> > our casa - tribeza magazine <
austin's tribeza magazine included our house in their architecture issue. we're one of "seven unique vacation rentals" and we're mentioned on page 105. they didn't even feature the muraled rooms - the live oak room and the galactic room, which i think make it pretty awesome.
gracias, tribeza.
> > how <
we are moving to mexico for 2 1/2 months. how are we doing it?
ian and i work from our own studios.
this gives us each the flexibility to come and go when we need or want to. after 4 years of raising babies while meeting work deadlines all within the confines of our property, we feel the desire to step far away, allowing the perspective shift to inspire current and future work.
we've gotten help along the way.
for the last several years, if anyone asks what we want for a birthday or holiday, we say "travel money". loving gifts from our family over the years bought airfare for all of us.
we've saved when we could.
we don't usually have extra money to put into a travel fund each month, but any surprise income - insurance reimbursements, escrow overpayments, excess money saved for taxes, etc. - has gone towards the fund.
while we are gone we rent out our house nightly through airbnb.
this is key for us. we have a good location in austin, so we can rent out our casa for big events like sxsw and acl festivals to help cover the cost of our mortgage. (to rent nightly we obtained a short term rental license through the city of austin and we pay hotel occupancy taxes on the rental income.)
i happen to really dig airbnb. we found our casa in sayulita through airbnb as well so i have had both the host and guest experience. here's why i like it:
-there is no startup or yearly fee to use it.
-they sent out a professional photographer to take pics of our casa.
-their aesthetic is pleasing and their site makes sense to me.
-they encourage communication between hosts and guests and you can rate each other after your stay. it kind of has the feel of a social media site.
we have someone staying elsewhere on our property while we're gone and someone managing the rentals.
now to see if all of this actually works while we're out of the country for so long....
hearts open, fingers crossed.
blue period
we are smack dab in the middle of a metamorphosis over here. it seems that every single thing in our lives is changing right now. layers upon layers of change.
i'll post more when i catch my breath....
mars
we're big on nicknames around here so any name we considered for our children had to come along with some good ones. we've already been calling marvel "mars" and that nickname inspired his room. we're almost finished with it. it was our bedroom until a couple of weeks ago, so it's taken a major overhaul to get here. koruna helped paint marvel's walls.
here's a sneak peak at the mars room in progress.
the moon is now complete.
we mounted a globe above the changing table.
ian is still working on a big red mars on one of the other walls and we hung an antique rocket (an old treasure that my mama found) near it.
one week 'til due date and the excitement is mounting....