Thursday, June 30, 2011

Renovation News

The renovation is moving right along. I’m hoping the sliding glass door will be in prior to the holiday. That would make me very happy.

Meanwhile, here are a few highlights since my last blog post. As always, there are entirely too many pictures on my flickr set (HERE).

One of the biggest days of excitement happened a few Fridays ago when we had a concrete pour for the area under the new deck. It was very interesting to watch. These guys really knew what they were doing and the Head Dude was obviously a perfectionist.

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After the pour dried for a few hours, one crew member came back to give it a power wash and acid bath, revealing the exposed aggregate concrete. I never thought I could get excited about concrete, but then I saw this:

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It’s beautiful. I love it.

While I was at The Mannings for my class, the contractors finished the treads on the stairs, which led to a text-message picture of the Hubster’s dress shoes standing on the deck, and me having to ask if that meant we had a door. It didn’t mean we had a door. It just meant that we had stairs.

Since my return, most of the work has been on the vinyl railing. Here’s a peek:

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I’d say that as of yesterday, the railing is about 75% finished. They’re waiting on some long pieces before they can totally finish it up. It’s easy to get excited about this project now that we can really see it taking shape. Hopefully I’ll be blogging about the interior work very soon!

Meanwhile, here’s how the exterior of the house looked as of close-of-business on Tuesday.

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Wednesday, June 29, 2011

WiP Wednesday

Well, hello! I’m kind of excited that after months of working in Word all day every day, I think this is the first time I’ve opened a new document in two weeks.

Yay fake-ation!

So my project from class at The Mannings is finished and I think I have enough pictures for a photo shoot. Maybe tomorrow or next week. The tiny bit of knitting time I’ve had lately has all gone into my Oakland Shawl

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I’m really enjoying this nice simple garter stitch knit.

After a week in Weaving Wonderland, I would love to be on the loom right now, but it’s under a dropcloth in the corner of the living room, behind a couch. So I may spend a bit of this afternoon winding a warp or two so I’m ready to get lots of stuff done as soon as the loom is set up in its new home.

Lots has been happening with the house. I’ll get a post up about that in the near future as well. Happy Wednesday!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Re-Entry

Hi there!

So I’m back from the first two of three non-home destinations of June. I survived the softball trip. It was hot, and once it got down to the final two teams, the one I was pulling for took home the title. Then I headed over to Columbus, Ohio, for TNNA, where I spent four days taking classes, eating well and walking around the market.

It was a full 14 days away from home and therefore exhausting, but all in all no serious complaints. I'm just trying to finish a gazillion little things before I leave home again on Sunday to head east for my class at The Mannings.

I know I’m a day late (and probably a dollar short), but I did take my WiP Wednesday pictures on … y’know … Wednesday, I just ran out of energy to blog last night after knit night. So here you go!

The Cleopatra socks were finished during the softball portion of the program. Then I cast on a plain vanilla pair in STR-M and blew through just about all of what you see below while walking the floor at TNNA.

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One of the yarns we are bringing into the store this fall is Kauni. I’ve had my eye on the Oakland Shawl for a year now, and have had the yarn for it in my house for nearly that long. So on Tuesday night, I cast on and got knitting. I’m loving it. Really.

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It’s been two weeks since I touched it, but I’m almost through my Classic Elite KAL sweater for the store KAL. Yay, chunky yarn and projects that go really quickly!

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And, of course, the biggest WiP around here is the house. Here’s a new pic of the exterior of the house. We’re really excited about the project and we are inching ever-closer to the finish line. I’ll post more pictures on my flickr page. Enjoy!

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