Studio Space

Part of the trouble with having two artists in the family is the need for multiple studios and flexible spaces. (Thank goodness that little Jules has yet to decide that he's an artist too). This house appealed to us as it met our space requirements without being huge and there is a suitable outbuilding. The outbuilding, once emptied of a few orphaned things, will be Bob's studio.

My studio is temporarily in the house in what would be the living room. "Temporary" is probably a relative term. It could take a while to find sufficient time and money (the dynamic duo) to transform the carport into my permanent studio.

For the time being and minus a deer head or two, it's a great space. Although I think I'm gettting spoiled by the height of the ceiling...

Painting Techniques- A Critique

I pride myself on being open minded. This is especially helpful when assessing other people's decorating tastes. Take for example, the previous owner's artistic and enthusiastic paint application in the room we now refer to as "The Living Room". The entire floor was handled in such fashion. My only concern is his dedication to white; perhaps greater emotion may have been expressed had he employed a more diverse palette. Only a suggestion!

Bauhaus Chicken Coop- Historical Note

I can't take credit for that catchy sobriquet- that goes to our friend Elanah. Our house was, in fact a chicken coop in a previous incarnation and sometime around 1950 it was converted into a home. As Bob and I previously resided in a storage barn made into a house, it seems appropriate that the house we finally bought had been something else in a past life. If we ever move again, we will no doubt live in a former gas station or nuclear silo.

One of the many photos we took when we first viewed the house back in August. I think I dimly remember that green material in the picture was something referred to as "grass". Seems so long ago.

What Is It?

(Oh hell, it's nasty outside and I might as well put up another post. Soon enough, I shall become jaded and cease to blog. But this is a novelty and so much is happening. We've only been here three weeks and we've lived a life time of diasters!!)
So, What is it??

Yes, it does look like the sort of thing living in one of those neglected containers in the back of the refrigerator, but it is actually the carpet at the top of our stairs. The carpet which I initially thought was tan and a different carpet than the blue wall-to-wall in the master bedroom. At least we can spill, dribble, splatter and soil with impunity until we replace it. Could take years!

Househole Disaster #4

So I will not go into the upsetting and tedious details here, but we are switching propane companies in mid-stream. (Take my word: comparison shop. These companies are entirely unregulated and it's like the Wild West when it comes to price.) Bob and I have always used wood to heat with oil as a backup so this whole propane thing is new to us. Our new (and almost a dollar a gallon cheaper) propane company sent two guys out in this most recent ice/snow event to set up the three (count 'em) new tanks. They needed to come in and check the pressure or something and I mentioned that from time to time, we smelled gas, which seemed to go away once the furnace kicked on. Here's the guts of the machine. (It has no soul):

It turns out that Baby is sick and needs some new part as it wasn't firing all burners, which accounts for the smell. So the men leave, saying they'll be back later with a brand new $300 part... hooray for money!!

Two hours later, we recieve a call from the company. Wrong part got delivered and the correct replacement is coming in tommorrow... we must manually turn the furnace off and on. This is to reduce the chance of us blowing ourselves to Kingdom Come as there is vagrant gas on the lose. (Need I add that my sister has only minutes before regaled me with a tale of a house errupting into a fireball because of a propane leak?) Now I ask what exactly we should do over night as it does get colder and we may want heat. Technician tells me, "You might wanna crank that heat up higher than usual and get the place really warm." That's great but who's paying for all that propane? Forget sleeping...

Guarding The Booty

Here's Jules doing a lovely job of guarding our many boxes.

We've now been at Jeremy Swamp three weeks and are continuosly confronting the age old dilemma: But where does it go? This is because the afore-mentioned third of our possessions (make that a half) are still in snow induced lock-down. The things that are here can't be placed until the other things arrive. Hence, we live out of boxes and we don't know where anything is. I suspect I have been wearing the same clothes for days.

Not Pretty Anymore

Let's face it: at the beginning of the winter, we can always console ourselves with the (barely accurate) cliche that fresh snow is "pretty".  I say, don't encourage it as there's more out there waiting to fall. Here's an image that looked magnificent from the dining room window of our interim house... that is until the power went off and we played Scrabble huddled under comforters and retreated to bed wearing hats and gloves.

Have I mentioned that we had to move twice? Oh thank heavens for good friends that have empty houses available to house the (almost) homeless! We thought our closing was to be back in October and gave notice that we were moving. Our landlady promptly located a new tenant and we were in a bit of a bind. Our friend Tina came through and graciously allowed us to park ourselves and all of our chereished belongings here.  However, what with the intemperate weather persisting, a good third of our possessions remain stranded in limbo.