Last Day of July... Only a month left...

Today was a good day of accomplishments.  I am sorting through notebook after notebook after notebook of recipes and quilt patterns.  When I have been traveling in the past and I had the ability to do some sewing while I was away, I would put together a notebook of motel reservations, maps, recipes for when I would be at a home where I might be cooking and patterns to make items I wanted to do on the trip.  These books had piled up and multiplied, so I have been sorting, purging, condensing items from those books and printing out a couple of the Mystery Quilt clues for quilts I am planning to make so I can pack the pattern with the material.

Yesterday I stayed upstairs as Rob and Kate were going to get the keys to our house and were planning to go there, call me on my Show and we were going to have a good look at the house that now has our names on the deed.  It did not happen when originally planned, but they called me a tad after 5:00 PM my time and it was after 7:00 PM when we stopped.

It is going to be a really lovely place to live with my dogs.  The rooms are nicely sized.  I am seeing all manner of things in each room.  I am seeing the ability to limit the dogs to the lower level where I am likely to be spending all of my time. (The lower level of the house is bigger than the entire house I have been in for the last almost 40 years.) 

It is a stunning home, with wooden accents on some of the walls.  A lot of updates have been made and some areas that will need to be updated.  The first thing that will need to be done will be to find a way to take the squeaking out of the kitchen drawers.  It is an older kitchen and the drawers are not using nice, quiet drawer closing systems.  Instead there is a center rail that keeps the drawer from tipping and the rail and the wheel screech and squeal like nails on a chalkboard.  There is also going to have to be a ton of shelf liners put in before the dishes and glassware goes into the cabinets.  There is a dishwasher for cleaning everything as I unpack.  I have not had a dishwasher since 1982.

We did find a water line in the kitchen for an ice maker but the fridge does not have one installed.  I will research whether one can be installed or, perhaps there will need to be a new fridge in the kitchen... or a stand alone ice maker purchased.  Time will tell.

Rob and Kate were debating about which bedroom they were going to make as theirs upstairs.  There will be times when they will be coming in and spending the night.  If they have early appointments in town or if the weather is going to be bad they will be staying with me in our house.  (Their 10 year plan has them moving into the house full time when it is time for them to stop living in their off-grid home)  Initially they were going to take the smallest of the two because the view out the window was of trees and garden.  But today they bought a bed for their bedroom and Rob thinks it may only fit in the bigger room.  Makes no difference to me which room it is.  I am bringing the trundle bed from the sewing room and it will make the unused bedroom into a guest room and TV den.

They also contacted me on the Show this afternoon.  They were in Sadler's Furniture store in Fairbanks.  They had heard an ad on the radio for recliners, so they went over and looked at the lift recliners.  I am leaving my sad, old recliner behind and had told Rob that I wanted an electric left chair.  Not that I need it now, I am just preparing for a time when I might need assistance getting out of my recliner.  So, they called me on the Show and I was able to shop for the recliner from here.  They had quite a nice selection.  We eliminated the leather covered ones... I like fabric in my easy chairs.  They are more comfy for my way of thinking.  

We checked out one that seemed similar in style to the one I have here.  It was grey in color and another color could be ordered.  There was another one by the same company in a lovely golden brown.  It would look really nice in the living room with all of the wood accents it already has.  It is a model that was being discontinued, so it was really marked down.  The nice thing is that it comes with massage and heat in addition to laying out flat and lifting me up to standing.  So Rob and Kate snagged it for me and the decorating of the house has begun.  I guess from there, they went looking for bedding for their room and found something they liked.  I am assuming that things will be delivered as soon as it can be arranged.  That means that I will have seating when I get there, so I can stay at the house and wait for the truck to arrive.

Here is a picture of the chair that I found online.  May not be the exact color, but it is close.  Exciting.....

Tonight Patches came over with dinner (some garlic pasta... yum) and we tacked the dismantling of the quilt frame.  We have reduced my quilt frame to a pile of wood and metal.  I will get pictures of it tomorrow after I have a chance to get the rails and legs and stuff altogether against a wall.  Now I can get to the file cabinet and closet to clear it out.  That room is almost finished.

Patches, I cannot thank you enough.  You are a true friend and I appreciate you so very much.