Thankful Tuesday & Tuesday Tip

I am back!  Yes, its true, I have survived a main floor remodel of my home.  We are doing the happy dance here at the Johnson household.  The last tile was put in place and grouted on December 23rd and we had an Open House on December 24th.  Aren't we nuts!  No we aren't but we are very thankful.  First of all, three years ago on Christmas Eve morning our son, Aaron, was in a life threatening auto accident.  Thanks to Erica Warren and Brian Wilder, they saw the car out in a field and stopped to provide assistance and called 911.  The Open House was a celebration of Aaron's healing and how far he has come in healing and building back his body to normal.  Second, we were thankful that our main floor remodel of our kitchen/dining room turned out beautifully.  I can' t think of anything I would change.

 

Just finished kitchen.

 

 

Entrance to basement/sewing studio.  The wall where the clock is hanging is where the dividing wall previously was between the kitchen and dining room.  This area is more functional with the kitchen and dining room as one open room.

 

 

The day the contractor installed the backsplash tile, I hung the garland as soon as he walked out the door.  I was eager to feel finished.  The look on my husband's face when he came home that night was pricless.  He loved it.

 

 

We now live at the peninsula.  It is the heart of our home.

 

Here is the selfie our son took during the open house! Ta dah!

 

My Tuesday Tip is patience!  If you are remodeling or re-arranging your home, have patience with all who are involved.  It always takes longer than you think and there will be some bumps along the way.  Everything went very smoothly until the end.  It took three weeks to get the countertop, which delayed the finish of the kitchen.  The new carpet in the living room was short of enough to finish our steps.  There was about a 10 day delay for the additional carpet.  The good news was it all came together in the end.  My patience was thin at the end but we made it!

 

My second Tuesday Tip was get a job out of the home during remodeling project.  I am a longarm quilter but my machines had to be wrapped up in plastic the whole time during the remodel.  I worked at Bath & Body Works while they were working on my house.  This allowed me to be out of the home and out of the workers way.  Our home is just under 1200 square feet and to stay out of the contractor's way, I would have had to sit in our bedroom all day.  That just was not an option for me.  Also, my working at Bath and Body Works was rewarding.  I enjoyed all the young women I worked with and the paychecks paid for some extras in the kitchen. 

 

Today I have linked up with Connie at Freemotion by the River.

 

Happy New Year to all.  May we all have a productive year in whatever you do!

 

Yours in quilting,

Terry