Getting Settled

What a crazy couple of weeks I've had. The day I returned from the retreat, I began preparing the house for a baby shower which meant unpacking and attempting to bring some semblance of order to my front yard (aka, the mud pit) while the city repaved the street and installed new driveway approaches, curbs, and sidewalks. The shower was Saturday and I think it went off wonderfully and the new street is open and so smooth!

The house still isn't finished, but I thought I'd take a few photos while it was cleaned up for the shower.

The kitchen.

It's open to the living room, which I initially didn't think I would like, but now I think I love.

My sewing room is functional and I started on a new baby girl quilt.

(Recognize the pattern, Michelle and Lisa? :-)

I wish I had more free time to spend in here. I love being surrounded by all the color.

But, I've got a huge stack of new work projects (the kind I actually get paid for which means they take precedence over the fun ones) and a commissioned knitting project (a fair isle Christmas stocking) to work on this week.

At least my house is all cleaned up for Thursday. The family is coming to my house for Thanksgiving!  Who else is having Thanksgiving at their house?

three words.

I have three words about the new house. Worth. The. Wait.

I've been unpacking since we spent our first night here this past Sunday night.  This is our third massively renovated/rebuilt home and it's a culmination of all the things we learned and loved about the last two houses. I love the location - Our new home is about as urban as we could get unless we moved into a high-rise a mile away in dowtown. Just what I wanted!

I've been working primarily on the kitchen and the sewing room. We've been slowing retrieving our things from storage and still have a few things to do on the house before I can get completely comfortable. I worked on the sewing room until about 3:00 a.m. night before last and made some pretty good progress. The photo above is Wednesday night.

Here it was last night. I still have a long way to go, but I love unpacking and organizing! I can't wait to give you a little tour once things are more presentable. I hate that I've been away so long (there are 4,800+ unread posts in my blog reader and I'm dreadfully behind on emails), but I'm so happy right now I could just scream. Maybe I will. While I unpack.

I can't believe it's October! (And the giveaway winner!)

Thank you for all the well wishes regarding our move! Unfortunately, our house still isn't ready. I would complain about the builder, but he's my husband and I love him madly regardless of how long it's taking. Doing so much of the work ourselves takes longer, but stretches our dollars much further and in the end, that's a very good thing.

I won't bore you with details of our delays, such as of deluges of rain dumped on north Texas by a tropical storm (thanks, Hermine), broken sewer taps and dealing with the water department, or our current foe, the electric company. I won't bore you with the story of my 20 plus consecutive days with a headache, which is now gone thanks to some strong antibiotics for a sinus/ear infection and a round of steroids. (I hope I never have to take steroids again! They made my feel terrible.) Sorry, I guess I just bored you anyway.

We've probably got another week until we can move and I'm anxiously tapping my foot. Living with my mom has really been fun, but I want my stuff out of storage! I packed for about three weeks and we've been here almost six. I can hear my fabric crying out to me from the bottom of a massive stack of boxes.

I'll share a couple of construction shots of my favorite room in the new house, the kitchen!

My kitchen island without it's butcher block top and the floors pre-scraping and staining.

A corner of the kitchen with counters (absolute black granite) and backsplash (Cararra white marble). That hood is over the cooktop that still hasn't arrived. I'm so excited about cooking in that kitchen! I officially pledge to eat out less often after the move.

In crafty news, I've almost finished this quick baseball baby quilt for a shower on Sunday. It's not my really my style (sports), but I think it will be a home run with it's recipient. wha wha.

Alright, I know what you are thinking... get to the big news, Mel!

Oh, you mean who I'll be sending this bundle of happiness to?

That would be number 82...

Ashley who blogs at Our so called life!
And, wow, does she have some adorable kiddos!

I'll send you an email shortly, Ashley. I hope you enjoy the fabric!

Well I'm off to run some errands and seal the backsplash tile in the kitchen to prepare it for grouting. If anyone wants to help, come on over!

A wonderful weekend!

The retreat was wonderful! I worked on a number of projects, but they are still packed in the car. Once I get everything unpacked, I'll photograph and share.

We stayed in a large Victorian house built in 1890. The sewing cottage was in a separate building. There was lots of sewing, lots of talking, lots of eating, and the iced tea flowed all weekend. Lisa was our ingenious inventor*, Gina (who really needs to get that blog started) was our amazing chef, Jamie was our super-sewer who cut and pieced an entire king sized quilt, Michelle was our go-to girl (and fellow aspirin-chewer* who let me test drive her 440QE), Monica shared her adorable baby boy with us, Amanda kept the cottage bright with her gorgeous blocks on the design wall, and Ellen made some great progress on a beautiful Nest quilt. Everyone worked on gorgeous projects and it was such fun to have the help, support, and opinions of others.

It was like a three-night slumber party. I even had to hide my toothbrush*. We stayed up way past our bedtimes, talked about fabrics we are going to design*, recipes we'd like to share, and various other girly topics I won't mention in mixed company. I didn't really get an abundance of sewing done, but the company and conversation alone made the weekend. I have no regrets (other than maybe sobbing in the parking lot at the tire store*). I don't remember laughing so hard or so much in a long, long time. My cheeks and abs are sore from so much laughter, but maybe the constant laughter burned off some of the delicious calories I consumed! I'll be counting the days until we do it again, girls!

While I was gone, the house got some more brick, trim and tile. I'm so anxious to move! That's my sewing room over on the far right. I'm going to have a fabulous birdwatching spot under that pecan tree.

Last night, we joined our family to celebrate my Papaw's 91st birthday. I always love being with my family. We have so much fun catching up and teasing one another.

I think a great time was had by all. The perfect ending to a wonderful weekend!

* Sorry, you had to be there.

My, how time flies.

That little break was unintentional. You know that kind of busy that keeps your head spinning but at the end of the day you feel like you have nothing to show for it? That's what my last couple of weeks have been like.

Those house is coming along nicely.  We have...

a front door (which was hung today),

trim, crown moulding, and baseboard (this is the master bedroom),

and coolest of all, some brick!
The house is L-shaped and this is inside the L in the back. 

We finalized our paint colors tonight.  By the end of the week, we should have painted walls, cabinets, completed trim, brick on all sides, and maybe some tile. I'm so excited! But, I'm going to miss all of this progress, because I'm leaving town.

I'm joining seven fellow Dallas Modern Quilt Guild members for a quilting retreat! We'll be coming from all areas of the metroplex (the Dallas-Fort Worth area) to meet in an old Victorian house for four days of quilting and sewing! I've never done anything like this before, so I have no idea how much to take. I'm afraid I'm taking too much. I'll be that car on the freeway with my tailpipe sparking as it drags along the ground and you won't be able to see in the back window because the car is full of stuff.

I mostly packed UFOs, but I also threw in some fabrics I don't have plans for yet and a selection of books for inspiration. I just got the Liberated Quiltmaking II book today. I've only flipped through it, but I think I like it.

I've been baking cookies to take with me to the retreat. So far, I've only eaten one. I won't have internet access this weekend, but I might try posting from my phone. I need to finish packing my quilting supplies and then start packing my clothes. I'm such a last minute packer.

I heard the air conditioner in the sewing cottage gets really cold, which will be a nice break since we've had a week of unbearable temperatures (in my opinion). It's still in the upper 90's long after the sun has gone down. I think it's pretty much torture.

Oh, I've got to go. I just burned the last batch of cookies and I've got to keep the hubby from eating too many! See ya later!

Another busy week.

It's been a busy another busy week. I only have a few minutes to post, but I thought I'd check in.

The garage slab was poured on Wednesday. This was before. The crew hit bedrock, so Sean had to rent a jackhammer and it took an extra day to jackhammer the ditches for the beams. At least we know the slab won't be moving. The family room and master suite will be above the garage. It's the size of a four car garage since it will also house the airplane Sean is building. (Yes, I park my car next to a pair of airplane wings in my garage.)

  

Dirt work for the slab addition that will be my sewing room, powder room, and Shea's bathroom. I think this was on June 5th.

And here's that same spot yesterday. What a difference a few days makes! That room with the ladder is my sewing room. We need to get the tree trimmer to come trim up that pecan tree soon.

I've been sewing during swim team every day.

It's nice to have hand work projects that are so portable.

 

It's also fun to have little girls stop to see what I'm working on. 

Once upon a time...

a boy, a girl, and their wee one lived in a cute house in the city. The boy was a home builder who had meticulously rebuilt the 1925 bungalow they called home. Their house was walking distance from the elementary, middle, and high schools the girl attended and the hospital where she was born. The university the girl graduated from was much further away, about five miles from their city house. She had very deep roots in their neighborhood. The couple were surrounded by family and friends who lived nearby.

One day, the boy and girl had a crazy idea and wondered what it would be like to live in the country. They put their city house on the market and it sold very, very quickly. The couple leased a house about 25 minutes outside their beloved city and prepared to build a country house.

But things in the country weren't as blissful as the couple had hoped. They desperately missed the conveniences of city life and the girl was saddened by all the precious time she was losing by driving back and forth to the city on a regular basis.

A few months after moving to the country, the couple made the decision to uproot again move back to the city. But where would they go? They had sold their lovely city house.

The couple decided to take on the massive renovation of a 1940's rental home they owned in the city. After all, the boy was a home builder and they had completed this type of project twice before with great results.

So, in the heat of the Texas summer, the project began. They hope the house will be completed before school for the wee one begins in the fall. The couple are very excited about moving back to the city and are praying that things go smoothly and that they are able to stay on schedule.

OK, seriously. All sarcasm aside, I was going to start another blog to document our next house project, but I can barely keep up with one blog, so maintaining two might throw me over the proverbial edge. I hope I won't lose you if you are here for crafty things, but I'm so excited about moving back to the city and want to share our house journey with my family and friends. I might put together a post of before and after photos of our last house. I adore old houses and love that with my husband's skills we are able to give them new life. (And, I can't wait to decorate and landscape this next "old" house!)

And for those of you who are here for some crafty eye candy...

The 193 hexagons I basted on Memorial Day. I'm almost out of pre-cut papers and I still have a huge stack of squares remaining to baste. I also need to cut into my stash. I think my hexagon quilt is going to be larger than originally planned because I want to include every single one of these lovely fabrics!