Nacogdoches

We spent most of the day in Nacogdoches....... the oldest town in Texas. The town (or city) has a list of "Firsts for Texas"-- the first oil well (1866), the first newspaper (1813), first two-story building (1779), to name a few. Wonderful little community with a quaint historical district filled with bricked streets and all kinds of shops. There's a beautiful university built right in the midst of the "piney woods" of Nacogdoches.... the piney woods being common in that part of east Texas.

We met a realtor up there who took us to half a dozen houses this afternoon. It was an easy ride up to Nacogdoches.... just a little over two hours away, much closer than our favorite Hill Country town of Comfort. There's also a vintage hotel (The Fredonia, built in 1955) where we had both lunch and dinner..... wonderful hotel near the center of town.... everything inside looks as it probably did in the 50s, and it was very comfy and quaint.

Each of the houses we saw today were unique in their own way. One small cottage on the lake was large enough for a weekend lake house, but very un-cared for by the present owner. Original kitchen floors, original bathrooms, original everything, and it looked as if a drop of new paint hadn't ever been thought of in that house. Very sad, since the lake in back of the house was beautiful, and the houses around it were all in nice condition. When I see a home in such poor condition, it makes me wonder what surprises are in store when you start renovations. The kitchen and both bathrooms would need to be done over, and the three bedrooms were very tiny and very dirty. Plus, the owner wants way too much for that house, considering its poor condition.

The next house was also on the lake, but on the opposite side from the smaller one. The homes on the other side of the lake were all newer, all larger, and all in excellent condition. As expected, the prices were higher. But what a house...... gorgeous move-in condition, with lots of bells and whistles and built-ins. The front of the house was sort of a traditional Federal-style, but the back reminded me of the Savannah houses. Not one large porch, but two-- one upstairs, one down. We weren't looking for a two-story house, but this one is hard to pass by. The lake view from this house was even better than from the first house. The kitchen was smaller than I thought it would be in a house that size, but so what......... I don't want a lake house so I can stay in the kitchen and cook.

We also saw a beautiful 1898 Victorian home that had been fully restored.... again, too much house, though, and no lake view. But it did have its own very large pond. It also had half a dozen bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms... plus a guest cottage, a garage with an upstairs apartment, and a workshop.... way, way too much house. The outside was all perfectly painted, in the "Painted Lady" style of the Victorian houses in San Francisco. Lots of detailing on that house, lots of beautiful gardens all around the grounds. Its drawback, and the one that made us say no to that huge property, was that it was on a main road..... all kinds of cars and trucks going by. I would worry about Gracie and the cats with that house, plus we don't want to be listening to road traffic in a country home.

The other houses we looked at are fading in my memory...... they were nice, but just not for us, being either too close to the center of town, or too close to the neighbors, so we quickly walked in and out of those.

Nacogdoches was more of a town than we thought it would be, and we weren't disappointed with it. There was not one, but two hospitals. Small shopping plazas were scattered here and there, and it had some of the larger stores for convenience at the edges of the town, and quaint shops that have been in the town for years and years.

It was a town that we'd consider moving to, if we ever chose to leave this area. And, by buying that larger home on the lake, the move would be easy because we wouldn't have to downsize our lifestyle to fit that house. Everything we have in this house would be very much at home up there. So that would be a plus as well.

Again, so much to think about. I'm still partial to the mountain-top house in Comfort, but I understand now why my husband said that the four-and-a-half-hour drive there just wasn't an easy one. It is farther away than we'd like it to be, and the drive up that mountain (without owning a four-wheel-drive vehicle) is hard on his car, and I wouldn't even think of bringing my little car up that mountain for fear of all those pebbles ruining the paint.

My husband did all the driving today, so he's sound asleep. I tossed and turned for an hour, then got out of bed and came here to type. I keep thinking about the lake...... it sure was pretty, and very quiet and relaxing. While we stood at the boat dock and looked at the water, a family of ducks came on by to say hello. I know our little Miss C would love that house... there's a perfect bedroom for her, with a little alcove window that she'd love to read in. We didn't tell her that we went looking at houses today....... I don't have the heart now to tell her anything until we find something.

C called us today while we were gone, and we heard her message on our answering machine when we got home. It was pouring rain when we left this morning, so C thought we would be home on such a rainy day. I called her after we listened to her message and she wanted to know where we were "on such a drippy, soggy day." I told her that we had errands to run, and stores to stop in, and she reminded me that I don't like to go out when it's pouring rain. (That child is just too bright.) I told her that we just had to get some things done today, rain or shine, so out we went. (It rained all day here, but the weather was fine in Nacogdoches.)

When and if we find a country cottage or a lake house that fits us perfectly, we will surprise her with it and ask her forgiveness for my little fib to hide today's adventure to East Texas. Had Miss C been with us today (as she would've wanted to), we would have come home from our trip with two puppies.......... one very little dog was running around loose at the smaller house on the lake, and then on our way out of the town, we saw a small dog sitting at the side of the road. Both times, we just had to look the other way and hope that someone else would be the one to rescue those two dogs. It was the hardest thing we had to do today.