Spring Break of 2008 a giant, fussy 6 month old girl joined my infant class. She was restless, overfed and developmentally behind. Along with her foster family, we got to know her and over the next year and a half we watched her grow into a noisy, joyful and incredibly opinionated toddler. She went weekly to visit her birth mother who worked desperately to earn back her daughter. In August 2009, to everyone's surprise, birth mom and dad gave up rights to their little girl. I cried when foster-dad shared this news. Cried over all that birth mom and dad overcame and the maturity it took to acknowledge where this little girl belonged.

Today was her adoption hearing. Mom, dad and big brother beamed, cried and squirmed while little miss ran circles around the courtroom visiting laps and squealing at the attention. The room was filled with family, friends and caregivers all dabbing eyes and sniffling as the adoption lawyer talked about her forever home. After formalities, the judge brought big brother and new little sister to the bench where they banged the gavel and became a real live family.

The best part, a new middle name specially picked by big brother: Sunshine. Happy Adoption Day little miss Sunshine.

flickr: Travis County Courthouse

Almost Autumn

I took a walk this morning. It was cool and overcast and that perfect kind of weather that threatens fall. I know it's a fluke, and it will be back in the 90's before the week is through. But this morning, in the pre-autumn breeze, I mailed our wedding invitations. Handfuls at a time into the weathered blue mailbox outside Nau's Drug Store where Mary and I used to get burgers and bill them to Sledd Nursery across the street.

Then I walked back to work, slowly, and opened my office window to let in a little early fall.

The View

After months of fighting with old homes we gave up. It's obviously not the right time for us to buy a project house. Almost overnight we shifted to the opposite end of the spectrum. We are officially buying a brand-spankin'-new, never been lived in house. We've both spent a few days mourning the idea of what we wanted. We're now working harder than ever to think of what we can do to make this new house a home and how we can make sure it reflects who we are. It's really the practical decision and we're increasingly excited about it. We never imagined we'd have so much space or such a large yard. The location is remarkably convenient and there are real live trees that are more than a year old. The particular subdivision we're moving to kept as many of the original elms and oaks as they could. We have two slightly scraggly native elms (as pictured above, the view from our bedroom window) and a large, bushy persimmon.

This is the epitomy of a family home.

Practice Bouquet

Yesterday we drove out to Texas Specialty Cut Flowers to pick up flowers for our bouquet practice run. The farm has a market every Saturday where they sell their flowers and produce along with things like raw milk cheese and goats milk lotion from neighboring farms. This weekend everything was self serve. There was a cash box and a calculator and a big sign requesting that people respect the honor system. We did, of course. We picked our two big bunches of flowers, a Mexican Coke (read real sugar instead of high fructose corn crack) and left our money in the cash box. Because it was self serve we were limited to mixed bouquets, instead of individual flowers.

With the help of the kitty, I separated all the flowers and cleaned off the leaves. Then I just used lots of floral tape and worked in a circle just like the DIY ladies on you.tube told me too. The bouquet I made yesterday is more the size what the bridesmaids will have and includes zinnias, coxcomb, pampas plume and some little spikey purple things. I'm quite glad we ended up with the mixed flowers. I never would have considered coxcombs (they look like fuzzy brains!) but the color and texture really mix well with zinnias. I'm actually surprised at how structured and solid it ended up. I can't wait to make the real bouquets! All 8 of them...yikes.

Here Again

This is what the back patio on the potential house looked like yesterday afternoon. I'll save everyone from having to view the lovely stagnant water that is currently residing in the abandoned septic tank that the plumber unearthed yesterday morning. Though I have pictures of that too. For posterity, of course. And proof. This would be the very same septic tank the seller swears up and down is not in fact a septic tank and also swears that it has been filled with dirt. If by dirt they mean dirty water then they're right on. If not...then we have a problem. The house also failed the static plumbing test which means there's a leak somewhere in the sewer pipe. Awesome. Seems that putting cast iron plumbing directly into concrete is a really fantastic idea...until it isn't. Especially when jack-hammering up the middle of the living room floor becomes the only solution. Fortunately the plumber thinks the leak is above the slab, probably a drain trap from one of the showers which requires much less jack-hammer action to fix. This is assuming the sellers are willing to approve the work. Their agent is on vacation all week (!!) and our option period ends Monday. It's a shame this process is so horribly boring.