Moving in day!

After much toil, trial, tribulation, tears and tearing out of hair, I was able to finally deem the room done and move my "stuff" back in!  What a very exciting thing it was.  But before I actually moved anything into the room, I cleaned it out of all the plastic covering on the floor, the blue tape around the windows, the various ladders, tools and paint supplies.  I swept the floor very well and then I danced silly twirling dances with Boo (as the boy wouldn't join in such a wild rumpus).  I figured if I was going to have a clean open space that I would take advantage of it at least once for something fun and silly.

So I moved in the sewing machine, spinning wheel, ironing board, and my old desk.  I bought and assembled 2 sets of metal shelves and put all my stash (both fabric and fiber) as well as all my paper, rubberstamps, ink, and a few paper supplies.  I've decided to do the 6 month approach to anything else moving into the room.  Whatever I don't use in the next six months does not come back into the room.

The room.  That's what we keep calling it.  I don't really know what to call it.  I don't really care for "hobby room" because I envision it to be so much more.  It's not really the sun room  any longer as I did take out half the windows.  It still has quite a bit of light, but it isn't truly a sun room.  So if you have any good suggestions on what to call this room, leave your suggestions in the comments section.

My next task is to cut out curtains for this room.  It's all echoey and hollow-sounding and needs things to buffer the noise.  Curtains are in order and after that I'm not sure what.  I'm betting getting some soft furniture in here will help as well. 

In knitting news, I have new shoes.  Yes, this is a knitting related statement.  See?  They are Danskos if anyone is interested.  Yes, Dansko shoes with knitting on them.  As many people who have seen them in person have commented, "They are quite ... well ... ugly, but so very you."  They are pretty and shiny and have knitting on them.  I love them.  And you should too.  Even if on my feet alone.  I justified their expense because I needed new work shoes and the shoe repair place that I took my last pair of Danskos to lost my shoes.  Yes.  Lost my shoes.  How does one lose a pair of shoes that are connected together and in a plastic bag?  I'm quite upset and he has been ignoring my calls to find out where my shoes are.

But in the real knitting news, I've been working hard at the Ravellenic games.  These would be the aforementioned Ravelympics, but the United States Olympic Committee decided that we should cease and desist using anything that had "lympic" in it as they had a copyright on those syllables and that it degraded the work that "real" Olympians put forth.  Of course that irked the entire knitting community who took it upon themselves to enlighten the USOC about a few things.  The USOC gave a non-apology and then asked if we would like to donate knitted items for the US athletes to take to the Olympics.  Unfortunately the USOC failed to recognize that Ravelry is an international community and probably would not be interested, after being insulted, in donating knitted items to the Olympians.  Please note that we love the athletes.  We just aren't very fond of the USOC.  However, I am knitting while watching and am making a beautiful shawl by Heatherly Walker, known affectionately as Yarn Yenta, called Threnody.  It's a Knitty pattern and named after a character in D M Cornish's Monster Blood Tattoo series (which is delightful and a fabulous read for older tweens and teens).  I'm making it from some very lovely Sweet Georgia Yarns Merino and silk blend in a sport weight (the package says DK, but it is much thinner than that but much thicker than fingering). The color is called Oxblood and I'm simply in love with it.  I have two more rows and the bind off and I'll be through knitting it.  I'm hoping to finish that and get it blocked today.  

So, leave me a name suggestion for a room that is used to create things.  There will be lots of sewing, knitting, spinning, and other crafts going on in here.  And if my previous plans for today pan out there will be curtain creating happening this afternoon.

It's done!!

I can't tell you how happy I am that the workmen are finally out of my house.  Not because I didn't like them. They were clean (always sweeping up after themselves), courteous (knocking for us rather than just coming in the house), and efficient (they finished 2 days ahead of schedule despite the rain and electrical delays).  There is just something about having strangers in your house who make it uncomfortable to go get your morning Cheerios in your pajamas.  No traipsing through the house in just a towel because you left your clothes in the dryer at the other end of the house.  That feeling like you should be there in case they had any questions.  And the hammering at 7:30 in the morning was a horrible second alarm clock.

But they are done and out of here and now my work begins.  Yesterday I purchased the new fan and light units and bought the paint (Cinchilla).  Today I wrote the final check and moved my stuff into the room to start painting.  I got up on the ladder to blue tape the windows and realized I only had two feet of the 1" tape available.  So down off the ladder and yet another trip to Home Depot to give them more of my money.  Fortunately I only needed 1 roll of blue tape and a pack of daylight mini spiral lightbulbs.  Of course I have a feeling that Sunday, when Dan puts the ceiling fans in, that we will be back at the store for something.

This afternoon will be up and down the ladder while I get the top of the wall cut in.  Why is it I have three kids who are afraid of heights (stares up at the ceiling whistling).  OK, I don't like being up high either (see previous posts) but someone has to go up on the 9 foot ladder.  Having very short arms doesn't help, though because it means I have to climb up and down the ladder a bazillion times to do the entire room.  I wish I had one of the library ladders that are connected to rails and someone could just push me around the room as I needed to get to the next part.  That would be cool and fun and I would probably have three kids wanting to help then.

Tile is easy

Who knew that picking out tile would be a thousand times easier than picking out paint?  I must be fair in saying that there are fewer choices of tile from which to choose, but still I only wavered between two different tiles rather than around twenty different color choices of paint.  I'm going with Marazzi twelve inch  Orizzonti Sunset ceramic tile.  It's a kind of reddish orangey sandy color with just enough grey in it that it will look nice with the color I picked out for the walls but not so stringent that if I decided to repaint I would be stuck with a particular color scheme.  Oh, did I not tell you? I picked out a color!  This is very exciting. 

(Drum roll please).  After viewing over one hundred different shades of grey (and I don't want to know what that book would be about) I finally settled on a color.  It's called Chinchilla.  Kind of like the fuzzy little woodland creature. Although not so fuzzy or little.  It's a twelve foot by twenty-one foot room with peaked ceilings.  I'm thinking at least two gallons of paint and lots of blue tape.  I'm thinking of having a painting party and inviting a few friends over and buying pizza and cold margaritas.

I've also found the type of shelving units that I want in the room  and they are the same ones (under a different name) that Home Depot sells for almost half again as much.  I found them at Target and I think they will meet the needs I have in the new hobby room.  Imagine these shelves filled with bins of fabric, yarn and paper crafting supplies rather than a Kitchen Aid mixer and paper towels  Although now that all my fabric and yarn are neatly contained in matching plastic totes I may not put them on the shelves and save the shelves for such things as bins of ... well, other things.  All my crafts do require tools and I'll need a bookshelf to put all my knitting, crochet, sewing, and writing books on.  I'm looking for a similar shorter cart to utilize as a combination ball winding and drying rack.  I like this one:

I must say that one of the really nice thing about this blog these days is that I know that Dan is reading it.  With his being at work and then my being at work our communication time is cut and I'm too visual of a person to try to explain things to him on the phone or via text.  Now that the room is starting to look more like a room and less like something from some bad home improvement show I'm feeling more optimistic about it all being finished.  Although I still want it all over with.  And like now!

50+ Shades of Grey

I'm not talking about the book here, folks.  I'm talking about paint.  Yep.  I decided that I wanted to paint the room a nice light gray.  Something that would pair well with white, yellow, rosy reds, aquas, and pinks.  One would think this would be an easy task, right?  Oh you are so wrong!  I went to my local Home Depot and went home with twenty-six different shades of this pallid color.  One knows that one never selects a color for a room at the home improvement store.  You have to take it home and tape the sample to the wall and stare at it for a while.  Then when you think you have the right color you go back to the home improvement store and you get a two dollar can of test paint and spread it on a three foot section to see if you like it larger than the two inch square sample you started with. 

One would think that out of twenty-six shades one would find the right color.  One would be sorely mistaken if one actually thought that.  So, as it happens with home improvement projects, I ended up at Lowe's.  From there I brought back twenty-two more (and different) shades of grey.  Still there was something lacking.  I toddled on over to Sherwin Williams and brought home yet another handful of paint chips to try to find that perfect shade.  This just wasn't working (and the Sherwin Williams employee was not even the slightest bit amused with our references to the best selling vaguely literatured erotica trilogy). 

Where does that leave us?  Going to look at fabric, of course!  Isn't that they natural progression from paint chips?  I happen to fortunate to live in the same town as a mecca of fabric.  It's called A&E Pharmacy.  Now from the outside A&E Pharmacy looks like a run down small town barely hanging on pharmacy.  In fact when you step in the front door of A&E Pharmacy and see the baskets of make up leftover from the 1980's and the sun bleached pink flamingos in the window you might be tempted to turn around and run the other way.  But if you can get past the dusty packages of Crunch bars and the wilted greeting cards you will find a treasure trove of fabric.  Some of the most beautiful quilting fabrics all lined up in fabulous collections begging to be bought and sewn.  And that is where I start to find that perfect grey paint.

Shopping for fabric with me is not a job for the weak or faint-hearted.  I start with a shopping buggy (that's what we call them down here in the south - buggies - carts to those of you further north, although those of you in Great Britain probably know exactly what I am talking about).  I begin by throwing everything that catches my eye into the buggy and don't think about whether or not they go together.  I go on impulse.  Then when the buggy gets too heavy to push or too tall to see above the tower of fabric, I go through each one and decide if it is a yes, a maybe or something I'm not completely in love with.  If I don't find the right fabric I keep doing this.  I only had to go through two buggies of fabric before I found the piece that was going to help me choose the right color paint.  And this is it (along with a paint chip I found that brings together all the colors I like - kind of).  Here's the mill for those of you that are into that kind of thing (like I am):

I finally have the selection narrowed down from the collection above down to this:

This fabric is going to be the valance to these three windows:

I am so ready to stick a fork in this project and call it done.  I'm weary of all the boxes and "stuff" (I'm being kind here) stuffed in my dining room and spilling out into the rest of the house.  The floors are coated with sheetrock dust, fiberglass insulation straws and grime from going in and out of the new room.  I can't breathe in my house, I wake up stuffed with red itchy eyes, and the house smells of staleness.  I have no room in which to create and my desk is currently disassembled so Dan could get into the attic.

Maybe I need to run away and come home with everything is finished.  Sigh.  I guess I best stick around.  I mean there is tile to pick out and walls to paint.  Of course at this point I could just wallpaper the entire room with all the paint chips I've amassed. 

It's Electric!

The one thing that scares me about home remodeling, in fact probably the only thing that scares me about home remodeling, is electricity  So what does my spouse want to do?  Yep Electric work.  He ran all the electric in the new room and then decided to install a box for said electricity in my new hobby room  Which of course meant I was somehow involved  I got the joy of standing on a ladder (I'm short for a reason - the universe knows I don't like heights) and reaching into a dark scary space in the attic (I have fairly rational fears about attics as should everyone - and besides I'm convinced there is a Dalek living in mine) and reach for an electric cord.  Ever since I was a child I have had a fear of being electrocuted.  Don't try to tell me that there is no way that I could be electrocuted by a wire that isn't connected to anything.  I mean, it could come in contact with some live wire up there and zap me into the next universe.  I wouldn't laugh if I were you.  Dan found a live cut wire just sitting in the attic today.  And a hidden junction box behind a wall in the garage that had poorly connected aluminium and copper wires just twisted together.  I am surprised my house hasn't burned to the ground yet!

But now this wire:

is now in the attic and connected to this box:

In other news, despite the rain the majority of the walls have been taped.  There is one wall left to do (the wall where we (ha! I say we like it's some royal we as if I am actually really doing anything with the electric aside from sticking my arm into scary places and grabbing fat bundles of wire) are doing the electric.  Hopefully by next weekend the guys will have the ceiling and walls textured and I can get on to painting.  Tune in tomorrow where I will be discussing my Fifty Shades of Grey.  (And fabric shopping at A&E Pharmacy.)

We found brick!

One of the fun things about this project (trying to keep on the bright side here) is pulling out walls and making discoveries about how the room is built.  I've learned a few things such as why there was black paint striped along the walls (it's so that the white drywall doesn't show through the seams of paneling).  Today we decided to pull out a section of wall to see how it was constructed and we found our outside brick wall.  It's a bit funny to see and we found a pipe sticking out of the wall.  Not sure what it is for but we found it.  Fortunately the insect infestation seems to stop at the brick which is a very good thing (yet again my attempt at remaining positive).

I think we have come to an agreement on what we want to do with the room in terms of rebuilding (although there still seems to be some argument as to ownership of the room once it is built).  The room currently has six large (4'x4') windows and an exterior door.  We are planning on leaving the exterior door but cutting the windows back to three windows, putting one window in the upper right hand corner of the room and the other two windows starting at that corner and coming out towards the center of the yard side wall.  That will leave three perfectly good corners for putting in shelves, adding counters and arranging furniture (such as some comfy couches for inviting friends over to sit and knit or quilt or simply to chat).  Although, there is this argument of ownership.  I see the room as a perfect knitting, spinning and quilting space.  Mr. KCW sees it as a perfect brewing space.  I think it is far too large of a room for simply brewing and he would be better served using the current room which we call a hobby room, but could easily be converted into his perfect little brew spot. 

In the news of knitting I'm working on (yet again) the Clapotis by Kate Gilbert.  Hopefully this one will not have any mistakes so the dropped stitches will truly drop.  So far I am finding it very soothing as the rhythm is almost waltz-like.  I've finished 3 repeats of the straight section and I'm loving dropping stitches. This is helping me keep my calm in the evenings and isn't making me think too much (as I have to with my Pea Vine Shawl by Anne Hanson).  I'm working the Clapotis using Madeline Tosh Merino Light in the gorgeous shade of Ink (I think it's appropriate for me). Hopefully I'll post pictures soon.

It's perfectly safe

Yesterday we had another termite control company out to give us an estimate on treatment and re-infestation.  I could tell he was a high pressure salesman and was doing anything he could to seal the sale.  That's fine.  That's his job.  I work in retail and I know that we, too, are supposed to work for the sale.  He was going into his big spiel about how invasive they would be with the chemicals to keep our home safe and was talking in terms of gallons of termitacide per square foot.  This sounded fairly frightening and toxic to me.  Being the good consumer that I am I decided to ask an intelligent question.

"So ... What is the risk to humans and our pets with all these chemicals you are going to be spreading over our property and home?"


The answer?  "None.  You see (missy - and I swear there was the unsaid missy in his voice) termites are very small so they don't need to ingest a lot of this chemical in order to kill them.  We are bigger.  We would have to drink gallons of this stuff in order for it to do anything to us." (Now run along back to your kitchen and let us men-folk discuss this.)

Of course I don't believe that answer in the least because ants are pretty small, but the chemicals we use to get rid of them have a skull and cross bones on the packaging.  I did what every average person does when they need an answer and went to the Internet.  And what did I find?  That all termitacides are listed as possible carcinogens with the EPA.  You can rest assured that this little missy isn't going to be drinking gallons of the stuff and I'm going to be pretty careful around places that I know it is put.

I can think of so many different ways that he could have talked about the risks of termitacide other than "termites are tiny and we are big."  He could have acknowledged that termitacide has its risks but that they do everything in their power to limit the exposure of those chemicals to humans and their beloved pets.  That would have at least made him sound credible.  Fortunately, Mr. KCW didn't like this company's representative any better than I did and his bid was higher for less work.

In other news, it rained heavily again last night, but nowhere near the twenty-one inches that we had on Saturday.  The room remains dry.  This is good news.  At least there is a little good news.  Keep your fingers crossed for the insurance inspection today.  Hopefully we will find out that we actually have some sort of insect protection.   In the meantime I'm going to cook up some blueberry pancakes. 

My favorite recipe for blueberry pancakes:

Get in the car and go to Cracker Barrel.  Make sure to get a side of turkey sausage to go with them.  And skip the Main Blueberry syrup.  It's just corn syrup with some blueberries thrown in.  Just butter them so you can taste the fabulous blueberries.

My second favorite recipe for blueberry pancakes:

Make Krusteaz Complete pancakes and throw blueberries in them. (That's for days when you are short on time and don't want to pay $8 for blueberry pancakes)

My third favorite recipe for blueberry pancakes is my dad's recipe for pancakes to which I add blueberries.  He called them Hank Snow's Favorite Pancakes. (I have no idea if that claim is actually true. I don't even know if my dad ever met Hank Snow, but Hank Snow's name was evoked often in my house growing up.) 

1-1/2 c. flour (just regular all-purpose - nothing fancy here, although I like unbleached)
3 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
1 T sugar
(Sift all those things together)
Blend together 1-1/4 c milk and 1 egg.
Mix your dry and your wet and then mix in 3 T melted butter or shortening. (My dad always used shortening, I use butter.)

Pour about 1/4 c of batter on a hot griddle then add a generous handful of blueberries right before flipping the first time.  The blueberries will most likely split open when you flip your pancakes, but that's ok.  I use frozen blueberries and run them under some warm water prior to cooking the pancakes.

 

The Damage

I finally got around to sending pictures from my phone to my e-mail so I could put them on my computer so I could share them with you.  (Aren't you just so excited?)  So in case you have never seen a house that has been eaten from the inside out by termites, the picture on the right is what it looks like.  Not very pretty.  And this is one of the better parts. 

About the only thing that is usable from the entire room are the windows and the doors.  As far as we can tell the roof structure is still in good condition and isn't infested.  We'll find out as we dig into it.  but all the walls, siding, insulation and weather barrier is completely shot. 

Here's a picture of where we have started the demolition process.

For now the plan is to get down to where we can start over.  We are thinking about moving one of the windows down to the end you are currently looking at.  That will give us windows on all three sides.  We'll have to see, though.  Essentially we have a 12'x21' space that we get to play with.

I'll post more later as we get moving on this venture.  For now I get to go talk to another contractor.