Day 1Wow. So I am having a total blast with the Canadians! They rolled up to Casa de Newton about 3:30 Wednesday afternoon. From that point Himself went into Wichita to play poker and the Canadians and I went to Applebees for some grub.
Molly and I dropped JF back at the house, grabbed our knitting, and drove to Wichita for the KIP (knit in public) meeting. Everyone always seems to have so much fun...so many projects, yarns, stories, coffee, etc. After the meeting, we went to Target to look for holiday shirts. Not finding
exactly what we needed, we were strong and walked out without purchasing anything.
Day 2
Molly and I have been knitting every opportinity we can get. I'm still working ona pair of socks for Grammie (due 4 PM Saturday) and Molly found a really cool tea-cozy pattern.
We have a special treat today. We are meeting a friend whose mom's church was ready to trash a huge room of yarn that had been originally collected to start a knitting group at their church. In a way we feel we are rescuing the yarn from certain death.
(After visiting the stash): My lord....there were more boxes than I could count...some of them huge refreigerator boxes full of WOOL, mohair, silk, linen.......it was totally overwhelming....Molly and I are at a loss. What really is irritating is that churches are always looking for $$....they have no idea how many thousands of dollars they could have made if they had an enterprising parishoner that would have sold the stuff on ebay.
Here is what we made off with (and I swear,
you couldn't tell we even touched anything!) We could have opened our own yarn shop had we taken it all (shit, we could have donated 1/2 the $$ back to the short-sighted church that gave it away)!
The rest of the night, Molly and I divided the yarn and finally had to resort to a coin toss when it came to some hanks of Rowan and some handspun Penguin yarns. We both agreed that this was well worth the 1500 mile drive to Kansas! The guys however (after much eyerolling at our pilles of wooly bliss), said thatt if either of us purchased any yarn before next July that we would be in serious trouble!
After the yarn party we resumed our positions to finish the projects we already had started
(although the new wool was calling at us...eventually we had to move the stash upstairs so it would have less influence).
JF was busy playing his "Civ 4" game. Its cool how much he an Himself are alike. If fact, JF forgot one of the disks for his game and the Guys had no problem pitching in, going to the game store, and buy a whole 'nuther copy of the game. We like yarn, they like
games...we can't really bitch too much.
Pat settled in to the couch and that pretty much summed up Day 2. I have to work a half day on Day 3, but after that we plan on
going to the shops in Newton, knitting, and doing our prezzie exchange before the big Family Rush on Day 4.
Sometimes you just need a bigger visual, though. The best part of this remodel has been spraypainting the sketches directly onto the floor. He, he, he. This is actually the space required for our wine fridge, wine rack, shelf and coat rod. A motley assesmbly, but you'll soon see the "vision" as construction continues.
Phase 2 of the office/library is the electrical rough-in and and any additional framing that needs to be done before insulating and sheetrocking.
I really like doing the electrical but I would be lying if I said I was a confident electrician.
Before, I always had my dad double checking my work to make sure it was right. Now, I'm on my own (well, with a few frantic emails sent overseas). I did do a little refresher via Google. I have put all the sockets on one line and I am convinced that I need to pull another line over to the light switches that will feed off to the three seperate light fistures (dad?). Hmmm...so can I connect those two main lines and put them on the same breaker (dad?). Please, please, please do not let my insurance agent read this!!!!
Its not that I have anything against paying for the permit or any of the monetary aspect...its just our house...there is no physical way that we could bring this 100+ year old house up to anything that resenbles "code." Its just easier this way...don't try to argue. Look at the picture of our existing electrical if you don't believe me. Someone fifty years ago thought..."hmm, we need 'nuther outlet in the bedroom. Well, let's just jerk in the wires from the kitchen and screw an extral terminal to this here board. Shoot, one of the screws missed the dang wood block. Ah well, it'll do."
February 11th. What a mess! The ceiling was half filled with cellulose insulation that had migrate from the exterior wall and
all filled with a hundred years of dirt that had worked its way down from the floor above.
this other "resident" used when it lived in our house.
West wall showing lathe exposed (notice all the dust in the air):
Blown-in insulation exposed:
Hard at work:
Check out the results!
We did our gift exchange that night since the weekend would be filled with family. Molly and I were overwhelmed with knitting goodies!!
They look totally thrilled, don't they? Two little packages of kitty treats...guess next year they should be better.
Himself's pile of loot. He pretty much scored books and gummies. Both items will probably last him about 8-10 weeks. Notice that his prezzies are sitting on the Canadian's new chess table.
Mmmmm....Tim Hortons. I guess the refills are only $4, but that is a hell of a distance to drive to fill'er up. We'll have to make sure we bring it on our next road trip to the Great North.
We have a special treat today. We are meeting a friend whose mom's church was ready to trash a huge room of yarn that had been originally collected to start a knitting group at their church. In a way we feel we are rescuing the yarn from certain death.
The rest of the night, Molly and I divided the yarn and finally had to resort to a coin toss when it came to some hanks of Rowan and some handspun Penguin yarns. We both agreed that this was well worth the 1500 mile drive to Kansas! The guys however (after much eyerolling at our pilles of wooly bliss), said thatt if either of us purchased any yarn before next July that we would be in serious trouble!
(although the new wool was calling at us...eventually we had to move the stash upstairs so it would have less influence).
games...we can't really bitch too much.
going to the shops in Newton, knitting, and doing our prezzie exchange before the big Family Rush on Day 4.
