Home Improvement

For the past six weeks, our house has been under improvement, construction, and renovation...wonderful to imagine but taxing to live through. 

We began by completely redoing our powder room, which I am embarrassed to admit, has remained the same for the entire 17 years we have lived in this house.  My inspiration was a mirror that has been in my family (for a very long time) and in my house (since I have been married), basically forever, it seems.  We added a tiled floor, fabulous wallpaper, matching sink and commode, in addition to, a nifty (handmade) cupboard door.  Then we spruced up our kitchen with new paint, new jewelry (knobs) for the cabinets, and a flashy new rug. My inspiration?  My daughter's artwork.

After that, the real fun began. We are adding a room to our lowest level.  We are making a television room (I know my children who grew up without cable or much television in their young lives can't quite believe this) to accommodate our family, so that our children and grandchildren don't need to sit on the floor to watch a film together.  Our bottom floor has been ripped up, nothing is in its place, there is dust all over, and Jim and I are rather sick of living in disorder.  But...oh the promise of what will be.

Everyone is coming home for Christmas...the actual impetus for this project.  And I am convinced it will be ready; our contractor told us so.  But until then, we run the vacuum and live among tarps.  Jim and I keep saying, "It will be beautiful...it will be great...it will be magical.... it will be OVER...someday, soon!"

I made new dishcloths to match my new kitchen, following a very old, very traditional pattern--the ballband pattern made from classic, dishcloth yarn, the pattern printed on the paper band that circumnavigated the yarn--hence the term, "ballband" for those who care to understand (I was curious about that when I happened upon the pattern). Old and new together.  Perfect.