Hi all,

Hope all is well there. I’m giving a status of how the house is doing here. When last I wrote there were some to-do items on our list.

Photos

I’ve moved the pics of the house to a new and improved place on my site.

Please log in and take a look. Userid is [—] and password is [—]

Weather

Dry so far, this weekend (Memorial weekend) some rain is predicted but not much, thank goodness.

Exterior/ Windows

The original contractor we had come out has not provided an estimate yet. He was supposed to email something and I called to verify his plans but so far no news.

We called out a second one who did provide an estimate and I’ll scan in the doc and send it along. The photos of the work he will be doing here are on the picture site also, and we’ll put up more to help explain what all needs to be done. His company does a lot of work in the Memorial area and we have seen examples of his work.

I’ll follow up with some photos of places his company has already done, and will ask him to provide references as well. Actually he should be able to do this as well if you ask him to do this.

[—]’ Dad used to run a contracting company who built homes here in [—] so she is very much experienced in the business and is good at weeding out the good ones from the guys who don’t know what they are doing or who are overbidding. She’s comfortable with the gentleman who came over and he was coming up with ways to keep the cost down without compromising on quality or taking shortcuts. She’s also a tiger on the negotiating floor so you will definitely have a good advocate working for you here!!! (I’m glad I married her because I couldn’t afford her help otherwise.)

Exterior/ Backyard/ Patio

[—] has hired a guy to help her clear out the (small) trees and overgrowth coming up from the bayou area to the back decking. She bought some plants and ground cover to keep the exposed dirt from eroding over time. It will look quite lovely when it’s all done and the breeze is nice now. The birds and squirrels love the new look too, and [—] and our youngest [—] spend a lot of time watching the activity through the sliding glass doors.

Master bath / Toilet

We hired a plumber to reseat the wiggly toilet. Unfortunately it was a little more than anticipated (isn’t it always though?). The flange that holds the screws to anchor the toilet to the floor was not replaced when the new floor was set down over the old floor. The flange is supposed to be flush with the floor, and it was no longer flush (pun unintentional) with the floor but actually under the new floor by a few inches – enough to cause the issue. The guy did the work to reseat the flange and finished out the reseating of the toilet. It was a few hundred dollars but we’re covering this cost since I authorized the work without consulting you first.

[—] took pictures and they are on the photo web site listed above.

Dryer getting hot

Issue sorted. I found the dryer outlet outside by the front door and it was indeed plugged up with the fluff that got past the dryer’s internal filter. The dryer’s happy now as are we. Yay!

Upstairs neighbors

I haven’t gotten round to exploring the attic yet but it’s on my list this long weekend.

7 May 2005

I’m sitting in a bus in Houston. Yes, that’s Houston, in Texas, USA.

There has been a very exciting and surprising and therefore rushed series of events that brought my family and me back to the States.

Fortunately, my client and I parted on very good terms. No worries, no one was harmed during the process! Although it broke my heart to leave such a nice set of folks who showed me wonderful hospitality during my visit in the UK.

I’ll continue to post items here for awhile, even though technically this is no longer a London blog. However, the transition from
Houston-to-London-back-to-Houston is very much a part of this entire journey.

Those who travel for a living are quite familiar with this concept, so if you are one of these folks, you can skip this post, as it will be old news for you.

However, I really have to document this while it’s still fresh on my mind.

Some things have changed while we were gone. Now normally we see changes appear over time, construction workers building or tearing something down, storms come and the newscasters talk about the effects of the storm for a few days, and we come to accept the change as it occurs.

Except in the case where one is not here to be part of the change process, and one drives or walks somewhere and gets lost because familiar landmarks are gone or changed enough to be unrecognizable. Now I won’t say who got lost or how many times, but I was quite surprised and am still finding my way ’round as best as I can.

Then there are the things that haven’t changed, which thankfully are more than those that have. The fellow who waits for the bus at the transit center at XX pm in the evenings is still waiting for the bus, right on schedule. The drivers here are still friendly (thank God!), and the Tex-Mex is still horribly fattening but oh so good.

What’s really poignant are those situations where I see old acquaintances* and ask what I’ve been up to:

“I returned from a contract in London last week.”
“Really! Oh how nice, I didn’t know you were gone. I’ve always wanted to go to Europe.” *

It’s like that, isn’t it? One of the most grand, exciting, frightening, and rewarding experiences our family’s been in is really just a footnote to most casual friends. How can you express all of our adventures in a passing conversation in the corridor?

Makes me wonder what the guy next to me on the bus been up to this past year or so…

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* (No they aren’t aged, but our friendships have matured)
** (Yes, I’ve learned there’s a difference between the UK and The Continent.)

7 May 2005

Texas is Big. Really Big. I never really saw this before until I saw one of the mini-Coopers here scooting down the freeway amongst a set of minivans, trucks and SUV’s. Toilets (bathrooms, in American English) with closets inside the room, and lifts (elevators) that can house a small army.

 Yes, and big in more than just real estate. I’ve never seen so many apple-shaped people before working in the business district. (That one little blonde writer whose column is wedged in The Metro would have a field day here.) I’m certain they were always there but I never thought much of it. I can’t help but get a devilish grin, thinking of how some of these folks would manage a daily commute on the Northern Line to Canary Wharf.

All those stairs and walking (and squeezing into a sardine-can of fellow commuters on the train).

Makes me want to keep up my 40 minutes of walking per day (20 mins to work and 20 back) that I had been doing in London.