My Sewing Room at the New House

8 Comments / By / December 3, 2014

When the upstairs of the sewing room was first sectioned off and walled up, Hubby was disappointed…I was elated.  He wasn’t happy with the amount of space and thought I was going to be disappointed with it…um NO!  I’m going to love it!

The room is about 14′ x 20′.  PLUS there is a closet too.  It’s about 6′ x 11′.  It’s more than I have now!  Plus it’s all in one place and all conveniently in one room.

Right now my sewing room is 7 1/2′ x 13 1/2′–yes I desperately need to clean this room….

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and the spare bedroom where my quilting machine is 12′ x 13′.

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I am excited about being able to walk around my quilting machine.  Right now I have to walk into the closet to do that!!  For awhile I thought I might get a bigger table for the machine upgrading to a 12′ rather than the 10′ and then I decided not to.  Rarely do I make anything bigger than 100″ x  100″ and I’ve done one that big on this frame before so I’m sticking with what I have.

The cupboards that are in my sewing room are going to the basement and will be used for child care.  We bought them originally for child care when I did it before and they’ll go back to that purpose.  We bought a different set of cupboards for the sewing room for $150 that I haven’t shown you yet.  They are antique and need some work but I love them and can’t wait to get them set up and working.

Here’s a poor picture of the upstairs layout of the addition.  The center is obviously the hallway and there’s the bathroom.

house-redo-6The “hobby room” is my sewing room.  I have AWESOME lighting for my quilt machine that Hubby made for me so the quilting machine is going to go on what you see as the left side of the room towards where the closet door is.

I’ll store all the batting in the closet so it’s a good idea.

The new(antique) cabinet will go on the lower right hand wall I think.  The cutting station will likely go on the wall that is shared with the bathroom.  I have a pie safe that I think will go between the windows (or the ice chest) I think.  I want to get an old square or rectangle farm (old oak likely) table and put that towards the center of the room for sewing.

All the totes and books and STUFF can go in the closet!!

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It will be so nice to have a closet that I can just shut the door on.

An added bonus, will have a spot in the laundry room on the main floor for a sewing machine.  I think this is the machine that will go there.

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I do a lot of piecing while I make supper and with the laundry room just off the kitchen, this will be perfect.  I plan to keep a couple projects here along with a spare rotary cutter and mat that can be flipped out onto the kitchen island if needed.   You can see the space across from the washer and dryer.

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So what Hubby is worried about, I have not clue.  I am blessed with sewing space at the new house!!

I know MANY of you sew in spaces that are only as big as the space across from the washer and dryer.  I also know that many of you are sewing on your dining room table.

The space you have doesn’t make any difference on the quality or quantity of quilts that you make..it just makes sewing a little more convenient…and yes, I’ll be VERY happy with my sewing space and if things don’t fit in the space I have…I’ll be getting rid of things.

Television Options for the New House

3 Comments / By / September 18, 2014

This post is part of my work with U.S. Cellular but reflects my own opinions.

With our upcoming move to the new house we’ve started a big debate.  What do we do about television watching?  We don’t have cable now…will we want it then.  The house had an old antennae on it…do we get new antennae?

There are so many options now days.   I’ve started talking to my kids about it because they are so much more informed than I am about all of that.  I was surprised to learn that most of my kids opt not to afford cable….all have Netflix though.  They like the streaming option much better…it’s cheaper, always something there to watch and no commercials.  Besides that, watching on a tablet makes it portable.  Kelli always is watching a series on Netflix while she sews.

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Can you believe she’s watched every episode of “Say Yes to the Dress?”  I typically listen to audio books while sewing but Kelli, she sews while listening to Netflix.  She loves that she can carry her tablet from machine to ironing board to the kitchen to check on supper all while listening to the show.  She’s watched so many series already that she also has a Hulu Plus subscription.  If I wasn’t such an audio book fan, I think I’d be doing what Kelli does with a tablet or for that matter I could do it with my Samsung S5.  The screen is big enough.

I have to admit I am using my tablet more and more too.  I try to occasionally catch Bonnie Hunter’s Quilt Cam.  I take my tablet with me to the quilting machine so I can watch YouTube videos on a quilting motif again before I start creating it on a quilt.

So how about me and Hubby…what are we going to do regarding television watching and the move to the new house??  We decided no cable for us….but we will buy a new antennae.  We like to get the local news…we like Me TV and ION Television and I don’t want to miss PBS and Downton Abbey.  Once Hubby and I decided on the wanting an antennae for the local news I asked the kids about that- we asked don’t you miss the local news???….I got a DUH mom from that question…they all said that they have phone apps for the local news stations and read the news via their phones.  Then one of them grabbed my Samsung Galaxy S5 and downloaded an app.  I guess I can now be part of the vast population who opt to get their news elsewhere.

Me personally…I could easily never turn on a television for the rest of my life but I would be lost without audio books.  I am finding that I like listening to books via my phone.  I have a Aubile app that allows me to listen.  Better part, I have the same app on my tablet.  Best part, I can listen to them interchangeably and each keeps my place in the book.

It seems that life is continuing to change.  I always think how interesting it must be for people in their 90’s.  Not growing up with television or phones and now we have morphed the two together and can watch television on our phones….it makes me wonder what changes I’ll see in my life…so far…the changes have been pretty good and there are always options to make each piece of technology a part of our own lives….like Kelli watching Netfix and me listening to audio books.  We use the same equipment but each tweaking things a bit to our own liking.

Now about that antennae…  We decided that we like this one Antennas Direct C2-V-CJM ClearStream 2-V Long Range UHF/VHF Indoor/Outdoor DTV Antenna with 20-Inch Mount.  It’s the same one we have now and we like it. I better go get that ordered so the carpenters can put that up while they are shingling the rest of the house.

If you have young ones in your life don’t forget U.S. Cellular’s Parent-Child agreement.  It will help guide conversations of proper cell phone and tablet use.  You can find that here.

I’ll be back next month with another U.S. Cellular update.

What’s Up at the New House

7 Comments / By / October 14, 2014

Last night we were at the house working again.  After the last few days of heat it was a treat to be able to work in some better temperatures.  It’s been a bit since I’ve updated you on what the carpenters have been doing.

It was getting late by the time I remembered to snap a few photos.  Starting out, the roof is shingled.  All new facing boards are in and the windows are prepped for siding.

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The front of the house looks much different.  The old porch roof has been removed.  It used to be to the left of the house.  A new porch roof will be added to match the porch floor.

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Other things that have changed in the front of the house…the fancy trim piece came down and the window was removed.  The trim piece is going to get worked on, repainted and put back up.  The window…we don’t have plans for yet but we’re keeping it.  We won’t be putting a new window in either.

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Hubby has been busy.  Rather than purchase a egressed window well, he opted to make one from bridge plank boards.  He spent about $100 for the supplies vs the $500 the one in town cost.

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I spent most of the time cleaning up.  The house is a mess inside and there was stuff that needed to be cleaned after the porch roof came down.  While we were doing that, the owner of the cabinet shop in town stopped by to see how we were doing on the house.

He was wonderful.  He gave us some tips and advice for cleaning up the woodwork in the house.  He helped with ideas on how to restore the decorative piece that came off the front of the house.  I can’t thank him enough.  For the most part, it was things we knew…we just needed someone who is a wood expert to confirm what we thought.  It’s great to live in a small town and have such friendly people who are willing to help with advice.  Stop by anytime Gary!!

We had a neighbor stop by after that…and then before we knew it the sun had set and it was time to go home.  Oh…I almost forgot.  Remember last week I told you that the carpenters would likely have to leave as there was a wait on the floor boards and rafters..well good news!!  The supplies are coming Thursday and Friday so they are staying!!  Ya-hoo!!!!!!!!  Only problem now…rain is in the forecast.

The Latest at the New House

2 Comments / By / July 16, 2014

Well I thought I’d give you the latest report on the house….When I last left you in the story the wall saw guys were sawing the old foundation from the new.  They completed that.  The excavator came the next day and cleared out most of the foundation.  There are a few pieces that the mini excavator couldn’t handle so those pieces are waiting for the big excavator to come and take care of.

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We met with the electrician.  We expressed that the wiring in the old part of the house wasn’t completed.  We were told that he would get a crew back to our house and working on it in the next week or so.  That was good news.  We also discussed a few other things like pricing heat for the basement floor.

The carpenter came by too.  We had a good talk with him and he explained that with the cement crews being behind he’s had to juggle his schedule and wasn’t happy with how things were going with the weather delays either.  Previous to this we had asked him if he wanted to lay the flooring or if he wanted us to get someone else.  He said he would.  This time as we were talking he said he would lay the flooring if we wanted but he said it might help catch up some time if we had someone else lay it.  We’re hoping the flooring guy is still available and have plans to contact him.

As of now…we’re waiting for the cement guys.  In the meantime we are finding plenty to do.  We have more flooring to pull out…and Hubby decided we are going to take the chimney out.  We’re taken a chimney out of a house we previously lived in…what a job!??!  We don’t need the chimney anymore.  Removing it will increase the living area by a small amount…it will increase my closet space but most of all we can tell the floor slightly sags by the chimney.  If we remove it, we can fix the sagging.  Being we’re waiting we might as well tackle the job.  Needless to say I’ll be getting my exercise in carrying bricks.

That’s the latest with the house….

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