Christmas 2010

Yesterday, workers continued to work into the early evening because this is the last day before Jim closes the job site for 2010. It's officially the Christmas Holiday! There were 22 men working to get their work complete, particularly the insulation folks from Foam One. This is necessary because soon after the first of the year, we will warm the house and keep the temperatures cozy for the anitque floors to go down.

It was a windy day, so windy that the port-a-potty turn 180 degrees and several temporary doors blew down. It was 22 degrees in the early morning but with the sun shining, it made for a beautiful day. It is the kind of day that you build a fire in the firepit, brew a warm toddy or some hot chocolate, rock in an 'ol rocker and remember the blessings of this year. I suspect we will be doing this at O'Mesa next year at this time.

Today, it is one week until Christmas and I am in Shreveport where we will be having our Christmas Eve celebrations this year. I am preparing for a large dinner, wrapping presents, baking, delivering gifts, decorating the front windows with lights, sending cards, all the while listening to a symphony of Christmas music. At the same time, I am puppy sitting Trey and Gus for William and Jorie and little Frtiz is happy as can be having some "friends" to play. All this preparing for the celebration we will have in honor of our Savior. "Behold the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel." As I pray: Lord, Prepare us to celebrate with fitting honor the coming feast of our redemption. Let our hearts be humbled by your offering to save us from our sins, sending your son for us to know and let us truly be grateful for all you provide, not letting a day go by without recognizing the sacrifice you made for us, that we may have eternal life, always in love. Amen

"Honey. it's cold outside" Christmas 2010

Today it was 20 degrees at O'mesa and expected to be cold through Christmas. This has not stopped the sub contractors from attending to their chores. Some days it is like a swarm of bees with masons, electricians, plumbers, roofers, rainwater and gutter servicemen and more, all working simultaneously to take part in this creation. We are only 12 days until Christmas so it's a mad rush to complete all the work inorder that everyone take 2 weeks off for Christmas.

We are giving Jim Donaldson 2 weeks off to be with his family for the holidays, a well-deserved vacation for this hard-working chap. He leaves his family in Wimberly and stays at O'Mesa most nights during the week, in an old Katrina trailer we bought for the construction site. He eats frozen dinners most meals and never complains. Many of the other sub contractors are heading South to Mexico to be with their families. They work all year long to save enough money to go "home". Amazing how the holidays invites folks back to their roots. Somehow it isn't the holidays without being in that 'ol familier place surrounded by the sights, smell and sounds of Christmas past. My own mind drifts off to Christmas in Stowe, Pennsylvania.

As children, Tina and I had either new ice skates, a new sled or at the least a new pair of boots or gloves for the winter season. Ice would form on the "alley" where there was a low spot and we would skate in our back yard. About a block from the house there was a large enough hill for us to sled, which was so much fun. Somehow I never minded the cold back then and looked forward to the first snow storm, building snowmen, shoveling the sidewalks for a path, wiping the snow from the windshield of the car and layering in all our woolen clothing, some that still smelled of moth balls. O'Mesa will never have this much snow and ice but it does get brisk in Fredericksburg in the winter. Today was one of those days.

As for the sights, smells and sounds of Christmas, it wouldn't be Christmas without Dad's Christmas Fruit Bread Stollen and Mom's Greek Pastries. This year Bill wants us to bake our favorite family foods. His is his grandmother, Mae O'Brien's "nut cakes" with raisens soaked in bourbon. Mine is my Dad's bread. Next week we will spend a day making these traditional foods for our children and hope one or more of them will enjoy keeping these foods on their holiday table as well. These are the blessings of Christmas: a warm home, family to share, foods to enjoy and gifts from our Savior. I can smell that bread baking already!

Advent ...A time of waiting

Titus 2:12-12 Let our lives be honest and holy in the present age, as we wait for the happiness to come when our great God reveals himself in glory.

My prayer today: Father, may our communion teach us to love heaven. May its promise and hope guide our way on earth. And as always, we ask this through Christ our Lord. AMEN

Today, my heart is full and unsure how to express itself. Several words continue to present themselves: WAITING, HONEST, HOPE, COMMUNION. HOLY....

Waiting ....just waiting...waiting to see what this "home built on rock" will be like

Honest....staying true to the Christ-like values as each decision is made

Hope....for all of us as we wait in joyful hope

Communion...with friends and family as they gather in your name

Holy.... in keeping with our love for Christ that this home remains a sanctuary for all

...and so in keeping with my love for Christ, I am thankful for the opportunity to build this home, waiting to see what forms as it is truly a work in progress, staying honest to the vision, hoping for a beautiful, holy place where folks gather in love and in His name always.

As I pass through the gates, I leave myself at the base and drive to the hilltop with a peaceful heart.

Meet Amy Slaughter

We have a wonderful team of professionals helping me on this project including Cary Kipp of Kipp Flores Architectural Design Services, Slaughter House Design Services, Jim Donaldson, Superviser of Construction and ME, General Contractor...image that! Amy of Slaughter House Design is a blessing to me because a project of this size needs many eyes, ears, hands and feet. I couldn't possibly be in Fredericksburg night and day for 2 years while this home was being built, so Amy is my designer on the ground! She works with Cary, Jim and all the sub-contractors to be sure the overall design of the house completes my vision. She is one of the few ASID Interior Designers living in Fredericksburg so when Jim needs a question answered quickly, he calls Amy.

Now let me explain how wonderful this relationship is: she thinks like I do! We will be looking at soapstone, for instance, and after looking at many pieces of stone, we will both agree on the one we like best. In fact, it has become a game of sorts. I will not tell her my first choice until she tells me and it's ALWAYS the same...kinda spooky!...Naturally I think her taste is impeccable! Smiling...

The other wonderful gift of Amy is her sketches. She prefers to draw every detail herself. Cary did many basic sketches but Amy did all the interior wood cabinets, fireplaces, shelving, bath and kitchen design and even the iron work and door schedules. We worked together on lighting design, plumbing fixtures, hardware, placement of art and furniture, floor transitions and appliances. Unless you have built a home, it is hard to believe all that goes into this project and more importantly, the coordination of all that is selected so it indeed looks like the home I have invisioned.

So what is that "look" we are trying to achieve? I want a home that reflects all members of our family: warm, inviting, open, comfortable, casual and loving. ( that is, the family ideal, right?) The style is Hill Country Hacienda with a " dirt kicking", beer drinking, "boots on the coffee table" attitude. and DOGS ARE WELCOME!

...so this is what we have started inorder to make this Hacienda look like an old, warm structure with loving bones: We searched high and low and all over Canada and the USA for antique Pendleton blankets. Each casita has at least one we used to pull colors and develop a theme for the space. Remember we are trying to keep the naive American influence of this region in mind so the symbols, style and colors reflect this. We collected old gates from El Paso, Mexico and the Southwest for the privacy doors on the toilets. All the interior doors come from a source in El Paso who has helped us find antique wooden doors from all over the world. This will be our biggest challenge! Our poor trim carpender will have an individual door schedule for each interior door because they are all different! We also started collecting antique rugs from all over the world. These will be mixed with skins and hides for a colorful Hill Country look.

The Stone

Jose' Ramirez is our stone mason who has years of experience and a crew of jolly Mexicans. Today they were working on the west side of the house with their native music blasting and singing and swaying as they lay each piece of stone. Most do not speak English but smile with a twinkle in their eyes when you say "Gracias". Their clothes are soiled from the mortar and they have little to eat in their lunch boxes but they are as happy as can be! There is much to learn from these giving men. So many thoughts come to my mind when I peer into their sparkling eyes: something about freedom to work, pride in their work, humble attitudes, joyfilled hearts and their spirit of sacrifice for their families.

Jose' works his crews on some of the most beautiful homes in Texas. His crew are artisans who work long hours in the heat, cold and wind. They are building the container, the vessel of love by which everything else fits. I watch each of them work as they study each stone, chip it into the size and shape they want to use, turn it to get just the right color , stand back and see how this stone will look next to the one they just placed and continue to play in the rocks. God blessed their hands and their creative hearts.

This type of stone, the color, the lay, color of mortar and type of stone lay all contribute to the style of stone I wanted for this home. We spent hours driving around old Fredericksburg looking at the original structures to get ideas for this type of stone. I wanted a color that had more texture with greys, beige, brown, rust and white. I didn't want it to be dark as the stone used at Boot Ranch and also because we were using tobacco colored old wood as a contrast. With this in mind, Jose' created many sample boards for me to look at with various stone sizes, different mortar color and even the way the mortar is smeared between the stone makes a difference in its appearance. This lay is called "rumble" and is considered the old lay used by the pioneers. They found whatever stone was available on their property and "threw it up" quickly so they would have a place for their families to live. There is an art to the way it is laid and these men got it perfectly beautiful.

The Comanche Indians

Tonight is Halloween and a beautiful night it is! If I were dressing in a costume this year to "trick or treat", I think I would have to be an American Indian. Indian women were amazing and unlike the way they have been portrayed, they were very important in marriage and family. In Fredericksburg and the surrounding area there were many different Indian tribes. The one that was most feared was the Comanche Tribe. Above you will see a picture of several Comanche wives and their children. Check out their clothes, blankets and trim work on the fabric. This has been the inspiration for the fabrics and interior design for this house along with many other photos collected from the Smithsonian Museum. After much research, the European and German Pioneers, the American Indians, the Hill Country landscape and the influence of our Southern Spanish Neighbors all contributed to the inspiration for this home design.

A " Hot Chocolate" Roof

Chocolate...that is the color of our new roof. Here you can see the roofers laying the first sheets of metal. It is a hot day in the Hill Country! The roof was selected for it's durability, ease with rain water collection and design. Many of the old pioneer homes had metal roofs ( or tin, or whatever they could find). I selected the color so it would blend into the environment and those near and far could not detect it easily. The color reminds me of a wonderful story about "Hot Chocolate". An old professor asked his students to come by his home for an afternoon cup of hot chocolate. They could ask questions of him and visit about many things, not just school topics. He asked each to select a coffee mug from the cabinet. His collection of cups came from all over the world, his travels near and far, some old, some new, some big, some small, some ornate, some plain. He watched each student select a mug for their hot chocolate and then gathered them around the hearth to visit. One young student asked the professor with all his wisdom what he found to be his most important learning in life. The professor said " Life is like Hot Chocolate. You see, I watched each of you take time to select just the perfect mug. Most of you picked the tallest, most beautiful, ornate, fancy, expensive or biggest cup. But there are plenty of cups that are plain, chipped, old with cracks or broken handles. The truth is the mug you selected still holds the same sweet, smooth, yummy hot chocolate. We work our whole lives to find the best, most perfect container for our hot chocolate but it doesn't need any special mug to be enjoyed. Life is right before you, it's not owned by anyone, it can be seen, felt, heard and touched by anyone at anytime. It doesn't need a fancy container to taste it. Don't work so hard to find the perfect mug and miss the time enjoying, savoring the chocolate. So here's to the sweetness of chocolate." CHEERS!