cranespotting

Austin is growing bonkeringly. Along with that growth is densification, with just-this-side-of-high-rise buildings sprouting up along core roads across Austin. And Burnet is no different. We have three mid-rise projects going up within a five-minute walk of our house with two more coming over the next year or two (economic downturn willing). 

The photo above is out our second-floor window looking over the garage and rainwater tank toward the east and one of the cranes extant in our immediate area. Although many in the neighborhood are opposed to these projects, we're not. Austin needs to densify, and we're looking forward to a more dynamic, walkable neighborhood. But there are downsides such as traffic (which, so far, has been fine), loss of privacy, and, depending on your location, loss of sunlight. 

These projects have all had some grinding of the underlying limestone (which we can feel in our house), and the cats aren't too excited about it, stressed out by the sounds and vibrations. But it's all temporary, at least until it's all done.

graffiti walk in East Austin

 

ipad ideas

 

 

Can't believe I hadn't posted these before, so let's rectify the omission. At one point, I sent the architect a series of concept drawings I made on my ipad on the cabin. I had just gotten the Apple pen and I was, I believe, flying back from Iceland. 

The plan above was of the Atmosphere-Biosphere-Geosphere concept, a cloud-over-stones concept, a concept I particularly love.

 

Here's a two volume version:

 

I then came up with a basin-and-range concept evoking the structural geology of the mountains. Even had slickenslides.

Finally, as an absolute goof, I proposed the Brisket House:

 

which the architects actually used (to a certain degree) with the design. Mad Jack's is the BBQ joint in town.

 

 

 

back to the mountains...

 

We ventured back up to Cloudcroft the day after xmas thru New Year's Eve Day. This was a more relaxed trip and stay with the house mostly set up from the big move-in over Thanksgiving. Also, having learned our lesson from November, we rented a 4WD this time in case it snowed. And it did, several times, although the major storm (not projected when we left Austin) fizzled leaving only 4 inches instead of the 10 promised. Nonetheless, it still took some digging and chipping to get up that hill and out of our driveway after the four-incher. If we weren't convinced that we needed a 4WD before, we certainly are now!

Along with Church the Ditch Cat and our luggage, we brought along some more stuff to populate the cabin and well as slew of unfinished projects from the last trip. 

We brought a bedspread from Pendleton that just kicks ass:

 

 

It looks real sharp on that Floyd bed (more on Floyd in a future post). 

Speaking of Floyd, we also brought a couple Floyd side-table attachments for the guest beds downstairs. We originally planned to use them on the bed above, but, because Floyd didn't deliver them on time, we 'temporarily' placed the tables for downstairs here. Turns out we love them up here, so downstairs the attachments go!

Still working on headboards (and art) for the downstairs bedroom.

Installed a couple Wyze cameras, one out front and one out back, as well as a sprayer for the kitchen sink (which was a heck of a lot easier than I was anticipating). Most importantly, I found the salt and pepper shaker I bought for the cabin some three years ago:

Also hung up some hooks and some art.

 

The deer appear in the backyard (the wild horses stay in the valley). Through the use of the camera, we've hypothesized that the deer know when we are there and only appear when they know we are there because they appeared everyday we were there and there had been no sign of them on the cameras since we left. Rascals.

We also had a constant battle with the AI in the Nest thermostat, the damn thing always lowering the temperature in multiple nefarious attempts to freeze us to death. We tried to kill it multiple times, but, like a bad Halloween movie, it kept coming back. The singularity is here, folks.

 

All in all a good trip. We cooked quite a bit, saw the town, and met more local folks (and now get the local discount at the coffee shop!). I woke up early every day to write, which was real pleasant.

Is that... is that Santarona?!?!!

These bready croissants from Kennabelle's are the bomb!