Today was going to be a busy day. The goal was to locate a storage unit for our stuff upon arrival since our house would not be done for a few more months after we have to be out of our house in Tomball. Really that was the soul purpose of the day. I had been researching locations online for several days. Unfortunately, there is just not a lot of options around the area we will be living. Fortunately, I have quite the distance to go from the hotel we were staying in and I am not afraid to stay further out if necessary. The search from the day before yielded mostly fruitless.
I went and had dessert with my sister, Jennifer, last night. As I was driving out to meet her in Plano, TX the thought came to me, “look further out.” So that is what I did. I came home last night and researched options further out from where we were living. So I set out this morning with a list of a few storage facilities.
First stop? Prosper, Texas as it is another suburb not too far down the road from where we would be living. To my delight, the units were cheaper by a bit at this location and they had several large climate controlled units available according to their website. I was following the GPS and Siri is giving me directions.
It is all fine until she tells me to turn left down a certain road. This is what I turned on to. Not a big deal, per say. She then proceeded to tell me to go over 2 miles until I reached a particular County Road where I was supposed to turn right. What?!. Over 2 miles on a dirt road?!. The night before it had stormed most of the night. They were pretty heavy storms. It was not a pretty night by any stretch of the imagination. I figured I was there, however, and I might as well check it out. How bad could it be, right? It was only 2 miles or so.
This is what the map looked like zoomed out. We are building our house in a neighborhood off of US380. It was over 2 miles from the time I turned left onto the dirt road. I turned right onto another dirt road. Fortunately, the storage facility was just a few yards down this road. Talk about way the heck out in the middle of nowhere. The facility looked like it was well maintained. It was nice looking on the outside. Much to my displeasure, there was no one there. There was a sign on the door that read, “Sorry we missed you…”
That county road? It was County Road 6.
On the map, it looked like Prosper Road went over to the back edge of a neighborhood. You could see the houses in the distance and it was not that far off. The map showed the roads all connecting. This is a good sign. I had the GPS pull up directions to get back to neighborhood we were building in as it was in that general direction. I wanted to force it to give a route in that direction. Sure enough it gave me a route that head over in that direction. I selected it and I was on my way.
I slowly worked my way back to where the roads met where I came in. I had to make a choice. Did I go out the way I came? Did I go out on the route I had just selected? I opted for the much shorter route over toward civilization again.
This was what I was greeted with when I turned the corner onto Prosper Road again. Even less “paved” dirt roads. These were true dirt roads. Oh boy! There were my houses that were my destination off on the left hand side of the picture though. I was going to SLOWLY work my way over there. According to the GPS it was not that far.
Please remember that it stormed all night. While the road does not look too bad here, up ahead they got a little muddier. It was clear that I was not the only individual that had taken the road less traveled this morning.
Further up ahead of where I am in this picture there was a bend in the road to the left. Not a big deal. That was until I actually took the bend in the road and went about a quarter mile. The road then took a dip downward and what I saw ahead of me was enough to make anyone’s blood go cold. I had an immediate impression that I should stop the car and put it in reverse. I should not turn it around, I should put it in reverse. So there I was, reversing my minivan down a dirt road so I would not get it stuck in the mud. It was pretty muddy but it was not bad, I promise. I had to back it up to a point where I could do a 3 point turn to turn around.
There was no way I was getting through the mud trap ahead of me in my minivan. In a Texas pickup truck, most likely. Someone had gone through this path recently. I, however, was not RISKING taking my minivan down the road less driven and getting stuck – in the middle of nowhere. Nope. Not happening. So I reversed course and slowly worked my way back out all the dirt roads back out to the way I had come.
Mission still unaccomplished.
I visited a handful of other places. They were not nearly as adventurous as this I will confess. I saw some interesting things, but nothing as far off the beaten path as the storage unit in Prosper, TX.
I want everyone to know that after all the adventure finding storage facilities, I took a short break. I found a Quilt Shop just outside of Denton, TX. I stopped in.
I found my people y’all!!!
The shop owner was very nice. Oh and it is a real shop and not a wanna be shop. It actually has a fair amount of quilt fabric in it. I am not going to say that I was THRILLED with the prices on the fabrics in there as they were true quilt shop prices on those fabrics but at least I know I have some place to go to get something to take the edge off.
Oh and they had Minions fabric in there. They will get my business just for that fabric upon my return.
Kyle will be attending a brand new high school in the fall. I am not kidding when I say, “brand new.” There it is on the left. It is still a very active construction zone. I have to confess that I have my concerns as to whether or not they will have it completed in time for school to start in the fall, but they have assured us it will be done. I am not too worried about it not being 100% completed as Kyle is attending a school that is currently an active construction zone with some of the repairs and whatnot the school is going through.
We are excited about the neighborhood we are building in. I never thought I would be this excited to live near a lake. Having experienced flooding so many times in my life it has been a sore spot with me. However, I would be lying if I said that I was not a bit excited about it.
We have just agreed to purchase and maintain flood insurance every year. They swear we do not need it. Many people who have flooded in Houston over the years were told that they did not need it. The 100-year flood plane is a misunderstood concept. It does not mean that it will not flood. It just means that it is less likely to. There are a lot more detailed factors that go into it, but I am not fool enough to think that it could not happen.
But we have access to beautiful hike and bike trails. The kids are going to love this!
I am standing in one of the unbuilt lots and this is one of the trails that goes off into the trees in the distance. I cannot wait until we get the kids up here and can go exploring through the trails. Lance is going to be so excited.
This is what the view is like at the end of the cul-de-sac at the far end of the street that runs perpendicular to the street we are building on. This is the end of the street that is closest to the lake. Our house will be far off beyond the tree in the middle of the picture.
There are lots of trees surrounding the area we are building our house. This is partially due to the fact that it is “green space” and partially due to the fact that it is the area surrounding the lake that simply will not be developed. LOTS OF TREES!
The hike and bike trails wander all along the lake. There are lots of trees separating the lake from the trails. Supposedly you can get non-motorized boats down on the lake from the neighborhood. We have not found any places to do this from yet.
Another view from the end of the street nearest the lake. It shows more of the elevation changes on the street and surrounding area. Our lot is off in the distance with the small bull dozer sitting on it (behind the tree on the left).
Our lot. There were lots of work crews in the area so I did not get out and take a picture that way. They were unloading bricks and other equipment. They are working on putting up a brick fence at the back of the lots on the street.
This is the view across the street from our lot currently. We will have a neighbor here.
This is the current view down the street. If you are standing on the lot, it would be the view to the right. There are obviously houses so we will have plenty of neighbors to meet when we get here.
The neighborhood has these for street lights. They are decorative. I am not sure how they do for lighting. This is across the street from the house just a tad. We will see how it does.
Getting excited about this process again.
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