Siding

It has become my habit to drive by the house right after church and yesterday I gasped with joy when I saw this color! So happy and pretty, especially against the yellow base siding. 

Now that's a lot of aqua!

The garage floor has been poured and the front and back porches are being framed up for their concrete. Lots more homes have been started, so it's quite a busy spot. Not to mention the crowds following runners on the Chattanooga Marathon. We are just a few yards from Main Street where parades usually happen. And I just discovered (for Dave) a new little bakery, within a 3 minute walk. O boy. I can see him volunteering to walk the dogs and get a sweet roll as his reward.
Today my sister Brooke and I are traveling to Ikea in Atlanta, and I am going to get some stuff for the new house. In the 70's and sunny, so it will be a lovely drive. 2 hours.
And if that isn't enough, the photographer for the realtor is coming and so the house is in PERFECTION mode for a few more hours, and then we'll go back to real life. I am glad to be out of the way for this event.
We have ideas for the tiny garden at the new place....I saw this on Pinterest and thought, hmmm.

Forgetting and Remembering

Lately I have been obsessed with the paintings of Robert Langford. I've been studying them and wanting to paint something like them and finally getting out the paint and canvas and giving it a go.

I made a few studies, did some smaller versions, in an attempt to get the scale and variety right. Finally I felt I was ready to tackle a large canvas and do my version of his work. Like a student copying the great masters...but in the middle of the big canvas I was dumbstruck... 

 These are all his...
Wait just a minute...Haven't I done something like this already, way back when? What was it that attracted me to his work? The shapes and the space between them. Ye-es. I went back to some old photos and found out that I had begun doing similar stuff back in the early years of my career, like 1995. Yipes!

This is all fabric of course, and quilts, not paint, but the essence of what I was doing was similar, shapes and the space between. Duh. No wonder!

So right in the middle of this last painting, I threw in the towel. Lost interest. Been there done that. I will paint over that larger canvas and forget the whole thing. Lesson well learned.

The Final Plans

Please forgive me for being a little obsessed, but this is the LARGEST thing I ever (semi)designed. Weeeeeee!

Yes, the master is really my studio, with a big closet to keep all the supplies at hand and out of sight. Adjacent is the laundry-bathroom where I can easily wash out brushes or rinse hand dyed fabrics. I'll probably use the other bathroom for my daily grooming.
I have only one window, in the corner facing south. Lots of wall space, which will accommodate a design wall, and all my tables and chests, plus a sofa and cozy chair for knitting.
While a glamorous bathroom was offered to us, with flashy shower tile and separate tub, we opted for function instead. Originally the laundry pair was in the pantry! which is adjacent to the kitchen. Nope, not for me. So I moved them to the bathroom and I'll have space for a large folding table, and a chest for linens.

The breakfast nook? No way! This is the secluded TV room/Dave's guitar practice space. (Sound proofing included). French doors lead onto the screened in porch, for the pugs! There will be stairs off the porch to a concrete parking pad, where the garbage bins might go, or the grill, or my car when it needs washing. All the homes have their garages facing each other, with a lovely alley between. So city.
Both Dave and I were born in Chicago and can remember alleys, with incinerators out back. People recycled in an entirely different way. ha!

Planning to Plant

The weather has warmed up a bit, just enough to get my gardening juices flowing. I have a garden in our current home, already to plant, but of course I am thinking ahead to the new house. We won't have a back yard AT ALL. And the front yard is teeny, but we won't let that stop us. After visiting the property again today we decided to have a two raised bed gardens in the front, on either side of the stairs and front side walk. The space is only about 8x10' on either side. The existing earth is total hard clay, as we have had everywhere here in Tennessee, so raised beds are the only way to go.

We will again use concrete blocks.  Dave wants to paint them to match the brick trim on the house and I think that is a great idea. Two courses of the blocks stand 16" high, which is pretty good for our coral bark maple and the pink dogwood we intend to buy. And of course we plan to have flowers galore. So happy!

What a week. . .

In past years on the blog (since 2004) I have blurted out all the details of our everyday life. But this week has been so up and down that I hardly know what to leave out and what to fill in.
Finally things have settled down and I'll do my best to hit the high points.

1. We have a new doctor for Dave who is super wonderful and has set up a great new procedure to administer meds to him thru a pump in his 'gut'. This requires surgery in Nashville at Vanderbilt. Fancy. Expensive. We'll wait until after the move for this.

2. I had a mammogram and was called back for a second look. Eek. Turned out to be nothing but a bad scan. I am FINE.

3. I had a blurry spot in my right eye and was sent to the ophthalmologist, for a consult. He said it might fix itself. I am to return in a couple of weeks. If it doesn't fix itself, the surgery is quick and 95% successful. Eek again.

4. We have been moving stuff into the garage in anticipation of downsizing, and yesterday Goodwill came and took our two old fart chairs and ottomans, a twin bed and mattress, a cabinet on wheels, a chest of drawers, a folding table, two bookcases, a lawn roller, three lawn chairs and an old golf bag and clubs. I didn't shed a tear.

5. I had our first walk-thru on the new house and the pics are here. It is so very exciting and it looks like we'll close at the end of March. So FAST!!!  My studio is wonderful and the big storage closet is going to fit everything I have so the space in the room will feel just as large as my current space.


Then of course, there is the move...I am not doing any heavy lifting this time. I swear. And I am promising myself to hire a cleaning crew to get this house ready for selling. O boy.

So Now...I have been knitting and trying to calm down and watching Fortitude on Amazon Prime.
Soooooo goood.

House Progress

This was taken on Thursday and I am willing to bet that the whole roof is on by today. We'll check it out after church. The house next door has opted for the arches which are like another house we've seen in the previous neighborhood. 

. 

We are going with the plainer facade. And we are having a picture window on the right, instead of that sad single window. 

 
This closeness is so 'city' and reminds me of my Chicago childhood, where we called the space between houses gangways.
Now looking at the tiny figure on the top of the structure, it makes me realize how much bigger this house is than I first thought. Woo. That box is the equivalent of a telephone pole, housing all sorts of electric and communication lines. Right between the two houses. You can bet I am going to hide it with plants asap.
----++++----
I have been moving art supplies from the upstairs storeroom into my studio, just to see what it is I have...in hopes of using some of it, sooner than later. I found this watercolor painting, which I have absolutely no memory of making. 20x30". Could have been done in grad school, circa 1995. Quien sabe? I've got it propped up on a larger board, which is visible on the top.

 I don't know if I like it or am just surprised and happy to have found it.

Changing Direction

We are obsessed with our future downsizing move. That means figuring out what to keep and what to lose. My studio will be 2 ft. smaller, from 16x16' to 14x14'. Of course I don't want to give up any of my tables or storage carts or shelves. ...or the twin bed and chair/ottoman that make it a nice nap space or reading spot.
To try out a smaller space I arranged the sewing furniture on the window wall, keeping in mind that the fabric shelves will be located in the walk-in closet in the new house.
The other half of the room was easily filled with the bed and chair. It is up against the pin up wall, but in the new house that will be on the sewing-side wall. I feel lots better knowing I can fit everything in without crowding. To make sure, I did some sewing, and then dragged out my painting supplies and began using up the stash of heavy illustration boards I have been holding onto since 2005.

 The illustration boards tend to warp into a curve while wet, but then flatten out when dry. Acrylic, graphite and white conte crayon. 20x30". I have a lot of paint tubes, which I am planning to liberally use until I discover which are dried up and need to be tossed and what needs replacing, if anything. Using the boards has the helpful effect of not being 'precious' and lets me try everything I can imagine.