Real estate rodeo

Heavens to Betsy, y'all, my head is spinning from wrangling real estate the past couple weeks. We FINALLY got our hill country house on the market. I'm praying a large or multigenerational family needing lots of space and breathing room will come along and fall in love with it. Our hope is that it will sell by the time school starts again in August so we can close the door on that chapter of our lives.

https://vimeo.com/1184125956?fl=pl&fe=sh

*click on the link directly above to see the video of our hill country house*

Meanwhile, here at the lake, we (meaning me) decided that our current house on a little lot with big water views just wouldn't work for us long term. And when I say long term, I mean I can't picture us leaving our sweet little community anytime soon. Though the husband and I agree we could definitely see ourselves buying a second home to be near them if our grown daughters move out-of-state. Which remains to be seen. And I digress, as usual.

In considering other lake house options, we've run across a few waterfront properties that would be a better fit for our needs. But I've just felt so welcomed and at home here in our 'hood that I want to continue putting down roots. Honing my mahjong skills. Leading the Monday morning women's Bible study at our community church. Serving as the women's club vice president. When I say I'm getting involved, you can see I'm serious about it.

Since we want to stay here in our golf community, that meant looking at options which would give us more space for a custom build. And ideally a blank slate to create exactly what we want. We discovered a canal lot, as well as a tear down that has golf course and water views. After us hemming and hawing a bit, unsure about committing to a new build, the canal lot was taken off the market by the owner. That left the tear down, which was in a sticky situation, having a reverse mortgage on it with the elderly widowed owner now residing in a nursing home. 

We were afraid we might have to cool our heels months on end if the bank foreclosed on the tear down. But in a quick turn of events earlier this week, the bank opted for a short sale and allowed us plus a couple other potential buyers to make "best and final" offers. We thought we might be destined for a long wait to see how it would all shake out, whether we'd get to purchase it or not. If it was a no, then we'd trust the Good Lord to lead us to an even better property for us in His perfect timing. 

Lo and behold, we got the call from our realtor a couple days later that the tear down was ours. I've already contacted our designer/decorator back in the hill country to let her know I'll be needing her help soon. This will be her 8th house with me, and I'm happy to have her on board. I contemplated using a local person, but just feel more comfortable sticking with someone who understands my aesthetic and I can trust to steer me in the right direction. I've learned a lot from her since we started working together over twenty years ago, and so I feel like this build process from the design end will run very smoothly. Buckle up, because you'll soon be tuning in to approximately 18-24 months of custom home building posts here on the blog.

An April assortment

We've continued to stay busy this spring, checking things off our to-do list. Last weekend we loaded up our small enclosed trailer with one of our hill country dining tables and six chairs to take to the law school daughter in Dallas. She moved out of her apartment into a townhome with a dedicated dining space, and so we were happy to provide a lovely set for her to use since it was just hanging out in storage. I had gone a couple days before that to oversee the actual move. With her new place ranging over three floors, I was huffing and puffing hauling stuff up down two flights of stairs that seemed rather steep to me. Or maybe that's just my knees and back talking! I was happy to lend a hand since she is near the end of her *LAST* semester, busy working on capstone papers plus prepping for final exams.

While we were gone to Dallas, a late spring cool front passed through the area. In addition to rain, it dropped a couple inches of pea sized hail near the lake house. When we got home and went to put the trailer back at the husband's workshop, I initially thought the white stuff I saw was the guts of some bean bags that had busted apart and been scattered by the wind. But nope... it was just the remnants of the hail storm. 

Last week I sat down and wrapped 180 sets of forks and knives in a napkin and tied them with a yellow ribbon. I'm on the activities committee at our church, and so I volunteered to take care of it in advance of the pancake breakfast we had in-between the traditional and contemporary services on Sunday. After a rainy, hail-ish Saturday, we appreciated a nice cool morning for golf cart church and flapjacks with all the fixin's. 

Finally, I couldn't resist adding a sweet picture of the law student and her med school boyfriend taken earlier this month. They were in Austin attending a wedding, and so it was nice to get a pic of them looking so pretty and handsome for the occasion. It's hard to believe our girl is graduating from law school on May 15, wrapping up her education. As I say on the regular these days - my how time flies!

Here fishy, fishy, fishy

The husband finally got us set up with fishing gear earlier this spring. Sometimes after supper, we'll mosey down to the water and see if anything is biting. I've taken to calling the husband our resident fish whisperer because he's pretty good at reeling them in. This week he landed several little catfish and perch. They weren't large enough to keep, so he tossed them back. Which little man Finn finds quite intriguing, the whole process of catch and release.

We had lunch at one of our favorite local seafood restaurants several days ago. The husband indulged in a big bait of crawfish since they're in season. As you can see below, the mudbugs were quite large. And the husband verified they were quite tasty, too.

A new ride & yeast rolls

Once we moved my husband's parents into our neighborhood at the lake a couple months ago, it became crystal clear that I would need a new vehicle. My SUV was only a couple years old, but it was just too tall for either of his parents to safely get into. At 88 and 89, it's an ongoing concern that we minimize situations where they might fall. To the best of our ability, of course. So that meant shopping to find me a new vehicle.

We started seriously looking about six weeks ago, considering various options. My top choices included several mid-sized SUVs. We checked out the many trim levels, prices and availability. After a few test drives and "sleeping on it", a decision was made. On Thursday, we drove over to Terrell to pick up the winner... a Hyundai Palisade Calligraphy. It's in a sporty silver with dove gray interior, which has historically been my go-to. And it gets great gas mileage because it's a hybrid. 

With my new ride secured, the next day we called up Carvana to sell them my 2024 Yukon Denali. They came to load it up after we signed the paperwork, and it was all a really smooth process. The good news is that my old SUV was worth more than we anticipated, so my new SUV only cost us 1K. Above you can see a pic of them side-by-side when we stopped for late lunch on the way back to the lake house.

Upon leaving the Hyundai dealership, we googled around looking for a place to grab a bite to eat on the ride back home. That's when we discovered a locally owned home cooking place. When they brought out piping hot yeast rolls with butter as our complimentary starter, we were impressed. It reminded me of the old school yeast rolls we enjoyed when I was growing up. My granny was the baker at the elementary school I attended, so this was a home baked blast from the past for me. The refrigerator case of homemade pies sealed the deal for us, and we'll definitely need to return here for another meal at some point.

Easter 2026

We were blessed to have our girls and their guys with us for the Easter holiday weekend, plus the husband's parents for Sunday lunch. The CPA and her husband, plus their fur baby Chorkie, drove up Thursday afternoon so we could hit Canton's first weekend trade days on Friday. 

The moonrise Friday night was just gorgeous, and we enjoyed a bit of stargazing from the back porch, too. Unfortunately, the law student and her boyfriend weren't able to arrive until early Saturday afternoon since they had a wedding to attend Friday night in Austin where he was a groomsman.

Saturday morning, I hopped on over to the church to help set up for the big Easter egg hunt. The kids in attendance really seemed to have a great time with our snacks/activities, and the decor was precious. The Easter bunny even made an appearance to pass out candy and pose for pics.

We decided to try a new local Italian restaurant Saturday night with the younger set, and it did not disappoint. It's always a pleasure to enjoy the company of family while letting somebody else do the cooking. 

We kicked off Easter morning with a sunrise golf cart worship service at what's called "The Point" in our lake community. Afterwards, we came home and I prepped a lunch that featured grilled steaks, shrimp and chicken. The sides were on the simple side: loaded baked potatoes, glazed carrots, corn on the cob, spinach salad, yeast rolls, strawberry cake and lemon icebox pie. And of course the girls got Easter baskets even though they're 25 and 30, because that's how we do it around here. 

We wrapped up a lovely Easter with some boat spotting Sunday afternoon. There were lots of pontoons on the water. Since our rainy Saturday included the arrival of cooler temps, we figure that's why there weren't any takers for jet skiing, tubing or wakeboarding like you'd usually see on a holiday weekend. We did spy a rather uniquely modified older pontoon model cruising past our house. If you look closely at the first pic, you'll see a homemade boat cover that includes a window unit attached to the front of it. It was a truly fine piece of redneck ingenuity I could appreciate as we ramp up to our usual surface of the sun summer temps.

How is it April already?!

It's crazy to me that we're already into full-on spring. After January lasting about a decade, February to April has just whipped by at light speed. And now it's Holy Week/Easter weekend... unbelievable.

We continue to enjoy social gatherings here in our hood. Last Saturday was the Bandana Bash. The food was good and the live band was outstanding. We heard lots of old country, like George Strait and Brooks & Dunn. Then after church the next day we attended a Palm Sunday brunch. Our club really does a great job serving as the backdrop for all these fun gatherings. Thus far in April, the only party I've got on the calendar is American Bandstand. There's no doubt that theme totally dates us, and the community where we live.

In completely unrelated news, we've been on the move in the last week, taking little excursions to go check out SUV options for me at nearby dealerships. I wish I could say I've got my perfect one picked out. But no. And thus Goldilocks (me!) continues her search for the new vehicle that's just right. While we were out looking and test driving, we did sneak in a visit to one of our favorite Texas regional restaurants. If you ever have the chance to eat at a Tia Juanita's Fish Camp, be sure to order the blackened shrimp and crab bread bowl appetizer. 

After a pretty dry spring thus far, it figures we've got a rather rainy forecast for Easter weekend on the horizon. Which means our bunny activities and egg hunt at church where I'm volunteering have been moved indoors. We're hoping the fishing guide we hired for our CPA daughter and her husband doesn't have to cancel on us due to bad weather Saturday. But if he does, I've got a back up plan for us girls to go paint some pottery. The guys will have to find their own fun. 

An entertaining March

This month has been a bit of a whirlwind. You hear folks talk about how they stay busier in retirement than when they were working, and think yeah, right. But I'm beginning to see the truth of it. And I figure that's because you get involved with more social activities when you don't have to pull a 40 hour work week. Plus lots of us are smack in the middle of what they call the sandwich generation. Our last chick to leave the nest is about to wrap up her law degree, and we're wrangling the husband's parents who are knocking on the door of 90. 

The lake house continues to be a delight. The husband has been referring to it as San Diego weather here lately, so we're enjoying lots of time on the back porch. We got the lake pump and sprinkler system turned on again, so the yard is greening up nicely. The azaleas are in full bloom, and just gorgeous. A neighbor on our street has one of the  tallest azalea plantings I've ever seen. And the azaleas bushes in the neighbor's yard two doors down blaze like they're on fire when the evening sun hits them.

The husband's aunt was in town visiting his parents for the past week. We took them out on the pontoon boat twice and they seemed to enjoy checking out scenery from the water. It's not the most flattering pic of me below, mid-laugh, but there ya go. The husband and I were even motivated to do a bit of kayaking a couple days ago. We wrestled our big tandem kayak out of its rack and launched it from the PWC lift, which was super convenient. It was a beautiful late afternoon paddle, even though I cackled at our antics since I imagine we must have resembled Laurel & Hardy with our novice kayaking skills.

With our warmer temps and sunny skies, we've definitely noticed an uptick of boat traffic from our back porch. Recent sightings include my favorite, one of our local sailboaters out on the water. Plus jet skis as well as ski and wake boats. We've even seen folks pulling kids on tubes, and a few wake surfers in action.

Last Saturday, I volunteered to be one of the host homes for our women's club annual uncorked wine tour in the neighborhood. I spent Friday baking five pans of chocolate Neiman Marcus bars and making 130 little plastic shot glasses of whipped Boursin cheese topped with fig preserves and hot honey. These were my sweet and savory nibbles to compliment the sauvignon blanc and tempranillo we served to the six groups that rotated through my house. The prep of cleaning and prepping was a bit nerve wracking, but it was for a great cause because this is our spring fundraiser for the women's club. And I honestly had fun visiting with all of my new friends and neighbors here in the Bay.

This upcoming weekend, we will be attending the bandana bash Saturday night and Palm Sunday buffet the following day. Like I said in my last post, our community is always coming up with fun ways to socialize and celebrate life. I'm so glad the Lord led us here, because it has truly been a blessing to be welcomed with open arms and have this immediate sense of belonging with so many kind people.