East Texas Addition Update Spring 2024

Hi, Friends,

How are you? I meant to write a blog post last week but I left my laptop out in East Texas. I could have pulled out my old Macbook but that would have been way too frustrating to add pictures to the post. I have pictures for this post and I think you need pictures. 

We have made progress with our plans to move to East Texas permanently when Bill retires. We have a tentative date and it will be here before we know it. 

If you have been following, we bought a little house out in East Texas in the fall of 2020. We talked at that time about our "five year plan". If we liked the area, we hoped to make it our new home. 

From a relational standpoint we are well settled and have made friends and have found a church home. 

The house, however, is a little small for all our stuff. We will be downsizing some of our possessions but I would like to be able to fit all our pretty and sentimental things. 

We spent a great deal of time last summer chatting about what to do. We had some friends from a company called The Plan Factory come out to dream with us about how to add on to this house. They took our ideas and made them better. 

We picked up the final plans in April so we have been busy in recent weeks meeting with contractors in order to get started. 

There were a couple of things that we needed to do. When I say we. I mean, Bill for the most part. 

We painted the front porch ceiling and posts. I love the fresh clean look of the posts. 

The screen porch in E.T. has been a cat lock so to speak. It is a place where we can come and go and there is less chance of Caroline escaping. At both houses, she hears the click of the lock and she comes running. She's escaped here a couple of times and each time I freak out. With workman coming and going we needed a safe place for her to hang out so Bill enclosed part of the front porch with screening. We can lock her out on it and we also have a bug free place to hang out while construction is going on in the back yard. I can keep my pretty porch decorations for the duration of the construction. This is temporary until we are finished. We are enjoying a new point of view, however. 

We are doing four things to the house. We are enclosing the back porch and carport to add more dining and living space. 

Last summer's unbearable taught me that I need spaces that I can use all year. Two seasons will not cut it. We are building a new back porch which we will screen. It will also have three screened sides and the ceiling will be insulated so that it isn't an oven in July and August. 

We are building a small addition which will give us more closet space, a bigger bathroom and a bigger laundry. 

We are creating a small library nook in our bedroom by taking out a closet and a shower. 

Here is an inspiration picture. This was designed by an architect friend of my cousin. 

Ours won't be this big  and we won't have this many book shelves, 

That gets you up to speed on what we are doing. 

Here is a look at what we are doing to get ready. 

First, we needed to get the propane company move the propane tank. 

That was easily done! 

 I wasn't here when they moved it. When I did arrive I didn't even notice it. It is way more noticeable in the photos. It looks like a giant blimp. 

While I was away, they also decided that a tree needed to be cut down. 

I wasn't happy about losing any tree, but no matter which way we went with the addition, we were losing a tree. I had hoped this one could be saved, however. 

I will have a nice new flower bed. The roots of the tree prevented anything but baby oaks from growing. 

Next, we had to move the shed that was next to the carport in order to get the renovation started. Bill wanted to tear it down three years ago but we needed it to lock up tools. We used it a ton during our first stage of redecoration. 

For about a year, we have asked shed movers and several other contractors if they could move it for us. 

They all said, "no". I can get a brand new shed moved here in a heart beat but no one wants to move an old shed. They would tear it down for me but we still need it for storage until I get a "she shed." 

Our neighbor and his tractor came to the rescue.  We are so thankful for his help. 

Here is a photo of the carport with the shed gone and the shed in its new spot. 

I have to cross quick sand in order to get to it and it needs some cosmetic work but it will do.

Bill needed to remove the old screen from the back porch so they can chip away some and level the concrete. It slopes away from the house to drain water. 

He has also started taking down the ceiling of the carport to see the structure. He thinks it looks fine but our framer will come out and have a look. 

They have also removed the guttering and set it aside so that it can be reinstalled after we get a new roof.  

That is about it for now. 

The plumber comes soon to do the rough in plumbing. Once that happens, it will be time for concrete. 

That is it for now. I hope I wasn't all over the place with this. Thanks for stopping by to see how we turn our weekender into our full time home. 

Heres a peek at our neighbor's free range piggies. 

Let's hope they don't get picked up by a herd of ferrel hogs. 

See you soon! 

(I hope.)

Katie 

East Texas Yard Updates

Hi, My Friends,

Happy Mother's Day. 

How are you? I hope you are doing well.

I thought I'd share an update and some pictures from our East Texas weekend house. Did you notice the Texas flag? That is a new one. 

One of the questions I asked on the day of the showing was. "What is the deal with this soil?" 

I didn't get a good answer. The soil here is very sandy. It's called sugar sand by our next door neighbor because it sticks to everything. We've been better about tracking it into the house. We have indoor and outdoor shoes. The soil here is a deep layer of light colored sand over a clay subsoil. Grass will mitigate the effects of the sand and that is our focus this growing season. 

We have fertilized. It's the rainy season so right now we are getting enough rain but we will water in some of the areas closest to the house when the heat of summer arrives. Here are some before and after shots. 

The previous owners allowed cars to drive up to the front door. The position of the wall blocks seemed to invite guests into a circle around the big tree next to the driveway. 

Bill was opposed to that and quickly put a stop to it. My suggestion was that by moving the blocks it would make the circle less pronounced and therefore there would be less of an invitation to drive right up to the door. 

I moved the wall block border back in February. The image below was taken this morning, May 8th. 

Now the tree bed relates to the bed that lines the front porch. 

That bed around the tree won't be watered so we are filling it with cacti and succulents. Some cacti was already there. 

The rocks that previously surrounded the tree now offer a welcoming entrance to the paths we created through the woods. 

Here is the driveway now. It's filling in nicely after fertilizer and a few plugs transplanted from the raised bed area. Bill was not wild about the wall blocks used as a border but borders are necessary for keeping the sand away from the entryways. We turned the red scalloped edging blocks upside down for a cleaner look. Again, these are so needed to keep the sand at bay. 

We've opted for no edging around the tree with the antique wheel barrow. 

This is the daffodil bed. Once that greenery has died back, Bill can easily mow around this tree. 

Hopefully, we get a little more grass there. 

Our only plants besides the daffs are low growing juniper. These aren't my favorite but Bill loves them. 

I have so much say around here that it's nice when he inserts a strong opinion. These do not need a lot of supplemental watering. 

The bed on the way to the carport is my current problem. It's full of liriope and day lilies but little oak suckers are everywhere. I'm afraid I need to dig everything up and start over. 

We have two severely damaged oak trees after the 2021 winter storm named Uri. 

Texas A&M suggested waiting a year to see how they would leaf out in 2022. 

When I look back on images between 2021 and 2022, I don't see much improvement. 

May of 2021

The lower canopy is much more full. The upper canopy has changed very little. 

May of 2022

We have another one in worse shape than this. A tree man is supposed to come by and have a look to give us an opinion. The concern is dead limbs falling from the trees. A Texas child was severely injured last fall due to a limb that was damaged during Uri. We had a mild winter in 2021 so the sap had already begun flowing to the limbs in order to produce leaves. That sap froze which is what has caused the damage. 

Both of these trees are near power lines so I don't want Bill to trim or take these down. 

Our pine trees are dying at an alarming rate. The canopies turned a rust color after the winter storm but they seemed to rebound and new growth appeared. They can look okay one week and then the next, the canopy is rusty again. Eventually, the tree is dead enough that it falls over. 

According to Texas A&M, the trees were already stressed due to a species of Pine Bark Beetle. 10 days of abnormal freezing temperatures finally did them in. 

Will we lose all of our pines? I don't know. It depends on their stress level before the freeze. If you have been following, you know that the goal was to live in the Piney Woods. Many of the these pines were not native and were propagated by loggers. They were fast growing pines perfect for logging but they are less resistant to disease and intruders. Bill has taken down two of these giant pines. One was in the path of our camper. The other one was in the big back yard. 

 I was nervous about this but he studied what to do and he practiced on smaller trees. 

He made the cuts and the trees fell perfectly. My heart was beating like crazy. 

As the canopies of the pines fall off, I can see more light filtering in the woods which means we will have more natives growing back underneath.  

Right now we are leaving what falls as long as it's not in the path. 

If they annoy me visually, Bill pulls them to "Yucca Circle" to line the path. Cactus and yuccas seem like strange plants to have in this area of the country. We are on the edge of the Post Oak Savannah which might explain it. I'm not sure if they are native or were introduced but that is the reason for the nickname. 

I feel strongly that we will have enough pine logs to line the path in this circle. 

Our neighbor came to dig up the old septic systems and to retrieve the lid to our old septic tank. He then filled in the holes. Hopefully, the grass will fill in quickly. 

The blocks surrounding the old septic were moved to create our fire pit. 

Bill strung some outdoor lights for us. 

We brought out our table and chair set from home so that we don't have to drag chairs down to the pit every time we light a fire. 

These changes are monumental because it officially means that all the eyesores are gone. 

The crumbling path, the dying pear tree, the propane tank and the spirea right out the back door, the exposed sewer hook up for a camper, the old blue septic barrels, the metal stacked on the other old septic, the ugly tan out building. 

This has been a slow process but it's such a great milestone. 

That is all for now. 

Thank you so much for stopping by. 

Katie 

Click the link to our country house page for more stories and updates. 

Country House Christmas Tour 2021

Hi, Friends,

How are you? I hope this finds you well.

We bought a weekend house in East Texas toward the end of last year. 

We decorated it for Christmas but it was so new and we were so busy that I think we didn't really savor it. Does that make sense? 

This year I really enjoyed the decorating process and Bill joined in as well. Bill doesn't embrace much in the Christmas decorating realm. 

Here is a full tour with some images of the rooms you have never seen.  

Bill loves colored lights so we went with those for the exterior. 

Come on in. 

The fireplace is the focal point of the living room. 

We have had the painting for years but I just brought it out a few weeks ago. I really like it.   

The dry sink was also a recent addition. It's a family piece that has recently made its way to us. 

It's been fun to style for the seasons. 

Across from the fireplace is the main seating area. Ideally, I'd love matching loveseats but #supplychainissues.

The dining room is one of my favorite spaces. 

I did an arrangement in a vintage cricket holder! The vintage fishing collectable was found at the market during the Autumn Trails festival in October. I knew it would be darling at Christmas. The paint is a perfect green.  

Friendly Village dishes blend in perfectly here. 

This past summer, I stripped the buffet and repainted it black on the bottom. This was in our dining room at our suburban house. 

The kitchen got some cute woodland touches. 

This room has seen the most changes this year. 

We revamped the laundry room door from a screened door that I found in the neighbor's trash. 
It is on a track system. 

Our room has not changed very much since we got the king sized bed in January. 

The front room is my craft room. This room is small. Rather than have a twin bed that rarely gets used, we opted for a sleeper sofa instead.  

The guest bed was in our room originally but after 38 years, we could not sleep on a queen. 

This room is small too so I'm glad that the queen fits in here. 

The screened in porch is one of our favorite spots. 

Bill put lights on the little cabin for us. He even picked up a tree for the inside. 

The cabin is the next big project. I'll keep you updated on that. 

That is all for now. I hope you enjoyed this look at our cozy little house. 

To read more about this house you can visit this page. 

Katie