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.