Up to my eyebrows in renovations

Or, what am I up to these days besides work and sewing. If boats are a hole in the water that you throw your money into, then houses are a hole in the ground. It all began with that wakeup call last March (2012) when a day of very strong winds from the south blew the roof off of our deck. Planning on how to replace it unleashed a whole bunch of other plans that we’ve been thinking of for years but never acted on. No money, no time. We still don’t have the money, but we have a bank loan. And Mr. ZQ is retired now, so he has time to direct the proceedings

To be fair, the house was built in 1972 and hasn’t seen a lot of quality care since then. When we moved in 11 years ago, we replaced the kitchen cupboards and the appliances which were just about to crater, and fixed up the bathroom and installed a shower! Modern times had arrived. Last year we bought the deck roofing, but it hasn’t gone up yet. This year we also purchased a new vinyl covering for the deck itself and new railings to replace the old wobbly wooden ones. Last month we replaced the original furnace and air conditioner. The heat pump that doubles as the air conditioner meant that we had to remove the stairs to the deck so that it could be placed where it was. Last week we removed the old indoor fireplace which was an add-on by a previous owner, and done badly. It was placed in a corner next to the front window and came so close to the window that there was no room for the molding on that side. I love fires, but we’ve never used this fireplace. It’s absence really opens up the livingroom nicely. Of course, the walls behind it, the ceiling above it and the floor underneath it all have to be replaced. On Saturday we ordered enough hard wood maple flooring to replace the carpet in the livingroom and hallway. Oy vey! Tomorrow the paving stone guys are supposed to be here to move around lots of earth and create a sidewalk to the front door, as well as a patio in the backyard, a paved area for our fire pit and a paved base for my as of yet unbuilt greenhouse. And in two weeks, the window guys arrive to replace every ugly old window in the house with modern, high efficiency, low-E windows. I’ll probably have to put my sewing machine away for a few days for the window replacement since it’s currently sitting in front of the deck door. That doesn’t include other work going on in the front yard, which is minor in comparison – putting down landscape cloth and covering it with bark chips on one side and a willdflower mix on the other side.

So, I haven’t been at my sewing machine as much lately as I’d like to be. But I haven’t totally abandoned it. Every day sewing is another day to learn new things from my mistakes. Just when you think you’ve made them all, you come up with a totally new mistake – which adds to your experience in fixing them. I can tell you that I am able to fix my mistakes much faster than I used to! Obviously I wasn’t paying enough attention because I put the zipper in facing the wrong end. I unstitched it and turned it around, but in doing so I put the inside welt pocked on the wrong side. That one wasn’t important enough to me to undo and fix. I’d already decided to give it away you a young neighbour who loves cowboy boots so much that I often see her walking down the street in her father’s oversized boots. I experimented on this one with two-inch lace and I really liked the effect. I’m going to do some more with lace, but first I need to find some.

If you don’t hear from me in the next two weeks, don’t worry about me. Just know that my house is getting a little bit of the TLC that she deserves.

Until next time,