Homes I’ve Loved – Farm and Finery

November 2, 2020June 3, 2021

Little Town, Big Heart

Slowly we are working through the seemingly endless sea of boxes as we get settled into the house. It’s going amazingly slowly – when we moved into our rental house in Smithville, we had the house set up and ready to go in 48 hours. Seriously, art on the walls, everything unpacked and boxes broken down – in 48 hours.

Moving into Smithville, we HAD to get everything set up. Nephew Andrew, his wife Melissa and daughter Kyleigh were coming to spend spring break week with us (which had been planned the previous fall). Necessity really is the mother of invention..

Since we put the lake cottage on the market during the height of Illinois’ lockdown, we hired people to pack and move the contents of the cottage to us here in central Texas. These days I’m unpacking boxes labeled like the one in the pic above. What exactly is “you know” or “n shit”? Or worse, the are labeled like the box below…

So until we get the ranch to a photographable stage, here’s what we learned living in a rental home for 19 months.

You really can make anyplace feel like home. Just pull out your favorite pieces, make a comfortable seating area, and invite some family or friends over. When our friend Matthew visited last fall he saw our living room (with furniture from the lodge) and said, I know this place!

2. Kitchen layouts really, really do matter. Although our rental had a nice looking and spacious eat in kitchen, it drove both John and me crazy. The sink was opposite from the fridge so to wash veggies or take raw poultry to the sink, you had to skirt around the island. When John made coffee in the mornings he had to do-si-do around the island to get to the water dispenser and fridge. Repeat after me – put your sink in the middle of your kitchen work triangle.

Adam and John moving us out of our rental home

3. Neighbors can really enhance your experience. We got SO lucky with Adam and Ginny next door. I’m sad I cannot find a pic of them together on my phone and super surprised that I cannot find a pic of their dogs, Dixie and Gus. One of my daily rituals was to walk out almost every day to pet those dogs and get a few dog licks across my chin.
Ginny and Adam frequently shared goodies from their garden, homemade boudin and sausages, and even chorizo. Adam also helped us move from Smithville and recently brought his brother and another friend over to help usher the pool table in place in the great room. I really miss our chats at the fence.

4. Make the most of your environment. One of the great things about living in Smithville was how we could easily walk to many different restaurants, shops, the library or even the grocery store. I’m really glad we had the opportunity to experience that, especially since we cannot walk to anything from our forever home.

Another fun aspect of Smithville is that it is frequently used for filming movies and television shows. In fact, while we lived there, they were filming the Amazon Prime series, “Panic.” It’s based off a young adult series of books by Lauren Oliver. The funny thing is that we would notice a new store or restaurant only to find that it was a fake front created just for the show. So let’s play a game – are the following photos of real establishments or fake? Answers will be below.

1. The Blazer
2. Richards County Sheriff Department
3. Front Room Wine Bar
4. Lyle and Sons Pharmacy
5. Main Street Convenience
6. Roy’s at the Emporium
7. Dot’s Diner
8. The Grand Movie Theatre
9. Smithville General Store
10. Mane Street Hair
11. PS Theatre
12. Rio Social House

Ok, have you guessed? Here goes:

The Blazer – very real and very fun. There is an intimate speakeasy bar in the back, open on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. Otherwise, a great place for lunch or dinner outside or in.
Richards County Sheriff Department – fake. Smithville is in Bastrop County. In fact, there is no Richards County in Texas.
Front Room Wine Bar – real and another great restaurant option in downtown Smithville.
Lyle and Sons Pharmacy- fake
Main Street Convenience – also fake
Roy’s at the Emporium – fake again
Dot’s Diner – a great place for home cooking. Just kidding! It’s fake!
The Grand Movie Theatre – another fake front!
Smithville General Store – real and a cute home goods store with a coffee bar in the back
Mane Street Hair – another fake front
PS Theatre – real, although I don’t know if they are running still since COVID-19 shut down so much this year.
Rio Social House- real and recently opened cafe and bar.

Pics of the house will be forthcoming (I promise!) as we sort through the boxes and find a place for everything and get everything in place. In the meantime, we hope you enjoyed your Halloween.

Me as Fleur Delacour’s older sister – martinis and magic wands

Since I had to travel last year for Halloween and could not attend our neighbor’s party, I decided to wear my costume from last year for a socially distancing party of 2.
Stay safe and thanks for stopping by!

Hugs, Libby

August 14, 2020August 14, 2020

The Lake Cottage 10 Years Later

Today we sold (closed on) our lake house. It’s the end of an era – I was born and raised in Illinois (John was born in Texas) and have never lived outside of the Land of Lincoln until recently. It’s bittersweet as we remove our last foothold in my home state and say so long (for now) to some good friends and family in the area.

At one point in time, John and I seriously discussed keeping the lake cottage and spending the summers at the lake. But 1,000 miles is a long way to drive to get to a weekend house, even when there isn’t a pandemic. And you can’t exactly walk away from your property in Texas for 3 months. Still, we put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into that little cottage as we remodeled it top to bottom and we have a lot of fond memories from our time there.

We had one of the best views on the lake and our lake cottage was full almost every weekend of the summer with various guests. Independence Day was a big holiday at the lake with a boat parade in the afternoon and fireworks in the evening. I missed that this year as COVID-19 cancelled many events around us.

One thing we learned through having a second house is that we are definitely “one house” people. It sounds fun having a lake house – and it is – but it is also a lot of work. This isn’t a condo – we have to mow and rake the yard, sweep and maintain the decks and dock, maintain the boats, fix windows when they get broken (as one did this past winter). Plus all the inside stuff that anyone would have to manage (like food, sheets, towels, etc.) – even in a condo. This would be fine – except that we never lived there full time. It was always “the lake cottage”. No big deal when we lived at The Lodge, a 20 minute drive away; but now we live a 16 hour drive away. Not quite as convenient.

John begins work on the boardwalk
John (and Michael) also built the cocktail and dining decks
Helping out around the lake
John’s February birthday one year

So to those of you who visited us there at the lake over the past decade, thanks for visiting and sharing some of your time with us. We no longer have the lake cottage, but we have many, many happy memories of birthdays, holidays, retirement parties, reunions, and more at that location. And we hope you will visit us in Texas soon as it is safe to do so to create some new memories down here in our soon-to-be-finished forever home.

As always, thanks for stopping by and take care!

Hugs, Libby

July 5, 2020July 6, 2020

Happy Independence Day!

This is our first Independence Day in Texas and the first time in a decade that we don’t have a houseful of guests. It was so quiet, especially since Smithville, where we are currently living in a rental home, has a zero tolerance policy for fireworks in the city. I found that I was very nostalgic and a bit homesick for fun on the lake.

But, as previously mentioned, it just isn’t worth keeping a lake cottage 1,000 miles away. We wouldn’t get enough use out of it to warrant the costs and we aren’t allowed to rent it out because it is on the city’s water source. Thankfully it is under contract to close on or before August 14, 2020.

Too bad it’s so far away from our home in Texas!

In the meantime, work continues at our forever home, including the installation of our new septic system and heat pumps.

The foundation of the house was also skim coated, which is technically known as parging. It’s not required by code and is essentially decorative, making the foundation of the house and porches nice and smooth.

And with the parging completed, they added dirt and graded around the house, minimizing the big drop offs from the porch.

And tile continues to be installed, thankfully without any further mistakes. I really like how the bar bathroom shower turned out.

I hope you all enjoyed your Independence Day, however you celebrated it. We began packing our rental house – quite different than any holiday we’ve had in the past decade! Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs, Libby

October 23, 2019October 27, 2019

October Wedding Trip to the Midwest

This past weekend found John and I back in the Midwest for a wedding and long weekend with friends. One of my oldest friends, Neil, and his honey, Brian tied the knot after 6 years of blending a family.

Part of the fun was that multiple high school friends traveled back for the festivities and these days it’s unusual to say that you’ve been friends with someone since you were 12 or 14 years old. But that is just how long I’ve been friends with this crazy crew.

Middle school and high school friends back together. Who knew that spending our lunch hours in the student newspaper and year book room would keep us friends for more than 30 years??

So the weekend was a bit of a mini reunion as well as a chance to do some work on our lake cottage, which is on the market (I’ll tag a post about that later).

Guests were highly encouraged to wear tweed. Boat rides at the lake and other reunion fun not pictured.

Sorry to brag, but John’s tweed coat cost $9 at a thrift store. I think he has a tweed coat somewhere in storage, but where???? It’s a mystery…

On our trips to and from, we stopped off at the Admiral’s Clubs in DFW (on the way North) and ORD (on the way South), and I was pleasantly surprised to see that the American Airlines Admiral’s Clubs have significantly upped their free food game. No more cubed cheese and weird salad made from couscous (or was that a pearled barley? Either way, it wasn’t good.). Instead they had a REAL salad bar!

Lettuce, tomatoes, grilled chicken (crumbled bacon was another option). This is with a vinaigrette but there was also a honey mustard dressing option.

OK, you may think this isn’t a big deal, but with a cup of soup (tomato basil soup in DFW not pictured), it makes a full meal in a way that cubes of cheese just can’t cut (boy-pun intended).

Make your own Mac and cheese in O’Hare!! With a cup of unsweetened iced tea.

The make your own Mac and cheese at the club in ORD was really good and thankfully they have these small cups so it’s easier to do portion control. Being gluten sensitive, John did not have this but he did enjoy the custom made guacamole and chips.

Happy hour guacamole and chips with corn, jalapeños, tomatoes, lime juice, and crumbled cheese.

By the way, the freshly made happy hour guacamole and chips (and in the morning it’s custom made avocado toast – with smoked salmon as an option!) are only available in larger Admiral’s Clubs. My “home” Admiral’s Club in Austin is much smaller and does not offer this perk (but it is still my favorite club).

Free house wine and Hendricks with lime, which is not free.

In case you are considering springing for a club membership or for a day pass, I should mention that there are also lots of free drink options including coffee, hot chocolates, lattes, hot & iced tea, sodas, flavored waters, and house wine, beer, and spirits. The premium drinks, like Hendricks gin, are an extra fee. In fact, 3 Hendricks on the rocks (one for me and two for John over the course of 3 hours) cost $40 before tip.

Anyway, it was a wonderful trip “home”, except it didn’t feel like home as much anymore, which was a bit odd. John and I discussed how much our heart is in our building project and that’s where “home” is – even if we are living temporarily in a rental house. We are both looking forward to getting back and seeing the progress made on the foundation and a better (less steep) driveway up to the house site.

Would love to hear your feedback – either about your experiences with airline clubs or even your own with mini reunions with friends!

Hugs, Libby

October 1, 2019October 29, 2019

The Lodge 20 Years Later

Today, on October 1, 2019, I’m reflecting on John and I purchasing our first home together. We purchased it 20 years ago today and we nicknamed it the lodge because it, well, felt like a lodge in the woods. Our daughter was 7 at the time and we were thrilled to close on this house. It had plenty of room for us, for entertaining, and – most of all – it had a fantastic, large 4 acres yard in the city limits of Bloomington, IL.

We put the lodge on the market in May 2019 as part of our transition to Texas. We just can’t take care of a home on 44 acres in Texas AND a home on 4 acres (that is 1,000 miles away in Illinois) too.

Entry Foyer

The lodge sold in just 5 days. It was exciting and stressful at the same time – this meant we had less than 1 month to move out of our home of 19 years and 9 months! Pictures of living room, dining room, and kitchen are below. These were the realtor photos when the house was staged. Many pieces and rugs were already removed and living in our rental home in Texas.

As I write this in a rental home in Smithville, Texas, it makes me nostalgic, of course, but also excited to begin our forever home here in Texas. I’m very grateful we found this rental home, but it isn’t our home and it definitely feels like we are in limbo as we wait to get started and to move.

Plus I also miss many of the pieces of furniture in these pictures that are now in storage. I can’t wait to get my hands on them again and place, stage, and decorate them in our ranch home!

Have you had to live in limbo for an extended period of time? We’ve been in rental homes in Texas since November 2018, getting everything ready to break ground. It feels like forever at this point! Let me know your experiences or reflections in the comments below and thanks for stopping by!

Hugs, Libby