Bye bye big city!

Texas82GP said:

We're figuring on the new house being done by April so February/March/April? We're going to keep polishing this place until then. Sunday, I disassembled and pulled down one of the ceiling fans on the patio. The patio got built in 2018. This particular fan has never been right. The remote for it doesn't work unless if you are right under it. Also, on higher speeds (it has 6), it has a tendence to want to speed up a bit, freewheel, speed up a bit, freewheel and eventually either get over it or turn itself off. It has a sensor that shuts it down if it senses that it is pulling more than 38 watts. I ordered a new speed controller and a new power limiter. I seriously don't believe there is anything wrong with the motor. Sometimes it works perfectly (except for the short range for the remote).

When the patio cover got built in 2018, there was a disagreement/misunderstanding between my brother and the contractor on whether the fans were included in the bid or not. They decided to meet half way and each of them pay for one of the fans. The contractor provided what I'm pretty sure was a return. I think this will fix it though.

This week we're having engineered wood floors (glued down, not floating stuff) installed in the formal living/formal dining and the second family room upstairs. It hasn't been fun living through it. The house is thrashed. Should be over this week though and my brother swears it will sell the house.

The pool preconstruction meeting happened yesterday. I wasn't able to attend. The cabinet walk through is happening Thursday. I can't attend. Hopefully the slab for the shop will get poured soon. I'm antsy to see some progress on it. My brother and I were out there last Saturday. The sheet rock in the house is substantially complete. We put the walk door for the shop in the dumpster. It didn't survive being removed very well. I don't want to fight over it and I don't want to reuse it the way it was. The threshold was damaged where it wouldn't seal well and the wood frame/jamb was busted. It was just your typical 36"x80" metal clad 6-panel entry door. I'm looking at replacing it with a metal commercial door with a metal jamb, that will open out instead of in, and am thinking about putting one of those closers on it. I'm looking to make lemonade out of the lemons.

I guess that's it for now friends.

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Ugly1 said:

Depending on the door wanting to be new or used, a little shopping at used industrial sales stores may score you a fire exit door or one from a school. Just a cost saving option.

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Habitat for humanity locations

www.google.com

Texas82GP said:

This is becoming real enough that I thought I'd start a thread to document our move. As many know, I live with my brother, sister-in-law and their two kids. I have for the past thirteen years. We currently live in Spring, Texas, largely because my Dad re-settled there with my brother in 1983 after he and my mom divorced. Spring was truly a suburb back then and was a nice place to live. Dad moved out there to put my brother in the Klien Independent School District, which was one of the best school districts in the Houston area back then.

A lot has changed in 37 years. I moved out to Spring in the summer of 2001 when my mom and step-dad moved to Louisiana. Spring wasn't nearly the same as it had been in 1983 but a lot has changed in the past 19 years. The building boom started about the time I moved out here. A lot of single-family residential construction took place between 2001-2010, particularly during the middle of the decade. This brought a large influx of people. In the last decade there was a boom of apartment construction in the area. Another big influx of people. Late in the decade, the Grand Parkway (the third highway ring around the metropolitan area) went in, crossing the north freeway two exits north of us. Exxon built their new global headquarters at the highway intersection. More and more people. More and more traffic. More and more crime.

It's gotten to the point that Spring doesn't resemble what it was in 1983. Back then, it was mostly forest with minor suburban development. Now, the woods are gone and there is little to no distinction between where we live and areas inside the Houston City Limits. It's come to the point that none of us (my brother, my sister-in-law, myself) want to live here anymore.

My brother and sister-in-law have been working remotely since March. I worked from home the months of April and May. We had already been looking and talking about relocating for at least a year, but the realization that we could work remotely intensified the search. In late September, we found our new home.

We have a 1.5 acre lot under contract in an estate lot subdivision (1.5 acre is the minimum lot size) about 40 miles north of Spring. The entire development (maybe 5,000 acres) is forested. The developer builds the roads, installs the utilities (electric, water, roadside drainage) and lays out the lots. The lots are left completely natural.

Our plan is to build a house and a 40'x40' metal shop building simultaneously. It looks like we are going to close on the land in December or January. The closing has been delayed by the permitting of a bridge into our section of the development. The developer proposed a small suspension bridge over the creek to enter the section. The City Engineer in the nearby town, that is responsible for for approving the plans wasn't comfortable with reviewing them (small town). They brought in the Texas Department of Transportation to do the review and that's been a slow process. No worries. We aren't in a hurry. We are saving our money, doing our homework and making our plans.

Yesterday, we went out to look at the land for the second time and I took some pictures.

This is looking west down our future street towards the creek. Our lot is across the roadway to the right....

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Yep, it's ours....

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Looking at the street frontage or south side of our lot....

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That's my nephew in the picture. There is some Kudzu vine near our southwest corner.....

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Once we officially close on the lot we plan to have it underbrushed. We'll get rid of the Kudzu then. The tall pine tree in the right in the picture above is closer to our southeast corner. In this next pic, you can see the stake with flagging near our southeast corner and the trunk of that same large pine...

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I guess that's it for now friends. We're all excited so I wanted to start this thread. Hopefully some of you will enjoy the ride with us.

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Texas82GP said:

I've got updates. It's moving really fast. I think we'll be putting the house we're living in now on the market in February. Latest progress....

The brick and stone on the house is done (with the exception of stone on the fireplace in the house, and brick on the outdoor kitchen and bar on the patio - these will be done later)....
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The sheetrock installation is done, and tape and float are done. They'll be doing texture next week. The cabinet walk-through was last Thursday. They're starting on cabinets next week....

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The septic tanks are in. As soon as they pass inspection, they'll be covered up....

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Pool construction is under way....

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Ugly1 said:

Wow! Have you forgotten anything? Cause I’m sure a few people on here are ready to be adopted and move in! Going to be a beautiful place.

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DRIVEN said:

It's going to be beautiful when it's done.

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