Letting the Cat Out of the Bag

Have you been wondering where I disappeared to? Some of you know may know. My hubs was offered a new job - he wasn't looking for one at all - and we relocated. Where to? Oh um back to New York. Surprise! This time we're in the Finger Lakes. It's amazing here! Winter has been pretty mild so far. It's far from over though. Some serious cold is coming. Cold from the Arctic. Really, don't they know they don't need to share?

the new digs

So what am I up to? Well, we bought a new old house. Our new house is a Cape Cod built in 1942! It has charm all over. Original hardwood floors, built-ins, wood work - like actual wood not the plasticy stuff they sell today. Our house is on over an acre of land! We have great neighbors who we met while we were unloading the moving trucks. We even received a house warming gift! A bottle of wine from a vineyard on Keuka Lake.

former master bedroom with scary
carpeting and rose wallpaper 

So what happened with my studio? Glad you asked! This house has a major remodel/addition in 1990. The previous owners added shed dormers and a master bedroom upstairs. The room is far too large for us. We weird that we don't like huge bedrooms. We only sleep in there! A 14 x 20 room is a total waste on us. We are using the walk-in closet as our closet for now though. The second closet has been added to the room as sort of an alcove for storage. So um yeah the previous master bedroom is being remodeled into my new studio! And by studio I mean for paper arts, quilting, and my office. Yeah, it's all finally going to be in one room which will be awesome.

the new cinnamon maple wood floors, the pumpkin wall
is amber fields and the yellow wall is fall gold

Now this room was covered in scary rose wallpaper. It took me five days to remove it all. Several days to repair the sheetrock. Painting...oh boy. One coat of primer and four coats of paint later I have what I want - autumn in my studio. My paints are Amber Fields (an old Biltmore Estate paint from Lowe's) and Fall Gold (a paint color from Lowe's).

We are installing new flooring. FYI carpeting that is 22 years old is NASTY! We are slowly installing new wood floors. They are Cinnamon Maple wood flooring. It's actual wood flooring and not engineered or laminate.

new beadboard ceiling and
track lighting fixture

With the shed dormers, there were like 80 bazillion cracks in the ceiling and they've been repaired numerous times previously. I sure didn't want to be doing it every year. So wide planked beadboard went up on the ceiling!

We hung up a track lighting system. No, not those scary things from the 80's! This one has six small cans that have halogen light bulbs. It kicks out a lot of light which will be awesome. New light switches and outlets, too.

new pretty non-leaky french door
complete with blinds

There's an amazing 20 x 20 deck off this room. It's on the second floor so the views are fabulous. We were wondering if we'd get a teeny tiny glimpse of the lake, but nope we don't. Darn! During Hurricane Sandy, we discovered something fun about the French doors that lead to the deck. They leaked. And by leaked I don't mean a drop here and there. I mean water pouring down the door! YIKES! So a new French door was installed by us. Getting the door to the second story was ummm an adventure to say the least. Good news. No more leak!

There's still a lot to do....finish installing the wood floors (should be done this weekend), install all the trim (most of it is already painted), moving all of my studio furniture in, a trip to Ikea (which is five hours away), and putting all of my studio items in the room. Currently, there are boxes in five rooms for my studio! Yes, seriously five rooms!

Nope, I haven't been playing with my paper or my inks in a looooong time. It's been months. Since early summer. My studio was one of the first things packed once we found out we were moving. I can't wait to play again. I will be attending Crop on the Cape in Cape Cod, Massachusetts in March though!

Until next time *

Make sure you photograph and scrap your life around you. Not just the people and memories.