Reno - Work day #2

The days sure seem to disappear quickly.. it seems that with renovations, everything takes a bit longer than you think it should.
The plug-in on the wall behind the stove has been moved and the plug for the microwave (inside the top cabinet) has been wired in.

We wanted a little preview of the painted cabinets to see if they would be all right or if we should be looking at ordering new cupboards. CJ did some sanding and then primed one set of top cabinets and doors. Silly me, forgot to take the picture of it with the doors back on... but you'll have to trust me that we think it will look great! New countertops and flooring will bring this whole kitchen up to the new millennium.

Reno - Work Day #1

The ugly valance above the top cupboards is coming down!! I have wanted to do this for a long, long time. CJ was opposed to doing this but I am sure glad we did. It is amazing how much larger and brighter the kitchen is with just this first small change. The ceiling will require some repair and refinish but I think it is totally worth it!

Next, out come the range hood and the top cupboards.. Did I mention the we have decided to go ahead with moving the position of the appliances?? The fridge will soon be located on the left side of this wall. Demo is kinda fun! Except for the mess, that is... Oh well, it will all be worth it!!

This is where the range will be located... with an over-the-range microwave above it. I can't wait for these horrible dark cupboards to be painted. Next comes some wiring to move the plug behind the stove and to put one in for the microwave.

Decisions, decisions

It seems to be more difficult than I thought to come up with just EXACTLY the right things to do in order to make this house more salable. Thanks to the fridge deciding to stop cooling, we now have the new appliances we knew we were going to get eventually in this process. We still need to decide if we are going to do a re-arrangement of the kitchen by basically changing where the fridge and stove are located. It would mean just a bit of work to move a couple of cupboards and repair one small section of wall. We are going to be painting the cupboards and I am still trying to decide if I will re-use the old doors or if I will get new ones to update the look a bit more. A complete new counter top will also be on the list and, again, I am not sure what to use there.

We are also discussing the possibility of removing the carpet from the main areas of the house and putting down laminate flooring. I'm just not exactly sure if laminate is a good idea in the kitchen or if I should be staying with vinyl in there. I am not a huge fan of tile in a kitchen but it is a consideration as well. We are leaning towards keeping the carpet in the bedrooms at this point.

Then, we get into the topic of paint... do we paint all the interior doors?? Right now, they are just stained a kind of medium dark ( 1970's) color . I think they would look better painted white as well as painting all of the wood trim in the house white. CJ is concerned that the old wood grain will show through the paint and look strange. The doors do not have a distinct grain as they are made of something that looks perhaps like mahogany with a very fine grain, not an obviously distinct "wood" grain such as you would see in oak.

All in all, there is a lot of work ahead of us.

Changes

Nothing is ever certain in life, it seems. I was settling in to life in Chilliwack even though the space in which we were living was somewhat cramped. Spring had arrived. I was certainly enjoying seeing all the cherry trees bursting into bloom and the weeping willow trees adorned in their spring green along the avenues. The changes in the housing market everywhere has caused a "rethink" of our current situation.

With my house in Alberta not selling in the 5 months that it was on the market, we made the difficult choice of leaving the lower mainland of British Columbia and returning to Medicine Hat, Alberta. Our timing to travel pulling our 27' trailer worked out quite well as, shortly after we arrived back in "The Hat", all of western Canada was hit with a huge winter blizzard depositing large amounts of snowfall in a relatively short time. Perhaps The Creator felt that I needed to experience a bit of winter in order to remind me that I have quilts to be completed!

The plan now is to complete some renovations, reduce what has been in storage and to do a lot of painting in the house. We have already managed to clean out and rearrange much of what was stored in the garage... something that probably should have been done before the house was ever listed. Need any yarn???

The list of all there is to do is long and will require time. Our hope is that, once the work is completed on the house, it will become a more attractive prospect to buyers. Hopefully, the market will also recover by the time we are ready to relist.

Should's, Gotta's and Wanna's

This morning over coffee, I read Judy's Quiltathon Report for the Day and it sounded just like me! I had to read it out loud to Curt. That's when the discussion started. I often tote along many more projects than I can possibly finish whenever we go anywhere. He wondered why anyone would want to go on a holiday and drag along a bunch of sewing or knitting etc. He figures, if you want to sew, skip the holiday and just stay home to sew. I believe that, as women we often times take care of everyone else's needs first and put our own needs or wants last. So, if we were just to stay home, there would be those cupboards that "should" be cleaned out, or walls that need washing or laundry to be done or any number of other daily domestic things that we see when we look around our living spaces. When we can remove ourselves from that space, we somehow manage to give ourselves permission to spend time doing what we want to do. We all have so many "shoulds and gotta's" that we often put our "wanna's" last when, to be happy and fulfilled, we should be bringing those further to the front of the list. Judy's Quiltathon is just the avenue we can use to put ourselves first just for a day, and spend time doing what we find pleasure in doing. Hope everyone has a great quilting day today!!

Double Trouble

Not only was today the Quiltathon day, it was also a workshop day for our local quilt guild to get together and complete some charity quilts. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera today. The day started off with picking from an assortment of pre-cut kits. Lots of different fabrics had been donated so there were many different kits to pick from. After a few simple instructions, we were off and sewing. There were 28 ladies sewing and by 3:00 pm there were more than half who had their quilt tops completed and sandwiched!! Here is a picture of mine that I took when I got home. Its all ready for the final quilting and then binding. Not too bad for less than 6 hours (for me anyways). I was hoping to keep going on this tonight and get it finished. I shall see how I feel after a wee rest. More later.....

OH NOOOOOO!!!!!

MY DOG HAS FLEAS! It was bound to happen sooner or later since it never gets really cold enough here in the Fraser Valley of BC to kill off the fleas. I had taken Angel to the groomers yesterday for a much overdue grooming. She was fine when we got home and the groomer never mentioned any problem. This morning, she was outside for only a few minutes but I suppose it doesn't take long. She started scratching a lot at her neck and back... I thought she had perhaps had a reaction to the shampoo they used on her yesterday so, I proceeded to check to see if her skin was irritated. That's when I saw the little critters.... EWWWWWW!! This is a first for me and for her as well. So, it was off to find a solution. Being new here, I didn't really know where to go for help but I recalled a Pet Vet being located around the corner from where my friends used to live. They recommended "Advantage" and, close to $60 later, we came home with treatments for the next 6 months. The instructions also said that you should vacuum everything and wash their bed so Miss Angel now has one of my favorite little fleece throws to use for her bed cover until I can get to the laundromat.

I also had an appointment with an employment councillor today so, needless to say, I never got any sewing done today... nor yesterday as I was running the dog to and from the groomers as well as going to my first Aquasize class. Sadly, I could hardly walk last night (am I out of shape or what?) and went to bed at 8:15. LOL If I am going to get that little quilt done, it best be TOMORROW!! Perhaps its just a good excuse for missing the Thursday Aquasize??

Sewing Day!!

I actually managed to do some sewing on my charity quilt!! All 12 blocks are completed and I have started to join the blocks into rows. It should not take too long now to finish up the top. My goal is to have it totally done by friday of this week. Saturday, I am planning to attend a "sew-in" sponsored by the Piecemakers Quilt Guild of Chilliwack. Everyone will be making a child/lap size quilt for the charity "Wee Care" that the guild supports. The gals organizing this have pre-cut all the kits for everyone. At last count, there were supposed to be over 40 people attending. I am really looking forward to a fun, productive day.

Distractions

It seems that it is very easy for me to get distracted. I tend to find little projects that interest me more than finishing one that is already started. If, for any reason, I can't finish something without a lot of interruptions, it is more difficult for me to go back to that project to finish it. That could be the major reason that I have so many WISP's (work in some progress).

I was looking through some blogs and found a pincushion tutorial on a wonderful blog by May called Abyquilt. I had to try making one right away so I cut some 2 inch foundation squares from the first thing I thought of, recipe file cards. It turned out that they are a little stiff for this but they did work. I wouldn't want to make a very much larger project with such heavy papers. Anyways... I managed to finish my pincushion and I really like it! It's so nice to be able to create something that is finished quickly. I did find while stuffing it that it was difficult to get into the last point as it was so close to the opening I had left.

I then had to try another one with 1.5" squares. This time, I cut the foundations from the paper mailer inserts from some magazines I had on hand and they turned out to be much easier to work with. The smaller size is more challenging when making this project but I finished it. I changed where I left the opening for stuffing on this one. I thought it would be easier to stuff the points if the opening was left on one of the bottom seams. It did make it better although, I could have left a bit larger opening for stuffing. I tried a different placement of colors and feel now that there was not enough contrast between the second "sides" and the top. Perhaps the next one will be PERFECT!!

I have managed to add a few more pieces to my EPP Star project, so it is growing ever so slowly too. My goal for this next week is to complete my charity baby quilt. I need more finishes and fewer starts!!

Life in a shoebox

Living and trying to quilt in a space of about 216 square feet is a real challenge (read my first post for more info). It seems that we are both coming up with excuses to get out of the trailer for a day or evening. As a consequence, I have not accomplished much in the way of quilting in the past two weeks. Curt (my partner) was home from work for a week due to a back problem so that also cut into my quilting time.

I did manage to make some easy scrap squares that will be joined together for a small charity quilt to return to one of the quilt guilds that I have joined. I had them all nicely laid out on the top of the bed when Angel (my little dog) decided that it would be a good time just then to come play "keep away" with me and managed to nicely scramble all the pieces up. The joys of not having any place for a design wall! I dragged out my flannel-backed plastic tablecloth, laid it down on the bed and got the blocks all laid out again, then quickly rolled it up so it would be ready to join the blocks when I am able to sew next. You have to love those plastic table cloths! I must own a half-dozen or more, most of which are rolled up with a partial quilt laid out on them, stored away in a project box. They really do work quite well as a portable design wall.

I have also been working a bit on my english paper piecing project in the evenings. It is growing slowly but steadily. I have just spent several hours looking for a similar six pointed star pattern on the internet without much luck. Mine is very simple using various fabrics for the stars and a white on white for the in-betweens. My first idea was to use a different fabric for every star but I am quickly running out of fabrics (at least what I have with me at this point). If anyone has an extra 2" x 15" strip of fabric they really need to find a new home for, let me know!! ;-)

Wow - I have even managed to learn how to add photos!!

Thanks so much to those who left comments for me.. that is most encouraging!!