james nunn | blog

Well after starting the whole process of finding a new home and building it, we have finally moved into our new abode!  I have to say it is pretty amazing, and I am enjoying the time that we are taking to get to know our new house.

For those that frequented our previous home, you may have heard us refer to it as “EGB” which is a pretend airport code (waypoint) for our home. After much searching, we have given our new home the code “CDF” which stands for Casetta Drive Frisco. Of course CAS would have been great, but that is Casablanca (kismet anyone?). So if you are ever invited to CDF, you will know what we are talking about.

As of tonight we would have been in our house one day short of a week. It has been an incredible week, and most of the first few days was spent moving. We are still moving, as we are slowly working through emptying out our storage unit. The dogs are settling into the new place, however they are still a little unsure of why they are here. As long as Chris or I stay relatively close, we are in a good spot with the boys.

So far there has not been anything too disastrous with our move. The moving company did damage our front door, but we are moving forward with that. Our audio / network installation has been a different story. It’s one of those things that you hope won’t be an issue, but invariably it is. So far we have two ports that don’t work, and what seems to be a missing subwoofer cable in our family room. Needless to say it is the little things that really make the experience all that less exciting.

Chris’s mom and brother are currently living with us, so we have a full, but comfortable living arrangement right now. I’m glad that we are not living at the old place right now as I think it would be a little more close and problematic (with having more people to maneuver around small places). It gives us an idea of how it is going to be later this year when my mother and sister come to visit for a couple of months. Overall, it has been a pretty great start to our new life at CDF!

Here is a picture of the house that was taken by our new neighbor during the most recently snow storm.

After being in our house for almost ten years (January 2011) we have decided to start the House 2.0 project. Chris and I have been looking around for a couple of years for the next “perfect” home for us to live in. We initially thought that we could find a foreclosed property that we could work with, however the only time that the right house appeared, there was so much that needed to be done to it, that we both decided that it wasn’t worth pursuing. Then we stopped looking for a while as we got busy with other projects.

Then in July we had been talking with some friends and they had just singed up to build a new house, and we once again explored the option of building House 2.0 rather than trying to find a home that fit our needs. It was here that we found Sorana Estates thanks to our friends. Both of us fell in love with the community (not that one exists yet), and the layout of the development. We even found a house that we both really liked.

Move forward to today and House 2.0 is now starting to become a reality. We even have a website ready with the beginnings of everything everyone needs to know about the house. Feel free to check out the website.

So all things working in our favor, we will calling House 2.0 home around March 2011. More details to come.

Thanks to my good friend Layton, the lanai preparation has developed to an almost final stage. I have two things to show for the work that Layton and I did: (1) a semi-circle dirt area in my back yard; and (2) peeling skin. It seems that Layton doesn’t burn when standing around in the sun, but that same luxury is not extended to me. The good thing is that it wasn’t as bad as it could have been (which kind of surprised me given the amount of time we were out there digging around).

The next stage is to dig out some channels towards the house to protect the foundation, and then start the brickwork (border). following that, we will be cementing the interior (in sections). The discussion over the color of the bricks, final concrete and the design of the sections is still ongoing.

As you would imagine, there is a downside to doing a project like this, and having dogs. This problem is made all that more challenging when it rains.

Project Lanai

After years of talking about a patio extension, I woke up this morning determined that today was going to be the day (besides, I’m procrastinating about other stuff). So after relaxing in the sun this morning, while I did my yoga-like activities, I built up the momentum to get things started.

Did I mention that it was meant to be cloudy and a little rainy? Well when I started (as Phase 1 pictures were taken) it was sprinkling a little – yeah, a sun shower. But that quickly stopped. By the time I got to pulling up the sod, I was saturated and starting to thinking just oatmeal wasn’t going to sustain me.

I’ve stopped for the day, and will continue working on this tomorrow and over the weekend (I’m hopeful I’ll have an extra pair of hands to assist on Saturday and Sunday).

Click on the image above to see other pictures relating to this project.

It’s somewhat hard to believe that eight years ago today, Chris and I landed in the United States to officially start our lives together. After much discussion, we chose March 5, 1999 as the official beginning of our relationship, and the date to count anniversaries from. It has been an incredible eight years, and each one I am extremely thankful for. In 1998 when I told my mother that I was planning to move to the United States, she asked me two questions: “do you love Chris?” and “will this make me happy?” – both of which I answered yes. She also shared her views on making decisions that you will live to regret for years to come, or – as we more appropriate to our conversation at the time – not making a decision that I would regret for the rest of my life. It was a new journey for me, and for Chris – and today we celebrate the eighth year of our journey together.

This picture was taken in September 1998, a few days after I met Chris for the first time. My ex and I were visiting friends in Dallas, and Chris had recently become a roommate of theirs. Days before we landed in Dallas, Chris was sent off to New Orleans (he worked for State Farm National Catastrophe at the time). After we landed, we decided to pay Chris a visit in New Orleans, and here is where this picture was taken, at Pat O’Briens.

We have had an incredible journey together, and I am hopeful that we will have many more to come. I think we are different people today, compared to those two sitting in that picture, but we are stronger, wiser (a nice way of saying ‘older’) and still very much in love.

Happy Anniversary Chris. I’ll always love you.

Earlier today, like much earlier, I was out and about with a few other people cleaning up trash around the City (as part of the Keep Frisco Beautiful campaign). It would have been nicer to see more supporters actually helping, and at one point I was thinking there were as many organizers as there were volunteers. Still, after our city’s mayor said a few words (to the press), and then said a few more words (to more press), he actually said a few more words (to us) and set us free to go grab some trash. (I make this general observation about the length of time it took to set us on our way, as I am not a morning person, and I’d been there for an hour already.)

Anyway, I worked with a couple of other members of Frisco Pride, and collected a good amount of trash. At first we thought the area that we were assigned was too small (for the amount of time — we were wrong). Sadly, most was related to building materials (like plastic wrap, etc.), and got me thinking that I hope the city actually gets a clean up bond or payment from any builder (chances are this is not the case). After an hour and a bit of cleaning up, we finished, and I came home to wash the morning off me.

When I got home, I found this on the answering service (we have Vonage, so it emails any messages left as WAV files *snicker*):

[audio:cbm_jul29.mp3]

That was Chris (who is in Florida for the weekend). Isn’t that sweet? He might be a litle off key, but I loved it Of course, the safe thing about Chris being in Florida is I can post this just to prove how sweet he can be

(Side note: the little WordPress audio tool/plugin can be found here.)

may07-006
Originally uploaded by MelbGuy.

You know its finals week coming up when the garden gets a make-over In an effort to not study for finals, I decided to work on the garden yesterday and today. Today was unexpected, especially given how achy I was last night after going through and tearing out weed, grass, and who knows what else.

Today, after lunch with some friends, we managed to visit Lowe’s and picked up a bunch of plants (I think 36 in total). All but five are in the ground or in a pot.

I hurt!

Chris and I bought a new bed today.