house work goes on and on and on

Last week was exhaustingly full of house work,

but very little progress

by our own hands

was made.

~

One huge step forward

was the installation of the water line.

What a relief to have that done.

Of course, 

we still don't have any fixtures,

so we don't actually have water in the house yet,

but - soon.

~

Our cabinets are finished and awaiting pick-up - woohoo

~

We also hired a young man to sand the floors,

which was a job that Tyler was dreading,

and I wasn't positive I was up for physically.

(floor installation has added some new pains

to this already falling apart body)

Ordinarily,

I'd rather do the work

than hand over a check,

but in this case - I'll be pretty happy to pay.

~

We installed the final upstairs door

and my brother (and his sweet family) came back down

to teach us the best way to caulk, fill nail holes, and paint trim.

He also helped Tyler and Brandon install

another room's worth of trim.

After they left,

Tyler and I finished caulking and painting the trim

in the playroom

and the bonus (eventual) movie room.

the wall color is SW waterscape, mixed at (I think) 60% and then toned down a smidge with some of our main wall color

So pretty!!

~

Marin and I tackled the back porch,

(which was in desperate need of picking up,

thanks to a month of scraps and sawdust from floor installation)

while we waiting for our trim lesson.

~

We also began our hunt for the perfect stain color

(harder than we anticipated.

but then,

how long did it take to pick out that one color of paint??!)

(Incidentally - I love that one color,

and most people who've seen it love it, too)

(Clothesline Fresh, mixed at 40%.

so, 2 gallons worth of color

added to a 5 gallon bucket of paint...)

~

I guess we actually accomplished quite a bit

with our own hands

after all...

~

Today and tomorrow's focus

will shift to finishing up Halloween costumes.

My kids are always really big on accessories 

- are yours?!?

I keep reminding them they'll have to carry 

all of these extra things,

but those extras 'make' the costume,

so the kids don't care.

circle-centered granny squares. the saga continues

Two weeks ago,

I could no longer quiet 

the circle-centered granny square quilt

that was demanding to be made.

I tried to shush the old girl,

I really did.

But when she kept shouting at me,

making it impossible to ignore her pleas,

I finally sat down with my designing supplies

and drafted a circle centered granny square quilt block.

I figured that should do the trick.

but no.

She also wanted me to break the design down into a cut list.

So I obliged.

Then,

she wanted me to test the darn thing.

So I did.

And she finally shut up.

Except.

Except, she was too big.

She wanted to be smaller.

So two days ago,

I sat down again,

and shrunk her,

until her smallest pieces were cut at 3/4 of an inch!

And then,

I had to test that.

I am happy to report that the 

circle centered granny square quilt

is sufficiently satisfied. for the time being.

The blocks are an appropriate size,

my measurements are all correct,

and I can resume normal life

until I am able to actually make 

the real quilt.

For now,

I will continue to plug away

5 minutes here

and 10 minutes there,

at the crocheted circle-centered granny squares

which started this whole thing in the first place.

linking up with Julie's Sew, Stitch, Snap, Share
and mostly moody AmandaJean

week in review

Not long after hitting 'publish' 

on my last post,

Tyler and I hopped in the car and headed to Everton Missouri

for a 'couples getaway'.

In a moment of utter weariness,

the word Get-a-way

and 

the low price of $150 for 2 nights

- all meals included -

totally suckered me,

and I texted Tyler, "want me to sign up for this?"

We were expecting that there would be hundreds of couples,

and we could just sorta hide away 

and be unnoticed.

Turns out,

there were only about 14 couples,

7 of them

from our church,

so hiding out was not really an option.

The speakers were great

and had a lot of wisdom to share

and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them 

to any newly married

or troubled couple.

I couldn't help thinking multiple times

that perhaps Tony and Kacy wouldn't be getting divorced

if they had sat under some of their teaching.

~~sigh~~

We skipped out early on Sunday,

because right after we got home

we were heading to Springhill to camp for a few days.

 Camping was wonderful.

Our site was gorgeous

and the daytime temperatures were pretty much perfect

though the nights were a bit nippy.

The kids rode bikes and scooters.

We played cards.

And kayaked and fished.

(I made circle centered granny squares....)

We ate yummy camp food.

We played at the park

and collected firewood.

We rested.

We could have easily stayed a few more days

but we needed to get back home

and work on the house.

Thursday night,

we finished installing all of the hardwood flooring

that we can install right now!!

(the rest will have to wait until the LEM is moved

and the other half of the library is built)

Friday,

Matt and Marin and Milo

came down for the weekend to help.

We decided that Matt helping with trim 

would pack the biggest punch,

and man, was that a good call!

While the guys worked on priming, painting,

and then installing trim (upstairs),

Marin and I worked on the upstairs floors;

I used the belt sander on the subfloor seams

(the one job I had successfully avoided up to that point)

and Marin followed behind me with the shopvac

cleaning up all of the mess I made.

We also spent some time just visiting,

which was every bit as nice

as having their help.

Somehow - they fit in spending some good time 

with our kiddos, too.

I always love 

when people love on my kids!

Speaking of the kids -

they were troupers, too.

They helped out in the house when they could,

(boys, especially)

fixed food,

(girls, mostly)

and enjoyed playing with Milo

(all of 'em)

when he didn't need his mom or dad.

And that,

is pretty much our week in review.

Traveler, a (little) finished (whole cloth) quilt

When I finished Alicia's quilt,

but before I started quilting Sojourner,

I made a little whole-cloth quilt,

by drawing

a 'sample' of Sojourner 

onto an almost 1 yard cut of Riviera Kona cotton

using fine tipped Crayola washable markers

so I could practice my quilting.

I knew one of the things that my client loved 

about our inspiration quilt

was the quilting. 

And even though I had warned her

that my quilting would be nowhere near the level of Kathleen's,

I still wanted to do my very best.

(which is pretty much what I want to do with every quilt... ;-)

I'm really glad I made this little practice piece,

because firstly,

it really boosted my confidence

and secondly,

there were a few motifs that I ended up 

not being real crazy about,

so I knew not to use them in the real quilt.

I wish I could say it helped me figure out 

how to best work my way around the quilt,

but sadly, I still struggle a good bit with that.

(although - I recently took Judi's progressive quilting class,

and one of my take-a-ways was

travelling

is inevitable.

Still, I think I could eliminate *some* of it...)

And thirdly - it's pretty darn cute,
and delightfully soft!

I backed it with the same fabric that I used for Out of the Blue

and bound it with a yellow/gold zig zaggy fabric 

I bought on my birthday trip to the Rag Barn last year.

Plus

it's got wool batting,

so it's nice and light and soft and drapey

but warm,

and it breathes like Egyptian cotton.

(Points if you know what that line is from ;-)

After quilting and a tumble through the washer and dryer

it's approx 30x37 inches

and -  it's in the shop
😊

(as a reminder, every cent that I earn 
is used to buy sewing machines for Rahab's Rope)

Linking up with completely biased ;-) Amanda Jean

lately

There really isn't a whole lot going on here,

except for work on the house

and ordinary life.

We got to babysit Hadley over the weekend.

She was much grumpier than usual,

but we still had some fun times.

She loves her Mimi, Aunt Lily, and Uncle BranBran the most.

We've made it to The River every Wednesday,

and bring home all sorts of trash and treasures.

meet Pepper. Our river cat...

I'm not sure what we'll do as it continues to get cooler.

It's been the highlight of our weeks,

and each time

feels a little more restful than the last.

Last week, 

we thought we were going to be rained out,

but I checked the weather around 11,

and it wasn't supposed to rain until 1:30

so we quickly got our things together 

and made it to the river before noon

and got to enjoy a peaceful hour and 10 minutes 

before it started sprinkling.

We stayed another 10 minutes or so,

but left before the sky opened up.

I've had very little time to quilt,

and my machine is getting increasingly belligerent,

making what time I do have not as productive as it could/should be

so it will need to go back to the shop,

but what I've managed to get done,

I'm very pleased with.

I'm especially happy with that heart motif, as that is my own design!
And - I didn't even test it first - I just quickly drew it out on paper
to make sure it would work like I thought it would.
and it did!

Our new porch has been seeing some use

as the temperature drops a bit.

We play backgammon out there with our weekend coffee

and it's Tyler's favorite place for Bible study.

We are sooo looking forward to being able to move in

and slow down just a bit 

(though there will still be quite a bit of work to do for a few years)

The kids worked together to make dinner last night

so Tyler and I could get a little more done on the floors.

People tell me often,

"I don't know how you do it all."
It's very simple.

I don't.

I so totally don't.

the bonus of our yard /property being overgrown:
lots more wildflowers - which means lots more bees and butterflies

p.s. just a reminder - I'm now on Instagram.
I tend to post a bit more often there, as it is much quicker than blogging,
and I never post exactly the same things as I do here,
so you might want to follow me there.....

flooring, still...

Brandon's bedroom, Saturday afternoon

It's still nothing but floors 

on the house building front.

When we left off 2 weeks ago,

we'd finished the entry and living room,

and were moving into the dining/kitchen space.

This picture was taken when we called it quits on Sept 30th

We were a little nervous 

about meeting up properly

on the other side of the bar.

We ended up being almost 3/16 of an inch off,

but were able to fudge around a few boards

 that will be under cabinets,

and met up quite nicely.

We got to this point on Oct 3rd, but photo wasn't snapped til Thurs am

We are super glad we don't desire perfect, pristine floors,

because we've had plenty of minor screw-ups.

Each time, we say, "There's some more character!"

and move on.

I don't know if I've mentioned it,

but our theme/style for the house

is

Simply Gracious

and 

Graciously Simple.

Every decision that we make

goes through that filter.

I think it's also helped us to be gracious with ourselves...

This is our first time doing so many of these things, after all!

Anyways.

Floors.

Besides the work of actually installing the floors

(and the extra prep work we had - grrrr)

there's a lot that goes into creating a floor.

Board length is a major factor,

also the color of the board - is it more reddish? or white-ish?

gotta keep those spread out...

And of course each individual board's character,
or lack thereof,

comes into play.

As do potential traffic patterns

and 'furniture' areas;

I have to be careful that the character in a high traffic area

is strictly from grain patterns and coloring,

and save some of the really 'pretty' pieces

(read: distressed / damaged / knotty etc)

for low traffic areas

(that won't be covered by furniture)

and still keep everything balanced.

Fortunately,

I've got a few years of quilt making under my belt to help with that part.

We finished the kitchen 

and dining room

and the pantry

(Tyler did this all by himself)

and the mudroom.

The hall closet is almost done

and we've got about 2 hours left in Brandon's room.

We're hoping to get that finished by week's end,

but we have a super busy week, so not sure that's going to happen.

After that,
we've got the office
and the hall on the other side of the living room,
going into the library.
(The library itself will wait until after we've moved the LEM)

(all pictures we just snapped with my phone 
at various times,

and I didn't bother with editing,

so coloring is what it is - based on lighting at the time.)