Back in Houston

 We knew this day would come sooner or later.

Delaying it as long as possible, with a trip to New York and watching a show in Milwaukee ("Come From Away") just meant that we were pushing up to the limits of daylight. And after the switch back to "normal" time, we had to get up earlier, or drive faster.

So we ended up getting up earlier. But in reality, we didn't really come too close to driving in strange cities in the dark.

We left Milwaukee sometime before 9:00 AM on Saturday, November 8th:

It's nice to start on a Saturday, as it gives you more options around Chicago. But we went our usual route anyway.

The last view of the Bogk House before we left Milwaukee

The first stop was the Haze Smokehouse, a BBQ joint in La Salle IL. A dog friendly BBQ joint:

Next stop, St Louis:

Doreen's college buddy who lives in St Louis was otherwise occupied, so we had a night in the Gateway City all to ourselves.

It was cold, but scenic.

The next day, we made our way down to Pocahontas, MO

We've stopped there on almost every trip. There is a nice park on the Black River, and if you are lucky (we were not this time) Green's BBQ will be open (it's by the airport) and you can have a nice picnic. Mr Green once put together a plate of Que for Lulu as well. A dog lover.

One thing I did not realize until this trip (shame on me) is that this park is almost exactly (within a couple of miles) halfway between the Bogk House and the Stevenson House. 

Imagine that!

Then we made it to Little Rock, another great place to stay.

They have a free trolly in Little Rock, that goes between downtown Little Rock and Dog Town (North Little Rock) and you get a history lesson as well. I highly recommend it.

This is the house we stayed in, run by the Baker Hotel:

Our last day was a long day - almost seven hours:

We stopped in Marshall for lunch at a local burger joint called Jucy's. And it was.

Then Houston. Made it in just as dusk was coming on and rush hour was building up.

Look out Houston, they'll be thunder on the hill.

After a while, all rubble looks the same

 Deep into the demo stage.

Not many surprises, and some of them are good. (See previous post. We will be keeping the subway tile in the kitchen)

Primary Bathroom

Primary Bath, floor

Primary Bath

Note the window

Small Guest Bath

Small Guest Bath

Guest Bath

Guest Bath

Still working out a few details about wood selection, floor coverings, and tile selection.

Heading to Houston in a week, new photos will be relying on the contractors.

I won't say anything about the door knob, but maybe later.

Slight change in design?

 This is what we discovered when we torn off the cabinets on the south side of the kitchen:

Don't look at the lath and plaster, look at the tile:

Pristine.

So we are now contemplating saving all the subway tile (which is original to the house) in the kitchen.

Personally, I would love this solution! I think it has a lot of character, even if some of the tile that has been in the open looks a bit, well, "used". 

I prefect the word "character"

(That green stripe is our neighbor's awning)

There is almost NO grout between these tiles! Crazy.

We are zeroing in on a couple of other items, too. The wood type for the upstairs woodwork (Black  Walnut vs Birch)

More later.