Thank God I'm A Country Girl!

Yup, as they say, it's a done deal. All the papers are signed and the farm is ours. The wall will be fixed to our satisfaction with a negotiated escrow account paying for it. We are pinching ourselves trying to believe it has all happened. And so DURN FAST!The first thing we did was unload the beds and then had to set them up. We have done this many times with this particular bed. But we were operating on little food, and an overdose of adrenalin from all the excitement of the day. Nevertheless, it got assembled and then the bed was made.

Not so fast! I have a new bed of my own upstairs that had to get assembled. This required finding the drill and a bit to screw in about 32 screws. Worth it, worth it, worth it!! What a great night's sleep I had, under my new pink sheets and my hand quilted quilt.

Yup, I hand quilted and machine pieced this baby way back in the late 80's. First time on a bed!

After a hot shower I plopped into bed and never moved once, exhausted and happy.

At 4:30am, precisely, the biggest rooster began crowing and we were up. The flock spent the night perched on the potting shed roof. They quiet down at dusk and seem frozen in place. I'll have a picture soon.

O Wait! I am now in the motel, picking up Popeye, and am taking advantage of their internet connection. It will no doubt be days before I get dsl connected at home. Home! Hahhahaha!

So back to the day on the farm. At 5:45am Farmer Dave had the ramps in place and backed the mower off the truck. We are ready to work.

Thanks for all your prayers, which I know did the trick. We are SOOOOOO HAPPPPPPYYY!!

Bunches of Miracles

Saturday morning 9 am I dropped Dave off at the cargo van rental place and 1.5 hours later he had still not returned with the van. Back I went in search of him. The clerk said they called us two days ago to say they had no van for us (O sure) and Dave was being taken to another town to get one from that office.

11am he returns, not in a van but in an open bed F-150 truck. He explained it all to me, but the bottom line is that we got the truck for two weeks for FREE. First miracle.

A little bit Beverley Hillbillies, but fine.

OK. 11:10 my brother Cary arrives ( second miracle) to help with the loading and everything we planned of course does not fit, but most of it does. An open bed truck with mattresses exposed and clouds about to dump rain???But then the sun came out and we were fine. Not a drop of rain for the whole trip. Third miracle

We fixed Popeye in the cat carrier in the truck, I got in the fully packed car and off we went by 3pm. O um, first we had to eat something, so onto Panera, and then off we went at 4pm.

We had absolutely perfect traffic and all the boxes and beds stayed put in the truck! We were passed by a huge trailer with Pedaling for Parkinson's painted on the side. Weird? Followed by a Mercedes with the license plate God Cent. Spooky. We drove as far as Lafayette IN and stayed overnight in a nice hotel. Popeye was a prince. He has never traveled anywhere before, so we were very relieved that he didn't make a peep. Or a poop. Fourth miracle.

Sunday afternoon we drove to the house to see it again and discovered a disaster. The retaining wall was finished, or shall I say 'done for'. It had been constructed and destructed because of a mudslide. Apparently a torrential rain occured and the wall began to bulge out. Quick thinking prevented the whole thing come down on the house. The owner sawed the thing from top to bottom at the weak point and then let it fall.

Not good.

The rest of the retaining wall looks perfectly secure, so what made this part give way, I mean, besides the saw? Imagine how the seller must have felt when he realized this wall was failing!

The sales contract stipulated that the retaining wall be completed before we sign over the money. So we will have to see about this. I live by the dictum that God loves me and has a wonderful plan for my life. So I am expecting a fabulous solution to this dilemma.

Our chickens have miraculously grown from two roosters to three, plus three hens.The trinity. Another hopeful sign?

UPDATE: The owner cut the wall to conform to the curve of the hillside but had no knowledge of its toppling! He is on the phone with Dave as I write this. Strange goings on.

Now we have negotiated to have the owner provide funds for this repair and we are good to go. Only of course we are waiting for the bank to come through with the mortgage. It seems there is a delay on the written report from the appraiser. We have been approved, it is just paperwork and faxing and emails and phone calls. So much drama!

Good thing we brought our own wine.

Why Move to Tennessee?

Dave took many family vacations to the Smoky Mountains and when he became a motorcyclist his destination of choice was the Blue Ridge Parkway. Thankfully he always returned unharmed despite zooming along at death defying speeds.

So when we talked about retirement he suggested the Smokies and I had heard that I should move to Asheville NC, as it is soooo arty. Close enough.

But when we started looking at homes online, I was nudged by several blog readers (thank you darlings) to look in Tennessee. Something about lower taxes and more for your money...

You know how I love bargains and it was easy enough to find them in Tennessee and then Georgia and then Alabama and before long I was totally confused.

It took going down there to get the picture. But when we went down in April I was still of the mind to buy the big whopper dream house and keep working for about five more years. So we put money down on a huge home (see April's archives) and then changed our minds when we got the popcorn ceiling/asbestos news.

After that fiasco we cooled our jets and decide to wait til our house in Cary sold.

That cooling lasted minutes.

I went back to daily online looking and finally had about 50 possibles lined up again. One day I found a really cute house on an acre in GA. It was only $115000. Adorable and so great for a little old lady or man to live in alone. That was a subject that kept arising...going poof.

If we bought something that inexpensive, I could retire too. At the time of the discussion I wasn't ready, but Dave's recent health events have me convinced that I want to end my itinerant career and stay home with him.

So eliminating the big house idea and looking for the big garden instead became our focus.

Nothing on my list of 50 seemed to work.

I threw up my hands, being the drama queen around here, and said "You find it then!"

Minutes later he did. Just like that. Praise the Lord.

Going down there this time and seeing the countryside west of Chattanooga instead of staying in the city showed us that country life is what we really wanted all along. Just beautiful, placid, verdant, and spacious. And it comes with chickens.

Now Here's the Plan...

We've decided to rent a cargo van for our Move: Part One. We are bringing the beds, sofa, old fart chairs, tables, a tv, a stereo, some dishes/pots, lamps, clothes and two laptops. But mostly the riding lawn mower needs to go in the van. I will be driving the PT Cruiser, our last non-truck car. If you live in the country and don't have a truck, what are you, nuts?

And we are bringing Popeye. This will be a trick and a half. We got him a carrier BIG ENOUGH for his voluminous self and we know he will hate every minute of the ten hour drive. I think I will be his chauffer, as I have developed the ability to ignore whining.

Frieda Anderson came over for lunch today with the enticement of a pound of bacon and all the olives she could eat. And I owed her money. By the time she left I sold her two Billy shelf units Billy times two

and 100 meters of printcloth, reducing my debt to a mere $92. I paid her from my garage sale profits.

Frieda forgot to bring home the bacon

This is the before picture of my studio, which had these great gray pin-up walls on one end. Frieda has always wanted these panels which were discontinued the minute I bought them, years ago.

This is the studio with all those panels removed and loaded into Frieda's van.

What a difference!

A few weeks ago Dave suggested we sell everything and start over fresh. I laffed. That would take so much effort I thought. Wrong again. The load gets lighter everyday.

Back to the plan. We will be renting the van on Saturday, loading it and driving to Tennessee on Sunday, closing the deal on Monday and sleeping in our new house for the first time on July 30th. I won't have internet access for a while I suppose, unless I can find a restaurant that offers it. We'll see. But in the meantime, know I am dying to blog.

See you when the dust settles!

When we were newlyweds we often spoke of growing old together and how idyllic it will be. Well, I am NOT old and Dave is seven years younger than NOT old, so how is it that we are facing this idyll so soon? Just lucky I guess.

Some folks might feel bad that it was illness that caused all this to happen earlier than expected. But not Dave. He is so thankful to be able to retire early and enjoy this new adventure while he still has his youth. And I am equally thankful to be able to afford to retire myself, and be able to afford this cute cottage. Just call me Mary Englebreit.

We have named the ducks Ruthie and Dick after Dave's parents. Well, we have no kids to name after them!

And the roosters are named Bruce and Cary after my brothers. Both sets are big talkers.

PS. I am not looking for a place to unload my used hand knit socks. Ha! I was looking to unload old tube socks and the like. And recently I found a good home, so nevermind.

A Spot of Peace in all the Chaos
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The perfume of the phlox could knock you over. There are also a few unseen Stargazer Lillies that are so sweet smelling too. Lucky for us that we have cool days for packing this week.

Two kitchens worth of stuff to have to stuff into one tiny new kitchen...too many decisions.
Just part of what is leftover. Will it stay or will it go in the trash? Some of it still needs to come with us. Which is what? I have lost the ability to make a choice.

I'll be filling these shelves up today. And another trip to the Goodwill with leftovers.

So I am boring myself with all this. For something interesting, go see Brooke's super new work.

The Garage Sale Results

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Fabulous! We couldn't be happier, unless it all went bye bye. Mostly we were happy to unload most of our formerly dearest possessions. It was easier than we thought. The neighborhood to the south was also having garage sales and had posted wonderful signage. As the shoppers were on their way to those sales they stopped at ours too.

Dave had also put an ad in Craig's List and that brought a young couple to buy our couch and loveseat, and on the way out they decided on the set of gold plated flatware too.

Anne Lullie and Emily Parson stopped by and contributed to the unloading. Of course I made them take more than they wanted...freebies to friends is fair.

I kept going through drawers and finding more stuff to sell, but the furniture went first. Many of the items were things I originally got at garage sales too. We sold a few things for more than we spent, like the exercycle. Dave got it only a few months ago and made $25 profit on its resale. Who knew?

Now we just have the leftovers to discard. The garage needs to be emptied for our first semi-move at the end of this week. O Boy!

Condensing

O yeah, this is a quilting blog...

I managed to squeeze this queen size quilt into a twin size zipper bag. Space is at a premium.

One of many pieces that are not going with us. This went to Goodwill last night, along with a carload of clothes, many of which were from Goodwill originally. I thought a carload full would make a dent in my closets. ha! There's a reason why when couples divorce the wife usually stays in the house. For example:

I condensed and emptied books from these two bookcases into the remaing six. Two shelves of six bookcases were for Dave, the rest are all my books. Same with the clothes. He condensed his drawers and had three empty ones. I condensed mine and then found more stuff to fill them, including his. Mostly socks. I still have a sock problem. I can't find anyone who wants used socks.

My mind is whirling will a strange combination of guilt and satisfaction as I cull and pack and giveaway. Guilt that I am such a consumer, and satisfaction that can I donate it all to someone (like me!) who will find a great bargain.

I think I will have a garage sale of furniture today and see if I can prevent moving it. Last minute plan...no signs, no ads in the paper...but hey, we live on Main Street.

Mexican Chalet Style

Let the decorating begin! Today I ordered my new bed and immediately buzzed over to my fave bed clothes store, TJMAXX. I got a pouffy mattress pad from Ralph Lauren, and three sets of sheets in Lime, Raspberry and Marshmallow White. Sweeeeet! They will match my inspiration piece: this tasty chair.

Metallic gold paint, which I wish I knew what brand the artist used. I would love to dink around with this stuff. It is so reflective and shiny.

I already have two quilts from years gone by that will work with this color scheme, and another that only needs binding or hemming. So girly. I cannot wait til I am moved in and can set this all up.

Now a word about me and retirement.

It's all in how you understand retirement. I am thinking, no more sitting in airports waiting for delayed airplanes. No more packing and leaving favorite garments in hotels, never to see them again. No more leaving Dave.

Wait, that should have been #1.

1. No more leaving Dave.

2. Vast amounts of uninterrupted time to make the work that means something to me, more than samples for a specific technique.

3. Time to garden for weeks without having to leave before it's all done.

4. Time to read a book without feeling guilty.

5. Freedom from suitcases in the studio

6. The end of dyeing fabric for sale

7. The beginning of my new artistic directions that are not tied to teaching

8. Not having to make a living

9. The end of gearing up

10. Getting in touch with my spirit again

I am planning on setting up a temporary studio in the house and then designing the Potting Shed Studio interiors to make that the new studio for paint, and fabric.

Part of my desires include painting paper and fabric and combining them into composition that are mounted on board or canvas and not necessarily stitched. These may be like quilts and like paintings or unlike either. It will be an experiment, and another adventure. You'll see them on the blog if and when this all happens.

stock photo

The Studio is Packed

It turns out that all my stuff in those drawers could be condensed into a few boxes. These chests of drawers are not coming with me. No room, and they weren't that great an idea in the first place.

I am retiring as of March 2008.

There! I have said it.

(From traveling and teaching, not from artmaking!)

But here's a handout for those of you that never signed up for the class. I just made this up for those that feel a handout is necessary. When I tried to use this as a teaching tool, mostly it got buried in fabric while the students created wildly. That's a good thing.

As I packed up I found things that amused me. And this hand out was one of them. Those sketches always make me salivate and want to start making a quilt. Black and white line drawings are like roadmaps and leave all the excitement open for the color to follow.

That will have to wait til I can unpack everything and recreate my studio.

A New Studio... ! Yipes!

I also packed up the quilt fabric that was sent to me when I mentioned that I wanted to make this quilt.

Now I will have the time to actually make it. I am looking forward to sewing a bed quilt.

Won't that be different?

Dave and I are taking a packing day off. I am going to buy a mattress this morning. This reminds me of our newlywed days when everything was exciting and reeked of adventure. And now my back hurts for different reasons. Think about it.

Eighteen Years of Stuff

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O, if these were only all the quilts I have to move, but no, they are merely the tip of the quilt iceberg. More are under the bed and in my studio and on my walls.

I have no idea where they will go in my new house. But that is a problem for another day.

When one goes through drawers to pack, one discovers multiples and redundancies. I am using the third person here, to try for some distance on my own compulsions. I found that I have a need to save pens, or buy more when I already have 6000. And the same goes for magnetic pincushions. If one is good, four must be better. And why save old toothbrushes? They are popping up all over, as though there is some mysterious need awaiting their use. I suppose I was going to scrub grout or make paint spatters, but no. They never were used for either purpose.

Out they go.

And then there is the scissor collection. How many scissors does one need? I have counted 42 pairs. Disgusting. And there are seven rotary cutter handles and uncounted new and used blades. Sewing machine needles, brand new in packs of six, for classes I haven't taught in ten years. Six bottles of Fray-Check. Don't even guess at how many spools of thread have taken up residence. Straight pins, safety pins, t-pins, cutting mats, rulers, and six tubes of glue stick. Everything one would need for three lifetimes of sewing.

Part of this accumulation is from the moving sale that Quilter's Resources held early last year. Warehouse clearance is more like it. I bought batting like cotton was an endangered species. And when you can buy entire bolts of fabric for $5, wouldn't you? So now I am moving it all. Some stuff is just junk and is going in the garbage and then when I get to Tennessee I am going to find a girl scout group and donate like mad.

Rubbermaid Heaven

This is just the first day's worth of corralling all my stuff. The green drape is hiding Dave's stereo stuff. Those are larger speakers and components and wires. We still have two other full sets in the house, not counting boom boxes. But his collected stuff falls way short of my excesses. Most of what you see above is yarn. About four boxes are fabric and a few are art supplies. I have just begun...

Empty shelves!

Getting those boxes up to the garage was pretty easy, since they were already boxed. Then we purchased more Rubbermaid for the rest of my studio, dye room, dishes etc. And we got garment boxes from U-Haul that will hold our winter clothing on hangers until we get our new closets. Freestanding closets from IKEA in Atlanta, O boy!

I have way more clothes than this...perhaps a Goodwill trip in my future...

I like this white one the best, but would need two. Can my small room fit two? I will wait til we get there to decide. Since we are renting a cargo van for the first trip we can easily keep it a week and shop for the needed items and bring them home in it. Two trips back and forth, before we are fully moved. Maybe by mid September...

Target had this great new soap dispensing sponge, for 99 cents, so we will not be without a dishwasher.

Two weeks til closing!

I went to our bank for a mortgage and had the banker look at the blog so she could see the property. She wants to visit. ha! Today we will sign the papers and will have a 30 year mortgage. This is all going so well. Our accountant Karen is a dream and she is setting up the payments from our account that will pay the monthly bill for us directly. No stamps, no paying attention. Sigh. Wonderful.

After much back and forth discussions we have decided to get the biggest moving truck available. We will now begin culling and moving stuff out of the house and into the garage as a staging area. Dave has posted some furniture on Craig's list and hopefully someone will come and pick it up.

I must be ruthless in eliminating duplicates in the kitchens. Not only will I be down to one kitchen, but half the size. This will test my mettle.

I need more Rubbermaids.

The Upstairs Bedrooms

The stairs in the front room lead up to two small bedrooms and a half bath. One is open to the living area and the other has a door and it's own balcony. Yes two balconies overlook the main living room.
This is a view into the enclosed bedroom, which also has two windows, and a closet which is under the eaves.

The open bedroom has this nook which I think will house a daybed with another roll out bed underneath. It is very important that I have a spot for my sister and niece to visit me at Christmas. I had to run over to IKEA for a design fix yesterday and spotted the Robin bed. Very easy to roll out the second bed from under the one above it.

I am envisioning my quilt tucked into the mattress and fat pillows lining the walls of that nook. Oooh so cozy...

Then my sister sent me this picture of my new glasses which she is using as her screensaver. Scary!

Now about that kitchen

It is way smaller than I am used to, with much less in the way of counter space. But it does have its great features. One is a window over the sink. Haven't had that in decades. And I am very happy to have a gas stove, mostly unfindable in Tennessee homes. The microwave is a combination convection oven too, so that is a fabulous addition.
I have plenty of display space for my Mexican colors (Target plates and bowls) so that will offset the gray fakey granite formica. How did they get it to shine so much? All that open cabinetry is fun, and the enclosed pantry adjacent to the kitchen is floor to ceiling shelves, which makes me even happier.
Notice the dropped counters on either side of this stove. They are normal height, but the counters that they join are higher. The design was to prevent stooping at the sinks. Working height for the owners was two inches higher than regulation. So they said.
But really I think it was to accomodate the extra necessary counter space within this small footprint. Out comes a pristine cutting board,
then this cabinet wheels out for more workspace. It can also serve in the dining room as a mini buffett. Then afterwards it can be tucked back into the nook, out of the way. Genius!

But still it is a way smaller kitchen, and altho it has a side by side refrigerator (with ice and water in the door) it HAS NO DISHWASHER. Ahem, O Da-ave!

The Details

Across the street is a big chicken coop. Defunct, but promising lots of wonderful fertilizer. The town is Palmer, Tennessee, but of course it is not in the town. We worried about being in chicken ranch territory when we were scouting out the area. But thankfully there is no fowl smell emanating from this coop. Is that a pun?

Our own hen house has no fragrance either. And no hens at the moment. One thing at a time.

As for my retirement. I have contracts currently running until March 2008, and one or two that I haven't decided upon in 2009. I have been systematically turning down invitations for the last two years, only agreeing to the ones that seem irresistable.

For my creative endeavors I am looking at where to do it and when. This house has much less space than our current one, unless you count common areas, which may be co-opted. Even making the outbuilding warm/cool enough will be my first creative effort. I have ideas.

And I have new ideas about what kind of stuff I want to make. More on that later.

Now about that kitchen.