Whew!

July 25, 2016July 24, 20165 Comments

We moved into our new home almost a month ago. It started out with a bang. We were moving some items in Dave’s pickup truck and as he exited the vehicle, the only tree in our yard slowly fell on the roof and hood of his truck. Dave watched, helplessly. He was not injured.

Luckily, across the street was a car alignment shop and one of the mechanics, Bill, knew someone who could come over right away and extract the tree from the truck. The local collision center sent a tow truck. It was not totaled. Yippey! Ti’s a 2003 Chevrolet Silverado and the current value is about $3000. It doesn’t have a lot of mileage so we were relieved we didn’t have to buy a new vehicle.

We used a rental vehicle and our insurance for that ran out last Friday. At $38 a day, it adds up fast. We picked the truck up on Friday. It cost $5800 to repair. We had $500 deductible. But, wow — a very expensive tree.

We used movers for all our furniture and that part was seamless.

Unpacking and organizing takes longer than you expect. There is disorder almost everywhere. We have sheets on the bed and clothes in the closet, plus clean towels, so we are not suffering. We have eaten out a lot, and it’s time to go on a diet.

I’m excited to design my new office sewing studio. More on that later.

Wanda

The Story of SCALE

June 13, 2016June 12, 20163 Comments

SCALE was the third chapter of the Savor Each Stitch Book Bee. Carolyn Friedlander’s book has a photo of bales of hay in front of a house and tree.

The caption reads, “Scale is relative to everything around it.”

On June 2, 2015, I wrote this in the book bee community:

I don’ t have a design in mind for Scale. I pulled some prints — large to small to inspire me. CF’s Circle Lattice is interesting and I like the idea of a large applique piece.

I had pulled some Kaffe prints and I sketched a large applique:

At the same time, my daughter was home for the summer from college and we visited the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’ exhibit: Van Gogh, Manet and Matisse. The Art of the Flower. The exhibit was very crowded and the art was displayed in different rooms in chronological order, beginning with the early Impressionists. The early works were so real. The ladybugs on the leaves looked like they were alive right there on the paintings. Van Gogh’s work wasn’t lifelike but the paint was three dimensional . By the end I felt I had traveled through time, and I felt dizzy and overwhelmed by FLOWERS.

That experience stayed with me and I made a large applique flower (no photo). BUT, I didn’t like it.

I liked the Kaffe prints so I made a tote bag as a Scale warm-up.

Since I liked the idea of a large flower, I created a large improvisational “flower” using solid scraps.

I didn’t like how the small flowers were interacting with the large one.

On July 16, 2015, I wrote:

My Scale study has taken another turn. I decided to make some large and small improv “flowers.” I did that and tried to assemble them. Hated it, then slashed and reassembled them, and I think I’m getting somewhere. Now to decide if I need a border and how much border. I think it needs some “breathing space” — not sure what would be best. Blue perhaps.

Susan, a fellow bee mate, suggested BLACK, and I’m so glad I took her suggestion.

After I putting on the face binding, I thought it needed some more hand quilting.

That’s the story of SCALE.

Tiny house search, Huge house buy

May 10, 2016May 9, 20169 Comments

CHANGE is inevitable, it seems. Three summers ago, my husband and I sold our three-bedroom home on a two acre lot in rural Dinwiddie County and moved to Short Pump, Virginia. We rented a two-bedroom apartment and a one-car garage for all our stuff.

We downsized and decided on what we really wanted in our physical space. It was a difficult experience. It’s a work in progress.

We are making another change this summer. We no longer want to live in this community. In February we started looking for a new home in the Petersburg, Virginia area. This was close to where we lived three years ago. It’s about 20 miles south of Short Pump.

THE SEARCH BEGINS

I wanted a tiny house. I began my search on Zillow. I saw a cute Craftsman, built in 1918, in Petersburg. I contacted the real estate agent and we saw the house that night. We liked the neighborhood but the layout of the house wasn’t right. The utility room had been situated in between the kitchen and the dining room which meant you would have to walk through the utility room every time you wanted to go to the kitchen. There was no direct kitchen entrance. Fixing this layout would cost a lot of money so we moved on.

We made a list of our priorities after that visit. We wanted a small house with great entertaining space. We were up for renovations– within reason.

Our next house tour took us to the city of Colonial Heights. We had three houses on our list. They were early 20th century homes which were recently renovated. The houses were great but the neighborhoods were bleak — lots of chain link fences and garbage in the neighbors’ yards. We just didn’t feel the love.

My husband, David, suggested we look at townhouses which turned out to be just as unlovable. The lack of light in those places was depressing — just like our apartment in Short Pump.

We liked one of the neighborhoods where the townhouses were located. We expanded our square footage options and saw some houses in a neighborhood built in the mid-century.

THE STRESS OF HOUSE HUNTING

AND, this is the moment when I realized my husband and I were not looking for the same thing. I loved this home which had not been renovated since it was built in the 1960s. It had kitschy laminate kitchen counters and pink bathroom tile. We wouldn’t have to change a thing. It was really big, though, about 2500 square feet. My husband said, “I’m not living in grandma’s house.”

Our agent had sent us a listing of a new construction home in the Colonial Heights area. That day we drove by just to see. It was under roof but bare bone. It didn’t seem like the small home with great entertaining space I wanted. Dave and I ate dinner then came back to the house.

WHEN YOU FIND A BARN IN THE CITY

Dave said he wanted a low maintenance home and this was it.

Plus, it had a barn! Yes, that’s right, it had a barn.

The area was subdivided in the early 20th century and the farmhouses were left and new homes were built around them. But here was a new home, built on the same lot as this barn. I loved it. We made an offer — the barn had to stay and we wanted the living room area opened up to the kitchen for a great entertaining space. We also wanted a large deck.

On Sunday, we drove by. The painters were working and you can see they were taking a break just inside the front door. They are almost finished and the hardwood flooring will be installed beginning Wednesday. By the way, the hardwood was grown in Galax, Virginia and milled and prepped at The Turman Group.

The house is 1400 square feet, much larger than I wanted. It’s a huge house with great space for entertaining. Luckily, we will have a lot less stuff to move.

We hope to close on it by June 5.