Musical rooms

Today Guillermo started the first thing that he is doing to get ready for the big move coming up.  Since the weather is going to be relatively warm for the next several days, he dragged all the huge plants out of the garage and swept up all the fallen leaves and dirt from in there.  Then he's going to start from the back of the garage and slowly move forward, looking at everything and deciding what he wants to keep, what he wants to sell, and what should just be thrown out.  He worked for a little while in the back corner by the dryer, and then said that's enough of that for today.  He's in his garden now, which is where he'd rather be anyway, and what he's going to miss terribly.

As for me, what I've done is totally empty out the closet in the red room except for a few clothes.  The closet in Fernando's room is also empty now on the bottom.  What I'm going to start working on next, is clearing everything out of Fernando's room so that we can use that room to gather all the garage sale stuff and the things we are thinking maybe family can use (till we get back) or maybe just give them (and all that stuff is presently in the red room).  When the garage sale/family items are moved from the red room into Fernando's room, then there'll be room to move some things out of Rebeca's room and down into the red room.  We plan on making Rebeca's room the room where we "hang out" - so we'll be moving the futon in there.  It's a lot of moving around, and a mess has to be made before things can be neat again, but that's how it goes.

If we were moving into another house from this house, then things would be a lot simpler.  But since we are moving most of our belongings into storage, and possibly traveling after the house goes down, then it's a little different in how we have to think about how we want our stuff packed up.  So add one more pile to the mix here in this house - the stuff we want to take with us when we travel!!!!!!

Rebeca made the news!

Check out this mention of Rebeca in a Tucson newspaper  - The Arizona Daily Star!

Moving up

February 21, 2010

Field of SAGE Landscape promoted to architect post

Rebeca Field of SAGE Landscape Architecture & Environmental Inc., has met state requirements for licensure as a registered landscape architect and has been promoted to project landscape architect.

She also will continue as a project manager and an environmental planner for the firm. Field joined the company in 2005 and has eight years of design experience, including landscape design of community centers, roadways, parks, trails, and commercial centers.

She received a master's degree in landscape architecture from the University of Arizona in 2004 and her bachelor's degree in environmental science from Stephen F. Austin State University in 2001.

We are definitely proud of Rebeca!  

the countdown starts

So, this is what we did today - signing the paperwork for the offer on our house.  It was a little underwhelming.

Now if we had done it yesterday, when we originally were supposed to, it would have seemed more momentous.  We had the appointment set up and were ready to sign, but the person from Bexar County came without our paperwork - thinking we still just wanted to discuss things.  We had a private room set up at the library for our meeting, we were in a frame of mind for signing and it would have felt much more formal.  So we were a little shocked (and let down) when the person came with nothing for us to sign.

Today, at our rescheduled meeting, we sat at a table out in the middle of the library, with other people around us and we had to move faster than we wanted to since we had 10 minutes until the library closed.   So, it went rather quickly today and without much emotion.  With our signatures on those papers, though, the countdown has begun on our house.  

I had lunch at Luby's again today with friends from school.  It was so nice visiting with everyone.

Ann, Betty, Linda with her daughter Sarah, Macleta and myself.

Sleet again!

The sleet is coming down pretty hard this morning with the ground starting to turn white from the accumulation of the sleet.  And there is more winter precipitation headed our way!
I took these pictures yesterday, when the weather was relatively warm and the sun was out.

Night-time commotion

Last night, as we were getting ready to get into bed, I heard people talking RIGHT OUTSIDE OUR BEDROOM WINDOW!!!!!!  There was no mistaking that someone was right outside our bedroom.  It was a kind of scary feeling as I went to the blind and tried to peer through a slat.  What I saw when I looked outside just shocked me.  There was a horse close to the tree by our window, and there were two more horses in the yard.  Relieved to know that our neighbor's horses had probably gotten out of their pens, we went to the front window and peered out. We saw people in our yard who we couldn't really recognize leading the horses out of our yard, and in the street we saw the neighbors from two houses down, who also have horses.  In the morning, aside from one of the quail pots knocked over, a few tracks, and a group of daffodils that look like they had been trampled on, there was no sign the horses had been in our yard.

It just made us feel weird to know, that while we were sitting there watching the news, unknown to us, there were three horses hanging around in our front yard.

Appointment has been set

On Wednesday I called Bexar County, and I made an appointment for this coming Tuesday, which is the next step in the buyout process.  At this appointment, we will officially accept the offer and sign the paperwork.

When I called to make the appointment, the lady asked me if I was happy with our offer, and even though we are, there are some things we wanted to bring up with them, in the hopes of getting the offer amount increased a little bit.  Bexar County had told us all along that we should negotiate the offer when we get it. So, knowing we wanted to negotiate for a bigger amount, I really didn't know what to answer her, but I did tell her I thought the offer was fair.  She asked if I would like to negotiate the offer over the phone, and since I wasn't prepared to do that, I told her that it would be best to do it at the meeting, which was to take place at our house.
Well, after thinking it over, we decided we did not want to meet her at our house and thought a neutral place would be better - like the nearby library.  So, Guillermo called her today to change the meeting place and also let her know what we thought was undervalued in our offer amount.  And it was no problem!!  Our offer was increased very favorably and now we feel we are absolutely satisified with it and are ready to sign.  So, Tuesday, 1:30, we sign the paperwork.

Once we sign the paperwork, it will take about 2 months to receive the check.  Then we have approximately two months from that point, to get the house totally emptied out and turn in the keys.  The neighborhood is negotiating with the city to allow us to have as many garage sales as we want, and to waive the permit fee, during these next few months.  The city has indicated that they have no problem with that, so we all will probably have one garage sale a month until  about May.

The red room doesn't look as neat anymore, as we have been making piles down there.  A pile for the garage sale, a pile for storage and a pile to give away.  This is not helping with using that room to figure out how our stuff will fit in storage, but probably starting in March, we'll turn Fernando's room into the place where we'll store all the things we would like to give to family to either hold for us or for them to outright keep.  Right now, we are still in the mode of "Well, maybe we can use this later", so we throw it on the pile to put in storage.  Time will tell whether we will have to get harder on ourselves.

Oh, and took that green Ghana print to Michaels today - it's going to have a black frame.

The Ghana prints

Finally, finally, finally, we have all three prints hanging up that Fernando brought back for us from Ghana. We had gotten one done at a nearby hobby store, and they "claimed" that the other two were too narrow to do. So, I had them do the widest one, and they didn't even frame it, just stretched the print and mounted it.  It's been hanging in Fernando's room for quite a while now.  We think it's beautiful.

I decided to take the other two prints to Michaels and THEY told me there was no problem in framing those narrow prints.  So, I left one for them to do, and when I picked it up, I was so impressed!  It came out beautiful.  It also hangs in Fernando's room.

So I took the last one in to Michael's a week or so ago, and picked it up yesterday, and now it's hanging in our living room.  It's not a picture with the print by itself, but I wanted to show how it fits in with the rest of our living room.  We think it makes a beautiful addition!

We think they are all just beautiful.  The one without a frame, I think I'll take it to Michael's and have them finish what the other store couldn't seem to do.

And what about these cabbages?!??!?!?  These are also from seeds Rebeca gave Guillermo two Christmases ago.  Those things are huge!!  They'll make some delicious cabbage rolls!

The next picture is of a bird feeder that Rebeca gave Guillermo this past Christmas.  When she saw it hanging in a store in Gruene, TX, she knew she just had to get it for him.  At first the birds were scared of it, but the cardinal, especially, likes to eat from it, as do all the other birds now.

I called Bexar County today, to let them know we received the offer and that we were ready to make an appointment to discuss the offer, but no one answered and I had to leave a message.  Hopefully they'll call back tomorrow.

bed is down

Today is Valentine's Day!  Guillermo snuck out this morning and bought some breakfast tacos for our breakfast - they were delicious and what a pleasant surprise that was!!  It made for a very nice morning.

So, today we worked a little on the red room, and dismantled the bed in there.  The room is going to become our practice storage room, so we can see how things will fit when we get our bigger storage unit.

Ok, this is one of the first things we started on.  

The bed is down.

Bookcase emptying out...

We went to my cousin Lydia's wedding that evening.  We had a good time.

starting....

Thursday evening, Guillermo and I finally had a chance to look over the appraisal offer paperwork.  We came up with several questions for the people we are going to have to meet with, and when we were done, Guillermo said that we should probably call them the next day and set up an appointment.  When he said that, I got that feeling that you get when you're driving and you see police lights flashing behind you.  Anyway, I did NOT call them the next day, but the call will need to be made next week.  That call will set things into motion because they'll set up an appointment to meet with us, we'll sign paperwork, it'll be 30 days from then until the closing and  then from the closing we'll have approximately 60 days to leave the house.  But they DID say they would give us more time, if needed.
Friday, I had lunch at Luby's with some friends from Elrod, and after lunch went by Lowe's and bought some boxes.  I guess you can say that is the first thing I did in preparation for the big move.  Bought those boxes.  Really, though, we're going to have to start hitting the stores for boxes because we need TONS more, and just can't be paying for all those boxes.

Betty, Ann and I

Today is Saturday, and it's nice to see the sun again!!!  And also, started working on the bed in the TV room, getting ready to dismantle it.
In the evening, we met John and Angie Fardal at La Marginal Puerto Rican restaurant with some friends of theirs.  Karl, in the yellow shirt, was celebrating his birthday.  After the dinner, we all went to John's house and had cake and enjoyed the rest of the evening.

If only these chocolates were sold here..........

This is all that is left of our Asbach chocolates.  Makes me not want to eat those last two, because then there'll be nothing left, but yeah, it's pretty certain those two little guys will be gone by tomorrow anyway. They are too good to pass up, and we SURELY don't want them to dry out or anything like that.  So, we best take care of them!!

And a few pictures of our daffodils out front.  It was sleeting for quite a while this morning, and that knocked them down a little, but they still look pretty good!

Hmmm, our house....

Yesterday, I went by Elrod Elementary and stayed over an hour talking to the people I used to work with in the office.  It was so nice to be back there for a while.  I even agreed to come by periodically and volunteer some there in the office.  Working - I don't miss at all, but the people I used to work with, that I do miss so I'm thinking volunteering will be a nice way to keep in touch with everyone.

So, knowing that our house is going to be torn down in a few short months makes it a little hard to feel a need to fix anything anymore.  The last repair we did to this house was in October, which was when we noticed the toilet  leaking at its base.  At first we debated whether to spend the money to fix that, but knowing Rebeca and Jason would be staying with us at Christmas, and knowing we'd have plenty of people here on Christmas Day, well both of those things motivated us to spend the money to fix the leak.  And it was worth it.
But since the start of the new year, it has seemed easy to let everything else go.  The shower drips in the tub, the carpet looks really grungy, the refrigerator gathers water again on the inside forming ice on the shelves, the washer doesn't spin that good anymore, and on and on.  Some of it can be good, though.  I'm still hanging pictures on the wall - especially those prints Fernando brought back from Ghana.  Slowly, I'm getting them all framed and when I go to hang them on the wall, I'm not concerned at all if I put the nail in not quite the right place.  Hey, I just take the nail out and move it over or higher or lower.  Who cares how many holes I make in the wall (as long as the hole is still hidden)!

Backyard is getting there

No pictures, but we did do some work on the backyard this weekend.  Guillermo went up to New Braunfels to help John Fardal on Saturday.  They were burning cedar that had been cut on his property.  While they were doing that, I cut all the dead stuff out in the back.  It was a pretty decent day to be working outside since the day was sunny, but it was still quite cool!  When Guillermo got back, he sure smelled smoky!!   He decided to go ahead and try to start up the riding mower since it was still nice outside, and he cut the field just around the garden.
Then today, on Sunday, Guillermo got the riding mower going again and mowed in our backyard.  It's still not pretty out there, but it sure looks a whole lot better than it did.  And in a few days, the forecast is for sleet again, so back into some seriously chilly days.

Thinking of Anthony and Sarah

Anthony and Sarah left yesterday and drove up to Waco.  There was some debate over whether they should stay one more day, or just head on up to Waco and be close to where Anthony needs to be on Friday.  In the end, it was a good thing they decided to leave yesterday, because today it rained the entire day.  It would have been almost impossible to pack up the car in this weather and their drive wouldn't have been as easy.  At least they were in place, where they needed to be, before all this rain hit.   It was nice to have had the time they stayed with us to get to know all of them so much better.  We had fun talking with Anthony and Sarah, and Sarah makes the absolute best peach cobbler ever!   Kyrielle and Adelae are just the sweetest little girls, and it was such a pleasure having them around here.  We were very impressed with how well Kyrielle behaves - she eats so grown-up at the table and seems to like all foods, she minds her parents well, she is easy to play with, and both she and Adelae always seem to be so happy and always seem to have big smiles on their faces.  Which always put big smiles on OUR faces.  We miss them a lot.  And Simon (the cat), yeah, we miss his craziness, too.

Fixed up the front yard - finally.

Well, Harold took off today for Cancun.  I took him to the airport at 9:00, for his 10:00 flight.  He checked in and got through security with no problem at all.  He's going to some interesting places and here's hoping he has a great trip!

When I got back home, I changed into some gardening clothes and went outside and fixed up our front yard. The day was cold (45 degrees) and it was drizzling, but it didn't matter.  The yard has looked terrible since the freeze back in December, and Feb. 1st had been my goal to work in the yard and get it looking nice again.   So I wasn't going to let the cold and rain stop me.  And actually, it felt really nice to have the mist falling all around and, dressed warmly enough, it didn't even really feel all that cold out there.  All the dead plants were trimmed and/or removed, leaves were raked up around the gardens by the porch, the dead vines were pulled off the front fence and the ugly brown canna leaves were cut off.  Looks much nicer out there now.

And now that all the dead stuff is gone, the daffodils are really standing out!!










Next - getting the backyard fixed up!