We have built a modern home in Austin Texas within a local community known as Agave. This site is for the excitement, the challenges and the ongoing maintenance of a home in a green community. We hope to blend interesting design, technology and environmental awareness into one awesome place to live.
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Saturday, November 22, 2008
One Week Later
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.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Move in Friday, first house guest on Saturday
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.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Moven on up to the East Side
See ya soon.
Update: We are moved in... Let the unpacking nightmare begin!
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Its little things… like Cold (Root) Beer
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.