Hello, Happy Monday, and Happy August, Everyone!
After finishing my Scrappy Celebrations quilt top last week, I stalled out on the backing. Having recently moved several times, I am acutely aware of how much fabric I own, and therefore I am not even considering purchasing yardage to back this quilt, but most of my fabric stash is half yard pieces or smaller, or leftover strips of backing trimmed from larger quilts after long arm quilting them. I will have to get creative, and I will need my work table cleared off in order to piece the backing, and right now my work table is a mess. Nevertheless, I do plan to get that backing pieced this week!
Meanwhile, I accomplished one more little 3/4" hexagon rosette for my Stonefields quilt border. I fussy-cut the print but either I imperfectly centered the motif when I fussy-cut the hexagons or else the templates shifted slightly as I was hand stitching them together, probably a little of both. Best viewed from a distance, then!
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| One Little Stonefields Hexie Rosette to Show For Myself |
Progress On the Home Renovation Project
With so little progress to show for myself, I might as well share someone else's progress with you! Eight and a half months after beginning and three months behind schedule, our builder is still not finished with the renovation. Nearly 14 months since we purchased this decrepit haunted house and we have never slept in our bedroom, showered in our own bathroom, or cooked in our kitchen. That is because the steam shower in the primary bathroom was leaking and full of mold, there was mold behind the leaking refrigerator in the kitchen, the oven did not heat to temperature, and some of the burners did not light on the stove top. I am not complaining -- we knew what we were getting ourselves into and the price we paid for the house absolutely reflected the amount of work it needed. We are just tired from the stress of living in a construction zone for so long and looking forward to the day, hopefully 2-3 weeks from now, when we can kiss that port-o-potty and dumpster goodbye (not literally!) and move up out of the basement and into the main floor of our home.
Meanwhile, not everything needing to be done was included in our builder's scope for the renovation. The door hardware was in bad shape: some doors were not closing properly and needed adjustment, most of the door knobs had peeling or scratched up finishes from the previous owners' German Shepherd, and the door knob on the powder bath was broken and did not lock. Since I selected mostly unlacquered brass light fixtures throughout the main floor, I decided to replace the handle sets and door hinges with brass as well. They are the same manufacturer and style as the original hardware, just a different finish, to be cohesive with the original door hardware in other parts of the home. We ordered the new hardware ourselves and Bernie installed it, saving us the builder's markup on materials as well as additional labor costs.
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| Bernie Installing New Door Hardware |
The outside of the house was looking pretty awful, too. We don't think it had ever been painted since it was built in 2000, except that at some point previous owners had painted over the cedar garage doors and mahogany front doors instead of keeping up with the maintenance of the original stained finish (the insides of the garage doors still showed the original stain). I get it; in direct sunlight in the South, stained doors need to be lightly sanded and a new coat of stain applied every 2-3 years and paint lasts so much longer, but Bernie strongly prefers the look of stained and he is willing to do the work. Instead of including the exterior painting and staining in the scope of our builder's remodeling contract, we got a referral from a neighbor and hired a painter ourselves. They finished up a week ago and it looks so much better now!
