HEADING TO HEATH: DALLAS CONSIGNMENT STORES I HAVE LOVED

That Was Then

My husband has always loved consignment shopping.  Over the years he’s found some consignment store jewels.  My mother, a child of the Depression, looked down on anything that wasn’t brand new.  I’m somewhere in-between.  Some of my favorite clothes have been hand-me-downs from Mom and Aunt Edie, but when it comes to home furnishings, I always thought new was better, unless you bought bonafide antiques.

This is Now

We have most of the furnishing we need to move into the new house.  I’ve warned Bill that after we move in, it’s a whole ‘nother ballgame, but that ballgame may take a few decades.  One thing we do need now is  formal dining room furniture.  I went out to all the local furniture stores looking for a brand-spanking new dining room suite.  After awhile, I threw my hands in the air in a gesture of helplessness.  It didn’t matter what the price tag was, you just can’t find real furniture anymore – or at least the good furniture my mom and my aunts taught me to appreciate.

Bill suggested we try the consignment stores.  Since I couldn’t find anything at the other stores, what did I have to lose?  We went with two things to buy.  One was a cabinet to use as the vanity in a powder room and the other was something for the dining room.  I made a list of possible venues.  Here are  some you might enjoy.  I’ll list them in the order in which I visited them, which was geographical from my house in Wylie.

The Consignment Embassy*

This upscale consignment store is tucked away in a Richardson shopping center called The Shire near the intersection of Central and the George.  We’ve sold some items through them and we pass them frequently in our many trips between Wylie and Dallas.  It’s a small store, but they have gorgeous stuff.  You know the kind of place where you really want to back a truck up to the loading area to get one of everything, even if you don’t need any of them.  This place is so snazzy, you’ll have to pinch yourself as a reminder that it’s a consignment place.

The prices range from ridiculously high to ridiculously low.  They have beautiful chandeliers, but we considered the prices to be prohibitive.  At the same time, they were virtually giving away an Arabian silk rug we are still kicking ourselves for not buying – even though we had no idea where we’d use it.

We did find a dining room suite that we really liked, but it was our first place to look, so no way we were going to buy it on the spot.  I’ll go ahead and tell you that the table and chairs remained at or near the top of the list and we made several trips back to the shop in the ensuing weeks.  More about that later.

As far as the staff is concerned they range from detached to ice queen.  Ice queen was there the first day we visited.  We managed to slip in, fall in love and slip out without so much as a “how do you do.”  Perhaps that works well in the consignment business.  I didn’t like it so much.  There is another lady there some times.  She’s friendlier, but leaves you to your own reconnaissance until you indicate you need a little encouragement.  Then she’s fine.  More about that later.

Isn’t consignment shopping fun?  I’ve run out of words for the day, but I’ve still got a lot of shops to cover.  So please come back next week.  We’ll start at Estates Etc.

*I’d give you a link to their website, but it’s down, it’s been down since we started looking weeks ago and it’s still down, but the ice queen doesn’t seem very concerned about it.

Amazing NorthPark
It’s no secret.  I love NorthPark. It opened in 1965, about a year before I started calling Dallas home. In those days it only boasted three anchors: Titche-Goettinger, Neiman Marcus and JC Penney’s.  It’s come a long way, baby!

The So-Called Competition

Since 1966 a lot of malls have been built in Dallas.  Most of them aren’t even here anymore.  Take Prestonwood for instance.  Even with my extreme love for NorthPark, visits to Prestonwood took precedence for a few years.  Now the enclosed mall is gone and a sprawl of shopping strips loosely tied together has taken it’s place.  And Valley View?  Don’t blink or you’ll miss it’s passing.

The White Arches

Hubby needed to replenish his sock supply and one of our Christmas presents was a Macy’s gift card.  Last night, we were near the intersection of Central and The George on house-furnishing business, so Collin Creek Mall was a natural destination.  My how the mighty have fallen.

I was struck with nostalgia as we approached Macy’s.  Surrounding the exterior are white arches framing a painted mosaic.  I wished with all my heart we were visiting Sanger Harris.  That’s who the white arches were built for.  My mom worked at the competition, Titche’s (which became Joske’s, which became Dillard’s), but we loved Sanger Harris (which became Foley’s, which became Macy’s).  I’m here to tell you, Macy’s ain’t no Sanger Harris.  For that matter, Dillard’s isn’t Titche’s either.

I Remember Collin Creek Mall

Collin Creek opened in the 80’s as a shopping wonderland.  A man-made creek replete with fountains flowed through it’s two stories.  A wing of the mall was a “village” of small boutiques.  One of the anchors was Lord and Taylor’s, a favorite retailer of my mom.   Collin Creek used to have my favorite Godiva boutique, so an errand to buy a gift often turned into a shopping spree.  That’s not the case any longer.

Mediocre Macy’s 

Near the entrance was a moat of dirt covered with cigarette butts.  I’m assuming the mall employees pop out there to grab a smoke, keep the grass from growing and denude the shrubbery.  That must also be where they throw out their gum, because black dots covered the sidewalk in front of the glass doors.

Once inside we were surrounded with the elegance of designer names and exorbitant price tags, but this was Macy’s so the price tags are all smoke and mirrors.  You get this much off for this and that much off for that.  Who knows what the final amount will be?  The employees seem as confused as the customers.  I saw a frustrated customer shove a stack of coupons at a clerk, demanding some assistance with the maze of supposed savings.  I don’t think that’s what the retail geniuses imagined when they created this maze of moving price points.

The only thing I hate worse than their crazy pricing is their shop-keeping.  Back in the day, Sanger Harris kept their stores pristine.  Not just the facilities, but the merchandise.  It was neatly hung or folded and in perfect size order.  It doesn’t matter which of Macy’s stores I walk into, I always feel as if a tornado must have just passed through before I got there.  I’m assuming the displays of sweaters, shirts and socks must have at one time had some semblance of order to them, but that was a long time ago.  The holidays might be considered a good excuse – if it were only a one time thing, but casual sloppiness seems to be the store’s trademark.  Come to Macy’s where you can’t find anything and you’ll never know how much you’ll pay.

And don’t look down!  When Sanger Harris built their Collin Creek Mall it was an oasis of luxury.  They’ve remodeled restof the glory out of the store, but they kept the original marble floors.  The only problem is that they haven’t maintained the original marble floors, so the marble’s cracked and stained and out of level.  I’m telling you it broke my heart.

It Got Worse

Come to find out, we’d forgotten the gift card, so I didn’t have to support a store as sad as Collin Creek Macy’s.  My nostalgic vein transferred to my husband, so we went out to visit what was left of the mall.  The fountains are gone.  The “village” of small shops became a food court a long time ago and now only offers second tier choices.  Even Starbuck’s, who has locations inside grocery and discount stores, has shunned them.

Most of the spaces are vacant and those which aren’t house Jose Blow’s Discount This and Ching Chung Doe’s That, testaments to the enterprising nature of America’s immigrant population.  An oriental merchant chased me down a corridor trying to give me a free massage sample.  One of the saddest sights for me was the empty Godiva store.  Fans would recognize the architecture, but no chocolate.

Back to NorthPark

Thankfully, NorthPark has a Macy’s.  The store is still messy and plays the mystery price point game, but at least it’s at NorthPark.  I can enjoy a little retail therapy with my errand running – and they do have a Starbuck’s, though I’d probably opt for the Mermaid Bar at Neiman’s.

The remarkable thing about NorthPark isn’t just it’s staying power.  It’s not merely a viable enterprise, it’s still the pulsating heart of Dallas shopping five decades after it opened.  It’s gone through a lot of changes.  I miss things like The Carriage Shop, Lord and Taylor’s, The Magic Pan, the food counter at Woolworth’s, the El Fenix outside JC Penney’s and JC Penney’s for that matter.  I don’t remember the name of it, but my favorite shoe store used to just a few doors down from Joske’s, on the  left side, when you were headed to Neiman’s.

I just hope NorthPark continues to thrive for as long as I’m here to visit it.  What’s your favorite mall and what do you love about it?

TRAVEL HERE: CHRISTMAS AT DALLAS ARBORETUM

This season the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Society / DABS is kicking off a brand new idea. It’s a blockbuster event called The Twelve Days of Christmas and it’s only available until January 4th. Here’s why you shouldn’t miss it.

IT’S ONE OF THE BEST

Don’t take my word for it.  Ask the Travel Channel.  Ask Pro Flowers.  In fact, there are a lot of people you could ask, but DABS is recognized worldwide for it’s excellence.  Isn’t that reason enough to visit?

THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

Firsts are always exciting and this will be the first year this wonderful exhibition commissioned by DABS for DABS will be presented.  They were beginning to set up for it the last time I was there and what I saw was beautiful.  It’s like the twelve best snowglobes in the world have been blown up bigger than life.  Well there’s no snow and no water for the snow to float in, but otherwise, that’s what it was like.

TWELVE DAYS AT NIGHT

If you think the Twelve Days of Christmas might be beautiful during the day, imagine the romance of seeing it at night!  The garden takes on a very special vibe when the sun goes down and extra effort has been expended to light up the Twelve Days exhibit for night time showing.  It will be showing Sunday through Thursdays from six to ten and on a few weekends, so go to the website to plan your nocturnal visit.  You will need to have a reservation, so don’t just show up.  I’m really looking forward to enjoying this!

A HISTORY OF AMAZEMENT

Many years ago the arboretum began a tradition of presenting spectacular entertainments for the holidays.  I’ve seen the DeGolyer House tricked out by the best of the best designers in Dallas.  I’ve seen special playhouses.  I’ve seen wonderful seasonal decorations.  The arboretum never does anything by half measures.  They always go full out gorgeous.  If they commissioned this exhibit specifically for themselves, this is going to be worth your effort.

THE DEGOLYER HOUSE

The Byers’ Choice Ltd. Christmas Carolers are back.  If you loved seeing them a few years ago, this is your chance to see them again.  If you missed getting to see them, then fix that.  These whimsical, charming figures will enchant you, so don’t miss them.

SANTA WILL BE THERE

Why go to the mall to see Santa when you can go to one of the most beautiful gardens in the world to visit with him.  I met him there a couple of years ago and he was a charmer.

HOLIDAY TEA

Last but not least – let’s eat.  A corner of the DeGolyer House is a lovely cafe and for the holidays they decorate it to the max.  Then they’ll serve you a most wonderful tea, with those delightful tea sandwiches, scones and more.  You’ll need reservations and it is a little pricey, but it’s a special event you won’t soon forget.

So, what tickles your fancy? As you can see, the arboretum is ready for you, whatever that is.  Don’t miss this holiday treat!

HEADING TO HEATH: HEADACHES AND HEART ATTACKS WHILE BUILDING IN HEATH

Though building the house in Heath is mostly a joyful experience, there have been hiccups. Ya gotta take the good with the bad.  So here’s some of the bad.

WATER INDUCTION

I mentioned this a few weeks ago, but it really was bad news.  The drought is effecting the moisture of the ground, deep below houses.  There’s a chance that without the water induction treatment, somewhere down the road there might have been a problem with the foundation – but it was a slim chance that might occur long after we live there and the procedure is very expensive.  It also adds zero to the actual value of the house.  Every penny we spend down in the dirt where no one can see it, is money we can’t spend on making the house pretty.

CONCRETE BLOW-OUTS

Sometimes after the cables are tightened on a post tension foundation, a few of the cables will pop out of the concrete.  It’s really no big deal.  It means more work, but once it’s fixed it doesn’t compromise the foundation.  Problem is, there was no one to tell us that after 5 PM on a Friday afternoon when we discovered them – and we got the pleasure of worrying about them all weekend long.

True to the contractor’s word, the trouble spots were jack-hammered out, the cables were re-engineered and then they set the forms for concrete to be poured.  Second problem – the weather changed and waiting for the foundation to be fixed slowed down the process – by weeks!

THE FIREPLACE POSTION

The day the framer’s started, Bill met with the foreman and walked him through the entire house pointing out details like where in the laundry room the doggie door would be and how he wanted the fireplace to be positioned.  So, of course, the doggie door went in at the wrong place and the fireplace wasn’t positioned correctly.  The doogie door was a minuscule problem.

The fireplace was a bigger challenge.  See, even though we’d told the general contractor about the problem, the subs were coming in installing the gas, the fire box and the pipe that went up the chimney.  Eventually everything had to be pulled out, pulled down and re-installed.  It didn’t cost anything except time, but when you’re building, time is money.

THE DUST CATCHER 

I don’t know that they actually have a name, but that’s what I call that place inside that’s directly over the front porch.  Most folks put fake ferns or antique trunks up there.  Well, I don’t like them, so I told the architect we didn’t want one.  What I didn’t realize was that by not having the dust catcher the beautiful window with the princess balcony on it would not only be a faux balcony, it would also be a faux window.

As soon as the sheathing went up we realized that the great view of the fourth fairway which we’d been enjoying during the framing would go away.  It’s the sort of thing that you really can’t “see” on an architectural drawing, but we couldn’t live with it.

Cha-ching!

THE NOOK WINDOWS

So when you enter the house, one of the first things you see is a view of the pond through the breakfast nook windows – or not.  Maybe you’ll just fixate on rails in the middle of the windows and not see anything else.  That’s what Bill saw the day the windows were installed.  Like the dust catcher, it was one of those things  you don’t anticipate as you pore over your plans, but the view is what sold us on the lot.  So – the pocketbook takes another hit.

So that’s a few of the headaches and heart attacks we’ve suferred since we’ve been building.  Now you know why we go everyday to check on things.  Come back next week and see some of the things we’ve picked out for the house.

TRAVEL HERE: THINGS I ENJOYED IN THE METROPLEX WHILE OTHERWISE OCCUPIED PART 2

Here’s the rest of the stuff I did when I was too busy to blog about it.

The Kimbell Art Museum (Faces of Impressionism) – I mentioned the Musee d’Orsay while describing the DMA’s current exhibit, but the portraits over at the Kimbell right now are actually from that famous depository of Impressionism.

Confession, portraits are not my favorite thing.  I like paintings with people in them, but I prefer almost every other subject matter over portraiture.  Confession number two: I had no idea what special exhibition the Kimball had going on.  I’d just been meaning to get over there and see the new Piano Pavilion ever since it opened last fall.  (Even more proof of how overwhelmed I’ve been lately!)

So, when my little sister suggested a play date, this was at the top of my list.  I also hadn’t had a Joe T. Garcia’s Tex-Mex fix since my birthday in March, so I added lunch to our itinerary.  The ever-amiable Susan was agreeable.

Confession number three.  I loved this exhibit.  I loved it so much that I bought the catalog – and believe me,  I’m not exactly hurting for art books.  Perhaps the reason I loved it so much was the fact that when it came to portraiture, the Impressionists shook the art world up with it, as much as they did with everything else they painted.  This show will be there through January 25th.  You need to get over there and see it.

I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the Piano Pavilion, also.  The Kimbell has an amazing collection of art, but at any given time, most of it was under wraps to make way for the spectacular special exhibitions they have hosted.  With the Piano Pavilion, they’ve created a wonderful place for special shows and made more room for their own extraordinary collection.

All in all, it was a great day in Ft. Worth, in spite of the fact that my little sister balked at sitting out on the Fiesta Patio.  So what if it was a chilly November day.  I sat inside munching on my family style dinner looking through the window at the patio wishing I was there.  It was almost perfect.

Dallas Arboretum ( Autumn at the Arboretum) – When we finally got to this year’s Autumn at the Arboretum it was in it’s last days.  You could tell, because workers were already assembling the holiday exhibits.  Still there were plenty of beautiful flowers and about a zillion pumpkins of every imaginable shape, size and color.  As you can see from this photo borrowed from the front of the DABS fall program, the garden is beautiful whatever the season.

I was glad to see that the water features of the Magnolia Glade were finally flowing.  They’d proven to be a sticky wicket for a while, but none of the previous frustrations are apparent nowadays.  One of my favorite parts of the garden is currently under renovation.  It used to be the Lay Ornamental Garden and it is being transformed into the Lay Family Garden.  I’m excited to see what they’ll do, but I did miss seeing it.

The Dallas Arboretum is always treat – whatever time of year it is and regardless of whether there is currently any special event going on.  right now, it’s all decked out for the holidays, so do plan on seeing it.  However, you should see it often, so you don’t miss a thing.

NorthPark Center (Arhaus Grand Opening Party Nov 14) –  How could I leave NorthPark out of this cavalcade of my favorite places – the ones I go to even when I don’t really have time to go anywhere?  I am on NorthPark’s weekly email list.  That doesn’t mean I’m any cooler than someone who’s not, except that I did take time to go on their website and click the button.

As a part of this list, I get frequent updates as to what’s happening at this mall which I consider to be the center of the universe.  Seriously!  When we first discussed building the house in Heath, one of my first considerations was how long it would take me to get to NorthPark from there.

Anyway, some weeks all they tell me about are sales or the latest addition to the food court, but I also get some awesome invitations.   That’s what happened on the week in question.  In fact, that NorthPark Noteworthy was chockful of good stuff.  They were inaugurating something called Watch Week and I was invited to the Arhaus Grand Opening.

First allow me to rave about Arhaus.  If you are interested in furniture and furnishings, it’s in there.  They have gorgeous stuff and they have lots of it.  You shouldn’t have to be bribed to visit with free champagne.  However, it certainly was nice to see all their beautiful merchandise while munching exquisite goodies and quaffing cold champagne.  (In real flutes I might add.  No plastic or paper cups for this crowd.)  Make your way to Arhaus!  It’s worth a special trip.

As the Arhaus party wound down, we wandered back into the mall and happened onto a place called Pirch.  We seriously couldn’t figure out what it was.  Was it a coffee shop?  Were they selling plumbing fixtures?  Was it an appliance showroom?  Believe it or not, the answer to all three questions in YES!!

Unfortunately, I was a little late in requesting an invitation to the Watch Week events.  We did go back to the mall on Saturday and visit several of the watch and jewelry boutiques, but all we heard over and over and over was that we SHOULD have been there Thursday night.  See if I ever wait to ask Bill whether he’s interested or not.  I’ll just request the invitation and then figure out who will go with me!

So, we had a great time at NorthPark and now you have three assignments.  Visit Arhaus.  Visit Pirch.  It’s right next door to Arhaus.  Sign up for the NorthPark Noteworthy email list.  Then I’ll be seeing you at some of their fabulous events.

LENICAM VIDEO PRODUCTIONS HAS A NEW WEBSITE

Excuse the shameless self-promotion, but I’m so excited I can’t help it.  For several months now I’ve been working on revamping the LeniCam Video Productions website.  It launched late last night and I’m giggly with excitement.  I just had to share it with my WordPress family and friends.

HELPING HANDS

We had a great SEO company, Osky Blue, helping out with all the technicalities and I’ve been writing copy and blogs since May.  This morning I am wearing them out with questions that I should have asked before, but you know how it is, I didn’t know what to ask.  We’re looking forward to our Google ranking skyrocketing!

LENICAM VIDEO PRODUCTIONS

Though I haven’t said much about it here, LeniCam produces wonderful event videos – for everything from weddings to soccer games with corporate videos in the mix.  You can watch a lot of samples on the site.  I wrote most of the descriptions for the weddings except for the really old ones.

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK

Now I’d really like to know how we’ve done.  If you get the chance, go check out the website.  Click through the menu, try out the buttons and make yourself at home.  If you know someone how might need a videographer, share the site with them.

You guys are great!  Thanks so much!

AS SOME THINGS WENT UP, OTHERS CAME DOWN

Last week I gave you an overview of the progress we’d made on the house. Most of the progress we’ve made has to do with things going up.  but we’ve been just as happy with some of the things which have come down.

CLEARING THE LOT

Here’s a news flash!  Builders and clients have different priorities.  Here’s how our lot looked when we found it.  It was spring and things were beginning to turn green around our pond.  In our contract for the land, our developer promised the lot would be cleaned in the next two weeks.  It didn’t happen that way.

Our hope had been to figure out if there were any decent trees in the mess and based on that, which angles had the best view when the trash trees and foliage were gone.  When the trees didn’t come down, then we had to climb through the brush and try to figure it out for ourselves.  That’s when we found out the pond had a bad dose of chiggers.  That’s an asset we’d have been happy to forego.

After the lot had gotten it’s water treatment, they showed up to clear the land around the pond.  I envisioned a crew with chainsaws and bulldozers.  What we got were a couple of guys with axes and hand saws.  Still, the lot did get cleared and we were able to finally ascertain exactly what we’d be seeing through the windows.

THE LONE OAK

As an aside, I’ve got to tell you about our oak.  Among all the trash trees an oak struggled for life.  We decided to see if it would thrive after the brush was moved away.

The oak looked pretty pitiful and once the balcony for my office was added, it also blocked the view.  You can see its shadow in the after picture.

Bill and I continued to debate whether we were actually going to keep it.  Eventually, we decided it was both too sick and too much in the way to stay.  I thought that was the end of it for now.  We’d just wait until we were tackling the landscape to get rid of the pitiful thing.

Au contrare!  The next time we went to the lot, Bill had his chainsaw with him.  It’s an electric chainsaw unworthy of even a bit part in a horror movie, but it was a chainsaw.  He’d researched cutting down trees and was ready to do battle.  Thankfully, one of the guys on the plumbing crew was a little more familiar with the process than Bill and he came out to help.  Bye bye tree.

So far, so good!  But not everything has been easy.  Next week I’ll let you in on some of the headaches and heart attacks.

TRAVEL HERE:  WHAT I DID WHILE OCCUPIED ELSEWHERE

Though I didn’t have time to tell you about it, I did manage to have some fun while I was missing in action. Here’s a sample.

Kaleidoscope of Homes Viridian in Irving (Oct 12) – It’s no surprise that we’re in the midst of building a home, so a tour of homes was right up our alley.  We were thinking it would be more like the Dream Home events that used to be held in Plano and Frisco.  Not quite on that scale, but it did firm up some of the ideas we were contemplating for our house.  If you like decorating, then this might be a good event for you to plan to take in next year.

Driven by Design, Museum Tower (Oct 23) – Thank you Cadillac and Architectural Digest for inviting us to this spectacular event.  We joined other Cadillac fans for brunch at the top of Museum Tower.  What a spectacular sight!  After a tour of one of the homes inside the Tower, we were ushered into a fleet of Cadillac Escalades to see several other amazing edifices.  What’s even better is that rather than merely being chauffeured around, everyone got the chance to drive the amazing machines!

The homes we saw were out of this world and the architects who designed them were on hand to show us around and answer our questions.  Then, back at Museum Tower, we were served a delicious snack buffet and given wonderful swag.  Not just samples, coupons and candy, like I’ve gotten at another vehicle manufacturer’s events (I won’t name any names but their initials are MB), but a unique gift box that I love filled with back issues of Architectural Digest and a beautiful coffee table book from Cadillac.  We’re sure glad someone put us on that guest list!

The Dallas Opera (The Marriage of Figaro Oct 26) – So it was my bestie’s birthday and my bestie loves opera.  Last year we also went to the opera, but we sat in the nosebleed section, because I waited too late to order the tickets.  This year I scored Terrace Right and we loved it.

I have a bit of a confession to make about my bestie.  She studied opera at SMU, so she’s a bit picky about performances.  This year everything was so perfect, from the sets to the voices, that she had nary a complaint.

Still to come this season are a pair of operas that I know nothing about (La Wally and Everest), but the ever popular La Boheme comes in March.  In April, look for Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta.  The Dallas Opera has been my favorite ticket for a long time and continues to be so.  I’m always amazed how many people don’t realize that they are one of the absolute best opera companies in the world.  Go see what I’m talking about!

The Dallas Museum of Art (Bouquets) – To my everlasting regret, I missed the Partners Preview for Bouquets on October 24.  Finding the unanswered invitation on my desk about a week after the event is all the evidence I need to prove to you that I’ve been way too busy.

Though I didn’t get to the preview, I did make it to the museum to see the exhibit.  What words would be adequate to describe it?  Beautiful still life paintings of elaborate floral displays in gorgeous ornate frames.  Each offering was a riot of rich colors painted by the delicate hand of  master.  Still, I’m not doing it justice.  You absolutely MUST go to this exhibit.  It is truly one of the most beautiful collections of paintings I’ve seen in one place since I visited the Musee d’Orsay in Paris.  Please go before it closes.  It will be here through February 8, 2015.

The Bald Soprano at UD’s Margaret Jonsson Theater (Nov 5) – Talk about going from the sublime to the ridiculous.  Bouquets is one of the most amazing exhibits I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing.  The Bald Soprano was also amazing, but on the opposite side of the amazement scale.

OK, so it says right on the program that this is an “anti-play”, so I knew it was going to be a little out of the ordinary.  I can enjoy a good farse as well as the next girl.  Opera is rife with farses.  The Bald Soprano is beyond farse.

Still for most of the play, I was having a good time.  It was silly and it didn’t make much sense, but the world is a lot like that this day and time.  Then we got to what the audience thought was the end of the play and so we offered an appropriate measure of applause.  Unfortunately, the play continued for another half hour or so and it wasn’t nearly as much fun as it had been before.  The final applause was a little more tepid than the previous response.  Afterwards folks wandered to their car wondering exactly what had just happened to them.

I do want to say this.  In spite of the fact that we didn’t particularly enjoy this play, I want to give credit where credit is due.  The problem was not the actors or their acting.  The sets and costuming were good.  The problem was the play.  We eagerly await our invitation to the next offering by University of Dallas, because we’ve enjoyed several of their productions.  This just wasn’t our cup of tea.

There’s more fun to come!  Check back next week for Part Duex!

HEADING TO HEATH: UPDATE ON BUILDING THE HOUSE

OK, so I abandoned you way back in September. I’d found a rental house and the builders were just about to start on our dream home. Let me catch you up.  

GETTING THE PERMITS

When we built a house in Pismo Beach, California, Bill decided to be our own general contractor.  Being a smart guy, he was thrilled to delegate that job to someone else for this house.  He’s still very involved, but now he can share the headaches.

In Pismo Beach, we got to know the guys in the planning office very well and made some guest appearances at the Planning Commission Meetings.  Whittle and Johnson, the building arm of Whittle Development, took care of the permit process for us in Heath.  Part of that process was a soils test and to our dismay, that test reminded us Texas is going through a drought.  Lucky us, we needed more moisture in our lot.  Cha-ching!

So, we had to hire someone to come bore holes and add water.  Then someone else had to come and test the soil again.  Then you repeat the process until the lot has the right amount of moisture.  The water induction equipment was on the lot for about a week and it made a HUGE mess.  I nearly lost a sandal to the gooey result of their work.  Eventually, the permit gods were happy and work started on the foundation.

ENGINEERING THE FOUNDATION

Once the lot was ready, they started digging the foundation and the plumber did whatever it is that plumbers do.  Our foundation is a post tension foundation.  Instead of just pouring a slab on top of the ground, they dig a series of trenches, leaving large columns of dirt standing.  The columns are covered in thick plastic and then bound together with cables.

The day the concrete trucks came, was nearly my last.  I was driving to the lot and as we rounded the corner on our new street Bill started yelling.  I thought I was about to plow into one of the bazillion pick-up trucks driven by the construction workers.  He just wanted me to look at the concrete pouring equipment.

Okay, so it was pretty cool.  The great big boom up in the air, but geez, did he have to scare me so bad?

Once the foundation was poured, the framers went to work and that’s when it really started to feel like we were going to have a house in Heath.  Those guys were fast.  They started one day and by the next day they were framing the second story and before we knew it the roofers were showing up.

Roofing didn’t take very long either and while they roofed the sheathing went up giving shape to the house.  Since then things have seemed to slow down.  Things are happening, for sure, but it doesn’t look very different.  The plumbers, electricians and HVAC guys have been at it like crazy, but it’s hard to get excited about that sort of thing.  Last week they delivered the drywall.  I think we’re going to have a house.

Come back next week and I’ll tell you what was coming down as the house was going up.

HEADING TO HEATH: MISSING IN ACTION

So I moved to Wylie and sort of disappeared off the face of the earth. What’s up with that?

The Real Estate Stuff

Moving takes time.  We moved out of our Dallas home into a rental in Wylie.  Why would we do something like that?  Well, because we’re building a house in Heath.  We wanted to sell our Dallas house and we did, but we had to move before the contractor even started the foundation of the new house.  So we had to find a place to live.

Building a custom house takes a lot of time, too – especially shopping for all the stuff to put inside.  Many builders like to say they build custom homes, but they don’t really.  You go to their selection center and make choices from their offerings.  For this house, our choices are whatever we can find in the world – make that whatever we can find in the world that we can afford.  Balancing our champagne taste with our beer budget is quite a challenge.

We also spend much of our time visiting the build and discussing our concerns with the general contractor and his subs.  It seems as if every day we discover little oops that we have to address.

Lenicam Video Productions

Then there’s my part time job.  It started back in May and it grew.  At first, it was just a few hours a week.  Then I went on vacation.  Then the boss went on vacation.  Then things started snowballing and I found myself working around the clock, writing about Lenicam weddings videos for their website.

The boss’s goal was to increase his visibility on search engines.  From the beginning I warned him that we’d need to be a little more proactive to really move him up in the rankings, but he told me to cool my jets and keep writing.  Come to find out, he was paying closer attention to what I was saying than I thought.  Right now we’re in the process of revamping the whole website.  I can’t wait to show you what we’ve done.

Windshield Time

I’ve also been spending a lot of time in my car.  Wylie is out in the middle of nowhere.  The freeways and tollways are all about twenty minutes away.  Looking at a map, it appears that Wylie should be more convenient than it is, but it’s not.  We can’t wait to get out of here and get to Heath.  It’s further east, but it’s very close to I-30

So for now, I’ve gotten my ducks back in their row and have carved out some time for blogging.  Chances are that when the Heath house is finished (predictions range from late January to mid-March) I’ll disappear again for awhile.  Thanks for dropping by.  Next week I’ll tell you about some of the fun things we’ve done when we could escape from shopping for tile and light fixtures and cabinets and appliances and paint and …. well, you get the picture.