Independence Day Eve

I love July 4 on the lake. It's all about grilling, boat riding and enjoying time with family. If it was about 20 degrees cooler, then I'd call it a perfect holiday. The one thing you can count on at this time of year in Texas is sweating and the need to wear sunscreen. Plus mosquito repellent. And to reapply both after some more sweating.

Last weekend, the family across the bay from us hosted their annual Texas Adaptive Aquafest. A year ago, I was back at the hill country house and missed it. They set it all up a couple days before, and it looked like a good time was had by everyone who attended. In true nosey neighbor fashion, we broke out the binoculars to get a good look at all of the fun going on across the water from us. 

I had heard from our neighbors about this now annual event last year, as well as the fireworks show they put on at the end of the evening to cap off a wonderful day of water sports. This year the fireworks lasted for a solid twenty minutes, and we had ringside seats from our back porch. It's such a blessing to see folks in our community pulling together to be the hands and feet of Jesus, providing a fun day on the water for folks who might not normally have the opportunity to enjoy time at the lake with their families. God be praised!

Landed a fishing boat

The husband has been talking about getting a fishing boat for months now. He finally made his selection of a zippy 20 ft center console, and picked it up a few days ago. Safely in our second boathouse lift, the husband has been busy figuring out all of the technology. Things like a fancy trolling motor plus Garmin and Hummingbird sonar/live scope. We took it out on its maiden voyage a couple days ago so he could fluctuate speed and RPMs to get it "broken in". And I gotta say it's a pretty sweet ride.

Begone, house

And just like that, our tear down is torn down. They got started last Wednesday, and had everything above the slab demolished and hauled away by the weekend. Today they're working to finish pulling up the rest of the slab. Then they'll move to tearing out the old sidewalk to the water. The dilapidated dock is next on the demo hit list to wrap up the week's work before the holiday weekend.

We're meeting with the pool builder tomorrow to design our splash pool. Then we need to get the next (and hopefully final) round of tweaks to our architect in the next couple days so he can wrap up the floorpan. That will allow us to move forward with elevations and full construction documents, so we can get it all priced out for contracts with our builder. It's a lot to wrangle, but we're motivated to keep the custom home train moving down the tracks to kick off our build in the next couple months, Lord willin' and the creek don't rise. 

Hit and miss cooking

We recently enjoyed a community-wide fish fry our church hosted. As a member of the activities committee, I pitched in to help with rolling flatware, setting up tables/chairs, serving drinks, and clean up. We all agreed it was a really good turn out for a Saturday evening. 

I had originally thought I'd whip up some potato salad since salad, sides and desserts are the standard "covered dish" options for this sort of gathering. But then I figured potato salad would be a popular side, so I made a big batch of pasta salad instead. Unfortunately, that seemed to be the mindset of several other ladies who also brought pasta salad. And thus there was an alarming lack of potato salad options to accompany our fish, which was a bummer. So that resulted in me and the husband eating leftover pasta salad for several days afterwards. Note to self: make potato salad for the annual fish fry going forward.

Unlike my pasta salad, the cake I made was quickly devoured. It's called better than sex cake. However, since this was a church gathering here in the evangelical belt of Texas, I dubbed it chocolate candy bar cake since it included crushed up toffee bars. 

In other cooking news, the husband has been experimenting with his pellet smoker and meat thermometer since he retired. After twelve long hours in the smoker, this brisket pictured above was both tender and tasty. He'll be firing up the smoker again for the July 4 holiday weekend, when we'll be feeding a dozen folks for a couple days. I don't know about you, but I'm a firm believer that meat always tastes better when it has been cooked outside on a smoker or grill. 

Parade of Homes tour

A couple weeks ago, we toured through about half of the 32 new builds included in our local parade of homes. I was pleasantly surprised to run across several features that caught my eye, a number of details I might want to include in our dream retirement custom build here at the lake. The light fixtures below were interesting to me since I'd like to incorporate a few modern iron and/or wood rustic touches.

There were a couple kitchen design ideas that I liked. The first one was particularly utilitarian, putting a paper towel holder in the recessed spot of a drawer above the trash can. Genius, really, to get it off the counter where most folks typically have it. 

Then there were the glass fronted kitchen cabinets where I'm planning to display my vintage collections. Most glass front display cabinets open on hinges that swing outward, left and right. However, these cabinets in the parade home were a single expanse of glass that opens from the bottom. And I was like oh-my-gosh, I love this! It's such a logical thing to do so you can see the entirety of what's being showcased behind the glass. But it honestly wouldn't have dawned on me to have the cabinets constructed this way until I saw it in the parade home. 

This accent tile below in the back of a shower at one of the houses caught my attention. It's such a fun leaf shape that I think would a unique select in one of the four bathrooms we've got to design.

I had already decided to include a casual dining nook in our retirement lake house. Then we ran across the one below in a parade home, and my idea was confirmed in all its cool and practical glory. And I gotta admit I'm kinda surprised we only saw the one because I think they're a great use of space. I like that it provides bench seating, but you can also pull up chairs to fully maximize the number of dining spots available for larger gatherings. Plus storage, y'all. The whole set up is a must-have for me.

This wet bar below was in the entertaining "barn" space of a design home out in the country on some acreage, and I thought it was really interesting. Such a typical Texas touch, too. However, this wasn't the only house where they had backlit a natural stone countertop or wall. I'm not sure yet if it would be a good fit for our wet bar and the direction I'm taking, but I do think it's a rather unique and kinda artsy option to consider.

Fishing boat for the 4th

The husband has been talking about buying a fishing boat since he retired six months ago. After researching models, contemplating accessories, considering our needs and where it will be stored, he finally chose one earlier this week. We made the hour long drive over to a boat dealer in the cute little town of Gladewater, which has dubbed itself the antique capital of East Texas. 

The owner's grandfather opened this boat business in the early 1950s, and they specialize in fishing boats. The husband crawled around the one he had honed in on below, and asked lots of questions. After a bit of wrangling to get the right accessories for fishing, including some fancy trolling motor and live scope, we'll be able to pick it up next weekend. Which means we'll have it for the holiday when we'll be hosting the younger set that likes to fish with all the bells and whistles. The fishies on our lake better beware, because we're coming for ya!

Permission for demolition

It has taken more time than we imagined, but last week the husband and I finally purchased what we've been referring to as the tear down house. After closing the deal at the title company the seller chose to use in a nearby town, we hit one of our favorite fusion restaurants. They do an excellent job of mixing Cajun and Tex Mex cuisine. Since I was driving, the husband celebrated with something called a gator bite drink.

We were supposed to buy this property the day after Memorial Day, but the title company and owner needed more time to get the paperwork done and unload the house. Granted, we wouldn't have minded if this sweet little 1963 convertible Corvette seen below had been left in the garage for us. But alas, they got it running and away it went. 

Though we didn't get to keep the zippy old Vette, we did run across a cool vintage water ski as well as some golf clubs that I might use for decor in our dream retirement house we're still busy designing. With the HOA approving our application to tear down the house, now it's just a matter of getting the electricity and water disconnected from the source so the demolition folks can do their thing.

We continue to make tweaks to our house plans with the architect we hired. He has been a quick study with our vision, and does a good job of listening to what we want, as well as getting revisions to us in a very timely manner. I think that by the time the old house has been removed from the site over the course of the next month, that we will have our house plans edited to our liking and contracts signed so we can kick off the build in early fall.