Agave Arcology

Back to the Future of Agave

2011-08-05T15:11:00.000-05:00

Apparently the idea of Modern Green homes have been around for a good long time. We just did no realized HOW long. If you wanted to know what our house would have been like 60 years ago check this Popular Mechanics article circa 1952. It about one of our favorite Sci-fi author's house: http://www.nitrosyncretic.com/rah/pm652-art-hi.html

Magnets. How do they work?

2011-05-11T08:16:00.002-05:00

Could it be a blog update? Yes! I know it’s been a long time since there has been an update, just about a year or so. I wanted to update it sooner but honestly there has not been a lot of interesting things to post about. Most of the stuff we have been doing has been house maintenance and interior decorating. Neither which makes interesting reading. A few things are worth chatting about however.

The weather has been a bit wonky this year and this previous winter was very cold for Texas. 20 degree weather should never happen south of the Mason-Dixon Line but it hit Austin hard this year. Lots of our cactus died and we are replacing them slowly but that it a story for another blog post.

The good thing was that when Spring arrived the weather was perfect. It still is relatively nice and the summer (A.K.A Hades) season has not yet begun. The only problem with the nice weather is one thing: wind propelled door slamming. We opened all the windows in the house and a few of the house doors would just slam shut when a gust came though. We would stick random household items (Bookstops, Cats, Roombas) in front of the doors but nothing seemed to really work until I discovered the power of magnetism.

These door stops have a magnet in them that keep the doors from blowing open when the wind blows through. They also (in my humble option) look better than the standard spring base door stop.

I’ll take what’s behind door #1…

2010-07-23T22:05:00.004-05:00

I’m a lean mean blogging machine this week. It’s almost like a new house is being built. As I mentioned earlier in the week we have been going crazy doing stuff. I wanted to post one more time before home improvement hang over sets in and we don’t do anything interesting for another year.

In between everything else we have been doing and after several crazy events we decided to change out our back door. At the time the builders at Agave basically gave us two choices: a solid door or one that was mostly glass. Neither was really that interesting but they fit the aesthetic (unlike the horrid bathroom lights that we replaced day one) and were serviceable. Now what we really wanted was a door from Neoporte but that would require a second mortgage and some kind of pagan sacrifice involving a moose. With a suggestion from a few neighbors we decided to look at Crestview Doors instead. Not only is Crestview Doors a local Austin Company with some really nice people they have some killer designs. There is one problem though. They don’t sell doors anymore they sell doorlite kits which you have to install yourself. Not a problem. I’m very handy… with a phone and called in for back up (Thanks Nelson!).

Anyway… we picked the Carlysle style of kit because it allowed for a lot of light and it added some architectural interest to the back. This is how it turned out:

The new door

As you see from the bottom window there is another reason why we picked this design. Hmmm... that looks a little too hard to see. Maybe this close up will work better:

How much for the kitty in the window?

That’s better. We needed a window so someone could look out the back at the critters during the day. Now we are not totally done with the door. It needs another coat of paint and maybe a few other touches like a different style of lock and a kickplate. If only I can hold off the home improvement hangover one more day...

Agaves of Goo and Steel

2010-07-20T14:14:00.006-05:00

Not only have we been doing interior work (see previous post)we have had some exterior stuff done as well. It has been a long time since our yard got some TLC and we put in some effort to get things going again. One of the big reasons for this was the death of many of our plants this winter. The most disappointing one was the Desert Museum Tree which turned in to a giant twig sticking out of the ground. Our agaves in the front planter literary turned to goo.

Now if you don’t remember about a year ago we got the back yard done. You can see the post about it here. To contrast it you can see what it looks like now. The plants have grown in and we had the dead ones replaced. If you also look at the stairs they now have limestone blocks to make waling up and down the stairs safer.

This is the stairs going down to the back yard with the missing tree.

A closeup of the steel planters with new plants.

Stairs going up to where the Garbage cans were.

What garbage cans you ask? Heh... Read on...

Sometime last year we got a Nastygram from the HOA that you can see our garbage cans from the street and that they have to be removed if not we would be fined. Hell hath no fury as an HOA scorned. Since we don’t have a garage and there is no convenient place to put the garage we pulled it to the top of the stairs on the back yard. It was an eye sore for a year. We called our handy dandy builder Nelson (who still talks to us after all these years...) and put a new gate on the other side of the yard. Once that was done Eclipse Landscaping poured a concrete pad for the cans put a plant in front of it. This was the result:

Remember the white chalk outline of agaves that turned to goo in the front planter? Well Shawn from Eclipse came up with a solution. These agaves will not turn to goo unless they are hit by a Martian Death Ray. They are painted steel agaves in the back yard:

Now even with the steel agaves we think the yard needs some more work. Hopefully there will be a blog post sometime next year referring to this post about all the wonderful additions we did to the back yard. That is if this post did not cause some kind of paradox in the space time continuum be simply mention the future post. I guess I better charge the Flux Capacitor to find out…

Arts and Crafts

2010-07-18T11:35:00.010-05:00

It has been a hectic several weeks. After taking about a year off from doing any major house stuff mainly due to burn out, we went crazy. Just check out our reality show: Homeowners Gone Wild! A lot of projects that were on the drawing board just came to fruition.

For a long time we have been looking for art for the walls. It’s been a long and difficult task. We would find something and not like it and return then when we could. A few areas of the house were causing us pain when trying to get something to fit. One of our biggest problems was getting something for the living room’s 20-footish wall. We could not find anything. Then Deborah found Gallery Direct, which is a local Austin art house that has custom sizes including the 4.5ft by 5.5ft canvas art that now adorns the wall. We also found some cool black and white plant photos that are above the stairs at an angle. The real nice thing about Gallery Direct is not only their selection but the option of material you can select from. We do recommend them.

Speaking about art and paint… after a year and a half I finally had the time and the will to paint some of our cinder block walls. Two rooms have part of the wall made from cinder block. We decided to make them accent walls. It took forever to figure the colors but we picked Adobe Sun and Colombian Coffee. Anything named after caffeine has gotta be good… except for Sun’s Java. That is just plain evil. We used the kick ass Mythic Paint that we got from Zinger Hardware. If you have not been to Zinger Hardware in Austin you have to check it out. It’s a cool Retro hardware store with modern products. Now if you never painted cinder block before let me warn you, it’s like painting a sponge. I don’t mean a Sponge Bob Square Pants type; I mean a bottomless maw of a sponge. It took several coats of primer and the main color for it to come out even but the final result was awesome. As one of our neighbors once said “What a difference a colors makes”.

While I was painting away Deborah found a really cool lighting site called Seascape Lamps that made custom lamps and lamp shades. We found one we liked and ordered it. When we got it something was off but we could not figure out what. Then my mother-in-law stopped by (Insert Imperial March here) and mentioned that the shade was too bright and that we should tea stain it. Using the power of the interwebs Deborah looked up how to tea stain and Valla! We now have a great looking lamp.

Those are just a sample of the major things we have gotten done in the interior. We have been doing lots of little things as well. The DIY channel and the like have spawned mini projects all over the place. We have touched up paint, dressed up computer/electrical wires, clean windows and terminated speaker cabling just to name a few.

Well that’s all for now. Oh wait… we have been doing lots of yard/landscaping as well… but that is a blog post for another time.

The Modern Savage Land

2010-05-31T21:15:00.009-05:00

Sometimes when I am sitting in the backyard high up on our composite deck on the back of our very modern home I think about what is behind our backyard. The greenbelt behind us has many creatures which include coyotes, various birds, a lizard or two and some really interesting insects. We also have two empty lots next to our house and with all the rain this year, we ended up with some awesome wild flowers as well. For use of a better term, I came up with "Modern Savage Land".

Due to all of this "nature" we ended up with the largest population of butterflies and caterpillars I have ever seen in one place (other than a butterfly preserve). They just appeared all over our deck, in the yard, in the trees and in the flowers. Most of the butterflies were of the orange/brown variety (I don't know my butterflies) but we also had many white, some brown, and even a a few black or black and blue butterflies). Just walking on the deck I had to be careful not to step on the caterpillars. Just standing there I had them landing on my shoulders, arms, and even on my hand.

The pictures don't do it all justice, but you get the idea. Even today, three weeks later I am still seeing a few caterpillars and butterflies about. I think its not really that savage when you have some butterflies landing on you.....

This one landed on the patio table and got a little sun...

I have a feeling he was tuned into my taking a picture and he wanted to get his best side in.
Three butterflies sitting on the chair. They covered the back deck.

Mr. Caterpillar.

Someone really liked the butterflies. Zuni thought about some bug desert this day!

East Austin Projekts

2010-03-18T10:41:00.013-05:00

Spring has just about sprung which means another blog update. Since we hit the sweet spot in the Texas weather I figured I better update blog before I have no motivation. Even though we have not said much in a while the Household Projekt Plan continues. Much like the USSR in its heyday we have a five year plan of things we want done. One of things I noticed when it was colder a few weeks ago was that the outlets in the CMU were “leaking” a ton of heat. I could feel the arctic air flooding the living room. I never really noticed it in the summer but boy did I notice it when it snowed. To fix this I got a bunch of foam insulation gaskets for the light switches and outlets on the outside walls. They worked great! One thing that we were not impressed with about the house was the use of the standard rocker light switch that has been around since Edison invented the light bulb. Now we wanted to replace them with the Lutron Vierti Series but since it would require a second mortgage to replace them all we decided go with something that was not the cost of an iPhone per switch. We decided to go with the Lutron Maestro series instead. One nice thing about this series is that there is an RF wireless option. This is a bonus for us since we have a walkway from the car port to the side door. With the wireless controller we can turn on the light for the walkway at night from the car and not leave it on when we don’t need it. It’s a “green” option that’s also convenient.
So far about a half a dozen switches have been replaced and only 5 million more are left. I did say this was a five year plan… Now one of my pet peeves about the house when we first moved in was that the thermostats from the 1950s (Okay it was not that bad but it felt that way). Now just like the light switches I wanted one type but I settled for something else. What I really wanted was the ecobee thermostat. It has a color touch screen and a Wi-Fi antenna that links it up with the Internet. This just rocks. You can program it via a web site remotely. Did you forget to turn the A/C down while on Vacation? Log in and turn it off! The thing even has a current weather display. The bad thing about this is that they charge you a monthly fee to access the thermostat. That is just plain ridiculous. I’m not paying a monthly fee for that unless it is running SETI@Home in the background and ET plans a visit. Hopefully they will come to their senses sometime and drop that fee. If and when they do I might reconsider my choice. The runner up for the thermostats replacement was the Honeywell Prestige HD Thermosta t it does all things the ecobee does except the internet stuff. It has an exterior weather sensor which is a bit much (we did not get it) but otherwise it’s a pretty nice system.

Agave is Three Laws Safe

2009-12-08T09:03:00.011-06:00

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..

2009-11-07T23:03:00.008-06:00

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

2009-09-18T23:47:00.003-05:00

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

2009-03-17T20:05:00.007-05:00

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!

Now We Know Why...

2008-12-02T18:58:00.004-06:00

Why people do not not post on their blogs as much after they move in.............................. They are too BUSY MOVING IN. The house is great! The train is NOT to loud and the neighborhood is wonderful. Need some art on the walls, some rugs and and a plan for the back yard. We just feel lucky to have had the opportunity to have a house like this!

One Week Later

2008-11-22T22:51:00.006-06:00

Well a great deal can be accomplished in one week, like almost everything unpacked. We are a bit too "anal" about this so we have killed ourselves in the process. I would post a picture of the Ikea office furniture being put together (Effektiv Storage) which took about 2 hours just for a printer stand. It seems like David likes to do this stuff, I would just end up screwing the parts together wrong and doing it in 10 minutes and not read the directions. I guess that is why I am not doing it.

We found brownies on our front porch after moving in (no, they were regular brownies, no additives if you know what I mean). Alana and Alex made those yummy treats! We still have not seen them though. It sounds like between a new puppy and a cut finger due to meat cutting by a vegetarian they have been pretty busy. We have been here one week and met one neighbor up the hill (David met him) and said he was very friendly. Since we live at the "bottom" of the hill , I feel like a serf and the people up the hill are the lords of the land (they have great downtown view), but it is nice to see they will associate with us. :) I think that we expected everyone to stop by the first day but that was it. Of course we don't have anything on our windows so our every move can be scrutinized by everyone. NOT used to living with nothing on the windows here!! That should be changed next week (we hope).

The neighborhood seems great and we love the house. Now we just need sleep.

It was worth the year wait and thanks to Alana for keeping us positive, it was all worth it.

Move in Friday, first house guest on Saturday

2008-11-15T22:14:00.005-06:00

One day after the move and having three rooms (the Living Room, Guest Room & Kitchen) unpacked. We get our first house guest. My Brother-n-law is visiting Austin on Business from Cali and after looking at the guest accommodations he decided to stay with us instead of a hotel. I'm glad that was the first room we had ready to go.

With the frenzy of activity the last few days we have been going non-stop. I have only gotten four hours of sleep the last few days. Now with company here we finally slowed down to smell the paint on the walls. To quote a fellow Agavite "We just love our house!"

I would also like to publicly thank whoever left brownies at our doorstep. It was really nice welcome gift... especially since our wonderful fridge is barren. Who needs food when there is unpacking to do? It just goes to show you how nice the people are out here.

I gota go, the blender is going and I have a feeling that the house guest has found our supply of adult beverages. It's time to kick back and chat the night away.

Moven on up to the East Side

2008-11-13T11:54:00.003-06:00

After almost a year in the works (we signed our contract to start construction on November 26th last year) we are finally ready to move in. Not everything on our Pre-Moven Checklist™ got completed but it came darn close. As we migrate to Agave I started to notice a slow transformation: the house is becoming a home. After living in boxes and a small apartment for months it’s nice to see things coming together. I need to sign off now because there is still a million and one things to do.

See ya soon.

Update: We are moved in... Let the unpacking nightmare begin!

Its little things… like Cold (Root) Beer

2008-11-06T13:52:00.007-06:00

We have been a bit delinquent in updating the blog lately but that is mainly do to the whirlwind of house activity. We wanted to make sure most of the house has to be set up by the time we moved in next week. The pre-move in check list has about 40 plus items of stuff that must be completed before the move. There are simple things like turning power on or changing the mail address and there are more complex things like painting the cinder blocks or sealing the tile. The last two items were a pain not only from a color selection point of view but we wanted some green friendly products. In the end we decided to use Mystic Paint which you can get at a cool store called Zinger Hardware on Anderson lane and Acri-Soy Sealer from ecoprocote.

Other little things that should be simple have not been. One example has been the refrigerator selection. I now know more about fridges then I ever wanted to. Our first issue that we agonized over was what kind to get. There are basically three choices, Top freezer, Bottom freezer and Side-by-side. I won’t bore you with the details but it took us a while to figure out which one we wanted since each has its virtues. In the end we settled on a bottom freezer. That should have been the end of it right? Wrong! Basically the area where the fridge goes has the potential to blocked by one of the house entrances. I’m not talking a little I mean the house door will not be able to open. This completely befuddled me until I learn about counter depth fridges. Apparently it’s the new thing in fridges. These fridges cost you 20% more for about 30% less space but they go right up to the counter (hence the name) and fit smaller spaces. I was a bit worried at first but today we got the fridge delivered and I’m more than happy about the fit, look and interior space. Take a look for yourself:

It’s now stocked with Beer of the Root which will be needed for the move.

CLOSED

2008-10-24T21:34:00.005-05:00

Its OURS... well maybe the bank owns it, but they can't live in it.

The Final Countdown*

2008-10-20T13:41:00.003-05:00

We went out to Agave to do the punch list for the builders to complete before we close later this week. The list looks large but they assure us it will all be taken care of. There is still a great deal to do before we move in, cable, security, phone, oh and something on some windows!

We went shopping this weekend and picked up some furniture. I was thinking of posting some pix here but instead I’ll just leave it a mystery. You will have to stop by and see it if you want to know.

Since we are so swamped, I think the blog will go dark for a while we prepare for closing and the move. In the mean time check out these cool pictures at a neighbor’s blog to see some of the homes in the new ‘hood.

*Do not click on this link.

Would you be my neighbor?

2008-10-12T12:53:00.014-05:00

Another week another trek to the house. We are rapidly approaching the completion of the house. Most of the major stuff (expect the fence and appliances) has been completed and all that is left is the thousands of little things that need to be fixed.

I do have to say that we are lucky. All the peeps we met so far are super nice and friendly. It’s like we are moving into some modern version of Mr. Roger’s neighborhood without the puppets. Let me give you a few examples of what I mean.

We were invited to a neighbor’s house for a shindig but could not make it because we were just too busy with work and ironically house stuff. We are not in the hood yet and we are getting party invites! They also have been sending us updates on our house’s progress (they can see our house from their windows) since we can’t be out there every day.

Yesterday while measuring windows for window treatments (OMG we have lots of windows) we met two other neighbors who happen to have gone to said shindig and they were really nice. Within twenty mins (we chatted for maybe an hour) we got some good decorating advice and an invite to check out their house. How many people do you know that will invite a stranger (and we are strange) to your house after just meeting?

That is the kinda folks that are living in Agave. I can think of more examples but you get the idea. That is enough of me babbling, I know you really came to this blog for the pictures so without any further ado here is this week’s crop of photos:

After months of have plywood windows we finally have a picture of the Godzilla sized living room windows. They are about 13 feet tall. The cables you see in between the windows are speaker connections for surround sound. The cardboard floor covering is to protect the bamboo.

This is about a 5 Foot wide and 7.5 foot tall window the faces the back yard from the living room.

The front stairs by the sidewalk with the neighbors houses in the background.

Here are the concrete pads leading to the front door with the brand spanking new landscaping.

A picture of the front yard taken from the living room’s front door.

We got Windows!

2008-10-08T06:01:00.006-05:00

Finally the windows for the living room came in and were installed. Here is a picture B.A. (Friend/Realtor) took yesterday with the windows. Thank you also Alana for letting us know they were installed, we should be a neighbor soon!

Picture from backyard after cleaning up trees and a partial view of deck and stairs. Hard to believe it looks so much better back there!

Since you Must be Bored...

2008-09-30T21:03:00.005-05:00

That is why you are looking our our blog again...

Yes another week and more pictures!
Concrete steps in front yard... minus the concrete

The actual example of a really bad bathroom light. Now these are NOT the lights we were shown but this is what appeared in the bathrooms. I had to blink and think real hard, when is the last time I saw something like this, hmmm. 1959, oh wait I was not born then. The good thing is Nelson agreed he wouldn't put these in a trailer, and they were not great. He is working on this and our outside lights which are not Dark Sky Friendly! We only want Dark Sky Friendly Lights in the neighborhood. He is a great builder!

Room with a view.. and a light.

Now... will our house be ready by October 17th?

Enter our Estate

2008-09-21T08:21:00.005-05:00

Retaining wall is in and a few other touches. Here as usual are a few more pictures, like there are not enough pictures of this house.

Hm, I wonder whose address that is. I am not sure I like our lights, they are not as cool as the neighbors because the light vendor has been changed. Thus we suffer from the lack of "light" coolness our neighbors have. I will not even show the lights in the bathroom, Nelson is getting a nastygram from me!

Here is the deck being built in the back, a person can stand under that, even though it does not look like it. This could be a rainwater collection area... ha. Maybe we can create a playroom for the cats under that, not sure.

Cool picture of the colors of the house, I just like this view.

Wallah!!! Stairs leading down to the yard in the front. This I must say was interesting, like please enter our estate. It will be interesting to see the landscaping.

A Little Happening...

2008-09-14T20:02:00.006-05:00

Here are a few pictures, a few things are happening again. The retaining wall is starting to go in the front yard but there are no pictures of that. They say now it may be finished by middle of October but I have a feeling it may be longer. There is still a great deal to do. That's okay with me in the end it all works out and we are so busy with work right now we barely have time to check on house happenings anyway.

Jetta tub in downstairs bathroom with tile to the ceiling and a cool shelf!

Fan (in case you didn't know what that was). You can see the plywood which is covering the windows in the living room. They were stolen some time ago and have delayed the house. They have been re-ordered but we are still waiting.

Kitchen sink. Luckily there will be a dishwasher so that this item will only be used to wash hands! Ha!

Nice view above the kitchen sink... all windows :)

Bathroom door, now that is some wood.

It's hard to take pictures here but the master bedroom with bamboo floors looks better than the plywood that was there before.

Master bedroom leading into master bathroom, the trim will be painted.

Nothing Happening Here... no Siree!!

2008-09-03T20:27:00.003-05:00

I hate to move the blog below this down but I had to say a few words. Nothing happening. Can you install living room windows, replace downstairs bedroom windows with "Cranky Windows", do a retaining wall, landscape, install wood floors, install rest of the lighting, additional cabinets, countertops, steps on stairs, deck, fence, air conditioning, water heater, electric meter, appliances, sinks, door hardware, sidewalk, touch up paint on exterior, interior, paint exterior doors correct color and then clean it all up and make it pretty to move in... in a period of 4 weeks. Oh yeah we gotta do the punch list and say a-okay after all that is done.

Since our lease is up in 4 weeks we may be living on a street waiting to move into Agave. Two weeks of nothing happening is well.. not fun. But.. Nelson has worked miracles.

The Coolest Neighborhood in the USA

2008-09-03T08:24:00.002-05:00

Apparently the wacky neighbors are at it again. They got the ‘hood on local TV with a special guest star (Choo choo!) and great political commentary.

Here is the Article:

"AUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) -- An East Austin neighborhood is the grand prize winner in a Dreyer's Ice Cream contest to choose the "Coolest neighborhood in America."

An essay from a neighborhood resident did the trick.

Saturday night, the Nine Sixty Nine neighborhood will receive an ice cream party for all 1000 residents. The neighborhood consists of several different sections, each with different and diverse homes and populations."

Click here for the video.

Ancient Modern Home

2008-08-22T21:28:00.005-05:00

There is now slate on the upstairs bathroom floor and travertine tile in the shower upstairs and tub downstairs. There is lots of rock going on in this house! Not much else has happened so I thought I would investigate travertine and slate. You may want to skip the rest of this but some may find it interesting. It made me think about where materials come from and how a modern home can have some very ancient items! On another front we were supposed to close on this house in about one month. I somehow think it will be longer than that!

Now for your rock education:
Travertine is a sedimentary rock that began as limestone (calcium carbonate), which over time was heated by the Earth's core, releasing pressurized water and steam to form hot springs. The rising hot water would dissolve the limestone and bring with it granules of stone from below the surface that collected into mud baths. When this mud cooled, it would crystallize into solid stone, now called travertine. The stone is often light in color and beautifully banded as a result of the presence of iron compounds or other organic impurities.

The rock derives its name from Tivoli, Italy, which in ancient Roman times was known as Tibur. The ancient name for the stone — which was used extensively as a building material — was lapis tiburtinus meaning tibur stone, which has evolved today to travertine. Perhaps the most well-known symbol of that civilization — Ancient Rome — and the largest known building constructed with travertine is the Coliseum in Rome.

Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering. Slate is frequently grey in color especially when seen covering roofs. However, slate occurs in a variety of colors even from a single locality. For example slate from North Wales can be found in many shades of grey from pale to dark and may also be purple, green or cyan.

Furnishing the Future

2008-08-10T12:48:00.010-05:00

This weekend Skandinavia had a sale so we went to check things out. We were just looking and did not expect to find anything, we really don’t have a place to put anything until the house is finished. Of course this did not stop us from purchasing a few items.

The first thing we found was a new coffee table by Becker Design. We both really liked how open the table is. Hopefully it will not be too hard to keep clean but I fully expect paw prints and innocent cat looks. If anyone says it looks like a star trek emblem when they come to our house (which we did not notice until later) we plan on taking you out.

We also purchased the end table but in the darker wood which is shown on the first piece. The best part is the pieces are totally green! They are made from recycled glass, steel and the wood they is from rubber trees that could not produce rubber anymore.

Onto the house pix! We know you have been waiting with baited breath. We did not get many pix this time because the house interior was in the process of being painted. The white walls were everywhere and it reminded me of a sanitarium. The rubber walls will be installed next week. The interesting thing is that the cabinets got installed. We snapped a few quick pix for your viewing pleasure.

Here is a pic of the kitchen cabinets. The fridge and pantry will be at the right. It not much to see but we could not get a pic of the whole area since they were painting at the time.

This is what the master bathroom cabinets look like. Notice all the drawers to store all those female necessities of life. Opposite of these are my cabinets which have three draws which is good enough for me.

The house is really coming together. It looks different with all the walls up and painted. The search for a couch and window treatments is driving us crazy (hence the need for rubber walls). Hopefully we will have that done by the time we move in.

Agave in Black and White

2008-08-06T17:53:00.006-05:00

In true artistic fashion the shots below are due to someone not paying attention to the camera setting when taking picture and thus the black and white = Deborah has her moments. Actually I kind of like it, you can see that the drywall has been completed and the true shape of rooms can be seen.
The favorite view out of the loft windows upstairs.

Looking at kichen, notice the ceiling. Back there by cinder blocks is where refrigerator goes and that might be a small pantry!

An artistic view of the stairway up to the master bedroom, or it could be a picture of the house after the earthquake. Oh wait, we did not hear that they had earthquakes at Agave, maybe a 100 year flood plain, power lines, a railroad track, and a water treatment plant, but not an earthquake :)