Construction, Day 5

We passed our rough framing and electrical inspections on Wednesday!  Hooray!!  There were several things that also got done.

Insulation on the outside walls.

Heating vent.

The line that's furthest to the left is the bathroom fan vent. 

They will have to cut a hole through to the outside of the house to complete this.

On Thursday, these small holes will be connected and and a large hole dug out for the toilet composter.  Putting a bathroom in a basement isn't easy.

Thankfully, I slept through all the noise.  My fibromyalgia is acting up because of not getting enough sleep.  I am more exhausted than usual, in a lot of pain, and feel like I have the flu.  It'll be nice when this project is finished and our house is ours once again!

Construction, Days 3 & 4

The framing has been completed and will be inspected today.  I believe the electrical is also complete and should be inspected either today or tomorrow.  Due to go in today are the CAT5 (computer), telephone, and cable jacks.  It's expensive to have those run, even though it's mere feet from the box in the basement that houses all of them to the new space.  Everything costs more here in New York!

Bathroom fan/light/heater

This opening is for the egress window.  It looks to be as wide as the window that is already there, but longer.

If you look carefully, you will see a large opening; a standard DVD rack will be inserted here and finished off with moulding to look like a custom piece.  Our wonderful contractor suggested this.

Anthony's Stocking

Grace asked for a new Christmas stocking - was it last year? - and with Anthony joining our family, I committed to making new ones for both of them.  They each chose one view from Simplicity 3970 (now out of print).  Anthony's was the traditional one, and I sat down on Monday to put it together. 

The cuff was an my own addition.

Perhaps tomorrow I will work on Grace's stocking.

Stokoe Farms 2009

Every year we visit a nearby Christmas tree farm.  We no longer purchase a live tree, as I discovered many years ago that I am allergic to them, but we enjoy going out to the farm, walking among the trees, spending time with the animals, partaking of the hot chocolate and sugar cookies, and browsing the gifts in the Christmas shop.  We take our dog, Kelly, with us, and she has a wonderful time.  This year, she spent much more time than usual rolling around in the snow!

 

 

 Grace, Anthony & Kelly

 

New Purse

On Thursday evening, I finally completed my newest purse.  I used my favorite Lazy Girl pattern, the Miranda Day Bag.  I prefer my purses to be a bit more formal than funky, and this one was even more formal than others I've made.  I have wanted a nice black purse for a while, but every time I looked for fabric, I could find one black pattern, but not a second, so the last time Sarah and I were at our local non-chain fabric store, I decided to splurge and get some nice fabric.  Patricia's has the most wonderful selection of good quality quilting fabrics, yet I still had trouble finding what I wanted!  In the end, I'm pleased with my choices, and can't wait to begin using my new purse!

Inside

Construction, Day 2

Waking up to bang, bang, and more bang is not a pleasing way to begin a Friday, or any day for that matter!  Nonetheless, this will be my lot in life for a couple of weeks.

A crew of four completed most of the framing, and even left early.  That gave me time to sweep and wash the part of the kitchen floor where they had tracked slush and sawdust from the back door to the basement door.  Here's Friday's progress:

I learned several things yesterday.  First, I have to be prepared to wash the floor and vacuum the rugs by the back entry every day during the construction.  Next, I need to put an old hand towel in the powder room, and pick up the rug in front of the sink.  The latter had sawdust all over it and needed a good washing by the end of the day.  Last, we must bring a cat litter box upstairs while them men are here so we don't have a repeat of
Fridays's incident in which one of the cats, who shall remain nameless, used the dog's crate as a bathroom.  Yuck.

Hooray for the weekend, sleeping in, and silence!

Construction, Day 1

Winter decided to make a dramatic entrance here, starting Wednesday.  By Thursday morning, a nearby county had a "no unnecessary travel" ban, and travel in our county was difficult.  Consequently, our contractor was late coming, and when he did get here, we spent a good deal of time discussing the configuration of the space.  At last that was accomplished, and the noise began!  All that was accomplished Thursday was anchoring the pressure treated lumber to the floor, but on Friday, the framing will begin.

The boards on the floor really are straight - taking panoramic pictures requires some skill.  Hopefully, by the end of the project, I'll be much better!