Sunday, March 24, 2013

A long, long time ago...

I was sharing a story with someone recently and I vaguely remembered blogging about it. So I had to go and look it up in my previous blog(s)... For my new friends, I've had a couple of blogs before this one... 

Sweetbriar Cottage was my very first blog and started when we lived in Colorado.

Then when we moved to Texas, I started Casa de Sweetbriar.

And evidently I had at least one other blog (but I do not remember much about it).

So I guess I have a love/hate relationship with blogging!

Scrounging for the goods...

The house we are buying was built in the 70's... and it shows! Terazzo tile, wood floors

dark old cabinets, brown vent hood, scalloping on the cabinets. I love vintage-y things. So a lot of the furniture we are buying (used) is retro.

We've been trolling craigslist every. single. day. And garage sale-ing for the past 2 weekends. Because we are also trying to sell our truck and it's such a huge beast to be driving around, we have rented a car most weekends we plan on doing a lot of driving around. So it's been fun filling the back of our Fiat with our finds... 

3 chairs in the back!

We have had to go back and pick up a few things in the truck.

Some of our finds include...
major score!

to be painted...

orange chairs are hard to find on craigslist!



We plan on painting the inside of the house soon after we move in. We are now lacking a bed (which we are buying new), washing machine and at least more dresser/"chester drawers" (yes, we've seen them listed like this). I have plans to paint all of the wood furniture we are buying but that will happen on down the road. Walls are a must first!

We are so happy we sold most of our belongings as this is fun starting over from scratch! Plus it gives us something to do while we continue to wait! We are getting really good at waiting! =)


Friday, March 22, 2013

Friday Fifteen...

Things I'm looking forward to being back in a sticks and bricks...
 
1. Garage with door openers (we haven't had this since January 2009) 
2. Garbage disposal (haven't had this since January 2009) 
3. Dishwasher 
4. Space to spread out when cooking
 
5. Different rooms to spread out 
6. Privacy in the backyard 
7. Immediate and consistent and plentiful hot water 

8. A fridge and freezer that I don't have to rearrange every time I take something out.
 
9. Room to have people over (even if the weather is bad)! 
10. A closet tall enough that my clothes don't get wrinkled on the bottom 
11. A library card 
12. Consistent good internet 
13. Drying my laundry on the clothesline 
14. Fresh eggs from our chickens 
15. A bed I can sleep with my husband in... 
 
Back in September I shared what I was missing . I'm happy to say, I'm not missing much any more. The rest that I was missing will be fulfilled next week when we close on our house! We have experienced a bit of orange (hook 'em!) since we arrived back in late Fall... Have enjoyed being able to visit with our family and friends in person... I've eaten some WONDERFUL Mexican food pretty much on a weekly basis (as I wished)...
Delicioso breakfast tacos 3/$3

Migas! 
Combo plate: cheese enchilada, taco, rice and charro beans
 
and been to Torchy's several times (today for lunch was absolutely divine)... 
Torchy's Baja Shrimp taco

Green Chile Queso... the best queso eva!
 
and LOVE shopping at HEB

 We are loving being back in our home state! And really looking forward to our next adventure and seeing what all it holds for us!

Monday, March 11, 2013

Movin' on...

to our new adventure! Small town living!

We've put a contract on a house in a town with a population of around 6000 people. We both grew up in small towns and before our road trip adventure lived in a very small town but came to the 'burbs of Austin to do all of our shopping and most of our dining (although our little town did have its share of great places to eat - read MEXICAN FOOD). But it's been a while since we lived in what we call a self-sustaining small town (has everything we NEED to live with no true need to drive into the big city). Our last house was only about a 20-minute drive here so we've visited often and have always loved this little town.

After much drama on an offer on a house on an acre just outside the town, we put an offer on an older home inside the city and they've accepted it! The one-acre house outside of town? We found out at the last minute that the HOA "rules" didn't allow chickens? Really? But we can have chickens in town...



We have a quick closing date (20 days!) and are having fun browsing craigslist for furniture (we have none). Yesterday we went and saw 4 items at different places/homes and bought all four of them! So we now have a couch, chair for the living room, coffee table and lawn mower! The only pieces of furniture we kept from our previous home (stored at my parents house) are family treasures - a shelving unit that was my Grandma's and a hope chest and little hallway table that was David's mom's. We also have some smaller unique items that we saved that would have been hard to replace. We got a storage unit to hold all of the "new stuff" until we can move in.

The house as far as we can see is in great shape... needs paint and "our stuff" but it has great wood floors in the main living areas... gorgeous terrazzo tile in the entry and lots of character. And we can have chickens (one of our true desires) again. It is also within walking distance to HEB, Whataburger! and several other places. Notice how I list the important things first!

We've been through the house-buying/selling process enough to know that it's not a done deal til everything is signed, so here's hoping it all goes through!