Happy Halloween, Y'all!

Home of the Week -- Windsor Road

One of my favorite streets in Austin is Windsor Road. This drive runs through an old, monied part of town and is chock full of gorgeous homes. This particular home is on a stretch of Windsor Road that's a little newer, but the homes are still quite nice.

This estate has more than 6,000 square feet and has five or six bedrooms, five full baths, two half baths and five living areas. It also features a gourmet kitchen, three dining areas, and a guest apartment. (As always, click on pics for larger views).

I like a lot of things about this living room, but I wish they'd use a more substantial coffee table or just lose it altogether.

Note the two small prints on the wall. The living room is so large, and that coffered ceiling is so weighty, that wall is just screaming for a large, amazing piece of art.






Note the trendy wallpaper and the lamp made out of a wine bottle.














Like this home? It can be yours for $2.95 million.

I Have A Confession

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I'd like to have wood floors before I die. well, I still do want them -- because the floors we've installed in our living room are vinyl. Yes, vinyl. :-)

I'd gone back and forth on what to do with the floor in the living room. While I prefer the look of dark, hand-scraped wood floors, they weren't in the budget. Still, we were at a point where something had to be done (thanks, kitties). When I found these Cryntel vinyl, self-stick tiles that looked like hand-scraped wood planks, I knew I'd found my flooring. Even better, they were just $1.08 a plank. Believe it or not, I installed most of the living room flooring myself.

One of the things that convinced me to go with vinyl wood planks was a lunch trip to La Madeleine. I didn't take pics, but the floors there look so authentic, yet they're vinyl planks.

Both Lowe's and Home Depot have great selections of vinyl planks. If you're in need of a budget-friendly, good-looking change, I encourage you to check out what's available.

Unfortunately, the Cryntel planks are being discontinued, so though I'd like to do our foyer and master bedroom floors in them, I'll have to find something else. In the meantime, we'll enjoy the look and feel of the new living room floor. :-)

Before I die...

You might remember when I was tagged a couple of weeks ago, I had to list seven things I wanted to do before I died. One of the things I mentioned was to have wood floors somewhere in my house. Well, we're nearing completion of a great project, so take a look...

I apologize for the poor quality of this pic. It was taken shortly after we moved in. Excuse the junk behind the sofa. That was stuff still being unpacked.

Now, the afters...

(I don't know why these two pics are showing up with the big white boxes on the side. I could delete the photos altogether, but they show a good portion of the floor).


There's still so much to do in this room. Behind the sofa are a couple of unfinished, stock cabinets that will have built-in shelving on top to house our books, which currently have no place to go.

How do you like the floor?

Maria Maria

My good friend, Amber, lives in Phoenix but spends a few weeks every year working in San Antonio. When she does, we usually take advantage of her being so close to get together. She'd planned to be in the Alamo city this month, so we arranged for her to come up this weekend and spend the night.

On my Friday commute home, a local radio station took 10 callers to give away pairs of passes to a celebrity clothing line preview party. I called and was one of the lucky winners. Amber and I were going to a fun party at a cool club in downtown Austin.

So last night, we got dressed up to go to this:

Pangaea's website has this to say of their hot, new Austin lounge: The latest incarnation of the enormously successful Pangaea lounges in New York, London and Marbella, Spain, Pangaea Austin is the next chapter in what has been called a New York nightlife institution. Pangaea was hailed by the New York Post as “the hottest place in New York” and “a hangout for top models and celebs.

Five minutes after we arrived, the show began.











Once the show was over, Lauren Conrad came out to thank everyone for coming. Even though our passes were supposedly VIP, we didn't get close to L.C. In fact, from where we were standing, it was hard to get a good view of the clothes.

On our way to Pangaea, we passed a restaurant called Maria Maria. Once the style show was over, we decided to go over to Maria Maria and enjoy the live, latin music we'd heard on our way to Pangaea.

We sat in the bar area, right in front of the band, which had a decidedly Carlos Santana sound. We didn't know it then, but the restaurant is part of a small chain, partly owned by Carlos Santana. We each ordered mojitos, which were very, very good.

Our LC adventure was not something we'd have paid for, but it also wasn't something we'd get to do anywhere, anytime. Plus, if not for those free passes, we'd have never known about Maria Maria. I'm definitely taking my husband back to that fabulous place!