Sunday, May 5, 2013

Renovations

I've been making good progress on my goals this year.  Some of the obvious progress has been on my hobbies (reading, crafts and more recently the garden) but I've also made progress on my spiritual goals, home and family, health & lifestyle and financial goals. It's been hard work but I've managed to pay off two debts and make a very modest increase to my savings and my giving to the mission field. I've only been able to do the latter by eliminating debt. I hope to be able to continue in this vein in the coming years by continuing to do careful shopping, watch my spending and not incur new debts. It is a challenge.  I have some huge financial goals to reach before I hit the magic age of 65.

One big goal I had for this year is to cost out some modest renovations.  This week I will have a renovator come in for a consultation and let me know how much it would cost to attend to the large and small projects I have. The renovator is also an architect and so he can do drawings in addition to the actual work. He came recommended by a woman from my women's group.  His rates are incredibly reasonable because he works alone and as a bit of a hobby after his day job.  I've seen some of his prior work in photos and will try to speak to some of his past clients too.


After the fire a few years ago, all the interior walls of the condo had to be torn down and reconstructed and the insulation replaced. New carpeting had to be laid also.


I've been living in my place now for several years and the cabinetry, tiles and fixtures in many of the living areas are looking rather old and tired. I'm spurred on by the local downturn in the real estate market.  If you want to appeal to today's buyer and make sure your property is highly saleable, then you really need to make upgrades that are more in keeping with the fresh, modern look that most of the buyers are after.

This is what renovations looked like a few years ago.  The main bathroom was the only room that got a major overhaul  (new light fixtures, new tub tiles and flooring tiles) but I don't have a current photo. I don't like the tile flooring we selected so may change this and a few smaller things.

I also want to make the changes for my own sake.  I have never liked the finishing that many condos are made with, such as stock white kitchen cabinetry that are made of some kind of pressed board, marble surround fireplaces, laminate counter tops and tile floors (which are cold and very hard on the feet).  One of my bathrooms was updated after the fire several years ago but the master bathroom was not. It will be a chance to find out what kinds of less expensive changes I can make to give it new life.

Once my reno guy comes over, he will draw up some plans and cost estimates.  I will then know what I can actually move forward with in the coming months and what might have to wait until next year.  I will try to remember to take before and after photos as I think things are going to look very different. I'm excited although it will be a bit of a challenge to "sandwich" the renovations in between travels and visitors.

In preparation for my consultation, I'm decluttering once again. I'm finally getting rid of a lot of fabric I inherited. After holding onto it for 2 1/2 years I know I won't likely be using it. Actually some of the fabric I bought myself quite a long while ago and I no longer  wish to make whatever it was I had in mind. I've also got more books to offload and yarns and crochet thread to someone who can make use of them. Slowly and bit by bit I'm getting through the clutter but still have more to get rid of especially in the crafting department. In this area, I like to sort carefully because it is expensive to replace everything and sometimes hard to find certain things.  The decluttering never really stops as one is always buying something.  But slowly, I am retraining myself not to spend what I don't need to and eventually I'm hoping to get to the point of a more streamlined household.


Thursday, May 2, 2013

Skyward and Inward

Well we had quite an interesting day weather wise today.  I'm sorry I didn't have my camera at the ready to show the different moods of the day but I was bored with cloudy skies, lol

Today started off sunny and bright but by mid-afternoon was extremely cloudy. I'm glad the sky was cloudy as it allowed me to do some work to finish my project (see below). Tonight the sky turned beautiful again and we are expecting a fabulous weekend ahead.  Some of my garden has been fertilized now but the other half still needs to be done. Hopefully that is my weekend project as next week will be busy with other things.




I've been going on about making my niece a quilt for some time. I've never worked with a printed panel before and I thought it would be easy. But this panel was not the typical quilt panel with printed blocks.  It was one long continuous scene from the Wizard of Oz. My niece absolutely loves the Wizard of Oz.


Anyhoo, I wasn't quite sure what to with it. I thought I would simply do some hand stitch quilting around the different characters but nixed that idea. Then I thought I would stitch some lines around lines on the panel, like along the yellow brick road. I nixed that idea also. Then I thought, I will simply hold the quilt together with some old fashioned yarn ties. I did do that but found that the fabric I selected for backing kept puckering up and was very difficult to keep smooth. This proved to be a bit problematic throughout the finishing of the quilt. I think it would be far easier to use adhesive spray for quilting but it is somewhat of a luxury item. I don't buy it because I don't make so many quilts but perhaps in future I will treat myself.  In the end, I decided to do a little stipling along the yellow brick road (top and bottom of the panel only). It is my first attempt and it breaks all the rules, lol. But my niece won't care a bit. All she cares about is Dorothy in her red sparkly shoes, the yellow brick road and the wicked witch.



All the fabrics and batting in the quilt are new.  However I did recycle a chambray denim skirt and used it to make the binding for the quilt. It was a newer skirt I bought in the thrift store but never wore. I'm glad I could put it to good use.  The binding picks up the blue in Dorothy dress quite nicely.




Now that I've figured out how to use my walking foot (the fact that the long piece that has to rest on the top of the bolt that tightens the needle had me confused) and my free motion foot, I can practice on more quilts or sample pieces.

I found I really didn't like working with a quilt panel. I prefer pieced quilts and that is what I will make next like the one I made for mom at Christmas. Ever since then my nephew has been asking for one too so I've been thinking about the fabrics to use.

On a blog related matter, I understand that the Google reader service will soon be discontinued.  I currently follow a lot of blogs using this service and  I hope I can still find them afterward.  But if you don't see me visiting your blog in a long while, please do leave me a comment so I can find you again! I'm not sure whether I will use BlogLovin and/or migrate my blog to another blog platform altogether.  There are pros and cons of migrating. I had been considering the move to Word Press for awhile but someone I follow said she was leaving there over copyright issues concerning her photos. I'm not sure where she has moved to yet and somehow I'm not sure that things will be any different on a different platform.

I'm linking up with Skywatch Friday. Thank you so much for visiting me. Have a wonderful weekend!

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