I figured it was time to give a general update on life in the Walker household.
Last week Sid and I celebrated our 25th Anniversary. Ginny volunteered to take the boys for the weekend so we could enjoy a weekend alone. No big celebration, but we went bowling, rented a couple movies, and enjoyed some WONDERFUL steaks from a real butcher shop instead of the grocery store. God blessed us with sunshine that day and Sid grilled them outside.
Sid has been putting a lot of time and dedication into starting a local chapter of the Christian Motorcyclist's Association. He has been enjoying riding with a chapter from another town, but would love to start one here. He needs 10 committed people to officially open it, and is at about 7 people right now. He and John attended the State CMA Rally this summer and had a great time. Next year we'll all go.
Sid's job has been on very lean hours for the last year. Thankfully he was NOT one of those who got laid off. Last year he was getting about 10-15 hrs/wk of overtime, and for most of this year he has been working only a 32hr/wk. But things are finally picking up again. Last month they went back to full-time hours, and hired back some layoffs. This week they have OVERTIME! Not regular you-can-count-on-em OT hours, but at least something.
My life has quieted down this year. Since our homeschool co-op folded after 8 years, and we have not joined another, that is one less thing on my plate. School is going smoothly this year, and is less stressful than many years have been. I've been working on a paid sewing project that turned out to ALMOST be a bigger bite than I could chew, but it's almost finished now. Then I have a growing pile of small projects and mending to finally catch up on. I'm still working in Awana, running the "store" where the kids purchase their prizes.
A possible move back to Cheyenne is still on the radar. There hasn't been much progress toward that end, but it's still a possibility.
Virginia was hired by the public schools in a near-by city. She's teaching 7th grade remedial math and remedial language arts. She's enjoying the work, and is tickled to have her own apartment with no college roommates.
John discovered this weekend that he has finally surpassed Ginny in height. He passed me long ago! He now is about 5'11"! and he needs jeans about 26 waist and 34 inseam. Don't know where we'll ever find them, but a shopping trip is definitely needed! Such a string bean; he sure didn't get that from me.
John has dropped Boy Scouts. He's helping in Awana Cubbies just for their weekly puppet show, coaching a Bible Quiz team, and attending Youth Group. A local homeschooling family hosted monthly teen nights this summer that he has enjoyed. He's doing well with his schoolwork, and enjoying Biology at the high school.
Tim is still in Cub Scouts, but currently between troops. I need to get him transferred into another Pack. The first one was extremely small, and since part of the draw to that one was the same location and time as John's Boy Scout troop, I decided to switch him to the bigger pack for Webelos. Now I just need to actually do it. Tim attends Awana, and is in the second T&T book.
In his schoolwork this year, Tim has made the jump to working much more independently, freeing up my attention. I still need to stay close though, or he follows me to where ever I am. It has felt odd to me. I've been SO needed for so many years, that I never expected to be at such loose ends this year.
We are thoroughly enjoying the TruthQuest History curriculum. Tim is keeping up with what John and I are covering, and they have both been enjoying the topics and projects. I need to add more FIAR-type books for Tim. I've been disgusted with the lack of decent picture books about this era of history, and we haven't had many to choose from. I just ordered EVERY one I could get from our library system, a grand total of 5! Not very promising. We've been working our way through D'Aulaires Greek Myths as his read-aloud.
That sums us all up. No earth-shattering news. Just life.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Saturday, October 10, 2009
The Big Reveal
Being at the "reveal" yesterday was very interesting. I'm not a particularly emotional person, and I don't know the family, so I wasn't really caught up in the emotion of the whole thing. When the family was there, in some ways I felt like I was intruding. And I REALLY felt like the cameras were. I know that's part of the deal when you agree to do such a show, but when they saw the house, and turned around to hug friends/family in the crowd behind them, the camera men reminded me VERY much of a pack of vultures. The camera men (at least 3 cameras) circled in and were only 1-2 feet away from the family members.
One the technical side of things, it was fun to watch the filming process. I was surprised at how many things were filmed out of sequence. When I arrived, I was told to stand with the rest of the general crowd. I had a spot almost directly across from the house, about 3 people back from the curb.
Do you know the part in an episode when they finish the house, and Ty hollers "We got the keys!" and they start moving in the furniture? They filmed that with a fully furnished house behind them! I don't know if this is the usual time for it, or if it was because Ty spent the week commuting back and forth between this project and one in New Hampshire, so they didn't have a chance earlier.
Next they got the crowd all stirred up and filmed us chanting "Move that bus". There was no bus, just the cameras and a producer talking to us. They gave us instructions that any footage that included: 1. people taking pictures, 2. people looking directly at the camera, or 3. people acting a fool in front of the camera, would NOT be on TV. They did several "takes" of all of us chanting.
Next they had everyone in volunteer shirts move across the street and stand in the driveway. I hoped they would do the shot with all the volunteers coming down the street in pack, but I guess they did that one earlier in the week. The next part was filming the bus driving away, with no yelling, revealing the house and all the volunteers.
So, I am in two places at once. In the crowd chanting, then in front of the house when the bus moves.
Then came the Limo, with no passengers, and footage of THAT driving away.
When the family did arrive, I couldn't see them from the back side of the bus. After the bus moved, they spent a fair amount of time hugging friends and family before heading up the steps. They went running up to the door, and it was locked! Then they had to stand around and wait while the camera crew went around through the back door and set up their cameras.
After the family went inside, I left, but on the news 3 hours later, they did a live report and people were still there.
If I get the opportunity to do this again, I'll make sure to take my camera. I didn't this time because I knew my cousins would have pics, and because I simply wanted to watch it all "for real" NOT through a viewfinder.
Overall, this week was a great experience, and I am SO glad I volunteered to do it.
One the technical side of things, it was fun to watch the filming process. I was surprised at how many things were filmed out of sequence. When I arrived, I was told to stand with the rest of the general crowd. I had a spot almost directly across from the house, about 3 people back from the curb.
Do you know the part in an episode when they finish the house, and Ty hollers "We got the keys!" and they start moving in the furniture? They filmed that with a fully furnished house behind them! I don't know if this is the usual time for it, or if it was because Ty spent the week commuting back and forth between this project and one in New Hampshire, so they didn't have a chance earlier.
Next they got the crowd all stirred up and filmed us chanting "Move that bus". There was no bus, just the cameras and a producer talking to us. They gave us instructions that any footage that included: 1. people taking pictures, 2. people looking directly at the camera, or 3. people acting a fool in front of the camera, would NOT be on TV. They did several "takes" of all of us chanting.
Next they had everyone in volunteer shirts move across the street and stand in the driveway. I hoped they would do the shot with all the volunteers coming down the street in pack, but I guess they did that one earlier in the week. The next part was filming the bus driving away, with no yelling, revealing the house and all the volunteers.
So, I am in two places at once. In the crowd chanting, then in front of the house when the bus moves.
Then came the Limo, with no passengers, and footage of THAT driving away.
When the family did arrive, I couldn't see them from the back side of the bus. After the bus moved, they spent a fair amount of time hugging friends and family before heading up the steps. They went running up to the door, and it was locked! Then they had to stand around and wait while the camera crew went around through the back door and set up their cameras.
After the family went inside, I left, but on the news 3 hours later, they did a live report and people were still there.
If I get the opportunity to do this again, I'll make sure to take my camera. I didn't this time because I knew my cousins would have pics, and because I simply wanted to watch it all "for real" NOT through a viewfinder.
Overall, this week was a great experience, and I am SO glad I volunteered to do it.
The House
When we delivered the pillows on Thursday night, we got to look around. It's a beautiful house, as I expected it would be.
It's a much smaller house than many they build. I heard someone say it was the smallest lot that EM:HE has ever had to build on. The finished house is 2800sq.ft. It's 3 bedrooms and 2 baths upstairs. Basic open living/dining/kitchen with a separate office. And a large day-care room with its own small kitchen space and bathroom. We didn't see the basement, but I assume it's unfinished.
I didn't look very hard at the living spaces. They were very nice, but not to my taste, with dark colors and large-graphic wallpaper. Very dark woods.
The interesting part of the downstairs was the day care room. One entire wall was white shelving units. The opposite wall was painted in a continuous picture of city and landscape, which also was painted on the window blinds. In the center of the room was a large table with several small tables. The large one was a standard height circle, painted to look like a globe. Around it were many small tables in arch shapes that fit around the large one. These were all child-height, and each was painted like a different country's flag. One was the MN state flag.
The day-care area has a separate entryway, and can be totally closed off from the family spaces. There is a mud room with cubbies for all the kids, and very cute new back-packs hanging above a row of costumes. A bathroom opens off the entry, with 2 commodes. There is also a small kitchen with full size fridge for lunches and snacks.
The bedrooms are very cool. The girl's is VERY girly. The two features I like best are a metal chandelier painted lime green, and a fake fireplace. The fireplace is sized like the small Victorian coal fireplaces, but where the fire-box should be is a mosaic of small glass tiles. There is a mantle for displaying objet d'art, and a large mirror over it.
The boy's room is the WOW room for the house. One item donated was a $4200 football simulator. The bed is a Murphy bed, so he has space to actually play the simulator. The carpet is astro-turf, and he also has a small couch covered in vinyl that looks like grass with a 50-yard-line.
The mom's room was not put together yet, but from the plans I saw it also was not to my tastes. The bed has a ceiling mounted canopy, with hot-pink curtains all around. The master bath, however, was incredible. It has a glass vessel-style sink, soaking tub, and large shower.
The backyard is very small, but they managed to squeeze in a new garage with an upstairs room, and a new play-ground for the day care.
I'll post more later about the Reveal. It was an interesting experience.
It's a much smaller house than many they build. I heard someone say it was the smallest lot that EM:HE has ever had to build on. The finished house is 2800sq.ft. It's 3 bedrooms and 2 baths upstairs. Basic open living/dining/kitchen with a separate office. And a large day-care room with its own small kitchen space and bathroom. We didn't see the basement, but I assume it's unfinished.
I didn't look very hard at the living spaces. They were very nice, but not to my taste, with dark colors and large-graphic wallpaper. Very dark woods.
The interesting part of the downstairs was the day care room. One entire wall was white shelving units. The opposite wall was painted in a continuous picture of city and landscape, which also was painted on the window blinds. In the center of the room was a large table with several small tables. The large one was a standard height circle, painted to look like a globe. Around it were many small tables in arch shapes that fit around the large one. These were all child-height, and each was painted like a different country's flag. One was the MN state flag.
The day-care area has a separate entryway, and can be totally closed off from the family spaces. There is a mud room with cubbies for all the kids, and very cute new back-packs hanging above a row of costumes. A bathroom opens off the entry, with 2 commodes. There is also a small kitchen with full size fridge for lunches and snacks.
The bedrooms are very cool. The girl's is VERY girly. The two features I like best are a metal chandelier painted lime green, and a fake fireplace. The fireplace is sized like the small Victorian coal fireplaces, but where the fire-box should be is a mosaic of small glass tiles. There is a mantle for displaying objet d'art, and a large mirror over it.
The boy's room is the WOW room for the house. One item donated was a $4200 football simulator. The bed is a Murphy bed, so he has space to actually play the simulator. The carpet is astro-turf, and he also has a small couch covered in vinyl that looks like grass with a 50-yard-line.
The mom's room was not put together yet, but from the plans I saw it also was not to my tastes. The bed has a ceiling mounted canopy, with hot-pink curtains all around. The master bath, however, was incredible. It has a glass vessel-style sink, soaking tub, and large shower.
The backyard is very small, but they managed to squeeze in a new garage with an upstairs room, and a new play-ground for the day care.
I'll post more later about the Reveal. It was an interesting experience.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Boy Pillows
For the most part, the boy's pillows were MUCH simpler than the girl's. And it's a good thing they were, or we never would have finished.
The boy's room is a football theme, and his favorite team is the Chicago Bears. The fabrics we were given are: orange sport-jersey (the stuff full of little holes); heavy green woven that looks a lot like grass; heavy navy blue woven; blue cotton with a pattern of small circles that look like moon phases; green cotton with tiny green polka-dots.
1 & 2. Two large pillows made of orange jersey fabric, with blue ribbon stripes at the opposite corners. The designer requested that we use the fabric to make a pillow that actually looked like a Bears jersey. However, the Bears' jerseys are either blue for home games, or white for away games. So the orange became squares. Quick and easy. Our first project completed.
3. Jersey-looking pillow. We used the solid blue cut to a shirt-shape, and appliqued it onto a white fleece, which only showed at the armpits and the neck. Dee used her machine to embroider the boy's name across the shoulders, and we added ribbon stripes to the "sleeves". For the backing, we found a Bears-logo fleece. This is the other "front and center" pillow that the designer chose.
4 & 5. Two square pillows of concentric blue and green squares. One was blue-green-blue of the heavier fabrics. The other was green-blue-green of the dotted fabrics. Both were pieced in a log-cabin type assembly.
6. A bolster of the grassy green fabric, with end buttons covered with the orange jersey.
7. Another bolster, made to look like a football. We found a dark brown micro-fiber in Dee's fabric stash, and used white shoelaces to make the lacing and stripes. As we were making this Dee commented that it WOULD get thrown by the boy. This was verified when MY son found it. There was less than 3 seconds between the rattling of the bag, and the words "Hey, Tim, CATCH!" Followed immediately by "DON'T throw that!!" from Mom.
8. Large floor-pillow size square with a pieced design of all 4 blue and green fabrics.
It was probably WAY more pillows than any boy wants to deal with in his room, but designers are pillow-crazy. I expect they will mostly end up as floor pillows either in his room or in the family room. But I'm sure they looked good for the presentation.
The boy's room is a football theme, and his favorite team is the Chicago Bears. The fabrics we were given are: orange sport-jersey (the stuff full of little holes); heavy green woven that looks a lot like grass; heavy navy blue woven; blue cotton with a pattern of small circles that look like moon phases; green cotton with tiny green polka-dots.
1 & 2. Two large pillows made of orange jersey fabric, with blue ribbon stripes at the opposite corners. The designer requested that we use the fabric to make a pillow that actually looked like a Bears jersey. However, the Bears' jerseys are either blue for home games, or white for away games. So the orange became squares. Quick and easy. Our first project completed.
3. Jersey-looking pillow. We used the solid blue cut to a shirt-shape, and appliqued it onto a white fleece, which only showed at the armpits and the neck. Dee used her machine to embroider the boy's name across the shoulders, and we added ribbon stripes to the "sleeves". For the backing, we found a Bears-logo fleece. This is the other "front and center" pillow that the designer chose.
4 & 5. Two square pillows of concentric blue and green squares. One was blue-green-blue of the heavier fabrics. The other was green-blue-green of the dotted fabrics. Both were pieced in a log-cabin type assembly.
6. A bolster of the grassy green fabric, with end buttons covered with the orange jersey.
7. Another bolster, made to look like a football. We found a dark brown micro-fiber in Dee's fabric stash, and used white shoelaces to make the lacing and stripes. As we were making this Dee commented that it WOULD get thrown by the boy. This was verified when MY son found it. There was less than 3 seconds between the rattling of the bag, and the words "Hey, Tim, CATCH!" Followed immediately by "DON'T throw that!!" from Mom.
8. Large floor-pillow size square with a pieced design of all 4 blue and green fabrics.
It was probably WAY more pillows than any boy wants to deal with in his room, but designers are pillow-crazy. I expect they will mostly end up as floor pillows either in his room or in the family room. But I'm sure they looked good for the presentation.
Girl Pillows
Since the reveal is done, I'll assume it's now OK to tell about the projects. For those who are interested, I'll describe the pillows. Others may feel free to skip this part.
The girl received 9 pillows. The fabrics were: dark purple plaid, hot pink satin, a green silk somewhere between celery and lime, a silver silk that reversed to a pink/silver blend, a beaded white satin, and a plain white satin, and a kind of abstract green leafy print. The room design includes touches of both Victorian and Moroccan.
1: The first one was a PAIN. My cousin's daughter, Kaylee, designed it and claimed it as her project. It was very fancy, with a machine-embroidered initial in the middle of a hot-pink diamond, green silk triangles on the corners, and lace trim. I think that one had at least 5 start-overs. It was one of the first ones started and one of the last finished. It was the victim of: embroidery machine malfunctions; inexperienced sewer issues; inaccurate measuring; had to buy more fabric (result of previous mess-ups). I think that one pillow took at least 20% of our total sewing time. By the last night, Kaylee had had ENOUGH, and I ended up putting it together. Not a single piece of fabric she started with ended up in the final product.
2. The designer requested a white satin bolster the width of the double bed. We had to sew together 4 small bolsters to get the length, then cover them. The result didn't look too good- you could see the individual bolsters. Then Dee had the idea to wrap the whole thing in quilt batting and re-insert into the cover. Looked MUCH better!
3. Dee embarked on another very fancy pillow. It was a Victorian-looking one. Outside border in hot pick satin, next a border of shirred white satin with pearl beads on it, center a square of the green silk with rows of pin-tucks. The pearl-covered satin gave her fits. Due to the way they were already attached, she had to remove and/or replace a large number of them, and the fabric did not take well to being shirred. This was another that took large amounts of time, but the finished product was beautiful.
4 & 5. Two "huggable" pillows of black and purple woven fabric. These were a request of the designer. The fabric she gave us was extremely soft, and was a very loose weave of very thick yarns. We had to sew it to the lining before cutting, or it would have fallen apart. These were very basic rectangles, with one cut along the lines of plaid, and one cut on the diagonal.
6. Hot pink bolster with white satin music notes appliqued on it. Another designer request. We had told the designer that the notes could easily be embroidered by machine, but Dee discovered she had NO music notes in her library of embroidery designs. Although she has computer software to design patterns, it would have taken more time than we could spare. We decided to make it plain, and look for pre-made appliques. While searching unsuccessfully for appliques at Walmart, I had the idea to make our own. Since I had time to do this at home on Thursday afternoon, I made a few (out of scraps from my wedding dress!), and Dee hand-sewed them on. This was the FINAL thing we completed.
7. A basic round pillow with a huge button in the middle, made out of the leafy print.
8. This one was my design, and one the designer said would be front and center. The pillow was a square. The design was a Moroccan-looking "square" of curves and corners, applied on the diagonal. The background was green silk, the outline shape was white satin, and the center was the leaf print.
9. One more of Kaylee's design, with a Moroccan flavor. A rectangular pillow, background of the silver silk. Large diamonds of the pink flip-side, with purple ribbons outlining the diamonds, and large purple buttons on the intersections.
Despite all the problems with some of them, I decided I REALLY like making pillows. They are quick, and have lots of room for creativity.
The girl received 9 pillows. The fabrics were: dark purple plaid, hot pink satin, a green silk somewhere between celery and lime, a silver silk that reversed to a pink/silver blend, a beaded white satin, and a plain white satin, and a kind of abstract green leafy print. The room design includes touches of both Victorian and Moroccan.
1: The first one was a PAIN. My cousin's daughter, Kaylee, designed it and claimed it as her project. It was very fancy, with a machine-embroidered initial in the middle of a hot-pink diamond, green silk triangles on the corners, and lace trim. I think that one had at least 5 start-overs. It was one of the first ones started and one of the last finished. It was the victim of: embroidery machine malfunctions; inexperienced sewer issues; inaccurate measuring; had to buy more fabric (result of previous mess-ups). I think that one pillow took at least 20% of our total sewing time. By the last night, Kaylee had had ENOUGH, and I ended up putting it together. Not a single piece of fabric she started with ended up in the final product.
2. The designer requested a white satin bolster the width of the double bed. We had to sew together 4 small bolsters to get the length, then cover them. The result didn't look too good- you could see the individual bolsters. Then Dee had the idea to wrap the whole thing in quilt batting and re-insert into the cover. Looked MUCH better!
3. Dee embarked on another very fancy pillow. It was a Victorian-looking one. Outside border in hot pick satin, next a border of shirred white satin with pearl beads on it, center a square of the green silk with rows of pin-tucks. The pearl-covered satin gave her fits. Due to the way they were already attached, she had to remove and/or replace a large number of them, and the fabric did not take well to being shirred. This was another that took large amounts of time, but the finished product was beautiful.
4 & 5. Two "huggable" pillows of black and purple woven fabric. These were a request of the designer. The fabric she gave us was extremely soft, and was a very loose weave of very thick yarns. We had to sew it to the lining before cutting, or it would have fallen apart. These were very basic rectangles, with one cut along the lines of plaid, and one cut on the diagonal.
6. Hot pink bolster with white satin music notes appliqued on it. Another designer request. We had told the designer that the notes could easily be embroidered by machine, but Dee discovered she had NO music notes in her library of embroidery designs. Although she has computer software to design patterns, it would have taken more time than we could spare. We decided to make it plain, and look for pre-made appliques. While searching unsuccessfully for appliques at Walmart, I had the idea to make our own. Since I had time to do this at home on Thursday afternoon, I made a few (out of scraps from my wedding dress!), and Dee hand-sewed them on. This was the FINAL thing we completed.
7. A basic round pillow with a huge button in the middle, made out of the leafy print.
8. This one was my design, and one the designer said would be front and center. The pillow was a square. The design was a Moroccan-looking "square" of curves and corners, applied on the diagonal. The background was green silk, the outline shape was white satin, and the center was the leaf print.
9. One more of Kaylee's design, with a Moroccan flavor. A rectangular pillow, background of the silver silk. Large diamonds of the pink flip-side, with purple ribbons outlining the diamonds, and large purple buttons on the intersections.
Despite all the problems with some of them, I decided I REALLY like making pillows. They are quick, and have lots of room for creativity.
What a BUSY week!
This week gave me taste of a full-time job type schedule, and I SO glad I'm a stay-at-home mom! Here's what my week looked like:
Monday: Tim had no PE/Music class, so we skipped speech therapy and headed to my cousin's for a day of sewing. John stayed home to get himself to/from Biology. My cousin, her daughter, her sister, and I all sewed from about 10am to about 5. I called Sid with supper instructions and headed home. Brought home 4 pillows to work on. Completed 2, did parts of other 2.
Tuesday: Had to get Tim to Music, so couldn't leave as early. Picked him up from class at 11, then dropped him at a friend's house for the afternoon. Sewed from 12:30pm till 1:30am! Had told Sid earlier that I'd probably be home around midnight, but didn't arrive till 2:30. VERY worried hubby! SORRY!
Wednesday: My cousin's and my schedules both too full to get together, but worked on pillows at home.
Thursday: Back at her house at 4pm. Had previously been told we should have the pillows at the Makeover house around 8pm. Arrived at cousin's house to the news that now they want them around 6pm! NOT gonna make it! We finally left Dee's house about 8:30. The designer loved the pillows. She picked two that she said would be front-and-center on the beds, and both I had sewn, one I designed.
Total: approx. 24 hrs of sewing for me, plus about 6hrs driving, total of nearly 100 man-hours of sewing time for all three of us together.
Friday: Today I went back at noonish for the reveal. It didn't actually happen until about 3. LONG time standing around on concrete. Stuck in traffic going home. The drive that took 1 hr going took 2 hours getting home. YUCK.
Tomorrow (Saturday) I'll be at our regional Awana Leader's Conference. If the church hadn't already paid for it, I'd bow out. Would MUCH rather stay home and veg! (I'd have to pay the church back if I didn't go)
Sunday will truly be a day of well-earned REST!
Monday: Tim had no PE/Music class, so we skipped speech therapy and headed to my cousin's for a day of sewing. John stayed home to get himself to/from Biology. My cousin, her daughter, her sister, and I all sewed from about 10am to about 5. I called Sid with supper instructions and headed home. Brought home 4 pillows to work on. Completed 2, did parts of other 2.
Tuesday: Had to get Tim to Music, so couldn't leave as early. Picked him up from class at 11, then dropped him at a friend's house for the afternoon. Sewed from 12:30pm till 1:30am! Had told Sid earlier that I'd probably be home around midnight, but didn't arrive till 2:30. VERY worried hubby! SORRY!
Wednesday: My cousin's and my schedules both too full to get together, but worked on pillows at home.
Thursday: Back at her house at 4pm. Had previously been told we should have the pillows at the Makeover house around 8pm. Arrived at cousin's house to the news that now they want them around 6pm! NOT gonna make it! We finally left Dee's house about 8:30. The designer loved the pillows. She picked two that she said would be front-and-center on the beds, and both I had sewn, one I designed.
Total: approx. 24 hrs of sewing for me, plus about 6hrs driving, total of nearly 100 man-hours of sewing time for all three of us together.
Friday: Today I went back at noonish for the reveal. It didn't actually happen until about 3. LONG time standing around on concrete. Stuck in traffic going home. The drive that took 1 hr going took 2 hours getting home. YUCK.
Tomorrow (Saturday) I'll be at our regional Awana Leader's Conference. If the church hadn't already paid for it, I'd bow out. Would MUCH rather stay home and veg! (I'd have to pay the church back if I didn't go)
Sunday will truly be a day of well-earned REST!
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
Guess what I'm doing this week!
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is doing a house in St. Paul this week. My cousin Steve is on the construction crew, and my cousin Deanne contacted them to volunteer as a seamstress. I offered to help her out. So Dee, her daughter Kaylee, and I went to the site today to meet with the designers about what needs doing.
We met 3 designers, but I didn't recognize them, and none of them are ones that are listed on the show's website, so I don't know what their hierarchy is for that. I guess the ones that actually get face-time on camera are too big to meet with lowly volunteers. We got to see the designs for all three bedrooms, and the floor plans and outside drawings for the house.
Another team of volunteers is doing the sewing for the master bedroom- Ty's "secret room". We saw the plans though, and got to offer our opinions and ideas.
Our team will be making pillows for both kid's bedrooms. We were given fabric samples and pillow forms, told to figure out how much fabric we needed, and where to go get it. It's all being donated by the fabric store. We were told a few detail ideas that the designer wants us to use, but mostly we get free reign on designing the pillows.
After leaving the site, we went back to Dee's house to start brainstorming. We came up with the designs for nearly 20 pillows. Tomorrow (Monday) we start sewing. Dee's sister Joyce will be joining us, too. We have to have them all ready for delivery by Thursday night, but our own schedules require us to be mostly done by Tuesday night. Thursday is the "moving in", and Friday is "Move That Bus!" I don't know yet if we will get to see the inside of the house on Thursday night, or if we will be there for the reveal on Friday.
Today was tear-down day. While there we saw them taking away the last of the debris, and later starting to dig for the new foundation. The footings and foundation were supposed get poured this afternoon and evening. Tomorrow the entire shell will go up, with a roof on by tomorrow night. I've watched enough houses go up in our own neighborhood to be EXTREMELY impressed by that schedule!
You can read all about the project and the family here.
I have been a faithful watcher of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition for several years, so this is a HUGE thrill for me. I've thought for years that it would be fun to help with one, but never thought I actually WOULD get to!
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