THE END

WE'RE IN



I SURVIVED



I THINK IT WAS WORTH IT



It's been three weeks since I've posted. I ventured out to the ranch on January 20 to spend the night by myself and to be there when the new furniture was delivered on the 21st. We are able to live in the house.......lots of boxes still in the garage and it will take some time to get them all unpacked. NOTHING is coming into the house that I can't use. Tex had his way on the packing end and I'm having my way on the unpacking end. Lots of things are going to go flying off the cliff when Tex is back in the city. Would have been soooooo much simpler to have jettisoned unwanted items last spring.



Want to take a tour?

Let's go around back before we go in. Sorry about the dirt. At least it's dry and we won't get all muddy.

A couple different views of the house and the deck.

Now, let's go back around to the front and ya'll come on in.

This is the hall tree that I've coveted for seven months and now it sits in our entry. I should have taken a picture in the daylight. This doesn't do it justice. I'm so fickle. I used to be in love with the front door.......now it's the hall tree.

Yes, this is the same entry. It's just the light at different times of the day/flash of camera that makes the walls appear such varying colors. This is the piece I finally settled on for the other wall of the entry. It has a distressed black finish and a natural wood top. I'm awaiting the arrival of tall, skinny buffet lamps with burlap shades before we hang the picture.

Tex didn't waste any time getting the wine rack filled! Have to quickly find some sort of art or wall hanging to put in the other niche. I'm afraid he might start stacking cases of wine in that empty space!

Notice the boxes beside the grandfather clock? The guts of the clock are in those boxes. It's not easy living in two different places. We couldn't get into the clock because the key was back at the apartment in my jewelry box......which I hadn't taken out to the ranch.

Honestly, the walls are not this mustard color!

This is the back entrance from the garage. See the state of Texas on the laundry room wall? A sweet, long-time Air Force friend sent that to me for the new house. It was made in Haiti from an old tomato paste drum. Can you believe that the walls in this entry and the laundry room are the same as in the whole family room/dining/kitchen area? Is it my photography?

This is the office.......and I forgot to take a picture of the coolest feature....the ceiling is recycled barn tin that has been stamped and lacquered. Guess the coverage of the crisis in Egypt kept me from thinking about snapping a shot of the ceiling! Or, was it FOX News Shepard Smith's blue eyes that distracted me? Did you spot Shepard on the TV in the family room in a previous picture? He will forever be immortalized on my blog. (Only because he was accidentally snapped in a photo and has gorgeous eyes....not because I'm enamored with him. And, the eyes? Probably tinted contacts!)

The master bedroom, where no master sleeps.........just Nellie and Tex.

The only rooms upstairs are the two guest rooms. This one is still virgin.

This one was christened just a day after the furniture arrived. I got a call on that Friday from Tex's sister.....she and her husband were in Iowa on their way to Phoenix for their 3 month escape from the Wisconsin weather and she said they would be in Gordon at 1:00 pm on Saturday.

Remember the chair and little table I bought at an antique store a couple months ago? This is where I put them. Perfect for sitting and looking out at the view.

I could look out at the view 24/7. Yep, even at night the stars are just "so bright, deep in the heart of Texas." The sky changes all the time. Yesterday morning when I got up and looked out, this is what I saw. The fog had settled in and only the higher land was exposed. I pretended I was in the Himalayas!

OK. This is really the end of THE END and I'll bet you're glad. That was a lot of pictures. I think my blogging days are over. The answer is "NO" to those of you who have asked.......I am not doing a blog about the safari this year. I might, and I stress the word might, do one more post in the spring when everything is green and hopefully we'll have some landscaping in place. It's been great to have had a place to keep a diary of all that has gone on these last 12 months. Thanks for listening to my rantings and ravings.

Please come to see us if you are ever in our part of the country. The less notice the better. Then I have an excuse not to cook! Tex was the one who took the cardboard and tag off the racks in the oven. I could have lived forever with them nicely wrapped in their packing material.

(I have never figured out why everything runs together after the last photo. Guess I won't have to worry about that anymore!)

Slightly Less Nervous Nellie

SOGGY SUNDAY

We didn't see one flake of snow yesterday but have seen pictures of accumulation in other areas of the metroplex. It only rained on us on our way out to the house and while we were unloading.

(Pssst....Please don't tell our builder we drove on the turnaround in front of the house. There were barriers across the drive to keep vehicles off that area. They probably sealed it the day before. We're pretty sure it was ok to drive on and there was no way we were carrying everything into the house in the rain! We backed up right under the porch and never got a drop on us! We couldn't go in through the garage because they'd just done the expoxy floor the day before and we knew we couldn't mess that up because they hadn't put the sealer on yet. Don't worry about those tracks.....just water.)




I darted out the side door under protection of the porch to take this picture of the finished deck. When we arrived the visibility was very poor and we could hardly see anything off in the distance.

This is the very first thing we've placed in the house. Just take my word for it.....the rug and the walls do look good together in person. I don't know why this color on the bedroom walls never looks like the actual color. The rug isn't really true to its color, either. Hmmm. Do you think it's my camera or is it just that I always use the simple setting when taking pictures? Anyway, my photography skills are zilch.

I really love this rug. It has hung in Brumbaugh's showroom since August when we purchased it. I visited it many times, taking paint samples to hold up to see if the color went with the rug. Then later on, when I'd already picked out the color, we would stop by Brumbaugh's on the pretense of looking at furniture but really it was just to say "howdy" to my rug. It is awaiting the arrival of the bedroom furniture on Saturday. Can't wait to put that room together. I've kept certain old things and have bought new things to go with........this has been put together in my mind and I can't wait to see if it actually looks like what I picture it to be.

It is very hard to believe that I did my very first post on this blog one year ago, almost to the day. I first posted on January 12, 2010. This year has gone by in one big blur. My blogging days are almost finished. I will do one final post weeks down the road after all the furniture is in place and I'll wait for a sunny day to take the exterior shots....makes for a much cheerier picture!

Until then, stay warm and safe!

Nervous Nellie

SLOW SATURDAY

Nothing much to post today, but wanted to update. I'm in my jammies drinking coffee.....all the coffee I want to drink because I'm deliciously staying in the apartment going nowhere today. Normally, If I have to go out and about, I limit my coffee drinking. If I didn't, I'd get absolutely nothing done because I'd be heading to every restroom in every establishment all morning long! Sad, but true....I know the location of every single restroom in the DFW area.

Tex and Brian are in Dallas attending the Dallas Safari Club Expo today. This is also sad but true. We haven't moved into the new house yet and Tex is already on to the next adventure. We are leaving May 29 to go on safari for two weeks. Is the man intentionally trying to send me to an early grave?

We were at the house on Thursday afternoon to witness the fellow from Fox Energy give the house the smoke test. Well, not really a smoke test. They do a negative pressure test on the house to see how well insulated it is. The house passed with flying colors and then some. He was impressed. A house our size could get a reading of 4,000 and get the energy efficiency rating. We had a 1,578 (the lower the reading, the better). Tex and Phil the Phantastic Phoreman were high-fiving.

A couple little things in the house that need to be addressed. The laundry room looks like we shoved 10 pounds of you-know-what into a 5 pound room. The front loader w/d on pedestals really fills up the space and extends out beyond the cabinets. The extra refrigerator fills up its space and then some, too. We do have clearance enough for the frig door to open easily. It just looks "stuffed" in there to me. Had the same size laundry room in Keller and an extra frig. Guess the appliances were smaller and therefore everything looked spacious. Now we have to decide whether or not we want to get a different w/d and refriferator for the laundry room.

The cabinet man built an enclosure for the refrigerator in the kitchen to specs, but when they put it in the space it extends out two inches and looks weird. Solution is to get another refrigerator or knock a hole in the wall behind and push it back two inches. Ugh!

On the plus side! The deck is awesome.......just awesome. And, they took a chain saw to the tree just off the bluff that was smack dab in the middle of the lot. That opens up the view from the house and from the deck. Makes all the difference in the world. Tex is still griping about the loss of that tree. Hey, it wasn't a California Sequoia we felled.....it was a scrubby Texas post oak......get a grip, Tex.

I will try to take pictures of the deck and the front of the house tomorrow.....that is, if the snow flakes don't start falling (which is in the forecast). It has been so beautiful this past week with temps reaching almost 70. Wouldn't you know we are supposed to have record cold this week......in the teens at night with the highs during the day in the 30's. When you move, is it better having the temp 110 or 30??? Nothing new to take pictures of in the house but I will try to get one of the front with the garage doors on now and one of the deck.

First furniture delivery of our things in storage is to be delivered a week from today! We will be spending the night for the first time next Saturday night. I haven't decided whether I'll try to stay out there that next week by myself or not. The next furniture delivery is Jan. 21 and the other three haven't been scheduled yet.

Better hop in the shower and get going. I've got laundry to do and then I'm going to prepare a nice dinner for the Great White Hunters who will be getting back to the apartment around 7:00 this evening. I will have to sit through dinner being regaled with exaggerated tales of their adventures at the Expo today. (This will be great practice at honing their skills for the tall tales they will have to tell in June after the Big Hunt!)

Nervous Nellie

PARTY POOPERS

Sure hope ya'll had a more exciting New Year's Eve than Tex and me. The Building Boogie Man bonked me on the head at 2:00 yesterday morning and it was downhill from there. We made a trip to the house yesterday with our first load of belongings! Had to put them in the attic.....but hey, one car/truck load down and only 499 more to go!

They will be doing the final cleaning this week. WOO! HOO! How can I get them to keep coming back weekly? I know, I know......$$$$$$ is how. So, we have a key and we've already had mail delivered at our new address.

Here are a couple shots of the inside. After the final cleaning inside and out, I will show you the finished house.

Refrigerators, washer and dryer not in yet. Yikes! The dust is still on the island lights.

This is the cool ceiling in the office. This is reclaimed, weathered and slightly rusty tin roofing from an old barn that has been stamped. They put it on the ceiling and then laquered it.

We got home at 6:00 last night and I immediately got into my jammies and went to bed at 8:00. The book I was reading started to drop out of my hand at 8:30 so I turned off the light. Tex came to bed after the football game so neither of us saw 1-1-11 come in. Dang!

We are going to have a New Year's Day dinner of grilled chicken breasts, baked sweet potato fries and Texas caviar......that's black eyed pea salad for good luck.

After dinner we will crack open the bottle of champagne (one day late) as we celebrate TCU's win over Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl. HARDEE-HAR-HAR-YEAH-RIGHT! A girl can dream, can't she?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Nervous Nellie

REDNECK CHRISTMAS

I can hardly remember when things at 900 Post Oak Road looked like this. Now the driveway is right through the middle of those trees.

There's a house now where these trees once stood.

Two years ago we attended our first 7R Ranch Christmas party. Tex and Nellie beneath the 7R moon.

Jay Novacek with his little girl, Mcainley. Don't ya just love that this big ole football player is holding his daughter's doll? No wonder he was good at catching footballs.....check out the size of that hand.

My YOUNGER sister and me on Santa's lap. (that's a Christmas present for her....she always wants everybody to know she's 16 months younger!) I asked for a brand new car and she asked for all the money back that she'd lost in the stock market that year. He told us we'd both been naughty and handed us a lump of coal. Ruined my night.

Because the house is not ready and we have no room at the apartment for our son who is coming from Houston, we are spending a redneck Christmas at the Longhorn Inn. No other place in Gordon to stay. You know you might be a redneck if you buy a half-price ($14.99) Martha Stewart Christmas tree at Home Depot to bedeck your motel room.

We won't be spending all our time at the Longhorn Inn. By Friday the house will be complete except for a few minor things and the final cleaning. We will be able to take our camo folding chairs and sit by the fireplace. Of course, yesterday it was a record 85 here. I think on Christmas day it will be in the high 40's. We will have light, heat and working toilets. What more do you need?

You might be a redneck if you have a coon dog on your porch and display the Confederate flag! This was taken when the Longhorn was under management by the previous owner. The Confederate flag is no longer there and I haven't see the hound in a coon's age.

There are several famous rednecks within a short distance of this motel. Alice Walton's Rocking W Ranch is just east of here and Ty Murray and Jewel live down the road in Stephenville 23 miles south of the motel.

You might be a redneck if you eat your Christmas dinner at the Iron Skillet Truck Stop in Weatherford. That will be the only place open on Christmas day. But, the food at that truck stop is awesome! Believe me. I've gained 10 pounds this year stopping to eat at that place.

When you come to visit, we won't take you to the truck stop for dinner. We'll kick off our boots and get all gussied up and go on down the road to Weatherford to eat at the Fire Oak Grille. The chef there is a redneck from Ft. Worth, Eric Hunter, who won the 2006 competition on Iron Chef. He beat some Japanese chef in what they called the "Chili Peppers" battle.

We're heading out to the ranch tomorrow morning so I won't be posting until after Christmas. Here's wishing ya'll the most wonderful Christmas ever. I hope you get to spend it with your loved ones. We'll be missing our sweet grandson and his mommy and daddy.

MERRY REDNECK CHRISTMAS!

Nervous Nellie (Dad-gummit! Why do the last paragraphs always run together? I can't change it.)