May I Have Some Swiss Cheese With My Whine?

It's been almost a month since I've reported in. I remember the old saying if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. That pretty much sums up my month. My family and close friends have heard me whine (and I'm publicly apologizing)...but I truly didn't want to whine all over blogville so at least I've held my tongue, somewhat.

My world has been turned upside down. But in light of recent world events (earthquakes, tornadoes, flooding, etc) and considering several quilting friends have lost loved ones and others are facing serious issues in their lives, I am ashamed that I've whined at all.

For you see, my little disaster was by choice...big difference.... Okay, I've repented (thanks to today's sermon actually) and I'm ready now to share the good of the past month and gloss over the trials. For as I was reminded this morning "In this world you WILL have trouble."

To recap...it all began with Hurricane Ike, Sept 2008....we had roof damage that wasn't resolved completely. Fast forward to August 2010 when we were introduced to a contractor who negotiated with the insurance company. As a result this past April 2011 construction began on a new roof as well as a new ceiling for the living room/kitchen/studio area that was damaged due to the leaking roof....

This began the spark of doing a little remodeling along with the repairs....Some of you may remember my Jericho wall that I wanted to come tumbling down....this wall separated my studio from a rather large laundry room which lead to the back door...

The end of April that wall came down! Take a good look at that lovely paneling. I've lived with these deer, hunters, and flying geese since we moved in October 2005 (this room must have been a man cave in it's previous life). Little by little some of the walls got painted...three outa four's not bad...oh how I won't miss that paneling!

So began the ceiling re-do, and if you are positively pumped to ponder on my past events you can go back and read Two P's in a POD....otherwise, trust me, it was a puzzling month...who knew it would take soooo long to do these repairs....sigh...excuse me, I feel a whine coming on...

I have to say that I was truly spared from some of the "down time" by my adventures with A1 Quilting Machine's A Team at MQS in Kansas the first part of May...I promise, I will recap that adventure in the future...but for now, it's all about trying not to whine as I share about my studio redo...(grin)

I've learned that the root word for construction is one part delays and the other part patience. I haven't done well with either of those new vocabulary words, but I'm getting more used to having them as part of my life. Rather familiar actually.

For clarification, I have two different contractors, one doing insurance repairs and one doing remodeling. As a refresher, we had to remove items in the rooms that were getting the new ceiling installed with Contractor #1 (the POD story again with the overflow being the other two rooms in the house, bedroom and man cave - I told folks the only place that wasn't messed up and had a place to sit was the bathroom, but that didn't count) In the interim we asked Contractor #2 to tear down the wall so the ceiling would be nice and purdy (that's Texas slang for pretty) across both the studio and the new expansion. Did I mention that POD's come with a one month rental? Hum...

Don't you think it makes sense that while everything is removed and stored safely in the POD that it would be a good time to make the newly expanded studio floor look all nice and purdy too? After all, the old studio had this old carpet and the annex (former laundry room) had old chipping painted concrete.....shouldn't there be some sort of continuity? And shouldn't we take advantage of the full month rental on that POD? I mean, seriously? Would we ever want to move all this stuff again?

Re-enter Contractor #2...yeah! Remove that old carpet!! Time for something new! I had big plans for a special floor!

During the "wait" time between Contractor #1 finishing up the ceiling and Contractor #2 ordering the flooring it was time to finally paint ALL the walls the same color. Good bye flying geese paneling, good bye ugly white paneling behind the washer and dryer....hello Purple Mist...finally, all walls the same color!

Only Purple Mist didn't look so purple any more. It actually looked like a pale pink. Hum. I'm not a pale-pink-person. Really not a pale-pastel-of-any color sort of person. Sigh....

Did I mention my few days away from the construction dust? I came home from MQS with some very yummy Sew Batik flannels...seems I'm just drawn to tropical island type colors...and ya' see that basket above...I have several of those sprinkled about the studio (or rather I did before they all ended up in the POD). Seems these are pretty colors together....

Soooooo... DESIGN CHANGE!

Yep, I have the most wonderful husband...he'd no sooner finished painting all the walls Purple Mdist when I asked him to repaint in Tiggerific. And he did!

In the meantime I learned from Contractor #2 that the mat flooring I had dreamed of for the studio was on back order and the manufacturer didn't recommend it for my intended use. Another design change.... (and that delay word again)

Pixxie is just so helpful. Here we are trying to pick out VCT tiling... I'll spare you the story of coming up with a quilt block design for the entire floor...that was a painful design process as the color palette was limited (not bright enough for my taste) and then the colors that I thought would work were back ordered and then I changed the quilt design and things still weren't working out....remember that vocabulary word delay...it's kissin' cousins to disappointment .... well, that's one of the whines I'm trying to gloss over...

So in the meantime....what goes with orange walls?

How about Lime Pop and Bright Black Raspberry?

I know, I know... some of you are thinking that all this down time from quilting has totally thrown me off my rocker...well, there have been days that my family threatened to have me committed....but it wasn't over the paint colors!

Who else do you know that has a lime green laundry room?!?!?! And I painted that room myself - only because it's going to be behind closed doors! This was my first attempt at painting and hands down, hubby is much better than I am! By the way, eventually those accordion doors will become my design wall....stay tuned! (at the rate we're going, it may be awhile).

Delays continued and I was getting antsy. I'd been away from the longarm and sewing machine way too long. My niece's graduation was fast approaching (and her birthday came and went) - it was past time for my promised Autograph Quilt...

Oh, did I mention that the POD rental had expired? Yep, all that STUFF had to go somewhere... The living room is impassable, trust me. There's just a path to a small cleared off area for Pixxie to reclaim "her spot" on the couch. (Now technically there is another place to sit besides the throne in the bathroom).

So back to the quilt...I found it almost impossible to work in chaos...the pressure was on, the following day was her last day at school...kinda hard to get autographs AFTER school is over...and did I mention this was the same day I discovered we'd unplugged the freezer while painting trim four days before and neglected to replug it at the end of the day...oh, I'm sorry...pass the cheese please...it will go well with all the frozen fruit that is no longer frozen. Sorry about that favorite bag of "Sonic ice"and all the smoked turkey and chicken... who's cooking these days anyway? Did I mention that I can't find the kitchen cabinets either... Okay...sorry, got distracted...I did get the quilt top pieced and she picked it up on her way to her last day of school...one day I'll get it back and quilt it (and post photos).

This too shall pass...or melt as the case may be...on to happier things! What else can a quilter do who is displaced? Hang quilts of course! Or at least some of them. Yep, it was time to trick my mind into recognizing that this will one day be a studio again....and that there WILL BE a floor to go with it....

By the way, this is hubby's favorite quilt. I made it in 2004 around my birthday, it's called Somewhere in Time, Past Meets Present...It has always hung behind my longarm, so it's tradition...(did you say that like Fiddler on the Roof? if not, go back and re-read that line with the proper enunciation). Tra-di-tion! Or in my case, some sense of much needed normality!

Okay, with all the design change and delays something unique happened. I found a hum-dinger of a deal on Shocking pink floor tiles. Yep, no pastel for this gal, hot pink or bust! Can you see the stack of tile on the end of the longarm? Better yet, click on Shocking and you'll see it up close and personal! And those folks at Home Depot just thought they'd never find someone crazy enough to take that return off their hands....I've gone back several times since purchasing this for other items and they all know me at the lady who bought all THAT pink flooring....

Those cabinets were another fire-sale-deal-buster. Gotta love those Memorial Day sales! Technically, they were free or almost...from the money I saved on the flooring....it's that higher form of math that only women understand (but honey, I saved this much so I spent it on this other thing...)

Okay, so they were unfinished, no problem, I've learned to paint!...White Fur is a perfect blend to the other furniture that will go back into the studio. And I wear it so well ... I'm an overly messy painter, my new shorts are now my painting-only-shorts-never-again-to-be seen-in-public-shorts. I must say there's a nice mixture of Lime Pop, Bright Black Raspberry AND White Fur that shall serve as my future fond memories of this experience one of a kind outfit. (I didn't do any Tiggerific painting, left that to the expert!)

Finally, the much awaited day arrived! They were coming to lay my floor! All the remaining Big Stuff that could be moved outside had to go...did I mention that we hit 100 degrees that day? Broke all sorts of records...

What wasn't easily removable was put on the "top level" that used to be the large laundry room behind that deer/flying geese paneled wall. Notice my precious pup, she's once again taking her modeling role seriously by showing how these two areas are not level (honestly, she stood that way on her own) ...indeed, there's a upper level and a lower level...an issue due to the fact this used to be a garage (prior to our purchasing of the house, as mentioned, the room claimed as my studio was wall to wall flying geese and deer paneling back in October 2005). This "step up" is an unresolved issue at the time of this writing - stay tuned for a creative solution....which I hope will come soon...I know what I want to do, but am having a hard time finding the right materials...sigh...I'm beginning to spell delay in my sleep, that and design change....

Let the flooring begin!!!

Doesn't Pixxie look fabulous surrounded by Shocking Pink and Tiggerific Orange?

And that's all she wrote. On that day at least...another delay....sigh...that was 6/2, Thursday ( 4 days ago) and this is as far as they got. But it's a start and I can visualize it, can't you?

Life does go on, and I realize this blog has too. Bless your heart for sticking with me this long! The above photo was last night...The lower level was laid on Friday and the upper level and newly enclosed laundry room was laid Saturday -- see my Bright Black Raspberry trim on the floor to the left of the longarm? Sigh...that's all that's separating me from moving back into my studio....did I mention that I painted that? Outside...on the day we hit 100 degrees.

So while I'm waiting I've finished painting the cabinets - that's where they are going to wind up (above photo), as an island, one side on the lower level and one side on the upper level, helping to camouflage that "step up". This will be added storage as well as my sewing and cutting center. I can hardly wait! More photos on that progression to come too.

And yes, I'm a little stir crazy...I painted the breaker box Bright Black Raspberry to match my trim and the outlet covers...yep, probably the only gal in town with a colorful breaker box!

So, that's my edited whine. It's been a difficult month (or more) having workers in and out of our home. Crippling almost, there were times I felt like I was held captive. I don't function well in chaos, so most of my time was spent under the tiki hut reading magazines or on facebook. Not real productive to say the least. A forced vacation that wasn't as relaxing as it should have been...only because of my attitude and lack of gratefulness....something I seriously repented of today.

Yes, life is full of struggles. Some we bring on ourselves, some we have no control over, all can be handled if we remember Who is in charge...something my pastor once said "what is over your head is under His feet. He will deliver and respond at the perfect time."

Tonight I am reflecting on being grateful. Grateful that an insurance problem was resolved and we now have a roof over our heads that has passed windstorm inspection. Grateful that these repairs included the ceiling which gave me the opportunity to enlarge my studio. Grateful that the original flooring I wanted wasn't available and that the floor that was provided was not only more "me" (hot pink) but also at a fraction of the cost of the original design. And yes, I'm Grateful to my friends who have put up with "the rest of the story" and "behind the scenes" whines and frustrations. Soon I will be grateful to be moving back in my studio. I hope you will continue to share the journey with me--- there's oh so much more!

And it's all good. Ultimately it's all good.

...for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. Philippians 4:11 (for me, personally, I'm learning...)

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

Look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,

In the light of His glory and grace.