These correspond to this and this.

I forgot to note the mysterious box above the vent hood. My guess: it’s Hoffa. I wanna be there when they bust it open.

We got the demolition permit today, construction permit is tomorrow morning, and tomorrow afternoon, they are going to start pouring piers.
I better get some “before” pictures.

Still talking about the details last night. We lowered some of the countertops to 32in for Christiane’s comfort. She had some brilliant ideas about the little stretch of lowered countertop next to the sink: one half pull-out trash and recycle and one half open shelves.

Done. Not much to report. We brought youngest boy with us. He ate rasins and had a minor flip out. I was out of town for three days and Christiane has been home with him so when we look at him we don’t see the same child. I see cutie-pie-dumbell-wanna-fly-like-batman and she’s just waiting for his head to spin around. So, maybe it was a major flip out. Hope I didn’t sign something I shouldn’t have.
Can we have our dumpster now?

We were not meant to close on the loan today. First we went to the bank. This is not where you go, you go to the title company. Then, when we were less than halfway through the paperwork, Ace shows up hugging a big box of Cheese Nips (orange hat and shirt to match) and notices that our bank put the wrong amount on the loan. Lame. And too late to fix it today. Better luck tomorrow.
(2 points go to Ace telling us that we were about to give him too much money and -2 points from the bank for saying it didn’t matter.)

Ace stopped by this morning to pick up the last of the permitting paperwork. He needed a pic of what was to be demolished, and we didn’t have a pic of the carport and storage readily available, so he ran over and took one.
Look at our dumpy little carport!

I mean, our house isn’t really dumpy, I swear, but seeing both on paper and in my head what it will look like has definitely skewed my vision of what it looks like now. I feel like every flaw stands out and waves its arms and announces itself with glee. See how the storage leans severely to the left? See? SEE???

This is a concept home in a new neighborhood called Agave in East Austin. I like the variety of depth of the front elevation and the contrasting angular nature of the roof lines.
Unfortunately, most of the floorplans of the homes designed for this neighborhood seem to be rather clunky. They remind me of apartments I have lived in. This seems to be because the lots are extremely narrow (50×100 in most cases). This forces the homes into a long, narrow hallway of a building.
But there were other details I noticed, like how the living/dining/kitchen areas are all open to one another, something that doesn’t really work when kids are watching cartoons in the livingroom and you’re trying to have adult conversation (or just some quiet time) in the kitchen. Also, most of the homes don’t have a “public” bathroom, or if they do it is located in an odd spot (the one I’ve highlighted actually has a nicely located half-bath, one of the few).
I love how all of these houses have lots of windows, but in the Texas summer heat we really have to watch window placement. David and worked hard to come up with a design that allowed as little heat into the house as possible on the southwest wall of the house. The glass windows and doors leading to the backyard will be double paned, low-E, and the rest will have screens and/or awnings.
Looking at other house designs, after spending 7 months designing our own, has given me an appreciation for truly efficient, usable (or livable) design.
I recommend Small Houses and The Very Small Home if you are trying to get away from the faux efficiency of designs featured in The Not-So-Big House (note to Susanna Susanka: 3000sf is big, for real).
Click on the pic for details.

So I took the paper over to the bank today. I dropped it off with the sweet lady at the front desk. She’s sweet, but I have issues about this kind of stuff. I want it to be like in a movie where she jumps up and runs it to the proper person immediately, while the entire foyer full of people breaks into a song-and-dance number focused on the song-and-dance routine of remodeling a house and the bureaucratic paper process that naturally accompanies. Maybe there is even someone dressed up as “the paper,” kind of like Bill up on Capital Hill in the old Schoolhouse Rock cartoon.
Yes, I ate bad fish last night.
Anyway, more waiting, and with David out of town, I don’t think there will be a lot of “expediting” going on. The only problem with his name being on all of the paperwork and not mine is that I am like the cute but powerless secretary… or barefoot and pregnant wife.

Quoted directly from the original deed of our house (some parts illegible).

No part of the premises or property above described shall ever …….occupied or owned by or held for, or rented, leased, sold, …….conveyed and or otherwise become the property of, or ….. use or possessions of, any person or persons other than White persons of strict Caucasian blood; provided, this covenant shall not prevent occupancy of servants quarters by domestic servants of a different race or nationality employed by an owner or tenant on the premises.

Even thought these provisions are illegal today, they still taint the neighborhood. I wonder when I meet or see original owners, how they felt at the time. Maybe this is a small lesson in complacency with unfair systems. I’ve shopped at Wal-mart and I’ve owned a few gas guzzling cars. I wonder what people will think of me when I’m an old man.