Team Espinoza

Daniel and I had the opportunity to stay in an empty house for free in Austin, so we jumped at the chance to stay in one of our favorite cities.

Thursday evening we got to see our friends, Chris and Adrienne Coggins and their family. They are church planting in south Austin. they had never been to Hula Hut, so we went there for dinner.

Adrienne is due any day now!

Daniel: Thanks for posting this one honey.

On Friday we just took it easy and headed to the original Kerbey Lane for breakfast/lunch. Afterward we went to check out the Mueller Development. The old airport is being turned into a community with its own housing, school, hospital, and retail space. We walked through the model homes and weren’t that impressed, but they are always neat to check out. The park next to the man-made lake was fun! Now that I am a playground connoisseur I can honestly say it is the most unique park I have ever been too. I also liked that it was fenced in!

Daniel: I found the company that put it together – a Dutch company named Kompan. It had great design and function.

Saturday we had a wonderful time walking around the neighborhood we stayed in.

On the walk we saw a herd of peacocks that belong to the oldest restaurant in Austin. The guy in a house across the street was feeding them cat food in his front lawn!

We also had a great time looking at some of the modern houses in the neighborhood. Daniel was drooling all over himself.

Daniel: Seriously. Super cool architecture. I want my home to look like a museum. Amanda doesn’t so we’ll have to meet in the middle. These homes were a treat to the eye.

We also got to meet the young couple that own this house. It took them 2 years to build it and have only lived there for 3 weeks. The husband was a computer programmer like Daniel and talked code, while the wife and I chatted.

Daniel: I’m sure they thought we were crazy, but it was neat to talk to someone that went through the process of building a super cool house. The architect is MJ Neil. You can see some more pics of the red house, or “Ramp House” at their website.

On the way back from our walk we stopped at a Mexican Bakery for some cookies, then at Austin Baby and bought Annabelle a puzzle, and then at another Mexican restaurant for some Horchata and Jamica drinks. Living at that neighborhood could get very expensive for us if we stayed there longer! And we never even made it to the bakery called Sugar Mama’s that made cupcakes.

The House

The house we stayed in has been recently renovated into a modern/retro style. Daniel and I subscribe to Dwell magazine, so we really like contemporary homes. It was great to stay in one to see what we like and don’t like about it. The house also didn’t have any cable or internet access. It was weird being completely unplugged from the world. We were thankful for the stash of Disney movies to entertain Annabelle. Overall, it was a great relaxing weekend.

Daniel: Being cut off from the internet (other than email on my blackberry) was difficult. I kept thinking of things that I needed to check on or research, but after 48 hours I was ok with not being totally connected. And the master sinks pictured below: all design and poor function.

Daniel: The books were in alphabetical order – for real!