Flooring

There are two things that need to be redone immediately: the floors and the kitchen. I'll talk about the kitchen another day...

The previous owner put down this plastic wood, as I like to call it.

It has to go.

Initially I thought that we would do the entire house in bamboo and cork, but after talking to a lot of people and researching bamboo online, we decided that those weren't our best options. I found some southern yellow pine flooring reclaimed from the lumber of old buildings in North and East Texas: http://www.oldtexasfloors.com/Southern-Pine-Flooring.html. It's cheaper than the bamboo in its raw form, but we will have to have someone install it for us (we found a guy named Chuy that'll do it for $2/sq.ft). Here's 500 sq. ft of the 1000 that we will be getting:

Today we are going to a tile flooring auction to hopefully purchase the 350 sq.ft. or so of tile that we will need to replace the crappy stuff that is in the kitchen and sunroom. I'm not sure how the whole auction thing is going to go down, but I'll be sure to keep you posted.

House 2 for 2 and 2

After 2 months of searching for a home in Long Beach, Chris and I found our new home-to-be in Austin in just 2 days. The first day of hunting was back in June when we were in town for an exploratory visit. August 2nd, the 2nd day in town as newbie Austinites (well, I'm the only newbie really--Chris and the cats have lived here before) we did day number 2 of hunting and found 2 houses that we loved and could see ourselves living in happily. One was a beautifully done turn-key in Crestview with nothing but a mud and concrete slab of a yard, the 2nd was 4506 Oakmont, a 1953 house with a great layout and beautiful landscaping. After much debate, we went with house #2 due to its great neighborhood in central Austin, award winning elementary school, superior layout, and intimidatingly fabulous yard.

It is with that, that I introduce 4506 Oakmont Blvd: House #2 for Amy, #1 for Chris, where 2 humans and 2 cats will reside.