Last little bits and pieces

We spent our fourth weekend at the lake and hosted my mother as well as sister and her family. We've got most of the furniture in place now. All I'm missing is the third barstool, a bench for the end of the master bed and side table for the sitting area in our bedroom. Plus a piece of wall art I ordered for the girl's bedroom. But I swear that's it. I don't need to invest another penny in our second home. It would be nice to just go up there and enjoy instead of having to put together/place more stuff.

This week we added a club chair and ottoman to the living room for a bit more downstairs seating.

Last weekend we hung up all of the curtains in the downstairs common areas and it really helped pull it all together. 

I love my picture below. It was painted by a Marble Falls artist who I met at a gallery that showcases local talent. She painted the famous Marble Falls bluebonnet house. It's a bit small for that spot, so it's acting as a temporary place holder, of sorts, until my old Lake LBJ and Marble Falls post card project gets framed and is ready to hang in this location. Then the bluebonnet house is getting hung in an even better place.

I've got the knick-knacks placed. Plus we got the girl's artwork hung in the guest king bedroom downstairs, the older daughter's watercolor and the younger daughter's colored pencil drawing. The younger daughter's painted oars were placed in the stairwell landing.

Thanks to my continued calls and pestering, rather than the quality of their customer service, we finally got wifi in the house so we could stream movies and use all of our electronics. Our new outdoor addition to the house is a stand up paddle board with attachment to make it a kayak. The husband and younger daughter gave it a whirl Friday afternoon in our cove/canal.

Monogram madness

Nothing says southern girl with a new lake house like monogrammed insulated tumblers and foam koozies. I got me, the husband and girls a different shade of blue and personalized font insulated tumbler with closable lid for lake weekends. Coffee or diet soda - pick your poison. Plus the husband got an insulated beer can holder. I also just received the old school personalized foam koozies I ordered with our surname, lake name and crossed oars I've already used in several spots in the house. You'll get the drift by looking at the examples below. Between eBay and Etsy, I swear you can find pretty much anything your little ol' heart desires when you're outfitting a second home.

Lake, rinse, repeat

This was our third weekend in a row at the lake, second weekend after we moved in, and we've still got a few things on our to-do list. But seriously, it's starting to come together. The Friday morning sunrise alone was worth all of the work and sweat equity we've put into this place.

Every drive up/back, the dogs are exhausted after the ride. But not so much that they can't jump up onto the furniture. Or watch out the windows and then bark at the across-the-cove kids out on their paddle board.

Friday morning, before I hustled into our local home improvement store to shop for cushions and light bulbs, I put together a bench for the front porch as well as two barstools. 

Once the husband and girls arrived Friday afternoon, we spackle patched and touch-up painted the walls. Then we hung new curtains on all of the downstairs living, dining and eat-in kitchen windows. It took 18 panels to get them covered, plus three new curtain rods, but it's a huge improvement over the mismatched ones they had, as well as the heinously ugly ones I initially ordered online that didn't look a thing like the picture. We also got seven pieces of artwork on the wall. And I was able to add a fourth shelf to the living room built-ins since the husband found shelf hooks for me to match the existing ones.

On Saturday, we hosted the husband's family for the first time to celebrate Father's Day a bit early. All thirteen of us ate the meal I whipped up, and then the "kids" lounged by the pool for a while before we took them tubing. All in all, it was a fun yet productive weekend at the lake house. I'm still trying to figure out why we didn't purchase a lake house sooner so we could have been enjoying it for years and making some great memories with our families.

The award goes to...

Life is slowly getting back to normal here in Texas. And we'd be in even better shape if folks would use some common sense. But no, lots of idiots rushed out to restaurants, the mall and bars like they were giving away $100 bills for folks to roll up and spread germs. 

After weathering the pandemic lockdown for a couple months, I have to admit I felt leery and concerned when the mask rule was lifted recently. Could I REALLLLLY not wear a mask in public? But thanks to the uptick in diagnoses, we've been put back in masks. Not that I wasn't wearing mine, what with my age and heart condition. Who knows... I might be spreading it unknowingly. And Lord knows I don't want some stranger breathing germs on me when I'm thumping watermelons or getting the husband's clean shirts at the dry cleaners.

When we all went into lockdown, I found myself tuning in to watch the mayor and local judge's news conferences. It wasn't to listen to what these two were rambling on about, but rather to check out the sign language lady. I don't know that I've ever witnessed a more expressive person providing ASL. Check out the faces, y'all - highly entertaining. If there was an award for ASL, this lady would be in line for the top prize!

Inaugural lake weekend

We enjoyed our first family weekend at the lake and boy am I tired. I'm still setting up things. Having things delivered. Waiting for things. Learning all about boat and jet ski ownership. It's a lot. And yet loads of fun to start making these memories with family and friends.

As you can see in the video, the house is slowly taking shape. My new curtains are supposed to arrive by the end of this week. Plus a big comfy club chair and ottoman for the living room, as well as one for the master. And art for the walls. It just looks so bare and unfinished without things on the walls to dress it up.

Thanks to a snafu with the Wifi folks, we won't be getting that installed until July 9. No amount of grousing and talking to supervisors will remedy THEIR scheduling mistake for my initial install that was supposed to happen last Thursday. So aggravating!

Did I mention my adventures in trailering yet? I deserve momma of the year, y'all. The girls were desperately in need of jet skis this past weekend, and the husband was dead set on us getting a specific brand/model. Thanks to the pandemic, PWC have been selling like hotcakes. So I left home at 6:45 am Thursday morning to drive to Houston to sign the docs for two jet skis and then drive them up to Lake LBJ. Thankfully, it was a smooth trip trailering them behind the husband's truck.

Late afternoons and early evenings are really nice on the back patio. The light is really pretty and the breeze is nice.

This was the first time we took the dogs to the lake house, too, so that was interesting. They barked at the next door neighbors. They barked at the neighbor's dogs. They barked at folks passing by in the water. They barked at the ducks and geese paddling around in our cove/canal. Then they discovered a squirrel in the front yard. It was a barking good time for the dogs.

Our lake calendar is booked solid through Aug 9 with family and friends. But hey, that's why we bought it - to enjoy. 

Slowly coming together

Lordy, I've decided I'm getting too old for moving/setting up new homes. Even when I'm not the one doing the bulk of the heavy lifting. We spent all day Thursday getting the stuff I ordered for the lake house up there. Then we spent all of Friday and Saturday setting things up. I'm happy to say it's starting to take shape.

I've got most of the key pieces in place. I did have to order a couple more club chairs and ottomans yesterday for the master sitting area as well as the living room. Plus I made decor runs to Hobby Lobby, Kirklands, Home Goods, and The Home Store both yesterday and today. And yet another trip to our big box superstore for a new vacuum, hand mixer and chopper. 

After working with a decorator on several houses, both new builds and remodels, I've finally got some skills. My only decorating snafu was all of the downstairs curtains. I tried to go with the cheapies and boy do they look it. The color is supposed to be white, but it has this icky lavender undertone that looks awful. So I schlepped those back to the store, all eight of them, and ordered another option. Hopefully this new ecru color will work in the downstairs common areas.

On Saturday, we met the boat concierge at the marina for delivery of our new lake toy. Too bad we only got to enjoy the ride back to the house to get our new baby in its cradle it so we could resume working on furniture set up.

Next item to work on my lake house agenda... something to put on the walls to pull it all together!

After dark trash bin shenanigans

I have no idea if raccoons can do this sorta damage to a large plastic curbside trash bin. Maybe a bobcat, or coyote? But some wild critter is obviously drawn to the aroma of eau de leftovers marinating in the Texas June heat and would like a taste. Thankfully, the garbage tie-down strap I ordered a couple years ago has been doing its job to keep the potential trash marauders at bay.