Archive for January, 2008|Monthly archive page
Ah, the sound of new construction!
Filed under: Neighborhood, Prairie Schooler, Primitive Houses |
Comments (12) I decided to take a walk in the neighborhood recently, and to my surprise, look what I found:
One lone little birdhouse. Nary a bird in sight, but it was a new “house,” nonetheless. Now, given that the builders had been at a total standstill for months, I wasn’t very hopeful, but I ventured back a few days later anyway, and you won’t believe what I saw. Oh, but first, a quick recap:
Back in November, our local fencing contractor was having a bit of trouble with the homeowners in the red house over a gate that was too large for the fence. (I originally posted about it here.)
It seemed obvious at the time that the gate was huge, so I expected the homeowner to just accept the recommendation of the fencing contractor and install a custom-designed gate scaled to the proper size. In fact, plans for the new gate were drawn up almost immediately, so it should have been installed in a snap. But not in this neighborhood . . .
Suddenly, the homeowners had a change of heart.
Personally, I suspect that these particular homeowners may still have been harboring some disappointment over the builder’s failure to install their downstairs windows. (Remember that little incident?)
Or, I suppose, it could have been a general discontent with a lack of progress overall by the developer for this neighborhood. Whatever it was, the homeowners decided that they weren’t going to just “go along” anymore. In fact, they insisted that the original gate was just fine and they wanted it to be reinstalled.
They felt so strongly about the whole matter that they decided to challenge the decision of the homeowners’ association to prohibit the original gate, especially since this particular homeowners’ association is rather disorganized and subject to change the regulations at a moment’s notice.
Whatever the case, the dispute is ongoing, and the gate has yet to be installed.
In an effort to avoid getting involved, the fencing contractor continued to install the rest of the fence minus the gate. Check out that progress:
But with the decision about the gate still up in the air, I think the fencers were were looking to keep their workers busy, so they decided to move ahead on their next job. Given how long the whole incident has been going on, the next house should have been built and ready for fencing, right?
Nope, wrong.
But did that stop our industrious fencers? Well, see for yourself:
Even though there was no house, they went ahead and installed the fence anyway. Evidently, the builders were shamed into doing some work, too, and before long, they had installed this floating roof.
Yes, you read that right: a floating roof.
I’m pretty sure THAT won’t cut it with the homeowners’ association, but maybe the president of the association will be distracted just long enough to let the fencing contractors get that gate reinstalled over at the red house.
Only time will tell.
Back in action
Well, I’m pretty embarrassed at how long this blog has been languishing without a post, but that’s only because I haven’t had a minute to call my own for months. But, at long last, the tide is turning, and I have rediscovered my stitching chair in a big way today.
First of all, a picture of my new project, just to prove that I still know how to stitch:
Designer: Birds of a Feather
Pattern: Happy Hearts Sampler
Stitched on 35-count R&R Kansas City Blend linen using recommended flosses;
mostly 1 over 2, with a little 2 over 2 thrown in on the lighter colors for better coverage
OK, OK, I know. My neighborhood is long overdue for some attention of its own, but I just couldn’t resist joining an SAL for this project with Lelia, ’Chelle, and Cathy. Especially since nobody mentioned following any sort of a set schedule. (Sounded perfect for me!!)
I’ve decided that I’m jinxed a bit, though. Seems as though I can’t do a project anymore without changing colors or making adjustments. Perhaps it’s just a backlash from following every single pattern to the letter for 25 years, but honestly, I really wasn’t looking to make changes on this one.
I wanted to stitch it on 36-ct. BOAF Meadowlark linen, but that’s rather hard to come by these days. Still, I managed to track some down by mail, and, wonder of wonder, it arrived on the very day I finally had time to stitch again. Woo-hoo!
Unfortunately, it turned out that this cut was darker—much darker—than the last round of Meadowlark that I had used, and it also was much darker than was shown in the model photo. But I decided to try it, and came up with this:
Obviously, the recommended floss color wasn’t showing up well against the darker fabric. The hand on the left used the specified color, and the beginning of the hand on the right used my substitution. I wasn’t happy with either, though, and after mulling it over for several days, I finally decided to start again on another piece of linen: R&R Kansas City Blend in 35-count, which is what is shown in the top photo.
I must say, I’m happy that I made the switch. Obviously, the motifs are showing up much better, and since I finally made a decision, I was able to stitch the WHOLE DAY! Ahhhhh, that was nice!
And for those of you who are looking for a neighborhood update, rest assured that one will be forthcoming before too much longer. While I’m still not back to my preferred amount of stitching time quite yet, I’m headed in the right direction, and I have high hopes of getting those builders back in action again very soon.
