March 13, 2017. Checking out our tiny house!

LOCATION:  Mission, Texas

WEATHER:  Foggy, overcast.  High about 70

  We checked the construction progress of our new tiny house in Retama Village.  See our name on the sign......

There were lots of workers scurrying around, laying tile, delivering the countertops, installing fans, and mixing the grout.

Since they were laying the tile, we couldn't walk in.  They have finished another house, almost identical to ours, so we looked at that carefully.  We will have French doors as our entrance, like this....

 

Our kitchen sink will look just like this, with the refrigerator on the side.  (No dishwasher, though)

Another view of our kitchen.  We upgraded to white cabinets, like this house, but our floor is tile, not laminated hardwood. 

Other wall in the kitchen with stove and microwave.  I have a real problem......what do I do with all of this cupboard space?  Sometimes I watch the TV show "Tiny House".  It is usually about the challenges that homeowners have when downsizing to a tiny house.  My problem is the oppositie - we will be upsizing and I don't have enough "stuff" to fill it up!  I should go on the TV show!

As with all the "deluxe coach houses" here in Retama, we have a large cement slab with electricity/water/sewer hook-ups for the Airstream.  Most people live in their RVs and use their coach house as a guest room or storage.  Since our house  will be finished and a bit larger than others, we will live it in while we are there.  

As we drove around the neighborhood, people waved to us and started up conversations. We chatted for a long time with our neighbors.  Everyone is super friendly and say that they genuinely like living here.    

We met with the "Welcome Lady" at the village's clubhouse.  She gave us lots of info and told us about so many volunteer opportunities.  We can be as busy (or conversely uninvolved) as much as we want.  People just send out a facebook note saying that they are interested in a certain activity, and then people respond to say they would like to be involved, too.  We're thinking about doing a beer- and wine-tasting get-together or something.  Anyone can use the clubhouse facilities (bar, kitchen, outdoor kitchen) for things like this. 

 

We had lunch in a real "hole-in-the wall" Mexican tamale joint.  My brother knows someone from this area who highly recommended the restaurant.  It is a converted gas station/convenience store.  They do a ton of business.  The place was packed with mostly Mexican families, sharing mountains of tamales.  We bought 6, the smallest portion available, and they were delicious!

We returned to Retama Village, and set up an appointment for tomorrow to do the closing.

 

DINNER:  We did carry-out at a nearby Lebanese restaurant.  We shared some gyro meat, rice, lapna (cheese) and grape leave rolls.  Some falafel just came out of the oven, so they kindly added them to the platter gratis.