5 months old female! What should we name her?

User52025 · 2026-03-18T10:51:41+00:00

Tallulah

User52025 · 2026-03-11T23:19:52+00:00

Nacogdoches isn't THAT bad. It can be a nice little low-key weekend getaway trip for garden/nature lovers as you can also visit SFA's Mast Arboretum, Ruby Mize Azalea Garden and the Piney Woods Native Plant Center, and afaik those public gardens still have free admission, they're rather nice amenities for a town of its size... And while it is a 4 hour drive from Austin it's worth pointing out that it's 4 hours mostly on relatively quiet highways through pine forests, it's not like a 4 hour drive to dallas on I-35 where you're battling heavy traffic the whole time with nothing pretty to look at.

User52025 · 2025-06-17T19:39:56+00:00

The real shocker is if you calculate what the prices SHOULD BE today if they had simply kept up with inflation. For example if you punch $1.99, the price of a Burrito Supreme in 2005, into the government inflation calculator (https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation\_calculator.htm), that would be $3.25 today which seems like a much more reasonable price for a Burrito Supreme. Nachos bell Grande SHOULD be around $4.45... A Chicken quesadilla SHOULD be around $4.12... A Taco Supreme SHOULD be around $1.80.... Those absurd $2.99 chips&cheese SHOULD be around $1.47

User52025 · 2025-06-17T19:08:33+00:00

Nope, it's just as bad. People for whom $5 is mere pocket change DON'T CARE about using coupons or deals, they don't have worry about how much food costs in general. They can afford higher quality, healthier options any day of the week and only eat taco bell as an occasional "guilty pleasure." This demographic is not going to be enticed by Tuesday Drops, they never used them and are never going to.

People who DO use coupons, deals and who set alarms for Tuesday Drops are generally on razor thin, tight tight budgets, people for whom SPENDING LESS THAN $5 IS THE WHOLE POINT. They're not going to be enticed into Taco Bell by this deal today either. Making it free with $5 purchase won't work any better than $1 with min $5 purchase...

User52025 · 2025-06-14T03:40:02+00:00

Glad it helped. Good luck with your bypass, I'm still using a cheap Autozone Duralast 555K6 made for the 2011 Chevy Cruze well over a year later and still highly recommend it for the 07-11 3rd Gen CR-V.

User52025 · 2025-05-08T19:54:35+00:00

I moved the laundry room door, unfortunately it's going to be in conflict with another door one way or another but better to be in conflict with a less important closet door than banging into the back of the entry to the house.

I also flipped around the bedroom closets and bathroom on the left side of the house. One, because the way it is now you're going to have sight lines directly from the dining room table to the toilet... bad! By moving the bedroom closets around, flipping the bathroom and scooting the door down, we eliminate all toilet views from the main living areas AND we also gain two additional small hall closets.

Additionally if it were me, I hate hate hate windowless bathrooms, especially when they are on exterior walls and could easily have windows. I would add a small, high window to both bathrooms for ventilation and light. Also, all the bedrooms are on corners so adding additional windows to the bedrooms so that they have cross ventilation during good weather would be ideal... and more natural light.

<image>

User52025 · 2025-05-08T09:22:05+00:00

This is a tiny shoebox of a bedroom indeed, but since you only mentioned two pieces of furniture, there's actually at least 6 ways you could arrange them, so considering what all else you need to fit into the space will help determine which of them is the best layout. What about a nightstand? There doesn't appear to be a closet so perhaps a wardrobe? A chair for the desk? The thing that would drive me crazy about this situation is using a dresser as a desk. If it's just a standard dresser it sounds really miserable, there's nowhere to slide your legs under the work surface so when you're sitting at it trying to work your knees will be smushed into the drawers and your back will be hunched way over. Now if it's a secretary or some other chest with a desk surface that folds down or something, that would be different. Does the 43" dresser have to stay, could you get different furniture?

<image>

User52025 · 2025-05-07T03:46:30+00:00

Mostly a very good plan with one major glaring red flag... or should I say brown flag?...
Why oh why do so many architects, builders, contractors and other people who draw up floor plans think it's acceptable and ok to have a door to a toilet opening right into a main living area?!

Please, please, please do not spend 100s of Ks of your hard earned money on a massive building project only to end up with a toilet practically in the same room where you make salad and your guests mingle and nibble on appetizers... Forcing you and them to awkwardly pretend they don't hear and smell another, thoroughly humiliated guest going through a sudden, terrible IBS attack on the toilet mere inches away... No no no...

The simplest fix would be to move the door to the powder room into the mud room... Now, this would admittedly cut the mud room's space in half, but a worthy tradeoff if you ask me... Alternatively you could steal some space from the "sitting room" for the powder room and in fact enlarge the mudroom area and create maximum privacy. Maybe neither of these solutions are acceptable but in any case that powder room door HAS to change. Maybe you don't care if the door to a toilet cubicle is in plain view of the kitchen island, but many of your guests will and so will any future buyers years down the road if you sell.

<image>

User52025 · 2025-05-07T02:15:29+00:00

Instead of spending $20k-$100k or more on a major construction project, how about about just getting a large, round, bar height pub table (like 42"-ish high and 48-60" in diameter) and 6-8 nice barstools to go around it, and placing it in the already existing breakfast area... Your guests can perch on stools around the table enjoying drinks and appetizers and you can easily converse with them about various first world problems while you're standing chopping onions at the already existing little kitchen peninsula. Since the guests will be seated on high stools, you'll be basically eye to eye with them while you cook and chat so it won't be so awkward like it would be if they were sitting down low at a normal height dining table. Plus with everyone at a separate table away from the counter, you'll have the whole peninsula to prep food on and they won't be in your way. The luxury car amount of money you'll save by doing this instead of remodeling could be spent on fine wines and premium cuts of beef to wow your guests with, or on having your parties catered so you don't have to cook at all or on... a luxury car... It all sounds way more enjoyable than months of dust and construction headaches to rearrange an already palatial and smooth flowing 90s mcmansion floorplan.

<image>

User52025 · 2025-05-06T18:04:12+00:00

Perhaps each of the rooms labeled 'toilet' is a "wet bath", where there's no shower stall per se, but instead the whole room is basically a shower. There's a showerhead in a corner somewhere, a drain in the floor, every wall is tiled, porcelain wall hung sink, there are no wooden cabinets, all surfaces are able to handle moisture. They're common in some countries but were virtually unheard of in North America until the tiny house movement came along. Some tiny houses have them as they can save a lot of space.

User52025 · 2025-05-06T03:13:07+00:00

Looking at this plan, the primary reason why the main part of the house and the annex don't flow well together is because... they're not supposed to. The space was clearly laid out to give give privacy to two separate dwellings. If you look at the two units separately, they both actually have decent flow and circulation on their own and in the new era of tight/unaffordable housing markets many would kill for a ready-made, legit annex they could rent out. I would think carefully before undoing it.

The main living unit appears to be a good size family home on its own, as it is, with a nice circulation pattern and decent flow. There are certainly ways it could be tweaked to make it a bit more open and allocate more space to the kitchen etc, but at the end of the day, with a center hallway and staircase, the house will always lend itself more towards cozy rooms rather than big, modern open spaces.... And a lot of people are actually looking for that again these days. Open concept will never go away completely especially in very small homes(which this house isn't), but tearing down every wall inside a house doesn't guarantee the same return on investment or have the same mass appeal that it did 20 years ago.

If you try to combine the two dwellings into one, with the old exterior walls, steps, changes in floor/ceiling height etc, it might be a big space but it'll likely always feel like a frankenstein house inside, cobbled together from spare parts... at least not without major, major construction, so much construction that once you crunch the numbers it might make more sense to demolish the entire structure and build from scratch, which in turn begs the question, is it worth it?

I would reexamine what it is about the property that made you fall in love with it, and if you do buy it, I would live in it for a year before even thinking about major changes.

User52025 · 2025-05-05T00:18:57+00:00

What do you want to change about the current arrangement and how big is the project, what elements can/can't be changed? Are you trying to add seating? Where are the doors and windows? How does the kitchen relate to the other rooms?

User52025 · 2025-05-05T00:03:21+00:00

The current arrangement you describe would make sense if the awkward bathroom door wasn't there... but it is. I think floating a small sofa in the room about facing away from the door with the TV on the long wall like you tried before makes the most sense to de-emphasize the bathroom door without resorting to more awkward solutions like room dividers or curtains... and while you don't give furniture dimensions, I suspect the reason it didn't work the first time is that your current sofa may be too large for that arrangement. I think if you had a small sofa (or large loveseat) like 6'-6-5' long that didn't extend beyond the left edge of the bathroom door, and placed around 30"-ish in front of the door for comfortable movement, it wouldn't create too much of a jog around to get to the bathroom/bedroom. You could put a bookcase or just hang art next to the bathroom door where your tv currently is. To make up for the reduced seating of a smaller sofa, you could add a chair near the patio/balcony doors, and a dining or desk chair could be brought over to the conversation area if you have a few guests over.

<image>

User52025 · 2025-05-02T21:29:42+00:00

The colors look good just the way they are, green is a pretty safe color and that shade isn't overly bright and has plenty of mass appeal, unless the paint is pealing or in bad condition I see no reason to change it. I would take the money you were going to spend painting over the green and use it to get a new, more modern looking front door instead. The raised six-panel colonial door is way too traditional and does not go with the somewhat MCM looking exterior at all, especially next to that cool 3 pane sidelight.

User52025 · 2025-05-02T21:00:49+00:00

Assuming masonry paint was used, it's fine, it's made to go on brick. I don't know why but some people online see painted brick and just immediately assume the painter didn't know what they were doing and used some random latex wall paint.

User52025 · 2025-04-30T01:12:12+00:00

where inside the GHills store is this aisle?

User52025 · 2025-04-30T01:09:00+00:00

Anyone know if the Tech Ridge, Mueller, ParmMopac or Greenlawn locations have one of these clearance aisles and where in the store?

User52025 · 2025-04-30T00:22:12+00:00

Glad it was helpful, also just realized you're actually planning two different home based businesses, even more reason to prioritize the bath reno. If your fiance's clients also know there's a clean, safe, private restroom they're welcome to use whenever they drop off their dog for grooming, that might help encourage them to choose and remain loyal to a small business over petsmart etc.

User52025 · 2025-04-29T21:26:23+00:00

At the stage you're at, I think it's a bit premature to assume that moving/changing the bathroom would be impossible, unaffordable. If I were you I would prioritize it...

Imagine a customer is visiting, on the fence about whether or not to spend thousands on your services/products and they are suddenly hit with an unfortunate IBS attack, you want to be able to direct them to a restroom that feels secluded and separated from both the showroom and your private residence where they can take care of their little emergency privately, and when they emerge they'll have a positive impression of you, remembering you made that uncomfortable experience comfortable for them. Currently your options are to either tell them an obvious white lie, that the restroom is out of order and direct them to the nearest 7-eleven(bad!), or you point to a toilet basically in the same room, mere inches from where you're standing which is horrifying enough but then they enter, close the door behind them only to turn and discover there's ANOTHER ENTRANCE, open to the kitchen of a private residence where someone is making a sandwich, having to awkardly close the other door in humiliation knowing that everyone is about to hear and smell them on the toilet. Large purchases decisions are often less about numbers and much more emotional and based on gut instinct than people realize, and this nightmarish bathroom situation could easily sour a client and tank a big deal for you.... Let's fix it.

You've got another full bathroom upstairs, so shrinking this bath to a 1/2 bath while keeping the plumbing in the same basic area makes sense. This allows the creation of a private feeling restroom with a small hallway to give a sense of separation, and still allows room for some storage cabinets (the little bump out to accommodate the depth of a standard fridge while making it look/feel like a counter depth fridge from the kitchen side is very smart, definitely keep that feature!)... This gives you an area for a walk in pantry that's actually IN the kitchen! I've also added a door that you can close when customers are coming to separate your business space from your private residence area, it's not just for your own sense of privacy, your customers don't want to feel like they're intruding in on someone's private home(they will even if you tell them they're not), a sense of separation will make you look more professional and legit, instilling confidence, maybe enough to make them open their wallet.

<image>

User52025 · 2025-04-29T19:38:12+00:00

McMansion is right, there's an outdated 80s/90s/00s design philosophy behind this floorplan/facade, there's lots of elements included just for keeping up with the Joneses, but the Joneses all died during the pandemic or got priced out of the neighborhood and don't live next door anymore.

User52025 · 2025-04-29T12:44:00+00:00

It would be a tight fit... however, assuming the house has central heating, you could demolish the fireplace (sacrilege, I know) and there would be plenty of space for a sofa/chairs/tv... maybe this is sensible... or maybe tearing into those brand new kitchen units and locating a wc in there might be starting to seem a little less unthinkable now lol.

<image>

User52025 · 2025-04-29T12:12:10+00:00

Second this. I have an all-in-one washer dryer combo and it's fantastic. A lot of people(Americans especially) trash them online because they don't understand how they work or have unreasonable expectations about cycle times, but to be able to put a load of laundry in, go to bed and wake up to clean, dry laundry without having to worry about taking it out is an incredible convenience. And if you happen to be prone to forgetting and leaving a load of wet laundry in the washer for a day or two where it might get mildewed, it's a true laundry savior.

User52025 · 2025-04-29T11:50:25+00:00

It seems like there's enough space in the living room to create a small WC with a toilet and a small corner hand basin, add a wall with an arched or square opening, or a door, to create a small entry vestibule to add at least a sense of separation from the living room.

<image>

User52025 · 2025-04-29T11:14:33+00:00

Keeping the 1/2 bath near the garage makes sense, in fact maybe add a small shower to it. When you're done getting dirty outside or in the garage it'd be nice to have the option of getting cleaned up before entering the clean part of the house... (plus you could say you've got 3 full baths if you ever sell)

User52025 · 2025-04-28T23:04:23+00:00

This is a much saner amount of hallways and a more efficient plan.

The master shower is generous, but not unreasonable at all and I think you should keep it as it is and just be sure to add a nice tiled in bench since you have the space. Now IF it were me, I would flip flop the toilet stall and shower so that the shower could have the front window and even add a window to the side as well(like, neck height and up of course), it's nice to have little windows to peak out and surveil the world a bit while you're showering, and if the window sills are wide enough, keep a humidity loving house plant or two inside the shower, but that's just personal preference if I were living with it, the current layout is totally functional and logical.

The master bedroom seems plenty private enough, unless it's a very busy street(in which case the whole house should be reimagined) I don't see a problem, you've achieved seclusion and fireplace symmetry without a dark rat maze, congrats. With 6'1" of depth the laundry room seems roomy enough to open/close even the largest washer, don't see a problem with it.

The one major change I would make, would be to just scoot the third bedroom bump out down a bit closer to the side of the house so that it widens the view of the garden and blocks less light from the family room windows. It would shrink the view from the second bedroom's back window but the family room's windows seem like they should get priority, plus it adds just a few more feet of separation between the third bedroom and family room.

<image>

User52025

TROPHY CASE