Agave is Three Laws Safe

Well it’s been awhile since I have posted an update. The main reason is that there has not been much interesting going on when you compare it to having a new house built. Oh there is still a 1001 things to do but most of it is not really interesting to write about. I can basically sum it up as that after living a year in Agave things is still going great but things have slowed down a bit.

Right now we are on an art kick since we are sick of the walls being mostly blank. We sent the last year getting most of functional stuff done and now it’s time to liven up the place a bit. Our most recent household purchases were very functional but much needed. We have entered the 21^st century and gotten some robots!

Our first new house guest is Robbie the litter-bot. He has a dirty job since we don’t want to do it. Keeping up with two cats can be a chore at times (I don’t know how our neighbors do it with their six million animals) but Robbie is always up to the task. Robbie is literally a poo cleaning up a machine! To keep with the household theme of going Green he is made up of recycled plastic.

Robbie was a lonely fella. He toiled all day and got no respect. We felt bad for him so we decided to get him a lifelong mate. After ordering his bride via mail order Rosie showed up and it was love at first sight. Okay maybe it was the household humans who were in love more than Robbie. Rosie is a Roomba. The problem with Robbie is that litter gets all over the place and he can’t take care of it. Since our floors are either Bamboo or polished concrete litter seems to go everywhere. We were constantly bushing, vacuuming and mopping the stuff up. That’s were Rosie comes in. Once a day she goes out and cleans up after Robbie. By the time we get home the place is spotless.

Between Robbie and Rosie our daily chore requirements have gone down but I kinda felt left out since all the new household automations are for felines. Is there no robot for the humans? I was beginning to think so until I found Gort. Gort is a dream come true. He is a wonder of modern science. Gort is an ENA 4 Automatic Coffee Center. Now this 8^th wonder of the world is not part of the household staff yet but he needs to be. I’m hoping that he will show up sometime next year but if he does he might get a name change to Hal. It will be 2010 after all.

What they say..

I like to go out on google now and then and put those magic words "Agave Austin" or Nine Sixty Nine Austin" and see what comes up. Sometimes it is complimentary, sometimes it is negative. No matter what everyone has their opinion. The latest search led me to, well, .....funny. You will have to click on the link to see what I mean. After clicking on the link, page down a ways, you dont have to register to see the article on the Cyburbia Forum:

http://www.cyburbia.org/forums/showthread.php?t=38959

When I look at the neighborhood a year after moving in I still love the house. We figured out a way to make our slopng lot which into an unusual and awesome backyard with a great deck. We have not met as many neighbors as we would like, but that has been our fault.

We have not seen as many houses being built this year in our area but the economy and the fact it has been hard to qualify for loans for many many people has caused that. For those of us that are here, I think we have enjoyed the opportunity to live in some truly unique homes, even if some say it is a modern suburbia. I would rather have a house like this, than one of those McMansions.

A Long Time

It seems that no one posts after they move in. I guess it is because we are all so busy for so long putting things away, trying to decorate, and come up with the money for landscaping our backyards. Then there is regular life..... friends, family and all that other stuff. We have not done much to our house lately. After having the landscaping completed in the backyard we suffered some sticker shock. Then we bought some art but one picture was shipped and had issues, the other needs to be reframed. So there they sit, those two pictures in the same spot and nothing has been done. We will have been here for a year in November so I hope that changes soon. We did have one rectangular pot done for the front patio so we will post that and hopefully get more done!

There was a vacation this month (which has not occured for over a year) and went to San Fransico and Monrovia California to visit my brother and his girlfriend. She lives in San Fran and has a very cute place which was built in the early 1900's. She has the midcentury modern thing going on and I took some pictures below.

She has furniture from her parents (they saved it for her) from the early 60's. The couch, chair and I believe pictures are all from that time period.

Although the kitchen is small they added Ikea cabinets which gave them more storage.

This is the dining area, only room for two people, but cute.

We went to the science academy and I love those jellyfish.

One of the more famous San Fran scenes. Fully restored victorian houses with a backdrop of the city.

Lights, Camera, Landscape

Its been a very long time since a posting appeared here. Moving in and winter stopped any type of updates... this seems to be the trend when you move in here! So three months later here are a few changes...

The outside lighting was replaced with the dark-sky friendly down-lights everyone else has. In the newly built houses they have been installing different lights and we knew we did not want to keep those. These are much better and will not blind our neighbors when the lights are on outdoors. Also placed the "eco-friendly" bug lights so we don't have pesky bugs by the door, a must in Austin!


Normally I think people wait awhile to get landscaping done in their backyards but we felt we had to do something right away due to the large slope we had in our backyard. We also needed a sprinkler system for the front yard. I aint watering by hand!

We contacted a few landscapers in January and actually settled on Agave Nursery (not any relation to the Agave neighborhood)! Since it was off-season we were able to have our backyard landscaped relatively quickly. We gave them total freedom on design but then changed a few things (types of plants etc). We wanted xeriscape and we got it! Very little water in the backyard! They also provided further phases for the future (when we have saved our pennies). They did a great job and it has a zen like feeling in the back yard now. There is lots of metal work for steps, stones, cactus and some mulch (which we can modify in future). The cactus was new for us but we really liked it.

Steps leading up You can see the metal and crushed limestone.

Steps leading down...

Interesting design by the deck, you can see the posts for the deck and this is kind of a walkway by the trees.

Cactus planters all along the steps. I have not learned the name of all cactus but the yard does have Inland Sea Oats, Mexican Feather Grass and Gulf Mulhy. The tree is a Palo Verde (desert museum) tree and there are no thorns!

Rusted pipe planters with cactus.. these things have some thorns.. or um needles. The pot to the side has an agave of course.

Colorful pots with cactus.. and more of that limestone on the ground!

Amanda from Agave Nursery came up with this really great big beautiful blue pot on the deck with another plant. You can see these from the road. Thanks to Agave Nursery and Amanda for the great ideas, design and wonderful work!

Hopefully posting will occur more often now boxes are unpacked!