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August 30, 2006
Decorating the Erwin House
There is something terribly gratifying about the sconce on the stone wall.
My mom and I lived for a year with my grandparents when I was 4. I remember my grandfather's basement-turned-den: he had a fully-stocked bar with a collection of miniature liquor bottles, a number of model trucks from his days as a transportation manager for Altorfer Bros., and lots of chrome. The Rejuvenation Aloha on the stone wall is straight out of his basement, the light I later used to do homework by when I sat at the ladies' desk where my grandmother paid bills.
Next on the list: one of those spiky 60's wall clocks.
In the meantime, we're shopping for shams for the master bedroom. Since we didn't paint the game room in the classic aqua blue, I've been trying to use aqua in the bedroom. I'm not going for the West Elm tan and cornsilk that everyone loves, rather I'm looking for that crazy greenish blue of the space age.
I love this pattern from PillowsandThrows.com, but you can't buy the shams separately. We also liked some patterns from West Elm and Pier One, but finding just shams is going to be difficult. Wouldn't it be cool if there were a Formica-flavored boomerang fabric? A girl can dream.
Posted by Christiane at 10:41 AM | Comments (10)
August 27, 2006
Productivity Strikes Again
The punch list grows smaller.
The big event of last week was the removal of the old driveway. I think it took longer than they had expected. The driveway was original to the house and was a solid 6 or so inches of concrete through and through. No rebar, no clay foundation. They had to score each section twice and remove it with a bulldozer (a real treat for the younger boy).
It dramatically improved the face of the house in my eyes. It shifted the focus of the automotive section of the home to the backyard and it left plenty of room for the crepe myrtles I plan to plant in front of each post (once they are painted white, ahem).
Ace's guys also hung the shutters and awnings, so now all we need are the screens on the front of the house, and we're going to be close to perfection.
There was much ado about storage this weekend. Financial considerations made us cut the driveway, carport, and outdoor storage/garage from the original plans. That meant that, for the past few weeks, our guest bedroom became the garage and was piled to the brim with boxes, tools, and whatnots.
Realizing that it might be a while before we get a garage built, and seeing as we have company coming for Labor Day weekend, David bought a little shed to put together.
Who knew it would be such a project! Luckily, he had helpers :-)
In the meantime, I organized all the schtuff and tried to put it in piles that could be moved--to the storage shed, to the attic, to somebody else's house. By sundown today, David had cleared out the guest bedroom of all the miscellany and set up the bed and shades. A few curtains, and The Official Justin and Edie Wolfe Suite will be complete.
This coming week we are hoping to get things squared away with our bank. We met with our loan officer on Friday and, well, let's just say that he didn't seem to have ever read through our loan paperwork. David is keeping a list of things they have royally screwed up, and I think that one meeting added three or four new items to the list. Can't wait to see what they do next. In theory, they should have the construction loan ready to rollover to a mortgage within the next week or so. Then the ball is back in our court.
Posted by Christiane at 08:53 PM | Comments (10)
August 24, 2006
Flipping Out
Technically speaking, I am not against flipping.
David and I have posted about it before, about our neighborhood and the fact that the vultures are circling as Austin booms and the houses begin to crumble. We don't live in an historic area, and there is little necessary to save of most of the homes here. Once farmland later turned into a suburb, we are now a gentrified inner-city neighborhood with some of the last semi-affordable homes.
The fact is that the houses around here need work, and in many cases, more than just new roofs or polished floors. Some of them need new plumbing to the curb and all new electrical wiring inside and out. Some of them are infested with mold from years of leaky roofs or windows, and none of the original homes have insulation or low-E window panes. The work needed is expensive, time-consuming, and possibly hazardous to those with allergies or asthma. Young couples or families may not want to spend the time or energy updating their homes when they could sell them for much more than they paid even as little as a year ago.
Flippers often take on risks that homeowners are either unwilling or unable to take. They assume financial responsibility for a home that might need more work than they even realize, and they spend a great deal of time and energy working in a trade notorious for unprofessionalism.
My personal beef is when a rehabber does a poor job renovating a home in the neighborhood and then jacks the price up beyond where it should be. This does not improve the neighborhood, it only sets up the new homeowner with a house that has a short shelf-life and it embarasses the whole neighborhood, not to mention inflating prices over the short term and setting up the neighborhood for a fall when the homes begin to fall apart.
But I think there is a time and place for flipping a home. A friend of mine in Virginia recently purchased a home that was mid-renovation from a pair of brothers who were flipping in her neighborhood. They turned a tiny cottage into a family home, big enough for her and her 5 kids. They sold the home below cost, so she had instant equity, and they were true to their one-year warranty so that she could request repairs after she had moved in and given it a test drive.
So, now I turn this over to you. This weighs on my mind because David and I, even with our occasional troubles, loved renovating this house. And, better yet, so far we love the results. And we enjoyed ourselves so much that we've thought about doing it again--picking a home and buying it and updating it both aesthetically but also functionally and then hopefully selling it to someone who can appreciate the details. But... that's flipping, right?
Is there such a thing as ethically flipping a property? I'm especially curious what people from Austin think about this, given all the heat over the McMansion issue. We want to see our neighborhood get better and better. But will the neighbors flip out over another Erwin House in the 'hood?
Posted by Christiane at 10:42 AM | Comments (19)
August 22, 2006
Everybody Must Get Stoned
Last Wednesday, the mason finally showed up to install the stone wall. No joke, I hadn't felt like blogging because the stone wall was unfinished. I know that sounds pretty lame, but it is true. There was something about that wall that felt monumental to me. It felt like the last thing, even though it wasn't--isn't.
Anyway, the guy showed up with two helpers and began prep work. Before laying the stone, he needed to nail chicken wire to the wall and coat it in a primary layer of concrete. It looked like mud.
Now, try keeping two young boys off of a tower of mud in the exact middle of the house. Yeah. Right.
It was a crumbly, dusty mess, but I wasn't the least dismayed. The mason said it would take 24 hours to set, but he'd be back to lay the stone then. I thought, "Hey, we can handle this for 24 hours!"
Thursday passed. So did Friday. On Friday night, we called our contractor and asked what was up with the mason. He called us back. Saturday, he said. The guy would be there on Saturday.
So, while we went to Breakfastland, and made a trip to Target (the thirty-fourth trip that week), and while I napped with the younger set and David took our eldest to piano lessons... they layed the stone. All but the last eight bricks.
They ran out of corner pieces at the end, but returned yesterday evening to finish up. It looks incredible. I told David that the stone wall makes everything, every room, even the stairs, look better. I don't know how or why, but it just gels the whole thing.
I only have one complaint: It may take years to get rid of the dust. As they lay the stone, one guy would spread the mortar, and the other guy would scrape off the bits of concrete and stone around it to make it fit properly. The result was a thin layer of dust over every surface in the entire house. David and I swept, mopped and dusted in a tizzy after they left, trying to clear the air. I am still removing the residue today; it seems to settle when the A/C clicks off.
Posted by Christiane at 09:37 AM | Comments (6)
August 04, 2006
National Night Out
Did I mention that we have the coolest neighbors evah?
Tuesday evening, we enjoyed a National Night Out party hosted by our neighbors on Pasadena, Jack and Layne (I might not be spelling that correctly, hm...). It was a refreshing reminder of the power of community.
I met some of our older residents, those that have been in the 'hood since its inception in 1951. They talked about the changes they have seen over the years, how they watched the neighborhood grow, have families, move away, and pass away, and how families are finally moving back in.
I met some of our brand new residents, some who have been here only a few months. We talked about the homes, what we loved about them and what we would change.
People asked where we live. Our answer was, "The big purple house around the corner." We are "the big purple house" people. Jack laughed at one point, having heard me give this answer two or three times and hearing people respond, "Oh, the big purple house," and said, "You're going to hear that a lot!" Heh, I guess we will.
I stood in a little circle of moms with my next-door neighbor, Sarah. We had a group of newborns, and we talked about the baby boom happening in the area. We talked about having three kids and needing to remodel for more room. We talked about the schools and the preschools and the churches and the parks. We talked about babies, and I imagined hosting coffee (or maybe playing The Playgroup Drinking Game) around my dining room table with the little bits playing in the background.
It was all very pedestrian and picket fences. And I loved it.
We're not in the house yet. I've really been quite stressed out about it, especially about having to move from hotel to hotel as we try to figure out what the actual move-in date will be (will the real deadline please stand up?). I've been stressed about the mess of unpacking, and the craziness of starting a new school year with all of our belongings in boxes and fewer kitchen cabinets than planned (oh, don't get me started).
The National Night Out party totally recharged my batteries. I freaking love this neighborhood, and I was reminded that we are going to be here for a very long time and this week (or two) in a hotel is just a blip on the radar.
If you recognize your neighbors in the picture above, be sure to leave a little note with their names! Sadly, there was so much socializing that I can only remember a few of them!
Posted by Christiane at 12:02 PM | Comments (0)