New House Update

After leaving Goose Island State Park at the end of December we were supposed to spend January - March volunteering at S. Llano River State Park.  We decided that we really needed to get some things accomplished at our new house so we cancelled our S. Llano River plans.  Turns out, it was the right decision.

At the end of December, we had a little snow!  We rarely get snow in this part of Texas. It wasn’t much and it melted almost immediately, pretty typical [but wait, there’s more].

You can see a little bit of snow 

on the back of the chair.

I’ve started getting the “yarn barn”, as Mark likes to call it, fixed up.

 Going to need more yarn.

We have spent a lot of time in the fenced-in back yard.  More mulch was ordered and spread:

Mark has planted 38 shrubs and trees (for bird food and shelter):

Most of our remodeling and upgrading efforts have been in the kitchen.  Mark replaced the kitchen sink with this very nice new one. 

He also installed a water filtration system.  The water here is really good but we didn’t know that.  Mark purchased the filtration system before we moved in and, since he already had it, he put it in.  It’s a good thing there are more than enough cabinets in the kitchen because this beauty takes up a lot of room! The good water is even better now, and we're drinking much more water than we have previously. A good thing...

He also installed a microwave vent hood:

The dishwasher worked great and cleaned better than any dishwasher I have ever had but, it was very loud.  I found out that there are silent dishwashers!  So, we ordered a new dishwasher. 

This might be a clue as to why it is so quiet:

Old dishwasher:

New dishwasher: 

There is a lot of insulation involved in the new one.  It really is silent. If there wasn’t a timer on the front it would be hard to tell that it was working.

All we have left to do in the Kitchen is replace the refrigerator.

One of our biggest projects and one that we had to hire out was to turn one of the bath tubs into a walk-in shower.  Several months ago I slipped stepping out of the shower and tore my meniscus (yep, a surgery date coming soon).  We hired Safe Shower out of San Antonio.  They did a wonderful job.  It turned out great and only took 1 1/2 days from start to finish. 

Old bath tub:

New shower:

So here we are enjoying our new home and are very glad to be here.  Especially when the biggest snow storm to hit this area in over 30 years came through! We had several days of sub-freezing weather, with lows of 5 degrees and 7 degrees on consecutive mornings. 

We were very lucky to have never lost power or water during the 4 days we were covered in snow. 

We had plenty of food for us and the birds.

Mark filling bird feeders.

One week later our temperatures are back up into the mid 70’s, the sun was shining and things are back too normal.

Another project was to rent a stump grinder.  You might remember we have plenty of experience from our volunteer work at Martin Dies State Park [see our Blog from December 29, 2017 - What A Grind].  There were a few stumps along the drive way that have to come out.

 

We’re having a new driveway put in soon.  More on the reason why and some exciting news coming (hopefully) soon.