Progress

Well, Mr. Contractor Guy came and repaired the termite damage.  

We thought we were all ready for Mr. Tile Guy to come and do his magic. He came and said, "Why didn't he fix the drain?" Nobody told us there was a problem with the drain. Apparently we have an old three bolt drain, but we need to have a new four bolt drain. We called the plumber on Thursday to have him fix the drain. Unfortunately, he couldn't come out until tomorrow. 

I've begun working on the quilt guild's next opportunity quilt. It is a reproduction of an antique quilt belonging to one of our members. So far all I've done is the stitch-in-the-ditch around the applique.

I've come up with a few ideas for the quilt. The original was done in all-over, tiny crosshatching. 

None of these are quite to scale, nor are they the best pictures ever. I'm leaning towards the first one or the second one. I like the second one, because it has some crosshatching a nod to the original.

At Home

Outside today:

Inside today

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Ugh!

Yesterday Mr. Tile Guy came to start the demolition of the old pink bathroom. Woo Hoo!

It started out well enough, then he found termite damage. He kept ripping out the old tile, and he kept finding damaged wood. One piece simply turned to dust when he touched it. Yuck!


As if termite damage wasn't enough he found tree roots were invading the bathroom. Looks like the big Ponderosa Pine out front is going to have to go. Before we bought the house the previous owner had spent a bundle to repair plumbing that the tree had damaged. We thought everything was hunky dory. We thought wrong.


Sometime this afternoon Mr. Contractor Guy is coming to assess the damage and tell us how much has to be done before Mr. Tile Guy can come back and finish.

In the meantime we have discovered other interesting feature of the house. The master bath sink and the guest bath sink share a drain. The master bath vanity and sink were removed for the tile work. So, we used the guest bath sink for our before bed routine. We then noticed a very large puddle in the master bath. Every time the guest bath sink is used it drains onto the master bath floor. We now use the kitchen sink for brushing our teeth.

I'm hoping that there isn't too much termite damage.

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Spring Planting

It happens every spring. I want to get out in the garden and plant.

It also happens every spring that the local varmints are just waiting for my plants to come up.
 

We have the raised beds covered with greenhouse plastic sheeting. It worked very well at keeping the varmints out of the beds, for a while that is.

This past week they have ravaged the garden. They feasted on sugar snap peas, carrots, radishes, broccoli, and chard.

We have a little bit of lettuce left, one or two salads worth.


We've also been planting trees. Plum and sweet cherry are in the ground. The Montmorency tart cherry is next.


 It's slow going digging in our yard. We have slightly rocky soil. No, I'm no understating things.

This is the pile of rocks from the partially dug cherry tree hole.

We have another foot, or so, to go for the depth.  We use a big, 5' bar thingy that weighs about 20 pounds to break up the granite. It's aptly named a rock bar.

Needless to say, we old timers don't see much progress each day.

The rocks are coming in handy though. We're using them to terrace some of the backyard. Though I'm not sure why I'm bothering to consider planting. The varmints will just eat anything I plant, but still every spring I want to plant.

Out With the Old

Out with the old, and in with the new. 

When we moved in the owner had done loads of improvements prior to our buying the house for which we are very grateful. However, she was unable to have the master bath shower re-tiled. So, we have the lovely, original pink tile in the shower. I'll spare you pictures of the gross shower floor.

Pinterest enters the picture.

This beautiful bathroom was done by Katie Bower, and posted on her blog Bower Power. Her bathroom is probably a little larger than ours. I guess people didn't need large bathrooms in 1961.

We found an "as-is" vanity at the local Home Depot that a customer had returned. I'm going to paint it a similar color.

The pink tile is going to be replace with a simple subway tile. White tile with white grout.

The floor is going to be ceramic tile with a wood grain look.

Unfortunately, I can't do anything about our dated medicine cabinet. That means no pretty oval mirror. I'm trying to come up with some way of perking it up. Maybe a wood molding around it to hide the chrome.

I did find a pretty light. I've never been a fan of the round globe lights.

We've got the work set up to start later this month. I can hardly wait!

In the same spirit of out with the old and in with the new, we had a new heat pump installed today.

See that beautiful blue sky? Well, the poor installers didn't get to work in that for long. We got snow! It's been such a warm, dry winter we didn't really expect any snow today. I felt sorry for the poor guys.

It didn't last long, but it was good to get some precipitation.

Accident Prone

I am accident prone. No doubt about it. I was just trying to help unload retaining wall blocks. I just didn't do a very good job of judging the distance between the block in my hands and the one I'd just placed.


Warning graphic picture follows.









I would have been fine if I'd not jerked my hand out from between the blocks. That was what caused the tear.

I've decided that it looks like a Frankenstein Minion.

It has cramped my quilting style. Fortunately I get the stitches out soon.

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Remembering Mom

My mother passed away last month at the age of 93.



At age 2 in either Souix Falls, South Dakota or Birmingham, Michigan.

Mom is on the far right.

Here she's back left, with all of her siblings.

Navy training graduation




















Hanging out with her friends.

 

We aren't sure about Mom's age or the location of this photo.

San Luis Obispo, 1948                                                  Fallen Leaf Lake, 1959                    
  Egypt with Dad

Dancing with a family friend at my brother's wedding.

We'll miss you Mom.


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Bad Blogger

I have been a very bad blogger. Life has gotten in the way of blogging.

The javelinas got into the yard and ate all the sweet potatoes, melons, and tomatoes that were growing. Then they came through and ate the tops off of all the onions.

We've planted two apple trees, a nectarine tree. They all have cages around them so that the javelinas can't eat them. We also planted some Echinacea, which just happens to be a plant the javelinas really like. Of course I found this out after I planted them. My sweet Motorcycle Dude made wire cages to protect them. Good thing too, the dumb javelinas came through again last night. They tried to pry up the cages, but were unsuccessful. Yeah! They were however successful at tipping over the trash cans and spreading trash all over the side yard. Whatever genius decided to import them to the southwest should have some special punishment reserved for him.

I'm the vice president in charge of programs for one of the local quilt guilds. I had no idea it would be so much work when I agreed to take the job. It's lots of fun meeting the speakers. There is just a lot of time spent on making contact and getting the contracts done.

We've loved being in our new house, and are very grateful that the previous owners took good care of the house. While not strictly necessary we have been changing out some of the appliances. The latest is a new range. The white finish range won't be in until the 11th. Delivery and installation is on the 13th. It has a proof mode for when I'm making bread. I'm so excited!

I have been quilting; 31 quilts in the last three months. I just keep forgetting to take pictures of the quilts. Here are a few of the quilts that I've worked on that I remembered to take pictures of.

This modern beauty is my customers first quilt. Her own design too!

These adorable penguins are for a local quilt shop.

This was a beautiful foundation pieced New York Beauty.

This quilt was for the Arizona Longarm Quilters Guild. It's a good thing I took this picture. I noticed that I forgot to finish the crosshatching in the lower right corner.

Pretty

Isn't that just the prettiest bowl of eggs you've ever seen?



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More Birds

My poor hanging geranium. It's not long for the world.


It currently is home for the fourth clutch of house finch babies. That gray fuzzy area is actually four baby finches. Babies on board makes it difficult to water the plant, so it is slowly withering away.


For some reason the mommy keeps laying eggs here. The first three never made it to fledgling age. We aren't exactly sure what happened to them. One day they'd be there and the next they'd be gone.

Motorcycle Dude is making bird houses for next season. Hopefully the parents will prefer them to my plants.



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Right on Schedule

The hens are 20 weeks old. We got our first eggs today, right on schedule. They are tiny, but first eggs usually are.

President's Quilt

The President's Quilt was presented at the guild meeting on Monday. I think that she liked it. I was very happy to see her smile when she saw the quilt. I felt rather inadequate quilting the horse.


This is what the quilt looked like when it left my house.

 After it left me the mini quilt was appliqued to it.

 I especially like the way the fence posts and grass turned out.