Hill Country Girls Trip!

Hi guys!  I need to share some pictures with you!  My mom, sister and 5 year old daughter and I went on a "girls trip" together last weekend.  

If you've never had the chance to spend a little time in Fredrickburg, TX you really are missing out!  It's  only a hop skip and a jump from me so I've had the luxury of getting to go several times in the last 10 or so years and it is always a treat.  

It has changed over time and in my opinion is a bit overpriced but I love to go and get ideas and just soak up all the yummy old buildings and soak IN German pastries.  

This is the adorable little cottage we stayed in.  It had rustic texas furnishings inside with a stone fireplace and stained concrete floors.

Look at the adorable cactus wreath on the door.  I'm totally making one of these soon!  

This was the view from the bedroom window.  There were probably about 15-20 other cottages(by the way it is my dream job to own a place like this!).

The little details like the antler door handles on all of the barn doors inside are some of the reasons this place is more exciting to stay in than your run of the mill hotel.

There was also a huge section of their land that had tons of Elk with HUGE fuzzy antlers.  It was fun to watch them come up to the fence to graze.

The only thing wrong with this place was the bed situation.  Call me old but I can't sleep in just any old bed anymore:(  The bed was way too soft and the pull out couch was well...a pull out sofa bed.  I was pooped after two nights of no sleep.  But the place sure was cute! 

Now on to the pretty stuff!  I should have taken more pics but here are a few examples of some of the adorable stores and their displays.

I loved this bird painting from what I assume is a local artist and the kinda creepy paper mache animals were fun too.

I loved all the color in the place but I really loved the idea of having a fun picture of our sweet chocolate lab done like this.  Quirky and special all wrapped into one.

You know presentation is huge.  These candles did smell great but they looked even better!  I was so tempted but I just couldn't make myself spend $36 on a candle.  Although you could use the containers for like EVER!

I did find the same candles for a tad bit cheaper on Amazon.  The link in on the right sidebar.

Everything bright bold and summery caught my eye.  It was only 105 degrees out so there was no mistaking that we are right in the midst of all out bright summer decor.

More bold colors and yummy patterns...

And this guy!  I never thought I would love a picture of pigs but how can you not?  I would love to see this baby on some white plank walls!  

But...I didn't have $400 to blow.

 Along with adorable stores you get to be surrounded by central Texas scenery and if your lucky you can turn it into an all out TX wine country adventure.  There are tons of wineries throughout the hill country and tasting rooms right on main street.

Fredricksburg is also known in the summer for it's peaches and you can find anything from peach pie and cobbler to peach wine and margaritas!  

I had a yummy fried beet salad.  I had never heard of fried beets before either but it was the healthiest and least expensive thing on the menu so I went for it.

It just so happens that this restaurant outside of town was called the Pink Pig(it was a piggy kind of weekend) and they had a tiny bakery in there restaurant  where they sold yummy deserts and iced pink pig cookies.

Here's my sweet girl at the Pink PIG.

You'll find lots of charming buildings like this throughout town.

Oh and the bakeries!  The old old historic bakeries.  

Adorable right?

Had I known I was going to share this trip with you I would have taken more pics of main street and other cool shops but I think you get the idea.

Need a girls trip?

Oh yea it's all exciting over here!

You guys....We are in the midst of doing a whole lot of thing that feel like a whole lota nothings around here.  I know but it makes perfect sense in my brain.

Believe it or not..(you can chuckle with me if you've been following along with the building process) we didn't have toilet paper holders or door stops installed by our builder. That stuff was a bit of an afterthought for us because we got so tired of picking things out and were out of $.

But before we get to the exciting pictures of toilet paper holders let me show you our guest bathroom pulls!

I love the way they look with our rustic gray brown stain on the vanity.

Now before you think we are totally gross people I have to make myself feel better by saying that the drips on the cabinetry are where the stain didn't take as well because some glue apparently dripped down the wood at some point during construction.  In real life it's hardly noticeable but in the pics it's uh not so pretty.

So the guest cabinet went from this  

to this in a jiffy.  These pulls are from signature hardware and may not be ideal to use as bathroom pulls for every situation but for us they were perfect.

Oh now the fun stuff...

Baam!

Powder bath

Whabaam!  We don't have to bend down and pick it up off the floor now.  This is big stuff my friends.

Master bath toilet closet...

 Oh Yeah!

Can't handle the excitement?  

Well this will put you over the edge!

We have door stops!  And..lots of little piles of sawdust to clean up that I might get to next week.  Priorities guys!

Well thanks for following along on another awesome decorating adventure with me....Until next month!

;)

Peek at the Powder and the LIST

If I were you and you liked to house snoop like I do I would be annoyed with me.  You see I've shared a lot of the building process with you....from the planning stages, to the painful stressful parts, to the oh and by the way we moved in stage.  Yet you still haven't had a tour.  It seems like we should have built up to a grand tour of what we've accomplished at this point.  To be honest it's all been so overwhelming   because we STILL have people in and out of the house trying to finish or fix things.  So many things are still not done that I just haven't been motivated to take a ton of pics.  I have however taken lots pictures with my phone of things that need to be dealt with before we sign the last bank draw for the builder.  The list is a mile long....it's slowly being chipped away at.  We had our finally inspection on thursday and I can't even bring myself to read it because I don't want the list in my head to be bigger.  Don't worry the hubs was here during the inspection and he also read it and says "we are going to be ok" but some things do need to be taken care of.  I want to show you pretty stuff and not the overwhelming to do list so I'll start with this..

 A Tiny Peek at the Powder Bath

And now the not so fun stuff...

In the kitchen

There were so many issues with the cabinetry that it led to more issues like big gaps in the grout.(DONE)

Cabinets being moved and now needing to be re-caulked and painted.

(DONE)

Uh?  We've had two of these mishaps....Both while a cabinet guy was there. (Not the original cabinet guy..we've never seen him again?)

Missing doors.  This appliance garage thing in the kitchen has apparently never been done before by these guys...It's taking 9 months my friends...Just doesn't make sense!  The doors are supposedly being rebuilt now.

Also note missing knobs on drawers.

Plug in the wrong spot for the vent hood.

Had to be moved then tile had to be fixed...(DONE) Not the best tile patch job but...I'm over it.

Missing toe kicks..

Missing crown molding.

They started it but not sure what happened after that.

Loose kitchen sink...Therefore cracking (painters caulk?).  DONE

They tightened up the sink and used silicone as should have been done.

Gaps around sink..

Crooked Dishwasher

Crooked drawers that wouldn't open easily.

All over the house there were things that looked like this.

Just messy and unfinished.

Missing hinge.

Missing weather stripping.

Missing plumbing something?

Missing paint?  This was everywhere.  I blame the painters and yet I also don't.  You remember how we didn't have electricity until like month 10 or 11?  Every sub ended up working in the dark.

Missing texture and paint in little nooks.

This was a biggie.  Missing shower glass.  (DONE)

Bad wax job on the floors. Still don't know how we are going to handle this one.   Builder says the guy won't call him back? HMM?

Paint and grout all over floors.  No caulk around tubs or shower.

We have had to point all of this out.  No one notices or cares. I cleaned this up and then guided the guy to each spot to caulk.  I dislike micromanaging but apparently if when building you have to get over that.

Crazy crooked jack n jill bath cabinets with no hardware and need of a second paint job.

(Done)

Lots of trim around the door frames that didn't go to the ground.

(Done...or good enough anyway..they missed some and stuffed some full of grout but we are so tired of talking about the same stuff over and over)

Water damaged door trim and baseboards.(remember the leaking toilet when the water was finally turned on?)

Holes in grout.

Extra chunks of grout.

Peeling paint on the bottom of all interior doors. They were sanded and touched up.  Hopefully it stays looking ok.

Then there are outside things(more bad phone pics).

Lots of tree roots from the original clearing of the lot and clumps of concrete. (Done)

 A ledge of messy concrete on the driveway.  If you accidentally backed up wrong your car would be teetering off the edge and the engine just a little damaged.(DONE)

 Then there is the roof.

I don't know all the technical terms but uh..that ain't finished;)

 How about the exposed chip board under the eve.(done)

 No shingles overlapping the vent to the range hood.(DONE)

 Mortar all over shingles around fireplace.(DONE)

Messy metal work around under eaves.

Hole in siding around electrical outlet.

Unfinished edge of siding near cedar beam..(you see it?)(DONE)

Oh and we have some flooding issues..

Should our builder have had some insight into this?  I think so.

 It's really overwhelming eh?  These are just some of our issues.  Oh yea and our hot water isn't very hot but no one has a real solution for that.  

To add to it we found out if we don't wrap the construction loan into a conventional loan in two more days then we have to refinance.  You know what that means?  $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

I just keep telling myself it's almost over and thank GOD we at least got to move in and stop paying the month to month rent.  It's all so insignificant in the grand scheme of things and life isn't it?  But man it's eating our lunch!  Can't wait to give you a tour of the house instead of the problems.