After a week's delay due to broken tractor, we finally have the trees and the structures are down. we have the original house foundation, the VERY long driveway, up to where the carport was located, the two greenhouse slabs all need to come out, it should take them all day tomorrow, so by tomorrow, all the slab should be out.

We are waiting for engineer's plans and then can get going, i think we have to have the stakes put on the property corners showing the boundaries and then we can start with the pad and the forms and then the fun really starts. we are so excited about everything and look forward to this really fun and exciting project. i am starting to gather interior selection ideas, plumbing fixtures, appliances, paint color chips, and flooring. we are using the reclaimed flooring out of the original house upstairs, and some reclaimed wide plank downstairs, with a stone in the kitchen back to the downstairs guest bedroom.

we did reuse the air conditioning compressor from the old house and had an AC guy install it at the rental house, so hopefully the 13 SEER new compressor will save our renters some money and make the house overall more efficient. I am also going to call an arborist to come and maintain the 3 LARGE trees including the amazing magnolia while we build, i want to make sure those babies live through construction and beyond. they are two large Oaks and the magnolia, I know, an arborist sounds like VooDoo, but if it works, it is worth it, they are such pretty trees that cannot be replaced. The trees are one of the main reasons we bought this lot, other than it is over 10,000 square feet.

I will keep you updated on the next step, should be engineer's plans and building the pad for the house.

more pics from Demo Day and fun with my big girl camera

DEMO DAY!!!!! We finally got permits for demo and Tom from Tom's Demo started tearing down the eyesore on Althea! Jeremy and I are so excited about getting this project started with our amazing builder Shawn with Alleanza Homes. We get to finalize plans tomorrow and off to engineering. This is the longest period in the whole process, demo and waiting on engineered plans and permits. Then the fun starts. I will keep blogging to keep everyone involved in the process so you can all see how much fun it is to build a house! It was a beautiful day for demo and Garden Oaks is one less ugly 1940s house, some look good, some like this one look better with a big yellow machine tearing it down.

i am cheating already by looking at plumbing fixtures and thinking about interior stuff already. We did salvage the wood floors out of this house and will be using them upstairs in the new house. We are going to be using salvaged plank wood in different sizes in the lower floor. I'm thinking Walnut colored, something more medium colored, rather than darker like the last house. I really want this to be a warm and comfortable house.

I am doing research on the Craftsman style interiors, as our exterior home is modern craftsman and i want the inside to flow nicely. I am really looking forward to this and looking forward to September when we are done... or close to finished with this amazing new home!

And the Cash Register totals are In

My favorite time of year...ok, maybe not favorite, that is saved for Spurs Playoffs, March Madness and Fantasy Football Draft Prep, but holiday retail results are pretty close. As the child of a retailer, and someone who was raised in the retail store, I love the "report card" that comes in January. The 2010 holiday season was great for retailers across the board according the TechCrunch.com.  "Online spending in the fourth quarter of 2010 reached record levels, according to comScore’slatest data on retail e-commerce. After a stronger than expected holiday shopping season, online retail spending in Q4 reached a record $43.4 billion, which is up 11 percent from the same quarter in 2009. Additionally, 84 percent of U.S. Internet users conducted an online transaction in Q4 2010, which is up from 78 percent last year."


what were people buying? "For the quarter, the highest grossing product categories were Computer Software, Consumer Electronics, Books & Magazines (which exclude digital downloads), Computers/Peripherals/PDAs, and Toys and Hobbies. Each of the categories grew at least 15 percent in Q4 2010 vs. a year ago."


This is great news. People spending more means an increased confidence in the recovering economy, increased jobs, business owners are happy, manufacturers are happy, everyone wins.


I love reports of increased consumer confidence, and to know that they are spending more (yes, dad, as long as they are saving too), this makes everyone in a better mood. we, as people, do not like to know we do not have enough money to buy things, that doesn't necessarily mean spend frivolously, but to be able to purchase things that you might really need, and only slightly want. The average amount people planned to spend in the 2010 holiday season was up from 2009, but not to the 2008 levels or any other year since 2005. Analysts will be watching companies quarterly reports soon, especially companies like MasterCard to see what they report as active card holders use and increases.


 Lets hope the confidence continues and people start spending everywhere not just online. More spending, means more advertising dollars are spent by companies.

trip to the Houston Zoo African Forest

Today I HAD to go to work at the Houston Zoo at the African Forest. Tough Day right. well, I absolutely am in LOVE with the African Forest. I took my new "big girl" camera with me to work and took some interesting shots. I then had some fun editing and will jut keep working on getting comfortable with the camera and editing everything. If you have not been to the African Forest at the zoo, this might not be the week to go because it is so cold and the animals are trying to stay warm, but it is definitely worth the trip. I purchased a membership this year because of the new giraffe habitat and the restaurant that overlooks the giraffes! Those that know me, know that I LOVE giraffes and really am in total awe of them. The are amazing creatures that always seem so wonderful. As a child, at the San Antonio Zoo I remember watching the mama giraffe take care of the new baby. Now I am going to have the privilege of taking my niece Téa to the Houston zoo to meet the giraffe family.

Every once in a while, it helps to have something that takes you back to your childhood, something that makes you smile and helps you remember that life really shouldn't be that serious. As we like to say at the office, it is just radio, no one is going to die today. There is something to be said for that, we all just need to enjoy our life, our job and our friends. Here is to getting to spend a day working, with amazing clients and in an amazing setting, one that always makes me smile.