I'm Quilting Again!

I'm finally quilting again after a few weeks off.  I've been working on a quilt Daughter 2 started when she was home for Spring Break - a charity quilt for her sorority.  I hope to finish it this week.  Plus I've been hand quilting on my colorful quilt - the one that was originally meant to be a background.  And why don't I have pictures of said quilts?

I've put away (LOST!) my camera.  I know it's around here somewhere.  I'm just not sure where I hid it.  So you get to see yet another photo from last year's Europe trip.  This picture was taken on Lake Lucerne in Switzerland.

Around the home front. we had three showings this week, but no offers as of yet.  Today our agent is holding an Open House.  The forecast calls for thunder storms and possible tornadoes. Let's hope the storms pass by before the Open House.

Yesterday was gorgeous around here - warm and sunny.  Hubby and I drove to the potential new neighborhood, parked the car in front of the potential new house, and went for a nice walk around the area.  I hope we're not jinxing the process by claiming the neighborhood as our own prematurely.

Spring

The Dogwoods aren't blooming yet, but they will be soon.  I'm so ready for Spring and warm weather.  Spring always energizes me!  And I can always use more energy.

We had a house showing yesterday.  I hear the woman liked everything except our master bath.  She was hoping for a jetted tub, separate shower, all the bell and whistles.  If we had a master bathroom like that, the house would be priced much higher.  Our realtor did say that the woman would bring back her husband next week.

Today was another showing.  The couple stayed an hour!  How do I know that?  I put the dachshunds in the car with me and parked around the corner.  We shared an egg salad sandwich and iced tea.  After reading today's paper and two magazines, I got bored so we left and filled my car with gas.  When we came back to the neighborhood, they were gone.

I'm a fast shopper, whether buying clothes, furniture, or even a house.  I knew within 30 seconds of walking into the new house that it was perfect.  So for them to stay an hour - seems promising, maybe? 

I Have an Itch!

This picture has absolutely nothing to do with anything.  I took it in Europe last year.  I hate to post without a picture.

Spring Break ends today with Daughter 2 returning to college.  Hubby and I continue to tweak our house, hoping to make it irresistible to home buyers.  Yesterday we had the driveway, sidewalk, deck, and back patio pressure washed. Hubby pulled weeds, and I touched up paint. Hubby cleaned the garage last weekend, loading all the piles of stuff we want to keep (but we don't want seen) in my car.  My Sequoia, which normally can seat 7, can now only seat 2.  

I've been hiding (putting away) things that are usually conveniently laying around.  In the process, I lost my cell phone charger.  I searched the house for 3 days looking for it.  I was long overdue to upgrade my phone, so instead of buying a new charger, I  bought a new phone for the same price of a replacement charger.

Today we're looking into replacing a couple of appliances (cooktop and oven/microwave).  We're ready to do what it takes to sell this house.  Eighteen years ago when we bought this house, there was nothing new about it.  It has green appliances (and I don't mean energy efficient!), shag carpet, and dark paneling.  But nowadays, we are all schooled in home staging from hours of watching HGTV.  And now buyers expect homes to look as if Lisa Laporta from Designed to Sell has just spent a couple of weeks in your home.  I'm trying, Lisa!

Today I'm going to do a bit of caulking in the master bath, touch up some trim paint, and yes, shop for appliances.  So what kind of itch do I have?  AN ITCH TO QUILT!

My New Sewing Room???

The realtor sign went up in our yard yesterday and the lockbox was installed this morning.  Now we wait for showings to start happening.  Somehow I thought that as soon as the new sign went up, the phone would start ringing to schedule appointments.  But I know it is Spring Break week for all the local schools, so many families are out of town or busy.  Patience!  I must be patient!

I know it doesn't look like much now, but the photo above shows my sewing room in the new house.  The picture was taken from the attic, looking through what will be the closet and then into the studio itself.  The builder has agreed to finish the room for us.  It will have beadboard walls and hardwood floors.  It has a window at each end of the room.  Of course, all this is IF, IF, IF we sell our house.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Let's Make a Deal

Isn't this a lovely bit of crochet?  I do love it!  Remember I taught Daughter 2 to crochet while she was home for Christmas?  She started making this ripple blankie.  She brought it home last week for Spring Break; she making so much progress.  The stitches are even and perfect.  The colors are wonderful.  I want to make a ripple, too....

So here's the house news.  A counter offer came back on Thursday.  In other words, our last offer was not accepted.  But we were getting closer.  Friday, my FIL had an arteriogram.  Friday Daughter 2 came home for Spring Break.  Saturday, Daughter 2 went back to school.  Finally on Sunday we sat down and went over all the numbers.  We decided to go back with one more counter offer.  Today we got the news:

We are under contract to buy the house!!!!!!!!!  Very excited, indeed.

But of course, it's still not a done deal.  We have to now focus on selling our current house.  We're ready to get serious with this.  I'd hate for it to fall through now!  We hope it will happen fast! 

Waiting...

We made a counter offer on the potential new house last night.  We've decided this will be our last offer.  If it's not accepted, we will take the For Sale sign out of our yard.  No point in selling our house, if we don't have another one waiting.  And that will be okay.

Consolidation

I've spent some time this week going through drawers, boxes, and bins in my studio.  I'm trying to downsize my stuff in case we move.  Yesterday afternoon I attacked my scrap bucket.  It's been overflowing for months now.  I throw all my scrap in there - not a good idea.  I couldn't imaging moving this mess to a new house.  

My goal was to reduce the scraps so they would fit in the smaller bin beside the bucket above. So I sorted the scraps and got rid of the smallest ones that I know I'll never use.  Then I tore the bigger pieces into strips.  Strips are so easy to work with; I know with the scraps already in strips that I'll be more likely to use them.
Success!  The strips fit very nicely in the smaller bin.  I wish I'd done this years ago.  From now on, all my leftover scraps will become strips before I store them.

We still don't know if the new house will work out.  They countered on our offer yesterday. We're still miles apart.  We'll probably counter back tonight or tomorrow.  Meanwhile, I'll keep cleaning and sorting.  

The End of the Sofa

The was taken Sunday night - Oliver snuggling with hubby's feet.  Oliver owns that end of the sofa.  If someone is sitting in his spot, he'll bark at them until they move to another seat.  It reminds me of Sheldon on Big Bang Theory - he has claim to the same spot on his sofa.  If you haven't watched that show, try it sometime.  It's laugh-out-loud funny.  It's about four nerdy guys and the waitress who lives across the hall.  We are a family of nerds, so we love it.

On the home front, we had lots of visitors to our open house Sunday.  No offers yet.  We however, had made an official offer on the potential new house, but haven't heard if it has been accepted yet.  Daughter 2 is spending her week sewing her sorority's charity quilt and studying. Daughter 1 will be home for her Spring Break next week.  She has a big job interview in Atlanta tomorrow - GOOD LUCK EMILY!!!  So we'll have one daughter leaving this weekend as the other arrives.  And hubby and I get two weeks of Spring Break, which we love.

For Sale by Owner

My focus this week has been on this.  I'm looking forward to focusing on quilting again, but hopefully that will come sooner rather than later.  We've spent the week with paper, pencil, and calculator, number crunching and reviewing home features.  We've continued to study lots of houses which are currently on the market.  All this research and study has led us to the conclusion that the house we found last weekend is THE ONE.

We finally have an ad in the paper for our current house today, along with a second Open House this afternoon.  It will be interesting to see how much traffic the ad brings - hopefully lots!  Hubby will man the Open House this afternoon, while Daughter 2 (who arrived home for Spring Break yesterday) and I run some errands.  She brought home quilt blocks made by her sorority.  We're going to shop for fabric for sashing and will make the quilt this week.

If we don't have someone interested in our house soon, we are planning to list it with an agent, but we'd much rather sell it ourselves.  So keep your fingers crossed for us today!

My New Toy

I bought a Featherweight!!!!  I've always wanted one.  Several members of my quilt guild have them, bringing them to retreats for piecing.  I'm always hearing about their perfect stitches and easy portability.  I know, I needed another sewing machine like I need another dog.  Whatever. 

I bought it at a nearby estate sale.  The older couple had both died in a car accident - a drunk driver ran into them.  So sad.  The woman had been a quilter and a quilt collector.  I've never seen so many old quilts in one place!  She also had old quilt blocks, tons of quilting books, thread, notions, fabric...you name it, she had it.  She had two Featherweights, plus another old machine.  I got one, and two of my fellow guild members bought the other machines.

I don't know ANYTHING about Featherweights, but I'll have fun learning.  My machine also came with the original table that it fits in giving it a level sewing surface.  I was told that it's a nice thing to have.  It didn't come with a carrying case, but I'm not too worried about that.  I plan on cleaning it up and getting it in great working order.  When I will do this - who knows!  It will be on the back burner while we're dealing with selling our house and buying another one.

We've had a lot of house showings this week.  We're going to keep it for sale by owner through the weekend, then list it with an agent next week if it hasn't sold by then. Meanwhile, I continue to sort through stuff, trying to get rid of as much as I can.  We are not trying not to get our hopes up.  We know our house may not sell quickly.  And we will not take on a new house without selling this one.  The good thing is that we don't have to move.

Off the Wall

Patches came off the wall this weekend.  It's time for him to travel to the AQS show in Lancaster.  But before he goes I have to put a sleeve on the back.  I can't believe I have to unsew the top binding to do this.  Why didn't I put the sleeve on in the first place!!!?  If I remember correctly, I was hurrying to finish the quilt to meet a deadline to enter it in another quilt show and decided I could add the sleeve later.  Later is now!  But first I'll take my parents for their eye appointments this morning.

So what else is new around here?  LOTS!!!  Hubby and I have been casually looking at houses lately, thinking we want to downsize a bit.  But we haven't seen anything that was perfect enough to make us want to go through the dreaded moving process.  Until Saturday.

We found a house we really love.  On the spur of the moment, we put a "For Sale by Owner" sign in our yard yesterday, along with an "Open House" sign.  No ad in the paper yet.  It was pretty successful - we had 6 visits, plus several phone calls.  All that with no advertising!  There is a house around the corner for sale - the realtor also held an open house and she only had 1 visit - and that's with lots of advertising!

We're in a good position - we don't have to move.  It would be great if it works out, but if it doesn't, it won't be a disaster.