We have been in the house for two weeks.
I am slowly unpacking and almost have my sewing room set up. I can't totally get my sewing room set up until the new lights go in.
The room did not have enough light in it so I am adding some can lights.
I will need to downsize more. Towards the end I was getting help and no purging was going on just packing.
Then my husband went into pack rat mode and began bring items I had purged but not gotten out of the old place yet. Plus items I had intentionally left behind. Like the WiFi router for the old provider that I needed to return. It took me over a week to find it. I still need to return it but the day I took off work to do that I could not find it.
I still have no pictures. And who wants to see boxes anyway?
This last weekend I unpacked all the boxes in the master bedroom attempting to have at least one room that is no chaos. Then this morning I realized I am missing a box somewhere that has my coats in it. Maybe they are in the garage.....
We still are cleaning up the old place and hope to get it on the market soon. There is some work that can now be done since we are no longer living there.
Monday, November 7, 2016
Friday, October 14, 2016
The Move has Begun
We finally closed on the house. What a long process. When we bought our first home I do not remember it taking this long. As I think back I know it did because there were some items that needed to be fixed. But at the time it did not seem a long time because the sellers actually let us move in and pay rent the first couple of months while we waited for the loan papers to finalize.
We were able to sign the closing papers on October 7th but could not get the keys until the next day. We were lucky that the deed was recorded the same day because we had to wait for that to happen to get the keys. If is had not recorded on that Friday we would not been able to get the keys until Tuesday. Since we had not been sure we were getting the keys we had not arranged for movers for the weekend. I had feared that we would not get the keys so did not want to do that until we had them. Since the realtor got the keys to use Saturday morning it was too late to arrange a move that day. But we did personally begin taking some of the mountain of boxes to the new house. I am loving it more every time I walk in.
It is nice to not have so many boxes here but the place is beginning to look a little empty. I have been purging and packing for two months but there is still so much to do. I have emptied half of the kitchen and that is all moved and put away. I have very little room left in the new kitchen it is so much smaller. I am having to make some decisions on what to get rid of next. I will also be buying a piece of furniture for the dining room that can hold some of my items. I am thinking a buffet, we will see what I find.
My husband was dragging is feet about packing up and moving but he has now engaged. This last week I worked crazy hours at work because I worked a code deploy in the middle of the night on Tuesday. I had to do the site validation when the deploy ended. Since I had worked overnight I had Wednesday off. Since I knew that I would only sleep a few hours I had arranged for the locksmith to come by and change the locks that afternoon and the internet and cable to be installed and had the washer and dryer delivered. It happened all at the same time.
We had decided that moving our current washer and dryer out of the basement was not going to happen. We will leave them. They might last another couple of years if they don't get moved but a move might have killed the washer. Anyway, since we installed the cable we had to move the TV over there. That is motivating my darling husband to move out of here. Last night he was not sure what to do without a TV. I suggested packing up his study. My son is calling my behavior passive-aggressive, I am calling it smart.
After I got the TV over there my husband actually talked about when we can move the beds. We would do it this weekend but the Pacific Northwest is being hit by an atmospheric river this weekend and high winds. Not a good time to be hauling furniture or driving a truck across an exposed bridge. We will not be able to move this weekend. I am not afraid of a little rain but they are saying that we will get almost six inches this weekend with sustained winds of about 35 miles per hour and gust up to 50 to 70 mph. For around here that is not a little rain. We normally get about 48 inches a year but we get it a quarter inch at a time, from October to June. So we are used to dark and wet days just not copious amounts of rain over one weekend. Oh well, we are going to take this one day at a time. I just know that I can't retire until this house is sold and this house is not ready for showing yet.
What I really want to do is get my sewing room unpacked and sew something. I have not sat down and sewn in two months. Once we made the decision to move I was in packing mode I would purge and pack every evening and every weekend. I am amazed at how much stuff we had in this house. But 43 years in the same place with a lot of space for storage made it so I could 'hide' stuff in the basement and not worry about getting rid of anything. I had trouble parting with fabric and sewing supplies but I did get rid of possible half of my library. I thing that was over 1000 books. Some we sold but most were donated. I got rid of four truck loads of stuff from the basement that we no longer needed. I stuffed the trash can and a neighbors trash can every other week for pick up. I filled the recycling bins every week for the last couple of months. I have shredded years worth of papers.
For the purged items, I did not have the energy to have a garage sale it all got donated. I had the children come and pick up their remaining stuff and also gave them anything that they wanted from the basement. If it had been down there I was not going to miss it. I am sure as it is I have still packed to much stuff and I will have to make decisions about it later. I actually am still purging as I still pack up. But I was running out of staging room and could not pack everything because we are still living here. I so wish we could have just hired someone to come in and pack us up and move us but since I knew not everything would fit in the smaller house I had to make decisions. This has been very hard to do but very necessary. My children will appreciate the fact that I did it. They all think moving was a good idea for us. They did not want to deal with the mountains of stuff but I appreciate that they come and helped me during the last couple of months. My oldest daughter was here almost every weekend with the other two coming in for several weekends to help. They have all made trips to donation sites for me several times. My son and his wife came one week day with their SUV and packed up all the old paint cans and took them to Metro for disposal. They filled the back of their vehicle. Getting rid of the hazardous material was the hardest thing to do because of scheduling. They are open when I work. And you can't put it at the street for pick up.
I would post pictures but I have already packed all my cables for the camera. Although the house is such a mess I would hate for anyone to see it. With all I have been doing cleaning has not been high on the list and I have sure found a lot of dust.
We are hoping for drier weather next week and that we will be able to arrange to have our furniture moved at that time. Until then we will be living between two houses. I have started to unpack and put items away at the new house and will put up curtain rods so I can hang curtains in the bedrooms at least.
This post is getting overly long and wordy but this is the update for now. I hope that next time I can post pictures of my new sewing space.
We were able to sign the closing papers on October 7th but could not get the keys until the next day. We were lucky that the deed was recorded the same day because we had to wait for that to happen to get the keys. If is had not recorded on that Friday we would not been able to get the keys until Tuesday. Since we had not been sure we were getting the keys we had not arranged for movers for the weekend. I had feared that we would not get the keys so did not want to do that until we had them. Since the realtor got the keys to use Saturday morning it was too late to arrange a move that day. But we did personally begin taking some of the mountain of boxes to the new house. I am loving it more every time I walk in.
It is nice to not have so many boxes here but the place is beginning to look a little empty. I have been purging and packing for two months but there is still so much to do. I have emptied half of the kitchen and that is all moved and put away. I have very little room left in the new kitchen it is so much smaller. I am having to make some decisions on what to get rid of next. I will also be buying a piece of furniture for the dining room that can hold some of my items. I am thinking a buffet, we will see what I find.
My husband was dragging is feet about packing up and moving but he has now engaged. This last week I worked crazy hours at work because I worked a code deploy in the middle of the night on Tuesday. I had to do the site validation when the deploy ended. Since I had worked overnight I had Wednesday off. Since I knew that I would only sleep a few hours I had arranged for the locksmith to come by and change the locks that afternoon and the internet and cable to be installed and had the washer and dryer delivered. It happened all at the same time.
We had decided that moving our current washer and dryer out of the basement was not going to happen. We will leave them. They might last another couple of years if they don't get moved but a move might have killed the washer. Anyway, since we installed the cable we had to move the TV over there. That is motivating my darling husband to move out of here. Last night he was not sure what to do without a TV. I suggested packing up his study. My son is calling my behavior passive-aggressive, I am calling it smart.
After I got the TV over there my husband actually talked about when we can move the beds. We would do it this weekend but the Pacific Northwest is being hit by an atmospheric river this weekend and high winds. Not a good time to be hauling furniture or driving a truck across an exposed bridge. We will not be able to move this weekend. I am not afraid of a little rain but they are saying that we will get almost six inches this weekend with sustained winds of about 35 miles per hour and gust up to 50 to 70 mph. For around here that is not a little rain. We normally get about 48 inches a year but we get it a quarter inch at a time, from October to June. So we are used to dark and wet days just not copious amounts of rain over one weekend. Oh well, we are going to take this one day at a time. I just know that I can't retire until this house is sold and this house is not ready for showing yet.
What I really want to do is get my sewing room unpacked and sew something. I have not sat down and sewn in two months. Once we made the decision to move I was in packing mode I would purge and pack every evening and every weekend. I am amazed at how much stuff we had in this house. But 43 years in the same place with a lot of space for storage made it so I could 'hide' stuff in the basement and not worry about getting rid of anything. I had trouble parting with fabric and sewing supplies but I did get rid of possible half of my library. I thing that was over 1000 books. Some we sold but most were donated. I got rid of four truck loads of stuff from the basement that we no longer needed. I stuffed the trash can and a neighbors trash can every other week for pick up. I filled the recycling bins every week for the last couple of months. I have shredded years worth of papers.
For the purged items, I did not have the energy to have a garage sale it all got donated. I had the children come and pick up their remaining stuff and also gave them anything that they wanted from the basement. If it had been down there I was not going to miss it. I am sure as it is I have still packed to much stuff and I will have to make decisions about it later. I actually am still purging as I still pack up. But I was running out of staging room and could not pack everything because we are still living here. I so wish we could have just hired someone to come in and pack us up and move us but since I knew not everything would fit in the smaller house I had to make decisions. This has been very hard to do but very necessary. My children will appreciate the fact that I did it. They all think moving was a good idea for us. They did not want to deal with the mountains of stuff but I appreciate that they come and helped me during the last couple of months. My oldest daughter was here almost every weekend with the other two coming in for several weekends to help. They have all made trips to donation sites for me several times. My son and his wife came one week day with their SUV and packed up all the old paint cans and took them to Metro for disposal. They filled the back of their vehicle. Getting rid of the hazardous material was the hardest thing to do because of scheduling. They are open when I work. And you can't put it at the street for pick up.
I would post pictures but I have already packed all my cables for the camera. Although the house is such a mess I would hate for anyone to see it. With all I have been doing cleaning has not been high on the list and I have sure found a lot of dust.
We are hoping for drier weather next week and that we will be able to arrange to have our furniture moved at that time. Until then we will be living between two houses. I have started to unpack and put items away at the new house and will put up curtain rods so I can hang curtains in the bedrooms at least.
This post is getting overly long and wordy but this is the update for now. I hope that next time I can post pictures of my new sewing space.
Monday, September 5, 2016
September 2016
September - Labor day weekend.
We purged and packed the dinning room.
I am still going thru papers and shredding documents. My husband asked if I was purging 40 years of papers. I think it just feels like it. I don't really have 40 years worth. I hope.
I had a hard time purging items from the dinning room. I love linens - of course they are fabric. So it was hard to let some of them go. I love dishes and teapot and cups. I let some of them go but very likely kept more than I should have. Thank God for the organizer and my daughter and daughter-in-law who helped me.
Oh, and cookbooks. What is it about cookbooks? I have collected them for years and hardly ever use them but I do enjoy looking at them. I let many of them go and tried to sell some but most ended up at Goodwill. I hope I don't buy them back.
We have also been eating out of the freezer. We have had many interesting meals. But I am attempting to get most of the food gone so we do not have to move it. This is really not good for my diet.
When my husband ask what I wanted to do today I told him it was Labor Day and we would be laboring. Go purge and pack a box. So far he has packed 1/2 of a box and purged nothing. I am currently attempting to talk him into a storage unit so we are not living with packed boxes all around for the next month +.
It is going to be a hard move.
We purged and packed the dinning room.
I am still going thru papers and shredding documents. My husband asked if I was purging 40 years of papers. I think it just feels like it. I don't really have 40 years worth. I hope.
I had a hard time purging items from the dinning room. I love linens - of course they are fabric. So it was hard to let some of them go. I love dishes and teapot and cups. I let some of them go but very likely kept more than I should have. Thank God for the organizer and my daughter and daughter-in-law who helped me.
Oh, and cookbooks. What is it about cookbooks? I have collected them for years and hardly ever use them but I do enjoy looking at them. I let many of them go and tried to sell some but most ended up at Goodwill. I hope I don't buy them back.
We have also been eating out of the freezer. We have had many interesting meals. But I am attempting to get most of the food gone so we do not have to move it. This is really not good for my diet.
When my husband ask what I wanted to do today I told him it was Labor Day and we would be laboring. Go purge and pack a box. So far he has packed 1/2 of a box and purged nothing. I am currently attempting to talk him into a storage unit so we are not living with packed boxes all around for the next month +.
It is going to be a hard move.
July And August 2016
Where the heck did June go?
I continue to work on downsizing. I know that eventually we will need to move to a one level home. I am not sure where we will find one we can afford in the current hot housing market but if I can get our house ready for sale maybe we can afford something new. We happen to live in the hottest of the Portland neighbors so maybe we will not have any problems selling. One levels are just really hard to find.
This past week I have been cleaning out quilting magazines. I have (gasp) ripped out pages to save of items that I might make and gotten rid of two grocery bags of magazines. I have years of magazines still to go thru. That is what happens when you have a six bedroom, three story house you collect because you have room.
Last month I got the binding done on two quilts. The baby quilt and twin that I was working on in May. I have begun binding a small table topper.
I went one Saturday and spent the day at the local quilt shop getting help on my Made in America embroidery piece. I had gotten stuck and it has sat for almost a year. I am not unstuck.
I completed joining the rows of the third reflections quilt but still need to put on the outside boarders. June was just such a busy month and yet I do not know where the time went.
For July my goal will be:
1) finish by Reflections quilt. Not done yet
2) sort out more magazines - Two more pages out of the house
3) paint the front porch - that is were I usually take quilt pictures in badly needs painting. - Power washed- still not painted and fall is coming.
4) attend the Janet Fogg class at the end of the month - Attended but the project is now a UFO.
5) do another block for Made in America - Not done.
I am hoping if I write these down I will make progress.
AUGUST
There was absolutely no sewing done in August.
What I did do.
1)Began to pack and purge - I started by packing up my quilts that are not in use.
2)Had a family work day with the kids helping. We hauled 4 truck loads out of the basement to Goodwill.
3)Sorted my own clothes and got rid of 2 black garbage bags of clothes to Goodwill.
4)Began sorting and getting rid of books. We have hauled out hundreds of books. We were able to sell a few but most they would not buy. I still have several hundred books and that does not include the quilting books.
5)Packed up the DVD's
6)Dumped old canned food that had passed its expiration date. Some did not not even have a date. 7)Some of the home canned food was terrible old. I have not done any canning in about 15 years.
8)Contacted a couple of different contractors about doing work on the house.
9)Contacted a home organizer to help with purging and setting up my new house.
10) Contacted a loan company about a loan for a new home. (glup - that is pretty scary) We will still own this one but it needs work and that is not going to happen while we still live here.
We made an offer on a house and are waiting for the assessment. We might have a new house by the end of September.
I continue to work on downsizing. I know that eventually we will need to move to a one level home. I am not sure where we will find one we can afford in the current hot housing market but if I can get our house ready for sale maybe we can afford something new. We happen to live in the hottest of the Portland neighbors so maybe we will not have any problems selling. One levels are just really hard to find.
This past week I have been cleaning out quilting magazines. I have (gasp) ripped out pages to save of items that I might make and gotten rid of two grocery bags of magazines. I have years of magazines still to go thru. That is what happens when you have a six bedroom, three story house you collect because you have room.
Last month I got the binding done on two quilts. The baby quilt and twin that I was working on in May. I have begun binding a small table topper.
I went one Saturday and spent the day at the local quilt shop getting help on my Made in America embroidery piece. I had gotten stuck and it has sat for almost a year. I am not unstuck.
I completed joining the rows of the third reflections quilt but still need to put on the outside boarders. June was just such a busy month and yet I do not know where the time went.
For July my goal will be:
1) finish by Reflections quilt. Not done yet
2) sort out more magazines - Two more pages out of the house
3) paint the front porch - that is were I usually take quilt pictures in badly needs painting. - Power washed- still not painted and fall is coming.
4) attend the Janet Fogg class at the end of the month - Attended but the project is now a UFO.
5) do another block for Made in America - Not done.
I am hoping if I write these down I will make progress.
AUGUST
There was absolutely no sewing done in August.
What I did do.
1)Began to pack and purge - I started by packing up my quilts that are not in use.
2)Had a family work day with the kids helping. We hauled 4 truck loads out of the basement to Goodwill.
3)Sorted my own clothes and got rid of 2 black garbage bags of clothes to Goodwill.
4)Began sorting and getting rid of books. We have hauled out hundreds of books. We were able to sell a few but most they would not buy. I still have several hundred books and that does not include the quilting books.
5)Packed up the DVD's
6)Dumped old canned food that had passed its expiration date. Some did not not even have a date. 7)Some of the home canned food was terrible old. I have not done any canning in about 15 years.
8)Contacted a couple of different contractors about doing work on the house.
9)Contacted a home organizer to help with purging and setting up my new house.
10) Contacted a loan company about a loan for a new home. (glup - that is pretty scary) We will still own this one but it needs work and that is not going to happen while we still live here.
We made an offer on a house and are waiting for the assessment. We might have a new house by the end of September.
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
May 2106
Well isn't this the pits. The end of May and absolutely no finishes for the month.
I did however work on the embroidered star quilt I began joining the rows.
I did work on the third reflections quilt, the rows are sewn and I kept meaning to join them together but life got in the way.
What else did I do? I made several trips to Goodwill as I cleaned stuff out of our house.
I worked on organizing my sewing room so that I could walk in and sew rather then walk in and move stuff to sew. I made progress.
I have two quilts back from being quilted that need the binding sewn on.
I have two quilts that the binding is almost all the way finished. One is a baby quilt I can carry with me the other is a twin that I am working on at home.
I had a week off from work when I thought I would sew but with the watching the grandkids and trying to organize....my house is sadly in need of that. I would much rather sew than do housework and tend to let things slide. When my husband retired he suppose to pick up more around the house, but he never throws anything away. Nor does he pick anything up. This last weekend was attempting to clean up the dining room so we had room for everyone to eat on Monday.
I started walking more, as this winter I put on more weight that was acceptable.
I also started a diet last week. I am down 4 lbs. I does take more time to prepare food than to grab something already made, so that is taking additional time.
I would like to lose enough weight so that I can get back into deep water aerobics. Right now my swimsuit does not fit. I refuse to buy bigger clothes.
Just so I have a picture - here is an older quilt that I happen to have a picture of on this computer. I use this picture at work for all my social media connections. (slack and jabber)
This is from a few years ago. Made from a half square triangle exchange at a local quilt shop. I can't remember if I have ever posted this one before but I do love it.
I did however work on the embroidered star quilt I began joining the rows.
I did work on the third reflections quilt, the rows are sewn and I kept meaning to join them together but life got in the way.
What else did I do? I made several trips to Goodwill as I cleaned stuff out of our house.
I worked on organizing my sewing room so that I could walk in and sew rather then walk in and move stuff to sew. I made progress.
I have two quilts back from being quilted that need the binding sewn on.
I have two quilts that the binding is almost all the way finished. One is a baby quilt I can carry with me the other is a twin that I am working on at home.
I had a week off from work when I thought I would sew but with the watching the grandkids and trying to organize....my house is sadly in need of that. I would much rather sew than do housework and tend to let things slide. When my husband retired he suppose to pick up more around the house, but he never throws anything away. Nor does he pick anything up. This last weekend was attempting to clean up the dining room so we had room for everyone to eat on Monday.
I started walking more, as this winter I put on more weight that was acceptable.
I also started a diet last week. I am down 4 lbs. I does take more time to prepare food than to grab something already made, so that is taking additional time.
I would like to lose enough weight so that I can get back into deep water aerobics. Right now my swimsuit does not fit. I refuse to buy bigger clothes.
Just so I have a picture - here is an older quilt that I happen to have a picture of on this computer. I use this picture at work for all my social media connections. (slack and jabber)
Friday, April 29, 2016
April UFO
April is almost over and I finally finished a UFO. It was actually March's UFO but I will take it.
This was the first Frivol. I started it when they first came out. It is not a hard block but when sewing the rows together I turned a few blocks as quarter turn. Which I then had to rip out and correct. I am very likely the only person that would have noticed that the seams were going a different directions. But it would have bugged me.
My oldest daughter has said this will look wonderful hanging in her living room.
Now to see if I can complete something for next month.
This was the first Frivol. I started it when they first came out. It is not a hard block but when sewing the rows together I turned a few blocks as quarter turn. Which I then had to rip out and correct. I am very likely the only person that would have noticed that the seams were going a different directions. But it would have bugged me.
My oldest daughter has said this will look wonderful hanging in her living room.
Now to see if I can complete something for next month.
Saturday, April 23, 2016
Finally A Finish
Since the new year I have not made much progress on my quilting.
Because we had signed up for a class at our Church I knew something would have to give. I just did not expect as much homework as we ended up having. We have now gotten thru the worst of the homework and I can again make some progress in the sewing room.
I am almost done with last months UFO. I never even started this months and I still have Febuary's hanging out also.
But I did get motivated to make a baby gift this month so I pulled out a UFO that was not even on the list but has been hanging out for seven years. Yes seven years. I started this for one of the grandsons and never got it done. Now I wonder why because it was super easy to finish. I pieced it in one morning. My daughter quilted it the same day in about 30 minutes. I then machine sewed the binding on. That was a first for me.
It is Animal Alphabet Games.
It was hard to get a picture. I finished to late on Wednesday evening to take a picture so I had a co-worker hold it up for me near a window at work but it was before 8am and there was not enough light. But if I used the flash it washed all the colors out.
I gave this to one of the consulates that works on my team. We had a baby shower for him. He was totally unsure of what it was. He had never seen a quilt and this was very likely a culturally incorrect thing to do. He explained that in India the parents to do not buy any thing for the baby before it is born. We told him it was OK. He did not buy it.
I am now going to go try and finish March's UFO.
Because we had signed up for a class at our Church I knew something would have to give. I just did not expect as much homework as we ended up having. We have now gotten thru the worst of the homework and I can again make some progress in the sewing room.
I am almost done with last months UFO. I never even started this months and I still have Febuary's hanging out also.
But I did get motivated to make a baby gift this month so I pulled out a UFO that was not even on the list but has been hanging out for seven years. Yes seven years. I started this for one of the grandsons and never got it done. Now I wonder why because it was super easy to finish. I pieced it in one morning. My daughter quilted it the same day in about 30 minutes. I then machine sewed the binding on. That was a first for me.
It is Animal Alphabet Games.
It was hard to get a picture. I finished to late on Wednesday evening to take a picture so I had a co-worker hold it up for me near a window at work but it was before 8am and there was not enough light. But if I used the flash it washed all the colors out.
I gave this to one of the consulates that works on my team. We had a baby shower for him. He was totally unsure of what it was. He had never seen a quilt and this was very likely a culturally incorrect thing to do. He explained that in India the parents to do not buy any thing for the baby before it is born. We told him it was OK. He did not buy it.
I am now going to go try and finish March's UFO.
Monday, February 1, 2016
January finishes
Yesterday I tried for a long time to get this window to load.
No luck.
I wanted to update my January finishes. My first was actually a gift for a friend at work. She had been having a bad day (actually a bad week) and when I got home I decided that I would make her some coasters. I used the tutorial from http://itsjustsewing.com/ It was super quick ant easy. It took a charm pack.
Next up I have Reflections quilt number 2.
As I mentioned last month. I made a bunch of these squares. I have enough for one king size quilt and two queen size. The King is going to my youngest daughter and this one will go to my oldest.
I actually got it done a couple of weekends ago but I had to wait for the rain to stop and my quilt holder to get out of a cast. He had surgery on his left had a couple of weeks ago. He keeps splitting the wound open so I told him not to bleed on the quilt. Which is making holding it more difficult.
Now this is the stack of quilts that need binding, except the bottom one. My daughter's home machine was in the shop so she went crazy with quilting. There are two table runner (I actually have both of those bound now but no picture yet) You can see one of them on the back of the chair. One crib quilt, two wall hangings, one twin and two queen size quilt. The quilt on the bottom is actually one that I am ripping out the last row of quilting in for my daughter her longarm was having issues as she was finishing this quilt and put what she calls gubbers on the back.
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