Just knitting

Here's a little of what I've been up to.

A birthday gift for one of BubbaLou's friends.

Another birthday present for one of BubbaLou's friends.

Delicious Tapestry yarn from Rowan. Wool/Soy blend. I just love the muted color changes. And it is soooooo soft! Too bad my budget could only afford a vest. (excuse the shadow lines from my french doors, but this only looked right in real light without a flash)

So much for that...

I tried to refuse to have a 3-year old in diapers. She won. Bubba and I butt heads frequently, and sometimes I just don't listen as well as I should. She just isn't ready. I'm okay with it. I think peer pressure was getting to me (damn, I thought I left that behind with high school!) I need to thank Ann for her reassuring words that it's not just BubbaLou that loves her diapers, and no matter how well spoken and mature she is, she's still a very little toddler.

On the home front, Sy has started to side the front of the house! Hurray! I love finishing touches the most. Even if it means I will spend next spring and summer painting.

My painted floor-cloth will be finished this weekend, just have to polyurethane it. Three times. I made it to coordinate with another rug in my kitchen so that I can have one in front of my cooktop that can be mopped off instead of washed. I think I did a pretty good job for my first attempt, but it is a much more involved process than I was led to believe (2-day project, my ass Martha.)

It's about 3 feet by 7 feet. It was all supposed to be stripes, but I don't have a lifetime to wait for paint to dry so I can waste more painter's tape. I like the dots a lot.

Excuse my scatterbrain, but my camera's working again, so interesting things are just gonna show up here and there.

This is what is behind the siding on our 1870's (?) farmhouse. Very old newspaper. Useless insulation, but fascinating artifacts. And in surprisingly good condition. We can't wait to take the siding of the rest of the house.

Abbie, I'l have to see if he's willing to part with any for you!

Good fabrics and a good book.

I don't think I need to explain the extreme cuteness of this moment.

Diaper Duty

We have been potty-training BubbaLou for MONTHS AND MONTHS. No progress. I'm getting so sick of dirty diapers I could scream. She will only go on the potty if I tell her to...every 30 minutes, and even then she still pees in her pants. And she refuses to poop on the potty. I've even tried having her wear only panties, so she can feel if she's yucky....and she DOESN'T CARE! What's a mom to do? I refuse to have a 3 year old in diapers.

I was told day-care would help, all the other children in the preschool program are potty trained. Monkey see, monkey do. No, not BubbaLou. And, realistically, how much good can the teachers do when they're taking care of 12 other kids?

I'm at the end of my rope. Any suggestions?


Okay, on a happier note...I was looking through my Ikea catalog a couple of weeks ago and noticed their slip-covered couch has the same shape as mine. Chair, too. Hmmmmmm, let's do some measuring. No, too good to be true. Can't be. Impossible. Well, I went to Ikea last week and measured their cushions against mine, did some more measuring and voila! I brought home slipcovers for my couch and chair for less than $90 that are an almost perfect fit! Unbelievable. What are the odds? Did I mention these slipcovers are machine wash? Miracle, you ask? I think so. I can't afford new furniture and mine was an embarrassment. These slipcovers fit so well, it looks like I reupholstered my furniture. Ahhh, happiness, joy and clean furniture without holes.

Effeciency

It is amazing how much you can get done when you're home alone.

BubbaLou officially started pre-school today and Sy is generously letting me take the week off. I haven't had more than a few hours to myself since BubbaLou was born. Let me tell you, I will enjoy these three days! Just today I finished the sweater-vest for T (I already know I'm going to have to do another one for BL), finished the painting in BL's new room, repainted a decorative box for my bathroom, and helped Sy install the railings on the front porch when he got home. Oh, and I CLEANED the master bathroom. Hands-and-knees cleaned.

Tomorrow BL doesn't have "school," so I'm taking her to the Montshire for the day with Nana. Today was her second full day at school without me and neither day has she napped. I'm glad she's not there for more than 2 days at a time so she can get some sleep in between. BL is a 2-hour nap a day kinda girl and gets pretty cranky in the evening without it (not to mention she doesn't sleep as well at night if she's over-tired!) I hope she gets into the swing of things at school by next week.

Thursday and Friday she'll be in school, so my to-do list is the length of my arm. I'm hoping to finish the waist-cincher sweater from Knitting Lingerie Style...it just needs seaming and the stitches around the neckline. I'm recreating my wonderful kitchen rug in 3 painted floor cloths so I can sweep and mop them off instead of machine washing! I need to sew a special blanket for BL to take to school for nap time (hopefully she'll start taking them there.) And to top it all off, on Friday I have to move everything off of and from underneath my kitchen "counters" and remove the counters so Sy can install the new cabinets and part of my countertop. Very exciting. To have a surface I can actually clean! Like my upper cabinets, they won't have doors (or drawers) but its a start. Sy doesn't want to do drawers or doors until he can do them all at the same time in an assembly line. I can understand that.

As soon as my camera is working again, I will post new pictures of the house. The porch looks so wonderful with the railings up. They're really simple and classic, but they make a statement and anchor the porch. Next is the ceiling and the paint...then something will be really finished around here!

Sneak Peek For T!

I couldn't resist giving a little peek of what's in store. She's been waiting a year already!

BubbaLou keeps asking me "Where's mine? Dis is for T..., I need my own."

Our house is a very, very, very fine house....

Well, it is on it's way to being a very fine house.

For those of you who don't know, Sy and I bought a 1870's -ish farm house last May and in July ripped half of it off and started rebuilding. Let me just say, going without a kitchen for 4 months with an 18 month old is not something I would recommend. Unless you're crazy, like us. What we ripped down was an addition to the original house (22'X16' one floor) that contained a kitchen and dining room. As we were tearing down, it amazed us that it was still standing.

Bye-bye kitchen/dining room. Hello all-in-one bathroom and fridge in my living room!

Throughout the monsoon-like rain of last summer we had a new crawl space excavated, new foundations poured and Sy (almost single-handedly) built a 2 story plus attic, 22'X24', addition containing my kitchen/dining room, mud room, new stairway, laundry room, and master suite.

It's a start. The foundation is actually concrete on this one!

Getting there. Sy doesn't have to worry about the rain anymore.

In early November 2006 I had a functioning kitchen back, and by December I had a dishwasher and washer and dryer installed (HOORAY!!)

I just love a blank slate. So much potential. I've never ever had a kitchen this big.

Now, more than a year later I can say that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. It's a dim light, for sure, but it's there. The master bedroom is done, except for some trim and small touch-up details, the master bath is perfectly functioning, but the walls need to be finished, trim put it, and permanent vanities built. (Sy is custom building almost all of the cabinetry.) As of a couple of weeks ago, I have all of my upper kitchen cabinets installed (except doors), the base cabinets are almost all built, my double wall ovens are in (and work like a dream) and the best part of all....MY HARDWOOD FLOORS ARE IN, UP AND DOWNSTAIRS! Until you've lived on plywood sub floors for a year, you will never appreciate real floors as much as I do. I can finally sweep and mop and make a difference. BubbaLou will not go through the bottom of slippers quite so fast!

This weekend Sy built the roof on our front porch. No railings yet, or "real" stairs, but they're coming....hopefully before winter. At least with the roof I won't have to shovel the entire porch off! We're also hoping to get the siding on before winter, but we'll see. With Sy going back to school and me going back to work, there's not a whole lot of time to get things done. I'm really hoping that within the next year we can call the new addition "done". And then gut the original house. Hey, I won't have to give up my kitchen again! And since we're just gonna gut it, we can do it one floor at a time (in theory.)

Today. The porch will be stunning when it's done. And the barn has fallen down. And the original house isn't yellow (we're going traditional white, red doors, sky blue ceiling on the porch.)