Last week we closed on a new house in Austin, not all that far from where we are now. If this is all a bit of a surprise to you, I didn’t say anything to anyone outside of close friends, family, and neighbors. Pretty atypical of me, I know!

Well, as you also know, I had long wished to move out of Austin. Lauren (and the kids now) all wished to remain in Austin. All the while we had outgrown our house. We reached a compromise—I’ll sign off on a new Austin house, but in the future we look into a Midwest summer cabin, even something totally cheap and rustic!

We looked primarily in the Spicewood Springs area and a little bit in Brushy Creek. We toured a place on Vaquero Trail with a pool in June and liked it, but it quickly went off the market. We zeroed in on a home in Brushy Creek, touring it twice and then going back for one third and final inspection to give it the sign-off. However, that same day, the Vaquero house came back on the market, making our decision tougher! Unlike 2012 when we had to make instantaneous decisions or risk losing out on places we liked, we had a few days to mull it over. We opted to put an offer on the Vaquero house.

It wasn’t a slam dunk. In fact, I darn near lost sleep over it. For starters, houses are way more expensive now than they were in 2012. The Brushy Creek house was more modern and backed up to a hiking trail and was super close to our friends the Plumpes, but it lost points though for having a pool that almost touched the backdoor of the house. I could foresee numerous accidents, not to mention it was just awkward. Plus, the kids would have had to start entirely new schools where they wouldn’t have known anyone. Though it was ten years older, there was more to like about the Vaquero house, so we moved forward with that one.

As is the case with any home purchase, we hired an inspector to come out and take a look around. I picked the first inspector that came up on a list. Lauren went to the house for the inspection and when prompted, she agreed to do a sewer inspection for an extra $200. Boy oh boy, was that money well spent. The sewer was in shambles, it turned out. Old, decrepit cast iron pipes from 1986 that were literally falling apart, plus lots of standing water. Worse yet, the pipes were buried under solid rock. The sellers had no choice but to fix it before selling. If they hadn’t, we would have walked away from the sale, and since they would have had to disclose the newfound issue, so would any future prospective buyer. I won’t print what it cost them, but I promise the number would shock you. We felt a great deal of empathy for them. We hope we don’t deal with that when selling this house.

With the sewer fixed, it was all systems go! Back at Sinton Lane, we began packing up the house. After 13 years of living here, there was a lot of junk to sort through. Shockingly, only one long-lost item turned up in all the packing—a skirt. As of today, the garage is piled high with boxes, as I take them to the new house a few at a time. A full move with a moving company is scheduled for later, after some flooring is replaced.

Well, enough writing. Take a video tour of the new house now!