Update on Renovations to HBF

We made this video for Jason's parents and I am sharing it with you all.  We're slowly but surely working on the renovations for our new home. If you'd like to follow along, you can see how we spent Super Bowl Sunday.

One step Forward

On December 26 we finally heard back from Bank of America.  They made us a counteroffer!  This was great since we put in the offer in October and hadn't heard a peep from them.  We were ready to accept the offer when Dane, our real estate agent told us that the sellers had already rejected the counteroffer.  It seems that B of A wanted the sellers to pay the difference between what they owed on the house and our offer.  The sellers didn't want to do that, that's why they did a short sale.  So Dane told us that we might as well make a counteroffer since it would be going back to B of A whether or not we accepted the offer.  Hopefully they will accept sometime this week.  In the meantime Dane told us that we could go ahead and get the inspection and we can start calling contractors to get estimates for the work that we want done one the house.

The house passed the inspection with just a few minor issues to be taken care of but when we met the inspector at the house, we realized that there was a small problem.  No one had shoveled the driveway all winter.  And the county had plowed in the driveway while they were plowing the road (at least the county maintains our road, we weren't sure about that).  So because we will be having people at the house this week to give us estimates AND we are really aching to get into the house, we decided to shovel the driveway.  Now this week it has been cold (in the 20s) and this winter is has snowed a few times and the snow has melted a bit and refrozen, so basically the driveway is an icy mess.  On the first day Jason and I spent 2 hours using snow shovels and realized that they weren't strong enough for this job.  But in those 2 hours we got Jason's car into the driveway.

Can you believe it took us 2 hours to just shovel that little bit?

Trying to shovel the snow.  Those shovels were woefully inadequate for the task at hand.

Next we decided to get more heavy duty shovels to be able to hack through the ice and do better.  The next day we made it to the concrete slab which made shoveling a little bit easier.  Now there was room for my car and Jason's truck.  We took the day off from shoveling on New Year's Eve, my arms and back were killing me.  And yesterday spent another two hours shoveling.  The concrete slab was easier to shovel than the gravel so we got that almost uncovered.  I think that this week we should be able to finish shoveling the driveway.  Jason is working but I have time to go. 

Making progress slowly but surely!

 Maybe we need to buy a snowblower!

Remodeling Ideas for the Homestead

While we are waiting for Bank of America to accept our offer on our house, Jason and I have spent a ton of time dreaming, imagining, talking, and planning the remodeling we will do to make the house OUR HOME.  One perk of renting a fully furnished apartment is that we have a TV with cable (something neither of us has had for YEARS) and we have become HGTV addicts.  (What can we do to get crashed?!)  Yet when we watch those shows, the remodels seem much more drastic than what we want to do.  We're not going to knock out any walls or anything like that.  Our changes are mostly cosmetic. We are always looking for inspiration.

Jason and I spent Christmas in Las Vegas with his family.   Jason's family has a lot of experience with real estate and decorating houses and they had a great way for Jason and me to get ideas for Happy Bear Farms.  We spent two days going to model homes and open houses.  Walking through those houses we got a ton of ideas for things we want to do once we finally get the house.  I used my iPhone to record things that we might want to incorporate in some way into the house.

By putting the tile in this way, it makes the bathroom look larger than it is.

I really like these hanging lights.  I might want them a little darker in color so that the color shows through a little more.

We're going to tear out the island that is currently in that apartment and put in a new one that is something like this. We like the butcher board top and shelving on the bottom for all of our pots.  We also want stools for an informal eating area.

We want an oven like this-gas stove, electric oven, with a griddle burner in the middle.

I LOVE the granite that they used for this sink, but I wish they hadn't broken it into tiles.  GREAT COLORS!

Well we are still waiting to hear from Bank of America, but in the meantime we're dreaming about the house!  If you have any design ideas, let us know!

A Video Tour of Happy Bear Farms (hopefully)

As many of you know, about 2 months ago Jason and I put a bid on a house that we hope to name Happy Bear Farms.  It won't be a REAL farm, more like a small homestead.  It's on 3 acres, has a small barn, and a big space we can make a garden out of.  The house is a short sale, which means that its a big pain in the butt.  Right now our file is on some bureaucrat from Bank of America's desk and they're taking their sweet time to deal with it.  Yet our real estate agent and the listing real estate agent assure us that it will go through.  We wanted to go back to the property, take some measurements, get a better idea on what fixes we will want to do, etc.  We decided to use Jason's iPad to take some video so that our friends and family who live far away can see it.  I have embedded the video below.  We didn't realize that when we change the iPad from horizontal to vertical and vice versa that the viewers would need to look at it with their head tilted to see it. so apologies for that.  But here is the first videos of Happy Bear Farms.

This one is of the drive to the Farm, it was raining/snowing

This one was before the real estate agent got there, so it's of the outside and garage/shop areas

Here is the bottom floor of the house

Here is the top floor (bedrooms)

I hope that you guys like our house!

Getting the Help that I Need

No, it's not THAT kind of help.

After the frustrations vented in the last post, I decided to get some help with my sewing and enrolled in a class at PatternReview.Com on fitting bodices.  This class is online and has video, chats, and a message board.  I have learned a lot so far in this class and by the end I will (hopefully) have a bodice pattern that fits my body perfectly that I can then adapt to make different shirts, tunics, and dresses.  There have been a few frustrations...in our temporary apartment the only mirror that we have is the bathroom medicine cabinet mirror so I can't see my full body for fitting.  After three days I figured out to stand on a milk crate so that I can see most of my bodice.  I also use the timer on my camera to take photos of myself to see the changes that need to be made.  I am not very good at visual/spatial tasks and I think that working my brain in this crazy way is hard, but helpful.  As soon as I have my bodice done, I will post some pictures.

In the meantime I continue to sew pajama pants for X-mas gifts.  Next week I will be starting  a new dress for Leora.  I keep experimenting with new healthy recipes for dinner and we keep hoping to get news on the house. 

Here's to patience and learning!

Sewing Disasters

About 5 years ago I decided that I wanted to learn how to sew clothes.  I bought a cheap sewing machine on clearance and asked my Gramma to teach me how to sew.  She and I sewed two skirts, but the truth was she sewed them and I watched her do it.  I decided that I needed to go to a class.  Luckily I lived in St. Paul and Treadle Yard Goods offers amazing classes.  I took a beginning sewing class, a winter coat class, and an advanced beginner class.  From there I started sewing when I could and I used their sewing salons for help when I got stuck.  I didn't have a ton of time to dedicate to sewing and found that the clothes that I made just turned out "ok." 

One of the reasons that I wanted to learn how to sew is that I have kind of weird proportions and it's sometimes hard to find clothes that fit well.  I am fairly little on top.  I have wide hips and fat thighs.  I hoped that sewing would allow me to create clothing that fit me better.  The problem is, I don't know how to adjust patterns to make them fit me better.  And now I live in a place where there aren't any sewing classes or salons to help teach me these skills.

I now feel fairly confident on a sewing machine and following patterns.  Where I fall flat is in choosing the right fabric for a pattern and choosing the right pattern for a flattering look on my body type.  Take my sewing project of last week.  I decided to create Simplicity 2690, view A (that's the one the model is wearing in the picture).  It is a mini dress.  I thought that the V-neck would help me look taller and I liked the ribbon detail.  I thought the flared bottom would help hide my fatter bottom.

Thought this would be a great pattern!

I chose a silky fabric from Joann's because I thought a cotton fabric wouldn't drape as nicely.  It turned out to be a tough fabric to work with.  It was really slippery and I needed to use lots of pins to keep the seams together and it unraveled quickly so I had to finish each seam with a serger-type stitch which made taking it apart and making adjustments next to impossible.  Here is my finished look.  The bodice turned out too big, the bottom turned out too tight, and I feel like it makes me look like a fat box.

Whale of a dress!

Does anyone know of any good resources for learning how to choose patterns based on body type?  Adjusting patterns for a better fit?  And choosing the right fabric for a project?  I have a closet full of clothes that I won't wear in public (well 3 shirts and a dress-but that's a lot of wasted effort!).

Rural Winter Living

So the place that we moved to while we are waiting to buy our house does NOT have internet.  Jason and I got a mobile router that gives us internet through our cell phone service but it's kind of expensive and we are burning through the allotment, so I am trying to limit my internet surfing.  Luckily my car needed an oil change and the auto shop has wifi so I have a chance to respond to emails with more than a sentence, update the blog, and do more in depth web surfing.  We're hoping that there will be a way to get high speed internet at the house.

We still haven't heard from the seller's bank to see if they will accept the offer.  Short sales certainly aren't short.  Our realtor continues to tell us that he thinks that the bank will eventually accept the offer.  I am learning patience. 

In the meantime we have had two snowfalls and the latest one (Sunday night) is still lingering on the ground.  The snow is beautiful here in the mountains.  I just wish that our apartment had a window with the beautiful view we get from the exterior stairs up to the apartment. 

Winter Wonderland

Because of the weather our already dark apartment is even more dim which makes sewing a little more difficult, but I have been carrying through.  I have made a pair of work out pants for myself which inspired an idea for Christmas presents for my in-laws (they don't read the blog so I can post that!).  I also hemmed some fabric for the Kettle Falls library display cases.  Right now I am working on a mini-dress pattern that is considerably more complicated than anything that I have done previously.  So far it's going pretty well.  I chose a silky fabric from Joann's and it's pretty slippery so I am learning a lot with this project.  Next I want to make another dress for my friend's daughter (we will spend Thanksgiving with them and I would like to bring another dress) and start making pajama pants for the in-laws for Christmas presents. 

I need to figure out a way to meet more people in town.  Next week our friends Hillary and Mark leave for Pullman and we won't have easy friends to count on.  Through them we have met some people and I need to be diligent about calling them and trying to build friendships, but I also want to meet some new people.  I have been thinking about volunteering somewhere, but I am not sure how to find those opportunities.  I thought about joining a knitting group (even though I don't know how to knit) but when I showed up at the fabric store, it was about 10 women in their 60's lamenting Obama's reelection, so I just walked away.  If anyone has any ideas of how I can meet more people, please let me know!