Bob & Cheryl buy a Lake House.
I have always wanted to live on a lake, and Lake Austin has several unique things going for it:
- It's close in to town. It's just ten miles from our house in (A) Sunset Valley (South Austin) to the Lake house in (B) Cuernavaca (West Austin).
- It's on Lake Austin, a constant-level lake which lies between two dams in a chain of dams controlled by the LCRA. The lake level never varies more than a few inches, except for three weeks in February when they drain the lake to give the dock owners a chance to do repairs and also to kill off the fast growing duck weed which would otherwise clog our propellers. This next picture was captured off Google Earth when the lake was near it's low point and the boat docks are clearly out of the water. CLICK most pictures to open up a larger one in a new window. The big red X marks our house, 3102 Niagara.
- And then there's Cuernavaca. Back in the day when they subdivided the place, they set aside the most beautiful tract of riverfront for a community park, complete with a (1) pool, Club house (2) and several boat launch ramps (3). It's all just about 100 yards from our front door.
- The house is in a neighborhood. There's very little passing-through traffic. There's always dogs wandering around and folks out walking kids, dogs, whatever. It has that dead-end feel to it. And always there's the lake right there.
- The lake comes with it's own canyon, dug out over millions of years (I hope). It can be 15 degrees cooler at the lake than it is in town on those hot Texas summer nights.
These are some pictures of the place BEFORE.
The story of 3102 Niagara Drive 78733.
Originally, this was a double lot with a house facing out onto Edgewater and a three car garage / efficiency apartment on the rear lot facing the side road, Niagara. In 2007 the owners offered it for sale as two 1/4 acre lots just like all the other lots on our block. The electric service and the septic system were shared by the two houses before, so new services will have to be established for our house. The bids are all in and it will not take too much time or money to get a fresh Certificate of Occupancy. The 'group' that bought the big house in front for big bucks is having it remodeled even as I type. They plan to flip it for a net profit. You can see it to the right here with the exposed 2 by 4s. You can almost see the water peeking out from between the two houses.
BEHOLD the happy new homeowners:
Here's the view of the water from the upstairs window:
The big red X marks our house:
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