Progress?

It's been a while since I posted - I've been working from home since March 20th, and the days have blended together. I'm finding it hard to make a firm separation between work and personal life, so the craft room redo has been very slow going.

It is painted now!

You can see my little "office" in the corner.

These pictures were taken when the room first got loaded - can you believe most of this stuff was pack in an 11' x 12' room! I'm not sure how I did it. I have made progress since then, but not enough to take new pictures yet.

Besides work, painting and sorting/purging, I did a bunch of other things! 

I carved out a corner to make masks for family and friends. I was asked to make some to sell, but I didn't want to go into production for profit, so kept it small.

I made about 30 masks and continue to make a few at a time as I hear from someone who needs one.

 

I learned how to use the binding foot on my Featherweight! Awesome tool - made the job so much faster!

I've managed to learn how to do Zoom calls and meetings! I also did some scrapbooking and held virtual workshops with Zoom. Here I'm toasting my brother and sister - showing off my new mask!

I also managed to finish a quilt!! 

My 11-year-old grandson helped design and piece it, and now we are waiting (im)patiently for it to come back from the long-armer.  I'll share more about this quilt in another post this weekend.

I also started another one with the leftovers (well, technically, made a lap quilt) but I want it bigger so I'm hoping to finish that one this weekend.

So that is what I have been up to the last almost-90 days - besides braving the Costco lines a couple of times and getting cheap gas!

Trust me - I've only gone twice and wore my mask, unlike so many others! I choose to wear it to protect not only myself, but others like my grandson who has Type 1 diabetes, and my elderly neighbours.

Almost half of what it was at the beginning of the year.

Scrap Room Progress

It's been a few months and the scrap room is coming along nicely! I'm now able to prime the walls (in progress) and this coming weekend, I'll be painting!  Here's a little tour, starting from the entry (most of these were taken before the drywall was taped and mudded):

Look, my grandson is helping me wash down the walls after sanding!

This is the main room about 19' x 12 - 225 sq. ft. of future fun! It is the old recreation room in my home, located in a daylight basement with a big window. We have also put in LED pot lights (on a dimmer!)

The second room comes off the main room forming an "L". We reconfigured the location of the hot water tank, and enclosed it in a room with the furnace, to create more usable space. This is what you see when you enter this room:

This room is about 12' x 8' at its widest point, with the alcove by the window about 4'x6' with the niche for a refrigerator by the window. Eventually, we'll put a corner sink and counters in for a coffee station. The floors are a nice thick vinyl planking, which adds warmth, ease of cleaning and are waterproof! I'm very fortunate to have a handy son-in-law, with the bonus of sharing the house with him, my daughter and grandson, so he doesn't mind doing the work.

And just for a bonus, this isn't the only area being worked on. My son-in-law has torn apart the main bath and is giving it an update as well. Good timing, as he is a teacher's aide and school has been closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

How are you coping with the news? Here in our corner of BC, Canada, we are being told to self-isolate as much as possible, as we are just north of the outbreak in Washington state, and east of Vancouver and area which is the second hot-spot in Canada. Since my son-in-law is off work, he is in charge of the grandkids (his son and my other two granddaughters, who live just down the street). His wife, my oldest daughter, is still working for the moment, but will her office will probably be closing by week's end. 

In stressful times, I need to sew and so my grandson and I are working on a science-related quilt for his new double bed. I have a couple of rows of beakers, flasks and test-tubes to add to the for the top of the quilt, then its ready to be sent off for quilting! I'll share more about it in another post.

My office is closed to the public, and we only have 5 staff in the building at its highest capacity, so I am still going in every day, and so far, my workload hasn't changed. I manage an office that administers private mortgage companies, sells investments and I'm a mortgage broker as well, so there are a lot of calls these days! I've told my boss that I plan on working from the office, even if everyone stays home, just because it will be quieter there than at home with the grandkids and my son-in-law working on the renos. My other daughter and her husband are also still working, one is in a small office like mine, and her husband is an aircraft mechanic, so he is pretty busy for the time being as the company he works for has some good contracts that shouldn't be affected by the outbreak (he works on planes that provide fire-fighting services in the summer). Whatever happens, we will take care of each other and our elderly neighbours, and we will get through this. I hope you and yours do as well.

Spring is coming - my garden has many early bloomers already, and the mountains sparkle with the fresh snows of spring, and brighten my day. I hope they brighten yours as well.

Take care and listen to the professionals to stay safe!

Terri in BC