Looky what I made~

Are you scratching your head? It looks like two logs doesn't it? And how does one make two logs? Well....one makes them out of fabric! And they aren't actually logs, they are draft stoppers filled with kitty litter. I made some for my house last year and this year my son requested a set for his house. We've had new weatherstripping put around the doors and sweeps on the bottoms but they are older houses and every little thing you can do to keep the cold out and the heat in helps.

I also made another one for my house for a door in my basement that I keep close most of the time.

Cute chickens, right? LOL

Anyway that is the sum of what I've been doing lately that I can share. I'm working on a Christmas present quilt and have about 8 more blocks to go. I want to finish it pronto so I can send it off to be quilted.

If you aren't interested in the next installment of How the Bathroom Turns you can leave here. I understand... I'm tired of hearing about it too but it make me feel better to vent a bit - thanks!

The continuing saga of plumbing and bathroom renovation woes goes on and on and on. Seriously it has the makings of a multi-year soap opera. After the tile guy and plumber finished up last week, my handyman started the job of putting in an exhaust fan in my bathroom and lowering the ceiling. The bathroom had this beautiful cove ceiling...  that was functionally a nightmare. Every time you took a shower the steam would collect around the edge of the cove and then drip down on the floor and leave water stains all over the ceiling. Perhaps this is why the room was painted a blech brown when I bought the place. I had seen peeling paint in the corner by the window but chalked it up to an old paint job, not the steam problem.  Sooooooo.... an exhaust fan makes a lot of sense... and the installation shouldn't be a big deal....but it was!  The electrical work was stymied by the fact that the bathroom isn't a main line, it was run off of another room's main line. Additionally the walls and ceilings in my house are made of a material sometimes referred to as glassrock. It is a plaster like substance which in reality is concrete. It is impossible to put a hole in the wall to hang a picture without a drill and any holes to find the wiring required a sledge hammer and a saw.

The whole exhaust fan/ceiling renovation was projected to take 10 hours.... at the end of the first 10 hours all we had to show for it was a torn up ceiling and wall and no juice for the fan.  That was Saturday.

On Sunday work resumed. Overnight the handyman realized he could crawl back into this tiny opening in the second floor attic area and access a main electrical line. It is a good thing this guy is small and wiry and not claustrophobic. There isn't enough money in the world to get be back into that space, nor a shoe horn large enough to squeeze me through the little opening for that fact - LOL! Electrical problem then rectified in about 30 minutes. Good, back on track. Now to vent the fan to the outside. Cut/saw/bang a hole through the glassrock wall and drill/chisel/bang through the brick on the outside. Again, a problem. Turns out that the walls of my house are about 10 inches thick. There is the outside layer of yellow bricks and behind that layer of brick is another layer of brick - solid brick - no holes in it at all - weighs a ton - and then a layer of cinder block. It took about 2 hours to get a 6 inch hole to the outside. The handyman referred to it as his Shawshank Redemption! LOL At least he has a good attitude. Eventually the drywall was nailed to the ceiling, the fan was connected and two can lights installed. It was now 20 hours into the project... and it isn't done yet.

This week will include taping and mudding the seams for the drywall. Sanding the drywall, re-mudding the drywall, sanding again...and then it can be painted. I and cautiously optimistic that it will be completed by next weekend. Keep your fingers crossed.

Well the Arctic blast is descending on Ohio. Monday was gorgeous with a high temp near 70. Today cold gray and a high of 40... it will be the warmest day for the rest of the week. Possibility of white death on Sunday... I'm already counting the days till Spring!

Stay warm!
happy stitching-
carol fun