Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!, etc....

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! I hopes are that everyone has the ability to enjoy family and friends. We will be having a very quiet Christmas and then heading out to visit will family for a few days.

I can't believe that it's been a couple of weeks since I've posted. Lots has been going on. We've continued working in the room and it is progressing. The office has officially been moved and can now be found in the depths of the cold basement. There is a small heater down there and it will keep the area about 60-65 degrees F. If I need to spend a lot of time there, I will take a small heater from one of the bathrooms so I can have warm air blowing on me. DH has gotten a skim coat on one of the walls along with removing the baseboard and the tack strip. How's that for progress? When I return, I will take a pictures of the section of room that hasn't been shown yet. This will include the wonderful closet that is in this room. We are planning on putting a closet organizer in here. The size of the closet is approximately 8 to 9 feet x 5 feet.

I've sewn up several yards of fabric since I last posted. I think the total is something like 14 yards. I think 10 of it was new this month. It was purchased specifically for gifts which all were made. My temporary sewing space is rather small but it is certainly usable. I sewed several days in the midst of the mess in that room and it didn't hurt much. I still have not located all the missing items but I do know that they are somewhere in the room. The only item that will not be very useable in the new set-up is my cutting table. It is currently folded up and being pushed back and forth depending on which side of it I need to be on. I guess if I really need to use it that I can push it into my son's room to set-up it. I have been using all of the great storage inside the cutting table and I can get to most of it very easily. I have found many great items that I have forgotten about.

Well, this is it for this year. See you next year.

Happy Sewing!

A pleasant day to sew!

Today found me sewing all afternoon. I'm in such a good mood this evening. I decided to make a pillowcase for my nephew and of course, the serger is the best place to start. However, my serger is set-up for a wide 3-thread and I soon found that my tools are missing. So, no needle changes for me. I can live without the needle holder but the screwdriver is a different story. I hope I find them soon. I'm still organizing the temporary sewing area. Hopefully, it will be found soon.

Back to sewing, I made the pillowcase using the sewing machine and the serger. I used the Lisa today since she has been neglected since the Designer joined the team. Wow! It doesn't take long to get spoiled with the fancy machines. After finishing the pillowcase, I cut out a couple of shopping bags and had them finished by 5:30. I'm going to make 4 more shopping bags as part of my "green" Christmas. Then it will be on to finishing the stuffed kitties and some kitty toys. Hopefully, they will get finished before we leave for AR.

Happy Sewing!

Finally! I'm ready to sew again.

The temporary sewing area is ready to sew in. I have the serger and one of the sewing machines plugged in. I immediately serged the edges of the 10 yards of fabric and then to the washing machine the fabric went. If I'm lucky, tomorrow I will find a couple of hours to cut out projects and maybe sew. The serger will make short work off at least one of the projects. We leave on the 26th and all items have to be completed by then.

Today, my DH figured out a way to get the office moved and it still be functioning. My goal is to have everything ready by the 19th to move the office to the basement. I guess that will be my office home for a few months while room is being worked on. March is the goal. I hope we make it. Speaking of the room, DH was able to get another 4/5 feet of the border removed today. The steamer is working well on it.

The week has flown by!

Well, another week almost gone. I did get the wallpaper off the 2 walls in a record amount of time. I think I spent about 4 hours total. Honestly, the wallpaper almost fell off the walls. I don't know if it was the downy mixture but I feel like it was. I have always steam to remove wallpaper before and it's hot and sticky. The border which is around the majority of the room likes where it is at. The downy did nothing to it. The only thing that we have been able to use is a small steamer and it's working well. Unfortunately, it doesn't take long for your arms to tire out. I haven't completely finished cleaning out the room either. Here's some pictures with a message from the former owners:

Above is a the message from the previous owners. I'm guessing it means that the room was redone in March 1992. I was only off by ten years on my estimate of when the room had been done. I love finding stuff like this. We have left stuff behind the cabinets in the kitchen for future owners when they are wondering "What were they thinking?". LOL

The pink wall was in really good shape. Hardly any work will need to be done to this wall outside of a little mudding where the nail holes and sanding where the numbers are at. Also, this wall is a different color of pink than the remaining room.

The white wall is a different story. It is not in very good condition. It will take a little more work. Unfortunately, the rest of the walls in the room are going to need a more work. I don't know how long this is going to take but maybe everything will be finished by March. Yes, I giving myself a lot of time because the closet will need to be redone along with the floors. I also will have a phone line installed for the fax machine. Lots of work.

I will be sewing this weekend. I purchased 10 yards of fabric from eQuilter to make some items for Christmas. Yes, I know it is getting close but the items are quick and easy. I was beginning the think they wouldn't arrive before Christmas. It took almost 2 weeks to show up. I love the website but don't think you're going to get your order quickly. This is a normal delivery time for them.

Happy Sewing!

Hardwood floors? YES!

Last night, we made about a 3 foot cut in the carpeting diagonal from the door to see what the condition of the floors were where the closets had been for the orginal bedrooms. Yippee! No patching required. The floors will need to be sanded and refinished. Now, of course, this doesn't mean that there isn't a problem somewhere on the floor. That will be completely unknown until the carpeting is removed. I'm so happy about this. It is much easier to dust the hardwood than the be vacuuming. I do have area rugs and I may end up with some small ones in this room but I do like the hardwood floors. This also means that there will be new baseboards in this room. So that will be adding more renovation time to get those cut, painted, installed, and final coat.

Today, I've started working on the wall paper. I've sprayed it with a mixture of Downy and water. This is something new that one of the neighbors told me about. So, I'm giving it a try. I will let you know how well it works.

Happy Stitching! (I wish I was but fabric is coming!)

Room Reorg

Well, I promised a couple of pictures. So here they are:

Above is a view as you would see it from the doorway. You can see that I couldn't help but pull some of the loss wallpaper. I stop myself because I wanted to document the change of this room. I'm sure this wallpaper was lovely when this room was redone in the 80's. I guess that is when the two bedrooms were turned into one.

The opposite corner still has a piece of furniture in it. It will eventually be moved. I just haven't decided where. The basement is the obvious spot but the end of the driveway may be where it ends up. The navy carpeting is going to be used as the drop cloth for this room.

Well, this is where I'm starting with this room. The wallpaper appears to be loose but when I pulled the backing was left so this is going to be a lot of icky work. Hopefully, it won't take more than a week to get the wallpaper off those two walls and I will be able to move on to the border on the remaining three walls. I'm hoping the wallpaper isn't hiding too many surprises.

Tonight, we will be cutting the carpeting and pulling back some of the padding in the area where we think the original closets were to assess the damage to the hardwood floors. If we are lucky, then the floors are in good shape. I'm hoping to call a contractor for estimates on any repairs and refinishing.

No sewing for me today. Hope everyone else was luckier.

Happy Sewing!

It's December already?

Where has the time gone? I can't believe it's December already and Christmas is just a couple of weeks away. I've been steadily working on my rooms. The room that is being redone has most of furniture out of it now. The only thing left to move is my son's desk, the filing cabinets, and cleaning out the closet (that will be as bad as the whole room). My desk and computer will stay until the carpet has to be removed. It will be so much fun to remove the wallpaper. This will be started next week. I will take before and after pics.

My "old" dedicated sewing room is packed from wall-to-wall in both directions. There is just enough room left to get my son's desk in there. I still have a lot of organizing to do in this room, then I will get at least one of the sewing machines plugged in and I will be sewing a little bit every day till Christmas. Then, we will be heading to Arkansas until after New Year's.

Happy Sewing!