Closing Out 2011

 David enjoyed the job of crushing all the soda cans we emptied over our week of festivities! ( The price of aluminum has gone up enough to make it worth the saving. )

 Abigail enjoyed Wizard of Oz while Marsel and I sewed on her new quilt.  (We did finish all the blocks of an old one first!)

 Civil War reproduction prints in a two block quilt.  We worked out all the bugs so she can get to work on it at home!

 Bill found a surprise while spraying to kill some ant hills...........forget the ditty about red and yellow kill a fellow-it takes too long; remember black head, you're dead!  Bill has thumped it for my picture and then removed the head.  It was 28" long-good sized for this deadly coral snake.

All the Christmas decorations are taken down and put away for another year.  See how big the living room looks again!  I will be working on the tiles around the fireplace this week!
The last of my visiting family left this morning.  Always sad to transition to empty again.
But my brother and his wife are driving my parents down for the winter at the end of this week!  Yippee!

Merry Christmas!

For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  Luke 2:11

Our Christmas Day

 Crafts with the grandkids........

 An abundance of sweets.........

 Plenty of chairs around the dining room table

 The fireplace mantel arrived in the knick of time!

A dip in the pool (74F) and lots of family time.  Christmas 2011 is memorable on every level.

Home Sweet Home

 We worked at making the rooms into home again!  Fresh bedding and curtains, no dust in the rooms!

 The room looks more spacious with the hardwood floors-wonderful! The picture over the bed is an aerial photograph of our farm in NY.  Bill worked on restoring all the lights/fans and the switch plate covers and then we worked to heft all the furniture in place-can you say Ibuprofen?!

 The dining room is more formal than I have ever enjoyed previously-very nice to have room for all the furniture now.  This set was my in-laws, they bought it when they got married in the 1940's.  Cool, huh?!

The china cabinet is filled with my mother-in-law's teacups and fancy dishes.  Very nice to give it all a good clean and rearrange it tonight!  (The cats added their own decorating touch-that is a turkey feather on the floor!)
 A few minor touches is all we have to do tomorrow-like shave 3/8" off the bathroom and bedroom doors because the new floor added just enough to render them inoperable!  It is so worth it!
I am almost ready for my family to start arriving!!!!!!!!!  Well, actually, they could arrive anytime and I would be ready for them!

I am Floored!

 This morning I applied the grout to the hearth.  It was messy work but looks so good when you are done!  Bill has tile accents planned for more places in the house-he really likes it , too!

 While the men were busy laying the floor, I had to go into town and this caught my eye.  The price was right and I became the proud owner!  It is fully functional, too, and will be great for demonstrations and home use!
I got all the parts in the car to bring it home but the wheel itself is 52" wide and wouldn't fit in my Toyota!  Bill went back and brought the  wheel back in his truck!  I will be practicing my cotton spinning on this!

 We have floor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The hall to the dining room from the breezeway-Nyki is testing it out.

 JD is making good use of the dining room floor-the cats are very glad to say goodbye to the fast moving, busy, loud workermen!  See how nice the floors flow into the kitchen (right) and the family room (left)?

 The hall to the guest room.  So pretty and open now!  I am just thrilled with this, can you tell?!

It looks so inviting from the front door!  It has been quite the marathon of renovation but this is a big hurdle!
By Monday morning, Bill and I should have the energy to move all the furniture back into place!  Good Night!

Color My World!

 I slept late this morning because I woke up with another head cold.  I loaded up on the ibuprofen and got to work!  I needed to get to use the tile saw to lay the tile on the fireplace hearth.  Today was the day.

 I had a few glitches but got the rhythm finally and look forward to laying out the rest of the tiles on the wall when the mantel and surround gets installed-they promised me it would be here soon!  I will be applying the grout tomorrow.  It was hard to work on the floor-it is not as easy to do that anymore....

 Bill worked all day spraying the primer on all the new sheet rock.  When that finally dried, we began to roll on the new room colors!   It went well considering it has been a long day!  This is the guest room.  A tropical blue that matches the pool which you see out the window!

 The hall is the same color as the dining room-Sherwin Williams Comfortable Cream-it is golden which I wanted and almost a beige which thrills my husband!  We both love it.

 This room gets the morning sun and it will just glow.

 The hall will shine now, too, as there is only one small window, this will make the space more light and open.

We had the marathon of painting today because the men come back tomorrow to lay the flooring!

 In between coats, I did a little knitting.

 And a little spinning-the bottom bobbin is my before bobbin and the top one is my new and improved work-I see progress.  (Progress being smoother, thinner and less lumpy!)   I am enjoying the cotton finally!

I sewed some little gift bags-I think the pattern is from Hannelore Nunn from TheQuiltShow.com

Textures

 The doorways are all taped off and mobility is definitely impaired around here!

 The cats were very confused with our new traffic patterns!

 This morning when I had to walk around the front to the garage to come in the back way to my sewing room-I had a moment of panic that it was taped off, too!  The guys took the extra time and made it able to be opened for me!  Now that is kindness!  (The cookies I feed them helps their disposition, too!)

 I was able to finish the stocking marathon!  Bill and I already have ours, Marsel made ones for her family and is bringing them and now everyone else is represented!  Now all we need is the fireplace mantel!

 After lunch, I did some more on the quilt-and I did a lot of lay down time because I have come down with another cold!

This is why the guys had the new rooms closed off-they sanded everything and then used their sheet rock sprayer to apply texture to all the new surfaces!

I received a huge box of fabric from a blog friend, Benita, and the cats immediately inspected the emptied box!  She has two new kitties who sent feline messages to my guys!  Thank you so much for the additions to my fabric stash-I need another shelf just for your yardages!

We have Walls!

 The men got to work early this morning and for the most part, I just stayed out of their way in my sewing room!  I want to make some crazy patch Christmas stockings and so to to work.  (I had embroidered the centers on Saturday with the other embroidery work.)

 I just add strips in the sew, flip, press order until I have covered the interfacing pattern then press all the strips down.

 Turn over my work and trim.

 Next comes the embroidery steps-I used a variegated thread so I didn't change that the whole time-

 but I did use all those stitches that usually get ignored by quilters!

 PuffDaddy helped me through all the steps as usual-he did not like the noise the men coming in and out generated, either!

 The dining room has all of its sheet rock up, the sliding glass door is patched and so is the ceiling!

 The back bedroom has the walls patched and the place where the window used to be is also history!

Here is the biggest change-the hall coming into the dining room from the breezeway/garage.  This has always been an open area as far as insulation/lumber and it is nice to see it enclosed!  (The doorway on the right in the hall is where my sewing room is!)  The sheet rock mud has to dry for 24 hours so the men will not be back until Wednesday to spray the walls and ceiling with texture mud!  I will work on the stockings again tomorrow to turn all those crazy patches into their useable shapes!

Rain Check and Work

 Saturday evening Caleb and Cassandra came for Caleb's delayed birthday visit!
 We had a great time, thanks to both of you for sharing your time!

 Yesterday, just before they left, they helped us empty the back bedroom

 and the dining room.

 This will be the last shot of the rooms before their overhaul!  The men are here working as I blog this!

All the furniture is in the breezeway for now!  The cats are handling the chaos pretty well.