Hoarding experiences

Well, we've started to make the rounds of all our favorite places (and people). My heart was filled with joy at a visit from my bestest friend Lauren. We had a few hours to visit some Austin institutions- Azul, Uncommon Objects, P&K grocery (pictured above, right before we devoured an amazing hot dog and lemonade feast), the Art Building at UT where we spent many a torturous hour. Visiting all these places with Lala, who's lived in Boston for several years now, makes me realize that 'you never step in the same river twice' as they say. All the places are changing, or maybe it's us that has changed, and while Uncommon Objects once felt like home to me, I now feel very much removed from it like it wasn't me at all that sold antiques there. Tim and Lauren have changed, too, traveling all over the world, influencing the architecture of China and Brazil, managing photo shoots in New York and beyond... We are becoming adults, making a mark. So far from the wide-eyed, caffeine-infused kids who sat in a New Orleans coffee shop trembling with excitement about taking on the world.

Kyle and I have also been making the rounds of eateries- The Omelettry shown here.

So the boxes are piling up, but not fast enough. 4 days left to get all the chaos shoehorned into cardboard. Still much left to do with the cat situation, but I'm trying to be Zen and hope that it all falls into place at the last minute.

We fly out of LA on the 13th. At least it's not a Friday. I'm praying for no worker strikes or terrorist-induced security snafus.

Bureaucratic snafus

The preparations have really kicked into high gear at this point. I keep finding myself in the situation of, "Oh, yeah, I forgot to figure out -----". Fill in the blank with a major, life-affecting situation. Setting up banking in the The New World (TNW). Transferring gobs of money to TNW. Getting our cats shipped to TNW. Which is, By doG, the most amazingly frustrating part of it right now! We can't book *our* flights until we get their flights secured, which means basically going back in time to get an Import Permit that takes 6 weeks. Hopefully I can bribe the Minister of Ag to expedite it.

We have exactly 13 days to pack up all our belongings (making sure they fit in a 20'container) and buy all necessary supplies, Ikea items and shoes ;). Then a few more days to ship a motorcycle, say goodbye to our loved ones, make preparations for paying our taxes for the year, blah, blah, blah. I'm sure it seems boring from the outside, but raw and harried from the inside.

On the upside we may get to stay in a friend's beach house north of Auckland over Christmas, assuming we make it there by then. I'm pretty sure we can still get Air New Zealand Premium Economy (like Business class, top floor of the plane, suede reclining seats and free champagne) tix, which is so preferable for that long of a journey. I almost can't bear thinking about going economy for 12 hours. That must sound ridiculously posh.

Off to sort out ... everything.

SOLD!

In less than 24 hours our house has a contract on it for $4K over asking price. Closing is set for Dec. 15th. Wow, it's really happening, and very close to the timeframe that we thought.

Now, how do we pack all our stuff into a 20' container?

So tired.

We've been burning the midnight oil, and it's finally showing. Both on the house and on our faces. We're *finally* listing the property, and the photographer said she thought it would be snapped up within the week. More later, out agent is on the way with the For Sale sign!!

On the ephemeral nature of life

So we decided to take another trip down to Port Aransas since the surf was 'epic' as they say. The whole trip was really wonderful, one of those rare times in life when everything seems somewhat magical. On the trip down, we drove through a snowstorm of butterflies. Not just a few times, but almost the *whole* way. As we walked out on the pier that night they landed on our hands and heads, and fluttered softly past as we walked in the misty dusk. We stayed at the Tarpon Inn, an ancient and cool former Civil War barracks, and walked to dinner across the street (grilled scallops and salad with blue cheese and sundried tomatoes, yum). Our room had no TV, and extra soft and fluffy bedding on a 1700's wood bed. It seemed luxurious to just lay there and read the new copy of Dwell. The next morning at 7, we headed to the beach and it was littered with the dying bodies of countless flutterbies. In vain I picked a few off the wet sand to 'set them free' in the wind, until I realized that their time on earth was almost over.

Kyle had a great time in the waves, getting good ride after good ride. I like pier surfing because I can walk out and talk to him as he paddles out, and see exactly what's going on. I got some good shots and video, and had a great time in the cloudy morning.

Luckily our house is nearing completion! Wait, maybe I spoke too soon- we've still got a couple weeks of hard work left. Although we're pretty pleased that the bathroom turned out so well. You probably can't tell from the picture, but the woven vinyl Chilewich flooring looks great with the metal sink stand and tile. We love the tiny tiles above the sink, and it was so easy!! Tino obviously loves it too :). We learned some things about reinstalling toilets, and overall are feeling full of pride in our reno talents. Our neighbor Peter is finishing up the new privacy fence tomorrow, and Nolan and Joanne are helping us install new drywall in the dining area, and a new ipe deck in front of the front door. My p's are coming down again to help with the rest of the exterior work. At this point we're hoping Halloween sees us with a For Sale sign in the yard. Maybe a trick-or-treater will want more than mini Snickers.

Hey! I just realized I should check on the comments made to this blog! Oops, can you tell I'm not so web-savvy? Thanks for all the encouragement Jeff, Christi and Chris!! I really can't explain how weird and wonderful it is to be meeting people over the internet who are zillions of miles away. And reading you guys' blogs has been a really great way to get prepared for the move. As soon as I figure out how to put your links in the sidebar, I'll add 'em (if you want). Can't wait to land and really meet all you guys :). Strangely enough Kyle and I ran into our friend Amy yesterday at the local sandwich shop- she and her family are moving to NZ as well. The world is getting so small....

We started packing some boxes today and moving them to our storage unit. Weird. It's starting to sink in that we won't be living in this house any more. I really thought I'd live here for the next 30 years- ha!

I guess I'm already beginning to feel like a citizen of the world instead of a resident of Texas. We'll see how long it takes me to get gut-wrenchingly homesick, like I did as a kid when someone other than my mom would take me to school, and again when I went away to college in Boston. This time I'm taking my family unit (husband) with me, so will that make it any better? We'd better have some chitlins fast, or adopt a kiwi orphan.

Tile, tile, more tile

Wow! What a difference a day makes! Joanne and Nolan helped get the bathroom tile in (still waiting to put the little glass tiles in the band- we've got a pro-tiler friend who's stopping by later to do that tricky bit). And the hearth is done. Looks so holiday-like with all the lit candles that I'm getting nostalgic already for the big American holiday season. Too bad we'll miss Christmas here :).

We got another skip (Kiwi for dumpster) and started filling it with tons of bathroom debris etc. We're taking down the drywall on the north wall of the living room due to major cracking, and replacing that, so it won't be too hard to max out the skip quick. We're so glad to have Kyle's parents here to really light a fire under our tushes.

Next major hurdle is figuring out the vent hood over the stove. Whew.

Progress is always preceeded by toxic dust

Lots has been happening this week. We demo'd the bathroom and built a new storage and laundry area. Got the tub all buffed out (looks like new!), the new window in (second one, first one was ordered wrong, then broke) and the new hardibacker in place for tile. Some of the walls have been prepped for texture, which is the next step (Kyle dry sanded the walls, which coated everything with an inch of dust, including his eyebrows and hair- now I know what he'll look like at 70 :) I think we'll be wet sanding the remaining ones).

Good thing the tile experts Nolan and Joanne are finally arriving in Austin this weekend to help!! My parents came up last weekend, and we really got a lot done in a day and a half. Gary singlehandedly finished up the exterior paint while Kyle patched the carport roof. Sibyl potted and planted til she was pooped. And she made the best blueberry cobbler ever from my aunt and uncle's blueberries. Yum.

Today the wonderful kitchen counter went in, which I thought would be a relatively dustless process- wrong. They cut the hole for the sink in the driveway, and did some drilling in the house, too, which made it look like a bad day in Los Angeles in here. Mix that with the polyester resin adhesive fumes and you've got a wonderful cocktail that leaves your mouth gritty and your throat burning, not that I stuck around long. We love the result, though, thanks Denise!

I thought about posting several days ago when I was in a horrible mood, but decided against it. I recently read a post about someone who has already moved to NZ, and they said that the emotional ups and downs were killing them. Mostly it was losing the self-esteem boost of having a job and feeling like a competent member of society. That feeling, mixed with being absolutely *sick* of renovating was really washing over me. Somehow it seems like this phase of our lives will go on forever, and I can't really seem to find the motivation... all my get-up-and-go got up and went. I honestly don't think I could do it without Kyle and I's parents help at this point. Which really scares me that we're moving so far away, and we've still got plenty of hard challenges ahead of us- possibly building another home, having a child?!? Luckily Kyle can usually bouy me up when I feel down and vise versa. And we've met so many wonderful people who are actually *also* moving from Austin to NZ! Just yesterday in line at Central Market I met another young woman seriously looking into it. Maybe it'll be easier than I think....

Same ol', same old

This week has basically been a Groundhog Day (movie with Bill Murray) of last week- more kitchen work, more surfing. We headed down to Port A with our friend Tim to catch some more waves. While there we stuffed ourselves with crab-stuffed flounder, made some wonderful new friends (Joe and Jill), and generally wore ourselves out with surf and sun. Wow, imagine if life could be like this all the time- oh, wait, we're not actually working right now. Spending 8 hours a day at a job really cuts down on this type of activity.

Looks like our passports with NZ visa stickers have finally arrived. It's still a strange thing to think that we'll have a whole new... everything... by Christmas.

A few more improvements.

So it probably seems like we're moving at a snails pace around here. In our defense, we had to go to the coast for 2 days to catch some waves. Luckily we returned refreshed (and sunburned), and Kyle knocked out the shelves on either side of the stove. They still need the wood panels behind them, the Zodiaq countertop and the kickplate/foot cover, but it's totally got us excited! Our countertop slab should be in tomorrow and they can come do the template and get it installed pretty soon! Too bad I sunburned the crud out of the tops of my feet- just when my hip muscle had gotten back to normal. I should just get used to hobbling around the house like an 80 year old. Who knew swollen, crispy foot-tops could put such a crimp in your stride.

We get to go see my friend Pati's house this weekend- this is the house I would *love* to inhabit. Check out the pics at http://miesandcarrots.com/, you have to scroll way down past the treehouse article.

We've also been able to get alot of our stuff sold either through craigslist or shoppin' it around town. It feels great to lighten up, but wow, there's still tons left.

In the pic of Kyle he's sitting in a chair that had washed up on the beach, next to a 50 gallon drum (which he then log rolled down the beach). You find the weirdest things on San Jose Island. This was actually from a previous trip.