I have some small house updates but i’ll put those off until tomorrow because last night I finished up Autumn in My Garden!!! pattern by Mirabilia. She’s on 40 count thread, stitched 1 thread over 2.
Autumn – Finished
Autumn in my Garden – Finished
Autumn Progress – one page to go
Of the 4 pages I’m down to the last one! Just her head and 2 leaves left to stitch (plus the simple border). Here’s an updated picture!
I’m excited – I really enjoy picking up this piece in the evenings and find it hard to put down!
Autumn in My Garden progress
I’ve made a bit of progress on Autumn in my Garden – the bottom half of the piece is completed and rolled – working on the jacket of the maiden now. Lots of leaves to stitch.
Here’s a look at the bottom before I rolled it…
Master Bedroom
This weekend we finished up the master bedroom. Of course we have a few small things to do like install the ceiling fan and make shelves for the built-ins but mostly it’s done and we are moved in! These pictures are from Saturday morning before we finished up a few more small things and moved our furniture in, then I added a pic with our furniture so you can really see how big the room is (it surprised us) – we thought it would feel small after putting a king bed in.
Painting complete! Alex even put the outlet covers on for us.
A view of the closet – the closet is significantly fuller after Sunday’s project of filling it 🙂
Bathroom view – and yes we are missing 1 outlet cover 🙂
Closet door
And finally some pictures with our furniture in.
We are taking a break from working on the house in the evenings for a bit. I will do some small things like install the fan and the hardware in the bathroom but mostly we want to relax after the big push to get this room done!
Royalty ABC
I will do the house blog update tomorrow – but the big news is that we moved into the master bedroom this weekend! It’s done!
Last week however I finished up a piece that I had started back in 2010 – it is a class piece from Celebrations that Jeanette Douglas taught. I made 1 minor modification to remove the row that had crosses and that meant moving around a couple of rows to keep the balance equal. It was a fun piece and I’m looking forward to framing it.
Mostly stitched from 2010-2012 the finished up (just below the heart really) after Celebrations this year.
Mother’s Day Surprise
Last week while I was in CA for work, Ryan worked on my Mother’s Day surprise – our bedroom and most specifically our closet! The hard part, sanding, priming and sanding trim was all done when I got home Friday! We spent the weekend trading off painting time and kid playing time – getting the closet completely done (trim and walls) as well as the trim paint started in the bedroom.
Details – first Ryan finished up the trim in the closet ceiling (boxing out the light). Then all the holes that had been filled had to be sanded. All the trim was primed (his dad helped!) and then everything was sanded again.
I caulked the bedroom trim (Ryan had done the closet already as that was his main goal to finish) and we got the doors almost completely painted too (1 coat left on 1 side). The bedroom is so close!
Last night we started hanging the closet system that we bought Saturday. I picked up the last pieces we need today so tonight we can put in the shelves!! Paper will come off the floor (in there) and we can hang the closet door even!
Closet painting finished … i really should pick out a light for in here!
The breaker box could use some cleaning off 🙂
Doors painted! That glass one is for the closet!
A view of the trim/built-ins.
Oh and Brad came over and installed our toilet and vanity! I just have to put in the toilet seat and we have to put in the backsplash and those will be done. The mirror is ready to hang and I put in the light the weekend before. Some shoe molding and electrical and the bathroom will be done.
Toilet and vanity installed!
Vanity Light – and a view with the tile floor mat in front of the vanity
We’ll be moved in this weekend hopefully! Just have to keep up the painting momentum – even through child illnesses the progress has continued.
Front Porch Progress
Ryan has been working hard on the front porch (with help from his dad!). The framing is finished up, the roof is zipped (zip system including tape). The soffet returns have to be framed out still – probably this weekend. We’ve also picked out our decking material (Trex) and color (color was a tough one to choose!). I’m sure roof work (soffits) will continue this weekend and I’m hoping to have time to work on the master bedroom/bathroom painting project soon too.
New porch
The porch is 8×8 ft and matches the dormers very well size and angle wise!
Bella modelling for me with a close up
Hopefully it won’t be too long now before we have our new roof on and this will be really water tight!
Front Porch
Now that the master bedroom floor is done and it’s just painting left the focus switched to the front porch. We are adding a front porch to protect the door and match the dormers. The first step was digging some 4′ deep holes for footings and filling those. Mark and Ryan spent a few days digging and then about an hour to finish them up. I wish I had gotten a picture of the open holes, it was impressive!
New footings – we’re leaving the stairs hidden under the porch
One for alex
and one for Bella
The inspector kindly came out late friday night to inspect the holes so the footings were done Saturday and on Sunday the framing could be started!
The bottom part is done (we have not yet picked out decking!)
Last night we had materials delivered (finally the rain stopped) and Ryan and Mark started on the roof portion!
They have all the rafters cut I believe and hope to work again tonight on it.
The current push to get the porch done is to get it to the point where the roof can be done. We are having a metal standing seam roof installed in early May and need this porch done (framing) before hand. The decking and ‘decoration’ like post details and railings can be done later. I believe once the rafters and zip are on the roof then it’s doing the soffits and tieing them into the house and then we’re ready for the roofer.
Stitching – Autumn in my Garden
I’ve hit a milestone (finishing the pumpkins) with a large piece i’m stitching lately called Autumn in my Garden by Mirabilia. I’m stitching this on 40ct fabric so it’s 1 strand of thread (dmc) over 2 threads and includes some beads. This piece will have companion pieces for each season but I started with this one a few years ago because it’s my favorite.
Autumn in my Garden April 2017 Progress
There are various leaves to stitch next and then it will be rolled up so I can start the top 1/2 which is less dense and should go quicker. The leaves have a lot of colors so those will take a while.
In house news : We finished the floor poly coats Friday and Saturday of our ‘vacation’. It’s now cured enough that we can safely put paper down and start the painting process this weekend! In a few weeks we’ll be able to put a rug down and move in!
Staycation Master Suite
It’s our annual April vacation where the kids go to daycare and we stay home and work on the house – coincides with our birthdays. This year the focus was on the master suite (just a few more weeks and we’ll have our own room!).
Monday was Alex’s birthday so we did a family fun day but we worked Sunday (Saturday was alex’s bday party), Tues-Friday. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday the focus was on finishing the trim in the Master and painting the master bathroom. Ryan got the built-ins finished and all the trim installed by Wed night night. I painted Tuesday and Wednesday (2 coats on the trim and 1 coat on the walls). So the master bathroom just needs one more coat on the walls.
Same blue as the small bathroom
The master bathroom trim is white (Ben Moore Chantilly Lace to be exact) – the rest of the house is Linen White (more off white) but we thought with the tile the bright white looked better.
Left built-in finished!
Technically the built-ins need shelves still but the grooves for putting the brackets in are there so it’s just a matter of making the shelves and installing the brackets.
Closet is trimmed out as well – the light box has to be trimmed out but that’s it.
Doors and chair rail all done – even the little closet is trimmed out
Thursday was flooring day! First we sanded – that took all afternoon, then after a dinner out I went back and did the first coat of poly
First round of sanding
1st coat done!
These are the same as the other bedroom – cherry – but a bit more variety in color I feel like. It’s beautiful! Today is our last actual vacation day, we got the sanding done and Ryan is doing the 2nd coat of poly. Saturday I’ll come over and do the third and by Sunday night we’ll be back in the house (we are staying at my parents while the poly dries) – the fumes generally bother me but it is pretty contained to the bedroom only and the weather is PERFECT for drying the floors quickly and leaving the windows open over night.
We’ve got 3 weeks before we can put a rug in so we have the time to get the trim and walls all painted. Going to be a busy few weeks as we can’t wait to get in there!