Six Months in Texas

The day after Christmas 2018 finds me ready to focus. We have been in Texas for six months now. It seems like only yesterday and yet there are serious accomplishments. We have new doctors, dentists and hair cutters- essential services infrastructure. More important, we have settled on the floor plan for our new house and can begin seeking approvals, loans and other details necessary for making it happen.

I had no idea how long this process would take and even along the way it was never clear what progress we were making. We started with the idea that we could put anything we wanted in the house since nothing was on the drawing board. As we moved along the process, however, it became clear that we would have to constrain our wishes to stay within budget. At one stage, the area ballooned up to 3200 square feet.

We are currently at 2800 which is about the size of our last house which is clearly big enough for our household. I originally asked for a space for exercise equipment but gave that up along the way. It’s probably still somewhat extravagant for our needs but, heck, I don’t want to go too primitive.

The house nestles in the slope of the lot away from the street. From the street the house will nestle within the trees currently on the lot and hang over the lower slope and woods beneath.

The next step is to seek the approval of our HOA. I don’t think there is any reason we will not get approval but I don’t want to be cocky either. I will be finding out how to present our plans over the next week and get scheduled early next year.