The Views

Not much has happened since our last entry. The architect told us he would have something for us by the end of the week but that was two weeks ago. Mom and Aunt Bec are trying to be patient but they have been hanging around us for so long, they don't know how to be patient. We told you that Mom had some friends in town last week. On Monday, while the man friend was in a long meeting, she and the lady friend drove to see the land. Mom took her camera and took some pictures from the building site. This is basically what we will see when we look to the north:



The east:



The southeast:



And the southwest:



Since there will be a big grove of trees to the west, Mom didn't take that picture. As you can see, there is nothing but nature (and some cowdogs) around there. We really, really hope we have something interesting to show you soon though blueprints and talking to builders probably won't be interesting. We need to break ground and start seeing some real action!!

Where Will the Mommies Work?

Pippa asked if it would be hard for the Mommies to get jobs near our new home. We would like it best if the Mommies just stayed home all day. That way they could pet us and play with us. But Mom and Aunt M say that they have to get jobs so they can bring home the dog biscuits. (sigh)

Mom told us that she has been researching architecture/engineering/ construction firms in the area and has a good list going. She said that the closest cities are growing, so she should be able to get a job there.

Aunt M has what she calls a degree in counting. She's a very good counter. We know because whenever we are called in to the house, she always counts 1-2-3-4-5 and says "all in". There's a place called a university in one of the nearby cities. There's probably a lot of things for her to count there, so she should be able to get a job at the university. Besides that's the university that gave her the piece of paper that said she could count real good.

Answering Some Questions

Hershey and Lorenza want to know if this will be an everyday house or a vacation house. This will be the everyday house but Mom and Aunt Bec think living out there will be like a vacation every evening when they get home from work. Mom is going to sell her house and Aunt Bec is going to sell her house and they are going to move to the new house and get new jobs and every night they are going to come home and sit on the porch and have a vacation.

This will be boring for most of you but we will give a history of the land again.

Four brothers came over from Ireland. They came in through the port in Savannah, GA. They migrated to Alabama and settled but decided to move on. In 1834, they came to a place in Texas that they finally settled. They had to clear the land and build homes and fight Indians. They were lucky in some ways because they didn't need a cemetery until 1838. Three of the brothers had families and they had families and on down through the years. Mom and Aunt Bec are descendants of the youngest brother.

Each brother was given his own 180 acres to clear and farm. Amazingly, all 180 acres that the youngest brother received still belong to the family after 173 years! (We don't know about the other brothers' land; we will ask Grandpa.) Grandpa has three cousins who own 100 acres. Grandpa owns 39 acres. Uncle John owns 19 1/2 acres. Mom and Aunt Bec own 19 1/2 acres. The other two acres are the family cemetery. (Yes, that grave site from 1838 is still there.)

Grandpa and his two sisters inherited 40 acres from their father. Grandpa's sisters sold him their part of the land. Grandpa's aunt gave her 40 acres to Grandpa's cousin. In March of this year, she asked Grandpa if he wanted to buy the land because she has other family land. That's when Uncle John, Aunt Bec and Mom bought the land. Somewhere along the line those two acres were set aside for the cemetery.

So, now we are to 2007 and Mom and Aunt Bec own their 19 1/2 acres of land. They picked a place to build a house. Since it is for both of them, they want two master suites. They couldn't find any floorplans that came close to what they wanted so they hired an architect that Aunt Bec used to work with. They took the architect out to see the land and the location where they want to build and he is designing a house for them.

Right now, they are waiting for him to draw up some plans for them to look over. That is why we said not much will happen on this blog for a while. Until they get some plans, they can't hire a builder. And once they get a builder, they will need to go out there every weekend to see what he is doing. THAT'S when you will get to see things because they will take lots of pictures from the foundation up to the roof and all the things inside.

We are just so excited about it, that we wanted to set up the blog. We had picked a name for our blog and, since it was available, we grabbed it up. For a while, we will write about what is happening until we have pictures of the house being built.

Our New House Too

Hi! This is Maggie. Jake and I are cousins to Roxie, Sammy and Andy. The new doghouse is being built for us too, and we're VERY excited about it. We can hardly wait until we can live together with our cousins! Jake dreams every night about running over acres and acres of land chasing squirrels. I like snoodling around too, but most of all, I'm happiest whenever and wherever I can be with my Mommy.
Jake and I love our aunt M (she's our cousins' Mommy), and we're glad we'll get to have a new doghouse with her in it too.

The New Doghouse!

Mom decided she wanted to catalogue the building of the new doghouse. She says the house is going to be for her and Aunt Bec but we know it is really for us. Since we are still in the planning stage, there won't be much to post but we wanted to set up the blog so it will be ready for us!