Moving Forward

There has been so much rain that the builder (Nelson) said that he hasn't been able to paint. There has also been problems with getting the tubing for the central vacuuming system. There has also been problems with the house not looking exactly like the drawings. Good thing Nelson was able to resolve all that once Alen and I talked to them a couple weeks ago. Now- there has been no problems. They have started painting. The tubing for the vacuuming system has all of the sudden been really easy to get. AND The house cannot look exactly like the drawing because it would retain moisture - which leads to mold - and rot - and we don't want our house to have that to deal with. Turns out the only person you should be speaking to when building a house is the builder - Nelson. Do not try to talk to the other people. It doesn't work... ever.

Our contract says that the house should be built by May 1st. Our builder says that's a little too soon, but we will see. Our contract says that we will close by May 14th and be able to move in at that point. Nelson didn't seem too confident that that would happen. Our lease on our apartment will end May 25th. Nelson said we will deal with it if it becomes an issue. So, hopefully it doesn't!

Other than those things, everything else has been going great! The house next to us has been purchased - so we definitely have a new neighbor! I think I've picked out some grass seeds that I would love to plant in our backyard (an indigenous blend of buffalo and blue grama). You don't have to water it nearly as often as bermuda or st. augustine.... which is needless to say a huge plus. Can't wait to move in!

Day 45

So far the outside of the house has not changed too much. They had told us that the painting of the house would occur several weeks ago. We are still waiting to do a walk-through. It's a little bit frustrating to see the construction move slowly, but I guess it's a good thing that it's not moving too quickly. They have told us that they are still working on the electric, plumbing, and the plumbing for the central vacuuming system :) From what they've told us, just general building codes require them to put in a lot of outlets and several hose bibs around the house. During the walk through, Alen and I will be able to say if they need to add more outlets (electric and water). I secretly hope that when we do the walk through that it will be completely perfect and we won't have to worry about asking them to put in more things. I guess it wouldn't be too hard the other way though.

One thing that did concern Alen and I was the outside siding on the house. On the drawings of our house there was cedar siding on part of the first floor and part of the second story of the house. We had driven by about a month ago and saw (much to our dismay) that there was regular hardi-plank on the second floor... where the cedar was suppose to be. We e-mailed Matt (our new contact for Agave) with our concerns - and he said that it would be fixed. Now, I drive by the house periodically, and it took them several weeks to fix the problem. So, now at least the cedar is in the right spot. Hopefully we don't run into anything else like that in future! It kind of makes you wonder if they have the right plans to the house. I guess supervision does need to be very heavy when dealing with builders.

On a lighter note, I gave my dogs an awesome haircut - just in time for them to romp around in the Texas snow we're having today. Meaning: they look awesome in pictures. Got to love those pups!

Day 7

A design meeting is where you meet up with one of the designers (this time it was Crystal) and pick out elements in your house that are customizable. Alen and I had already put a lot of upgrades into our contract, so the design meeting was not spent going over those details. Some of the things that I'm most excited about is the espresso colored cabinets, stainless steel-looking hardware on the cabinets, the stainless steel kitchen appliances, cedar garage door, travertine tile in the master bath with a frameless glass door, and surround sound wiring in the living room. This place is going to be totally awesome! The majority of the design meeting consisted of choosing colors for the outside of the house. That was so much fun! After talking with Crystal and looking at some colors I had pre-chosen we came to the conclusion that there was one color combination that we loved the most! Alen loved it too :) The colors that we found to be the prettiest were a light blue, white, and reddish-coral. The best part is, that the natural cedar that will be on the house goes perfectly with the paint colors. Hopefully, the home owner's association will love the colors that we chose. I can't imagine the house in any other colors. The blue and the white makes it look like a cloud. Cloud 5904 Toscana.

Day 1

The real "Day 1" is actually January 7, 2010. That is the day where the contract was completely and totally official - and Alen and I got our first house! We're so excited about living in a house that is so contemporary and different looking. We're also super excited about our neighbors. From what it sounds like, they're a pretty awesome crowd, and I hope we'll get to be "real" neighbors.

Alen and I had been looking for a house starting in December 2009. We're weren't really serious about looking for a house, considering we just moved in with each other in May 2009 and that we had pretty much no money saved up. So, what gave us the bug? We started watching too much HGTV and we had also fallen in love with a house in North Austin in Avery Ranch. The house was gorgeous: limestone and Spanish tile roof. There was just something missing about the neighborhoods in North Austin. We didn't want to fall into suburbia and be stuck there forever... depressed about our limestone house and all it's normality. We were looking online at www.zillow.com and www.trulia.com and came across a house with a dramatic profile picture and enticing specs. We decided to "map it" to find out where in Austin it fell. When we saw the map, it looked like the neighborhood was way too far from Alen's workplace and Austin in general. After a couple more weeks of looking around for some more promising homes, we decided to look back at that one house. We were drawn to the beautiful design and unique architecture. It was like nothing else you could find in Austin... definitely not the typical suburbia coffeeandanewpaperinthemorning thankyouverymuch. I looked more closely at the map and figured the neighborhood was close to 183 and was only 6 miles from UT Campus/Downtown Austin. Not too bad.

Then we drove over there. Nine Sixty Nine. Agave.

Once we drove up the Sendero Trails we knew that this place was somewhere we could live and be happy. I saw a neighborhood where the neighbors actually knew each other and liked each other. A place where people planted gardens, relaxed on the deck, and ate dinner while looking at a view of downtown. Alen saw the awesome contemporary architecture - clean lines, bright colors, and large windows. A place where he could come home to everyday and not feel like he's fallen into some sort of brick house, white picket fence, suburbia.

We fell in love and we had to live there. So, we bought a house!