I am Home! - Renovation

I am finally home to stay after being away and living in temporary accommodation for nearly 2 months. Big Smile!

I moved out November 28th and I am back on January 25th. That is 58 days. Of course, I have been back often managing the decisions, roadblocks, and challenges that come with this size of restoration.  But with no bathroom the visits were interesting. Thank goodness there was one working toilet in the exercise room downstairs which made it manageable. 

This is the bathroom with the new vanity. Turns out I needed a new faucet which I found out when the plumbers were in to restore the water to my place on Thursday. With a bit of research, I made a decision, purchased it, and had it installed Friday morning. It did leak which required the plumber to return in the afternoon and tighten the drain just enough.  It was good to go.

Here's the updated kitchen with the new floor.  More details will be coming.

I brought home my dry goods box, 2 coolers, my winter clothes bag and my plants from the temporary  accommodations.  I also had an overnight bag and a larger suitcase. A few craft supplies.

All the clothes which were washed while I was away needed to be rewashed as the detergent they provided was heavily perfumed.That took 4 loads of laundry to get the task done.

Needed to have a cup of tea!

First meal home.  Frozen pasta dinner with added veggies. Lit with diecutting corner light, eating on camping dishes but on a table in it's place with placemats and table cloth.

A good book.

I met a friend for breakfast today as we missed her birthday in December as well as our Christmas get together.

She gave me flowers as a welcome home gift.

I have a great book to read.

The TV is still buried behind boxes so that will be still a few days.

There a few jobs of fixing to do.

Some updating to kitchen cupboards.

Rethinking the color scheme now that the cupboards are grey. Removing the RAM board from the living room floor but it is fine! And a deep clean of  everything to remove construction dust. It has been quite a renovation.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

 My plants are doing well in temporary accommodations.  They still have an east window like they did at home. 

The African Violets bloomed so it was happy.

There was a good dining room light which kept them company.

It was bitterly cold this Sunday so I stayed in and watched TV.

I had access to Youtube so I was able to watch my regular Sunday posters.

The scope of work for the kitchen did not include anything other than the front of the cupboards.  

Of course, the bottom edges were brown to match the previous color.  Once the restoration project was finished I used the leftover paint to do the those edges to match the fronts.

Really helped the look of the kitchen.

The plumbers were in on Thursday to reconnect all the water related items.  Kitchen sink, dishwasher, bathroom sink, toilet, and the laundry center.

This was the message left by the plumbers.

Would I still be able to move home when I planned?  

This experience has taught me to roll with the punches and keep moving.  

I talked to the carpenter for his opinion, then my brother in law and then headed out to buy a new faucet. I then called our building plumbing company and I was able to get the faucet installed on Friday.  Yes. 

Bright and early the plumber was there to install the faucet.

At the same time the company hired by my insurance was there to put in place the fridge, stove, the freezer and the pine cabinets on either side.  Busy time!

I thought I would get the bathroom set up first and then at 11:30 am or so I opened the vanity in the bathroom to this!  A leak!

I called the was given a site visit in the next few hours.

What to do now?

I chose to be productive and painted the bottom of the cabinet under the sink.

It is just particle board and over the years it had lost it's finish.

I used semi gloss in the same color as the walls in the place.  

It really brighten up the space to match the rest of the kitchen.

The plumber returned about 1:30pm and gave the drain just a bit of a turn.   Then tested the drain with 3 full sinks of water and all was dry!

So at 2 pm it was confirmed that I could move home.  I brought most of my stuff back home but stayed one more night because check out time was 11 am and at that time I still did not know if everything was going to be okay to move back.

I was checked out by 8 am and headed home with my overnight bag and my back pack.

I started cleaning.

I headed out for brunch with my friend which I have not seen since the fall.

We had a great visit, great food, and a relaxing time.

Slow Stitching 2025 - Week 4

This is week 4 of the 2025 Slow Stitching Comfort Coverlet hosted by K3N Cloth Tales.

This week I couched a circle of white tiny rick rack all the way around the outer circle of my design.

I really enjoyed the couching and I think it solidified the outside circle.

I have gone ahead with my stitching because I may be moving back home this week. Yeah!

Slow Stitching 2025 - Week 3

This is week 3 of the Comfort Coverlet Slow Stitching 2025 project hosted by K3N Cloth Tales. 

I continued to work on this January piece by adding the frame.  I used 2 strands of green embroidery floss with a running stitch.

I stayed 1 inch away from the outside edge to allow for assembly later on.

I added the seed stitching in the four corners with ecru pearl cotton. 

Slow Stitching 2025 - Week 2

I have added symbols on my loose family tree circles.

Dad is the closest circle in blue with a green dot.

Mom is the next circle with the blue dot then I added a heart between them.

I have several aunts on Mom's side that I am close to.

Next are my siblings and I am close to all my sisters.

Next are the grandkids of which I am close to a couple of the girls.

Next is the great grandkids of which I am close to one of them.

So nice to have strong women in my family circle. 

Slow Stitching 2025 - Week 1

Here's my first piece for the Comfort Coverlet.

I made the fabric 12x12 inches and tea dyed it.

I have made several circles on it and stitched them with the stem stitch in several colors.

I am planning on adding elements on the circles to loosely represent women in my family that are important to me.

Not sure what to use for the elements.  If it turns out to be a comfort cloth they should be soft.

Options:

Buttons, beads, sequins, felt shapes, and probably many more.

See what this week brings.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

I finished this book this week.  It was a quick read and I could not put it down.

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods.  

There are 2 story lines. The first is Opaline Carlisle/Grey who runs away to Ireland to avoid an arranged marriage in the 1920's and becomes a book seller in Dublin. It was very interesting to have Sylvia Beach who owned Shakespeare and Company in Paris in that time period appear in this story.  I read a book about her in this post.

The other is Martha and Henry in modern times with cell phones.  Martha is also running away from an abusive husband.  Henry is doing research for his thesis. Some of the abuse Martha suffered was quite uncomfortable to read about.

Henry starts in one direction but changes the focus of his thesis by the end of the book.

There is a fantastical aspect to the story where the premise is that books find the people who need to read them in the 1920 story.  In the house in Dublin, things are not all as they appear. 

Great read

A Train in Winter by Caroline Moorehead.

I started this book a couple of times but could not finish it.  I generally love World War II stories but this book had too much historical information in it.

A lot of detail about the players in WWII in France and the resistance movement.