House Update - 15 July

This is a relatively "picture-free" post.  The builders finished up the roof and installed all the windows except the master bath.  Here's what things look like now:

The only windows not installed are the master bath windows and that's just because they need to get the tub in through the window.  Its possible to get the tub in through the doorways, but its just easier to lift it through the window with a crane...after all, its a cast iron tub!

We're supposed to have the electrical walk-through soon.  I think this will be one of the hardest things to do.  How do you decide where you want electrical outlets?  You have to kind of know where you want things in the room to make sure you put outlets where you need/want them.  Probably the only room that will be "easy" is the sewing room....just put lots of outlets on every wall. :-)

I probably won't have a lot of pictures of the house unless they put the siding on soon.  As we get into doing the interior (dry-wall, etc) then I'll be able to show more of the insides.  The pictures I have of the interior are a little hard to understand since you can "see through" the walls right now.

House Update - 12 July

Before I jump into progress on the house yesterday, I wanted to share some pictures of the flowers at our rental.  When we first moved into the rental, I was a little bummed out that I wasn't going to have a lot of flowers this summer.  At our house in Scotia, we had lots of flowers and it was nice seeing them bloom all summer.

Earlier this spring though, I noticed that the woman who used to own the house we're renting had a few roses.  I've tried to clear out the grass around the roses, but its a losing battle!  However, over the past two weeks, I noticed some daylilies blooming next to the house.  They were hidden by some sumac that was taking over the area, so when my parents were visiting last week, my mom and I tore out all the junk plants around the daylilies (including a very invasive sumac and american grape vine).  In doing so, we've uncovered a ton of daylilies that are now clamoring for the sun.  Every day I see a new color pop-up.  Here's the colors so far:

This was the lily I first noticed since it was on the outside corner.  This one spurred the tearing out of the rest of the junk in that corner.  Its absolutely gorgeous!

So onto the house...

The framers/roofers finished the shingles on the main portion of the roof yesterday.  The roof cap isn't in yet, but I'm hoping it will go on today to help keep water out of the house.

They also framed out the chimney on the back of the house.  Even though the fireplace isn't in yet, the chimney is started and they have the materials for the flue.

The windows were also all delivered yesterday.  I didn't upload any pictures of them since they're pretty boring sitting in their boxes. ;-)  However, we have all the windows at the house including the sliding glass door for the back.  I'm hoping the builder will get the windows installed today....next will come siding! :-)

House Update - 11 July

I haven't posted in a while since I was on vacation last week. A much needed vacation I might add. :-)

Rich and I didn't really go anywhere for vacation, but it was enough not going into work every day.  We spent some time with Rich's parents at Peck's Lake, some time with my parents at the rental house, shopping for house stuff, shopping for work clothes (we both needed them desperately) and spending time at the lot.

We saw quite a bit of progress last week.  At the end of my last post, we had the first floor framed.  Now we have the entire second floor framed, too.  The roof decking is also installed and they even started putting shingles onto the roof.  Here are some pictures from last week:

Family Room -- right side are windows, straight in the back is a fireplace (where its framed)

 

Roof trusses on the 2nd floor

Our builder even uses hurricane clips.  While we don't get hurricanes very often in upstate NY, its nice to see that he's doing things really well to make sure we won't have any problems with high winds.

Picture from the back of the house with most of the trusses up.  If you look over the right hand end of the house, it looks like there's a flat spot on the peak of the roof.  They just hadn't put up the peak trusses yet.

All the roof trusses are up and the decking started.  On the left hand side of the picture, you can see that the peak trusses are now up over the master bedroom.

View at the front of the house now that the roof decking is up.

Back of the house with the shingles started.

Today is another warm, sunny day out so we expect the framers to finish up with the roof today.  I think our windows will probably go in soon, too.  yay!  I can't wait to see the siding go up on the house!

House Update - 30June

I haven't posted anything about the house in the past two weeks, but there's definitely been progress.  The last pictures I posted were here.  We had the footings poured and the forms up for the walls.  At this stage, they have completed:

• Pouring walls and removing forms
• Waterproofing and back-filling around the walls
• Rough grading of the property
• Basement-to-first floor joists installed
• First floor completely framed!

I don't have all the possible pictures online to show, but here's a good synopsis of the progress on the house.

This is from Tuesday, June 26th.

This is from Wednesday, June 27th.

This is from Thursday, June 28th.

There has been quite a bit of progress in a short amount of time.  Its quite exciting to see the walls being constructed and the house actually taking shape.

Stashbusting 2011 - Week 26

I was able to do a little bit of sewing this week.  Although I already counted this fabric as "used" from the quilt class earlier this year.  We were taught needle-turn applique in class, which I did for a center heart section of applique and one leaf in the picture below.  The other three leaves I tried using freezer paper and pressing the seams over the freezer paper ahead of time.  I definitely liked this method better.  It was much faster, too.

I also prepared backing fabric for my cousin's quilt. So that amounts to about 2.3 yards of fabric used! :-)

So here's the numbers for the past few weeks/months:
Added This Week:       0.0 yards
Added Year to Date:    37.64 yards
Used This Week:         2.3 yards
Used Year to Date:      23.45 yards
Net Year to Date:        14.19 yards

Stashbusting 2011 - Week 25

Its been quite a while since I posted for stash busting.  We've been really busy with moving and starting to build a new house.  However, I have gotten some sewing done.

I made the quilt top for my cousin who is having a baby next month (her first).  I also made a light-weight blanket (basically a quilt without any batting) for my niece.  I had made a real quilt for her when she was born, but in the summer its just too warm for her.  She wouldn't sleep with anything else though at night since it was made by Aunt Sarah.  So a lightweight blanket was requested.  I was able to make it completely out of my scraps from other baby quilts...and it looks very cute.

So here's the numbers for the past few weeks/months:
Added This Week:       0.0 yards
Added Year to Date:    37.64 yards
Used This Week:         4.35 yards
Used Year to Date:      21.01 yards
Net Year to Date:        16.63 yards

House Update - 16June

I haven't posted in a while, but there's been quite a bit of progress on the lot.  In the past week or two, not only did they finish digging the hole for the foundation, but all the footings were poured and the forms for the walls were installed.

  

Here is a picture from 15JUN with the forms installed.

 

We think that they will pour the walls today and then within a few days they'll be able to start back-filling around the foundation.  We're pretty excited to see things start to come together.  We had a bunch of rain earlier this week and thought that we would have another delay, but the workers kept working through it and have made a ton of progress this week.

I'll have lots more pictures as framing starts and the actual house starts to take shape. :-)

House Update - 07June

A lot of progress has been made in the past week.  It's surprising to see how much our lot has changed.  Here's how it looked on June 1st.  A lot of stumps pulled and the driveway partially finished.

One big 'ole pile o' stumps!

Here's how it looked on June 6th...just yesterday.  The driveway is finished (the final coating of gravel doesn't go down until we're ready to close) and most of the stumps and wood are gone.

Here the lot is today - June 7th.  We can actually drive our car right up to where the house is.  Yay!

Here's the hole for the foundation! :-)  Its not the whole thing, but its about 2/3rd of the foundation.

Since the equipment was there...I couldn't help but get up into it. ;-)  Probably the only time I'll sit in the driver's seat of a bulldozer!

Exercise....

I've been meaning to get more exercise lately.  I've put on some weight over the past 2-3 years and its definitely past time to get rid of it!  Now that we're in the "country", there are a ton of roads near us that are great for biking.  Depending upon which direction I head out of our rental house, I can get a different type of workout.

South -- fairly flat, but with a few small hills
East/West - pretty flat, but some small, long distance rises
North -- LOTS of hills!

While out last weekend, we decided to get bikes.  Below is the picture of my new bike. :-)

We had to order the bike for R. since they didn't have his size at the store.  We were still able to get a sale price on it though. 

So far, I've ridden pretty much every day since Saturday.  I didn't ride on Monday since it was a really busy day with chores and stuff around the house and I didn't ride last night as I got home late from work and we needed to go look at the lot.

Tonight, I plan on a nice long ride.  Its windy today, but its much cooler (the high is only 62).  I think it will be good weather for a nice ride after work. :-)

House Update - 31MAY

I think the torrential rain has finally stopped!  If I remember correctly, in about 2 days we had almost 3 inches of rain.  That's on top of a completely saturated environment due to previous rain and snow melt.  Ridiculous!

At least its stopped and they started work on the lot.  Some very important things arrived on our lot. 

The backhoe that will be pulling all the stumps out!

Finally, the most important one....a Port-A-Potty.  

Once the rain had stopped though, they were able to start digging.  All the stumps are out along the 600 feet of driveway and they were even able to dig it out so its ready for gravel.  The gravel is supposed to go in today and since its nice and warm and sunny, I have no doubt that it will happen.  I think the guy operating the big backhoe will be pulling stumps from the house/yard area while the rest of the crew is laying the gravel.

Here are some pictures of the driveway looking away from the house (towards the road) and towards the house/yard.

We're pretty excited to see progress being made.  It will be awesome once they start digging the hole for the foundation!

Rain, Rain...Go Away...

We've had so much rain the past two weeks.  It seems like it won't ever stop raining.  I keep thinking of the little kid's song....

"Rain, rain, go away
Come again another day
Little Sarah wants to play."

Actually, its not the playing that I want to do...I want the digging to start!  Due to the rain, our builder hasn't been able to start yet.  He raring to go...as are we.  Our property can actually handle the rain pretty well.  Despite the copious amounts of rain (several inches), we had no standing water on the property.  The dirt was just really wet.  We could walk on it just fine and it was sturdy, but the builder knew his heavy equipment would have gotten stuck in the mud.

On Saturday, we only received a passing shower and Sunday it didn't rain at all.  It hasn't rained today either, so hopefully they will be able to make some progress today.  The guy that's pulling out all the stumps was going to give it a try today and hopefully not get stuck. 

I'll have to drive by the lot tonight to see what sort of progress was made.

On a crafty note....no sewing on the machine. :-(  I still haven't setup a sewing area, although my mother-in-law has volunteered to come help this Friday (taking the day off from work to have a 4-day weekend) and help clean our "storage" room in the rental so that I can put the sewing machine up in there.  I have been doing a lot of needlepoint though.  I've been able to make a ton of progress on Starry Night.

I'll try to get some pictures up here soon. ;-)

New House - Progress Being Made

Last week, we met with our builder and signed the contract to build the new house (eek!).  While we're really excited about it, we're both really scared, too, since there just so much to do in a short period of time.  The good news is...the builder thinks it will take about 4-5 months to build, so we're looking to move in sometime between September and October.  Our rental is month-to-month and the landlord is our builder's dad....so if we need to stay for 6 months, its not a problem.

A fair amount of my posts going forward for the next 6 months will probably be house related.  I don't have a ton of time to sew (in fact my sewing machine hasn't been touched in over 3 weeks at this point), so I don't really have much to post about in that regard.  I will have a "crafty" picture at the end of this post though.

The next few pictures are just some snap shots taken from approximately the same location on the lot.  Its really odd to see the transformation so far.

The picture above is when we first bought the land in July 2010.  Just about in the middle of the picture, there's a really light spot where the sun is hitting and there's a rock there.  In the future pictures, you'll be able to see that rock pretty much all the time, so you'll be able to see what sort of changes went on.  This first picture shows the land pretty much untouched with the exception of a small backhoe getting in there to dig a test-pit for the soil test.

This picture was from only a week later.  The rock in the foreground...that's the same rock from the previous picture.  We had taken the first week of July off in 2010 (with outrageously hot weather) and spent the mornings chopping down trees and moving brush.  In just a week we made a ton of progress.

This one was from the middle of August 2010.  I don't have a wide-angle picture of the lot, but you can see how much more open it is even at this point.  From July to August, the only people clearing the lot were my husband, me and his dad.  So with only three people, we made a ton of progress in just 5-6 weeks.

This one is from sometime in late October or early November.  I'm pretty sure it was from October.  Again, about 1/3 of the way up the picture, you can see the rock from the first pictures.  At that stage, we had cleared pretty much everything we wanted to for the area our the house.  We dropped a few more trees in the back to make the back yard a little bigger, but that's about it.  Its pretty different from the first picture!

There wasn't too much to see at winter-time...except lots of snow, so this picture is from April 24th.  Things are really starting to get green there now, but in April they were still pretty brown.  Some of the trees had buds on them, but with the grey skies it was hard to see.  If you look on the right side of the picture near the big tree, there's the rock!  :-)  The big wood chip pile is all our brush chipped up for us.  The driveway will angle to the left (on the very left hand side of the picture) and the house will be basically straight ahead.

Our builder now has his construction sign up on the lot, and we're supposed to break ground this week!  Here's hoping that everything is good!

Multi-tasking in Quilting

Over on Jill's blog, she posted a question about whether we multi-task when quilting or if we do one project at a time.

I usually do multi-task when quilting.  While I don't have 5 projects going at one time, like some other quilters, I usually have at least 2 going at once.  I typically have my "focus" project where I spend most of my quilting time.  This is usually a project where I have a deadline or its just something I really want to work on.  In order to "force" myself to finish a project, I won't let myself start another project until this one is done.

However, at the same time of having my "focus" project going, I use 2.5" squares to start/stop my sewing for the "focus" project.  These kind of follow Bonnie's "leaders and enders" philosophy.  The 2.5" squares are going into a scrap quilt and I really like having this going because I don't have to think when I piece these.  Some days when I can't really get my mind to focus on completely a project or following specific directions, I'll pick up a bunch of 2.5" squares and just sew those together.  Here's a picture from a few months ago...I only had 9 "blocks" made... I now have over 25 blocks made.

I was surprised at how quickly I was able to make up a ton of blocks without even trying.  I like having the somewhat "mindless" project to do while working on more complex projects.

I also always have a cross-stitch project on-going while I'm doing quilting.  That way if I want to just watch TV or do some hand-work, I always have something I can do.  Below is a picture of the project I have going right now.

This picture is from the end of March and I've now finished that "page" completely and I'm working on the last row of the pattern.  I think overall, the picture is about 16" x 20" when its finished.

Ultimately, I try to set goals for myself in order to keep myself going on certain quilting projects.  Sometimes I start a project and then get bored or frustrated with it and I try to find a "better" project.  When I do find something that I REALLY want to make, I tell myself that I can start it once I get the previous project done.  That way I look forward to finishing the current project so that I can start the next one.  It tends to keep my UFO list pretty short.

Stashbusting 2011 - Week 17

Not a whole lot of sewing going on the past few weeks.  I actually haven't posted since Week 13, but I have done a little bit of sewing since then.  We have finally moved from our house to the rental.  It was an uneventful move, but a very tiring two days.   On Thursday, we moved all the boxes ourselves with the help of R's parents and one of my brothers and one of my sisters.  Then Friday, the movers came to move all the furniture.

The old house is now ready for closing, which is scheduled for Wednesday.  Its a little sad to leave the house since it was our first house, but on the upside, we're going to be able to start building soon.

So here's the stash report for the past few weeks:
Added This Week:       0.0 yards
Added Year to Date:    37.64 yards
Used This Week:         0.49 yards
Used Year to Date:      16.66 yards
Net Year to Date:        20.98 yards
 

Random Thoughts...

Back in January, I was unfortunate enough to get called for Jury Duty.  I was extremely glad after the 2nd day that I was dismissed (apparently they didn't want a woman engineer on the jury).  I only had a few details of the case when jury selection was started.  We knew what the charges were against the individual (the biggest being attempted murder for shooting a woman in the face), but we didn't know a lot of the details.

As I sat through jury selection, I honestly can't say whether I would have been able to give this guy a fair trial.  The few details that came out were that he had shot a woman in the face....not once...but 4 times!  While I don't understand why someone would shoot another person, I could see that maybe the face was an accident (doesn't make it any better that he shot the woman, but maybe he had really bad aim).  However, 4 times!  That's not an accident...that's intentional.

After I was dismissed, I went and read some more about the case.  It was a 19-year-old who was infatuated with a 29-year-old woman.  They both did drugs, and she was a dealer.  He was jealous that she was spending time with other men and when she told him to go away, he decided to shoot her.  The case came down to whether him shooting the woman was intent to kill or just to get back at her.

The jury ended up finding him not guilty on the murder charge, but guilty on everything else (assault, burglary, and weapons possession).  The kid turned down a plea deal where he would get 9.5 years in prison...dumb kid.  While I feel badly that the guy is going to prison for quite some time, I'd rather have him there than on the street.  The judge recently sentenced him to 31 years in prison.

One of the weird things in the article was that the probation officer said that the suspect was "pleasant", but the judge's comments were that he wondered how a "pleasant" man nearly killed this woman.  The defense attorney at the end tried to pin this all on the kid's upbringing...that he had a difficult upbringing and that's why he shot this woman.  Its a load of baloney!  If a person doesn't understand that shooting a person in the face is a bad thing...they DO NOT belong in society.  It doesn't matter what sort of upbringing a person has, the way to resolve a problem is not to shoot the other person!

I'm definitely glad this guy is in prison and that he will be there for a long time.  Now, if only I didn't have to pay the taxes to keep his sorry behind in jail.

Goals - Week 15

Goals from Week 14:

• Post pictures of quilt blocks from week 5 of class --  Does it count that I took the pictures?  ;-)
• Post pictures of needlepoint progress --  Again, took pictures, but haven't had time to download them from the camera to the computer
• Post pictures of baby quilt for cousin --  Again, took pictures, but haven't had time to download them from the camera to the computer
• Quilt commission quilt with fixed sewing machine --  COMPLETED!
• Pack some more  ;-)  -- Completed

I've been doing pretty poorly with the goals lately.  So much so that I'm tempted not to post any for this week.  We've been fairly busy at home with preparing for the move.  We've been able to throw out a lot of stuff along with packing up things that we won't readily use in the next few months (i.e. heavy winter sweaters).  We have a large garbage bag full of items to donate along with about half a dozen pairs of shoes.

Goals for Week 15:

• Put binding on commission quilt --
• Complete hand applique on main heart block for quilt class quilt --
• Start hand applique of one (or four) leaves for quilt class quilt --
• Update stash reports --
• Finish packing sewing stuff :-(  -- 

 Hopefully I'll do a little better this week than I have in the past few weeks....

Goals - Week 14

I was bad earlier this week about not posting updates to Goals, Stash Busting and the quilt class.  Its been a hectic week to say the least.

Goals from Week 13:
- Post pictures of quilt class blocks and Starry Night sewing. --  Posted quilt class blocks, but not the needlepoint.  Its coming along fairly well though.
- Wash fabric for baby quilt -- I was able to wash the fabric on Monday or Tuesday evening.  I also cut out everything and even started sewing a bit.
- Setup fixed sewing machine and quilt commission quilt -- Bust!  The sewing machine was setup, but not fixed properly.  Back to the sewing mechanic.  I have it back again today (4/8), but I haven't put it on the frame yet to see if it will completely behave.
- Complete all 4 Flying Geese blocks for quilt class -- COMPLETE!!

So I did fairly well last week.  The only items I didn't complete were items I couldn't (broken sewing machine) or I really didn't get around to (Starry Night needlepoint).

I'm not really sure where all the time went this week.  Somehow its Friday already, which is usually a good thing. ;-) 

Work has been a bear lately.  Monday, Wednesday and Friday I have 7am meetings at work.  Tuesday and Thursday I have 7:30am meetings.  yuck!  This means that every day during the week, I'm up at about 5:30am and out of the house by about 6:30am.  I used to be able sleep until 6:30am. ;-(

A few of us at work have noticed things getting earlier and earlier in the morning.  When I first started 4.5 years ago, it was rare to have a meeting before 8am.  Now, 7:30am meetings are routine and meetings are being pushed earlier to 7am.  Before I know it, 7am meetings will be routine and I'll be coming in at 6:30am for certain meetings.

The sad thing is...with the meetings being earlier and coming into work earlier...I'm still not leaving any earlier.  I still leave around 5pm or 5:30pm in the evening.  So the company is getting another hour out of me every day.  I get paid for 40 hours per week, but I'm routinely working closer to 50 hours now, which pretty much stinks.  It would be nice to get back to working "normal" hours again, but that probably won't happen for another 2 months or so.

Anyway - on the house front, we are closer to closing on selling our house.  We are about 80% packed right now with the stuff that's unpacked being items that we use frequently or can't pack up yet (files).  We're looking at a rental house again this weekend, so hopefully it will work out for us and we can start renting it soon in order to move some stuff over ahead of time (yay for renting from our builder's dad who is ultra-accommodating).

Goals for Week 14:

• Post pictures of quilt blocks from week 5 of class --
• Post pictures of needlepoint progress --
• Post pictures of baby quilt for cousin --
• Quilt commission quilt with fixed sewing machine --
• Pack some more  ;-)  --

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

House Shopping

Last week, Rich and I spent Friday off from work "shopping" for things for the new house.  Its really insane how many different choices there are.  Who would have thought something as simple as a toilet had so many options (color, tank type, bowl shape, height, style...)!

It was a very busy day, but I think we made some pretty good progress.  While the choices aren't FINAL yet, we were able to make some decisions on:

• toilets
• bathroom faucets (for all baths)
• kitchen faucet
• kitchen sink
• hardwood floors
• molding
• kitchen countertop
• kitchen hardware (for cabinets)

So we did pretty well.  For the bathroom faucets, our primary choice right now are these:

They are the same faucet, just different finishes.  Depending upon the final counter-top choice for the different bathrooms, we'll pick either the stainless (1st picture) or the oiled bronze.

Its exciting to be making the choices now and to see the picture in our minds starting to come true.  :-)