We found a general contractor! He has been calling every few days to give us updates and to make suggestions about changes based upon what he found in the walls.  To say the prior owner built a kludge is an under statement.

Last week, Nathan pulled up the carpeting on the main floor and removed the old kitchen cabinets. These will be reused in my new studio which is phase 3. 

We went to Home Depot to pick out a style of cabinet plus a stain color. We also selected a formica counter top, nickel pulls and knobs, a floor tile and back splash tile. I bought samples of each so we can give them to Nathan as guidance; he is having a local (to the house in Texas) cabinet maker build the cabinets and use a similar stain color. Nathan is also suggesting a granite counter top and other flooring tile.  

The final decisions will be made next week when we take a trip out to the house, yet again, to see all these options in person. 

I have, based upon Nathan's measurements, selected the appliances: Range, Dishwasher, Range Hood, Refrigerator, and the Washer and Dryer, Sink and Faucet. All of this will be bought once the cabinets are ready to install and will be delivered to the house for Nathan and his team to install. 

What else are we doing besides the kitchen? Widening the stairs to the second floor; adding/relocating the laundry room; relocating the pantry; installing new upstairs and downstairs air handlers; finishing the master bathroom as this was not done as part of the purchase; removing a false wall and making the living room bigger; add tile to the fireplace and add a hearth to it, as this was not done too; and lots of little repairs to the walls. 

Once the main house is done, then there are repairs to be done to the outside, the car port widened for too cars, and a nice paint job. This will be phase 2. 

Phase 3 will be my studio.

I was going to take the 1200 sq. foot free standing workshop at the back of the property. We were going to add a 3/4 bathroom and a small water heater to have hot and cold water for a big sink for cleaning of metals, patina, etc. EXCEPT we now found out that the septic tank is UP HILL from the workshop plush we might have to drill through some rock to get to it.  Thus the decision has been made for me to take the 800 square foot bonus room in the house.  This is on the main floor and it right across the hall from the downstairs bathroom; it will be next to the laundry room too which will mean it won't be too expensive to run water pipe to the sink and to drain it into the septic. This will actually be much less money to do.   We need to seal the floors to reduce moisture; add a split system; install the cabinets; lights; tables, chairs and other workbenches. 

Erich - a.ka. "the shop elf" will get the workshop for his weight room and electronics hobby stuff and as general storage since we don't have a garage either. 

Enjoy the some of the before and after demo and a few other odd pictures!

Over 25 years ago, I started a small company called Fat Quarters Software.  I was a sewer - clothing and quilts, and I was just moving into software development as it was the start of the internet age. 

​My first project was a membership database for a working group of the IEEE. I then adapted it for my quilt guild which was having issue maintaining their membership list and printing labels for the news letter.

From there, I even set up a website - ah the simple days of plain HTML. 

Eventually I went to work for a software company and was going to shut my business and website when my husband found a geo-magnetic sensor that was made in Wales. He bought two, to play with. Over time he and some of his acquaintances who wrote for various electronic magazines, developed a few projects and kits to go along with the sensors.  To cut a long story short, we transformed Fat Quarters Software into Fat Quarters Software and Electronics to sell the sensors and the kits. This was 20 years ago.

Over those 20 years, we got to know the makers of the sensors and traveled to Wales many times to talk business and visit as we had become good friends. ​We even sold our kits to them for sale across the pond. 

In the beginning, the sales were quite good but in the past few years they have fallen off. In 2015 we had very few. Having done the analysis, it is has been decided that we will close shop. It is not worth the time or expense to stay open.  

We sold our remaining stock to the Bill the owner of Speake & Co. and he will refund our money for what few sensors we did have and on April 30, 2016 I will take the website down. I have been the web master (or mistress if you so choose) all that time and through various incarnations and technologies. 

<sigh><snif><sniff> 

Good bye FQS!  Maybe I will resurrect you again, someday. 

again?
Yes again! Between Christmas and New Years we went to Texas again. Much has been happening.

First - we bought a THIRD house but this IS (really it is) the one we will move to when "we" retire. The house is almost 3,000 square feet if you include the bonus room and then there is the 1200 square foot workshop at the back of the property.   The house needs a bit of renovation but we knew that going in and the price was very low because of it. 

Secondly - we will be selling the second house we bought for two reasons. The HOA is a PITA. We have a neighbor who is part of the issue. He reports the slightest noise or issue the renters, of our house, cause.  I will tell you that both of us are not fans of HOA's but we had heard this was an OK one but I guess not. It makes us not want to live there. The second reason is that selling this house will free up a lot of cash so we can do the renovations on the new house. 

We left on our road trip Christmas day and on the second day between Tucson, Arizona and Fort Stockton, Texas we experienced a high plains blizzard. It started on Saturday December 26th. First as we crossed into New Mexico we had some rain then it was sleet and then big snow flakes but nothing was sticking to the ground. When we crossed into Texas, it has stopped but it started again just outside of El Paso. By the time we got to Fort Stockton is was 28 degrees and the wind was blowing bad.

We woke up on Sunday the 27th to the actual blizzard, 27 degree weather, about an inch of snow on the ground and a cloak of ice on the car. I had to crawl into the car on the passenger side that had less ice and force the driver side door open. I got the car started and turned the defrosters on full blast since the ice on the window was probably a quarter of an inch thick. Almost an hour later with lots of scraping, the window was clear and we could hit the road and luckily we had an all wheel drive car. 

See that blue area? That's where we were. 

The roads were not closed but there were not a lot of cars driving and the I-10 was not being plowed but the trucks and cars that were moving had made a small track we could also follow. So it was 40 mph for most of the day with the snow/sleet/slush/rain and high winds battering us as we went. We saw several accidents along the way - mostly single cars or pickup trucks that had spun out. Along the way we would get in lines with other cars and big rigs and just stay together until the big rig would struggle to go up a hill dropping to as low as 30 mph and then we would speed up and gently pass them cause remember we did not have to get up to 60mph, we only had to be faster than them - so one car would pull out and eventually all would and we could get past the big rig. As we got closer to Texas Hill Country the storm became rain with thunder and lightening. What should have taken 4-5 hours was almost 8 hours.    

Monday was dry and we had no issues in New Braunfels. We went to the new, new, new house to start the walk through for the renovation changes.  We completed this on Tuesday with a very, very long list of lots of little things to do and fix plus pictures of the worst things in case we need them for reference. We also spent more time in both New Braunfels and San Marcos just wandering and looking in shops to familiarize ourselves for the future.  

On Wednesday we headed home - arriving in the afternoon, New Years Day. 

I now have a complete list of the work to be done - actually there are three list. One list for the house which we will renovate first. Then we will do some work outside the house which is the second list. The third list is the renovations on the workshop.  These are now with our contractor and we are awaiting estimates for cost and time which if all goes well, the work will begin at the end of the month.

Here are some pictures of the road trip, as usual.