House plans

It looks as though my new house may really happen! I have been talking to contractors and think I have settled on an ICF builder to build my house. Not only is the technology superior to regular stick built houses, it will be better insulated, tighter and MUCH stronger. AND the pricing is less per square foot - as much as 25-30% less.

So now I have to decide on house plans - I have two current designs that I like a lot. The first is right at 2250 sq.ft. but I do not like where the stairs are. The stairs do not go to a living area, they go to what we will use as conditioned attic storage. So I do not like that this plan has the stairs in what should be our best view of the farm:
The second plan is a little larger than we need, and needs some tweaking, but I like it better. Ignore the furniture layouts - that is just to test how our furniture fits.



Both plans need a coat closet for the "formal" entrance - the entrance from the wider porch at the bottom middle. The entrance to the left at the bottom will be our "mud entrance" where we will come in & out the most. There will be ramps at all entrances, including the one at the top leading from the screened porch down.

And since these are preliminary, siz and placement of exterior doors and windows is pretty arbitrary.

Oh - materials - outside: brick siding (Cherokee Brick Co. Mosstown) and metal roof (Union Corrugating Royal Blue).

Inside the floors will be tile and Southern Yellow pine. The tile will be Daltile French Quarter, Cobblestone in the mud entrance, family room and kitchen and Bourbon Street in the Master Bath suite and laundry room. I have some white slate texture tile I will probably mix with a neutral blue gray tile for the other bathroom.
French Quarter Cobblestone:

French Quarter Bourbon Street:


The pine floors will be in the bedrooms and formal living and dining rooms. I am not sure if I will have the floors done in polyurethane clear coat, poly with stain, or tung oil, either dark or regular. I need to get some stains to test and some tung oil to try out. Here you can look at the pine floors in this house. They were finished with clear poly but I think that would be too light for the effect I want in the new house.

The ICF contractor does his own CAD work and will work with me to refine the plans. So now to get other people's opinions! What do you think?

I've got a Piano!

I got home with my "new" piano Thursday!

This is actually a piano that has been in my family for over 100 years. It was made sometime around or before 1905 and was in my great-grandmother's house in Escanaba, Michigan as far back as my father can remember. It came to my family in Florida when that house was closed in the 1950s or early 60s.

I learned to play what little I know on this piano and always enjoyed messing around on it.

I picked it up in Tampa last week and brought it to my home in Tallahassee.

Here are pictures of the piano towards the end of the move:

Works In Progress (WIPs) - Top Five

OK, now for my future projects - here is the complete list with rankings:
(I may put off the Colour through Gold and the Kay Stanis Silk & Metal for a bit.)
UFOs Working - On Frames:
1. Gay Ann Rogers’ Mystery Sampler - frame - DONE!
2. Colour Through Gold - frame
3. Kay Stanis - Silk and Metal Embroidery - frame
4. Blackwork Celtic Knot Building Blocks - frame
5. Blackwork Green Man (for Ralph R.) - frame

UFOs Working - In Hand
5. Iris - in hand - Nearly DONE
6. Dinosaur stocking ornament - in hand - travel
7. David Christmas Stocking - in hand

UFOs Waiting:
8. Tut Falcon Pectoral - frame
9. Japanese Embroidery III - JE frame
10. Japanese Embroidery V - JE frame

I left off the projects that I want to do that are not on this list because they are not started... Most of those already are basically kitted up ready to start, so they won't cost me to work - framing and finishing are a different matter!


TOP FIVE LIST

Right now for top five priority, I think it will be:
1. Christmas Stocking (for David L.) - in hand
2. Dinosaur stocking ornament (for BJ) - in hand - travel
3. Arab Tent (for Lisa B.) - in hand - travel
4. Tut Falcon Pectoral - frame
5. Blackwork Celtic Knot Building Blocks - PREPARATION/Companion for Blackwork Green Man (for Ralph R.) - frame

Ambitious Lists! But since I started back stitching, less than two months ago, I have completed or nearly completed three projects. If I can finish my top five by the end of the year, I will be HAPPY!

Almost finished with the Iris

I am almost completely done with the Iris picture. It needs some back stitching and a signature & date, but I wanted to block it first. I chose entirely the WRONG background stitch to do in hand and the piece is totally warped.

It's on the blocking board for my second attempt and is nearly straight. I may try one more time to re-block it after it dries. Then I'll put it on stretcher bars to do the backstitching and leave it on them until I frame it. Otherwise, I'm afraid it will just pull out of shape again.

Finished Mystery Sampler!

I finished the Mystery Sampler today! There is a mistake - dare anybody to find it, LOL!

I changed a few things in Gay Ann Rogers' instructions - she wanted just green & red for colors, but I did not have enough green, plus I wanted blue in there.

I changed the saying. I found a haiku I liked, then changed it significantly. And I changed the lower band where I put the date and signature - GAR had more whitework stiching.

This is the first real sampler I have done - I'm pleased with it!

Next project - Mystery Sampler!

I've decided that I will only actively work on a few projects at a time: one on stretcher bars or a frame, on "in hand" project and one to work on when going places like waiting for appointments or when DH is driving on trips.

Right now, the Irises piece is my "in hand" item. I've got a cute little Christmas stocking ornament of a triceratops for traveling. And my next framed piece will be - Tada! Gay Ann Rogers' Mystery Sampler I. Here is how far I made it before I quit stitching:

Found a Forgotten Stitch Piece!

When I went to get out my next project, I found a piece I finished ten years ago and had totally forgotten! I don't even remember what it was called, and only vaguely remember stitching it. Pretty nice, if I do say so myself, and I have no where to use it. Maybe if we build a house, it can go in the formal dining room.

Finished Windermere! Sad Story attached...

I finished Windermere this afternoon! The first needlework project I have completed in years - I had forgotten how great that feels!


WARNING - SAD STORY!

I would have finished it last night but while stitching on it, I kept hearing all sorts of noise outside. The crows were mobbing the red shouldered hawk who kept complaining about their harrassment. In the middle of this ruckus, there was another cry. I figured it was another kind of bird, especially since when I went out on the deck, it sounded as if it was up in the trees, traveling away.

Then the strange cry came from the other side of the house. When I went to look, Edmund, DH's cat was carrying some animal in his mouth. Then I realized he had a baby wild bunny that was kicking and screaming. I ran out and rescued the poor little guy. Called the Wildlife Rescue guys and they sent me to the animal hospital that does their work. Bunny was still alive when I dropped him off, but I am not sure he will make it. So sad.

This morning when I went out to feed the horses, there were blowflies outside - that usually means something's dead. So I wonder if there was more than one bunny and the hawk got the one I thought was in the trees. I don't want to look for any...

Needlework Progress

I'm back to stitching! Right now I am mainly working on two projects - Irises from a chart by Carolyn Meacham. I'm stitching it with DMC cotton floss on 24 count canvas. Mostly I have background and a little backstitching to finish.



















And the Windermere class project by Susan Reed. This is stitched on 18 count canvas with linen thread, Caron Waterlilies, Balger ribbon, beads and DMC floss. It has pulled thread bands alternating with stitched bands using some of Susan Reeds wonderful techniques. I have to stitch beads on Band 6 and some stitching and beading on Band 8 - then I will be finished!

Casanova is here!

New Ouarter Horse colt born March 12, 2006, by Jimmy Caan Leo and out of Lover Bar Heels.

The other babies can be seen at Woodswell Farm 2006 Foals.

Smooshed Walls

The walls were originally a dark faux walnut paneling. We washed the walls, primed and painted them with Behr paint in a light blue. We then did a technique I call "smooshed" - the easiest paint technique I have seen and I really like the effect.

To smoosh a wall, use flat or eggshell paint for the first layer. Then mix a glaze - we used one gallon of Behr glaze to one pint of color. Our glaze color was a blue a few shades darker than the light blue base color.

Paint the wall with the glaze - be sure to get all the edges at the top and bottom, but do not do wider than you need at once. Take a large sheet of thin plastic - we used disposable plastic table cloths that come on large rolls. They are 8x4 feet, so perfect for our 7'4" tall walls.

Get a tall person to hold the top two corners of the plastic and a short person to hold the bottom corners behind the tall person. The tall person slaps the plastic against the wall, and both smoosh the plastic into teh glaze. Then peel the plastic off, wad it up with the wet sides together and throw it away.

It took us about 3 hours to smoosh a large room about 28x16 feet, irregular shaped with extra alcoves. When we washed the walls in the smaller dining room, it took us 8 hours and we were worn out.

With a tone on tone, smooshing is very subtle. Ours looks sort of marbled effect. I experimented with different colors and the combination - light on dark, dark on light, contrasting colors - make a huge difference in the final effect.

Pine Floors

Here are photos of the Southern yellow pine floors we put into our current house. I believe that the first photo is before the finish was put onto the floors. All of these pictures are of the the first - and largest - room we did. The quality of our installation improved as we did the other rooms. But apparently I was too tired to take pictures of the later rooms.

I can put pictures on this blog!

This is Goldy, one of our foals from this year. I like her so much, she may stay. Just what I need, another horse!
Anne

Woodswell Blog created!

I just set up this blog to try out blogging.
Anne