My ” Loft “. December 21, 2018
I’ve been pondering a lot lately about how much of my life feels like a work in progress. Fortunately the house is ~ finally ~ in progress, but still I can’t even guess as to when it will be a finished thing. I just hope that we don’t move in and then take another several years finishing, like the … um… first time we built it. I recall sharing in this post, November 2012 when we finally put in the upstairs finished floor, and I finally gave my loft its finished paint coat. That folks, was nearly eight years after we had moved in! When we moved in January 2005, the living room was still a work shop, yup, we were living among chop saws and rip saws, and the like. I am so worried that this will be a repeat performance, but I know I should not worry, because it is a whole different experience this time around.
Now for a much easier thing, a knitting work in progress.
I can at least force myself to think about stitches to distraction, even if it does border on a sometimes extreme perspective in life where knitting is my meditation, medication, and dedication (oh, and revisiting Fishwives Shoal is proving to be quite the challenge!) I am hoping to be finished with this by my birthday in a few weeks. It would be a great present to myself to have knit this special yarn bought back when, this yarn that was among the few sentimental yarns I took with me when I fled the wildfire (although I brought none of my knitteds) and now I can finally make it into a knitted form. When I consider all historic elements of this project ~~ this yarn, this design, and this room ~~ it really is quite fitting that I should put importance on this small stole, for it represents a sort of cycle, and coming around to the origin of things.
Check out the original stole I blocked in the original house loft room, the very same space as the the top photo is showing to be again some day…
From the Archives: June Into July
I don’t know how I can manage to post the past & future photos of my loft together here without drawing tears (now that is progress!) but the theme really is asking for it. This idea of accepting life to be a work in progress, and all we hold dear, for if we were not working in progress, how unchallenged & bored would we be. Anyway, after the holidays now I finally have a quiet little recess to explore unfinished projects, big and small, but mostly pondering what that means, and how leaving things unfinished is not good for me. It feels great to seek out this historic yarn I took with me, and to have the opportunity to finish it at last, and to post these photos of the house being built and anticipating my creative space coming together again. The house will be done in a blink, and there’ll be me next year at this time thinking & worrying about other things.
Jenjoyce Design 
It must be bittersweet to post then and now photos, but I imagine that time and progress on rebuilding helps with that. Likely you will move in before “finished” (what house ever is?) but hopefully not while the living room is a workshop! I predict you will move segments of your life over as things get finished. Like the baking as soon as the oven is installed!
Sarah, you are so right, and thank you for your gentle reminder that it is natural to do it that way. It is the way I did it when building the original house too, I inhabited the kitchen more than a year before moving in, so painfully wanting to move into it (remember it took us so long to build, six years!) and by comparison, this is no wait at all. There is a term the building contractors have which is ” turn key ” meaning that they build it and all we have to do is receive the key, and it wont’ be that way, we are having to do a lot of the work in order that we can afford the ‘package’ , being that the demand of us putting in a road complicated finances colossally! But still, it will be all done, and I will enjoy inhabiting slowly my loft, at least a closet , before the forecast finish date, maybe as early as February (wild guess) so that I can bring up my dormant spinning wheel that has been living on top of a dresser in the shed, and that I can at least work in that room. xx
Ten years ago we put in a modular home. We couldn’t afford turn key either, and were renting about ten miles away. I hoped to move in slowly, painting, finishing floors, etc first. But that didn’t happen! We lived for a year with sawdust and plywood floors, scrambling to get done enough that the bank was happy. That included finishing the second floor which was just a shell. It was a stressful time! And truth to tell, there are still rooms that are just primed, the built in bookcases still are not trimmed. But it will get done eventually.
Just be happy you live on the same property! It will make it easier to not rush in as soon as it has running water!
There you go Sarah, we have experienced the very same thing! Lets just hope that you don’t ever have to do it over again. Enjoy the house you put together , love everything you do, and have a happier than heck New Year!!! xx
Thanks, Jen, you, too! And find joy in the rebuilding process!
I think once you get to those finishing touches you are going to be on fire with inspiration about color and texture. It will be your clear slate to work on. I love the color and look of the Fishwives Shoal. Beautiful! Take it easy though. You’re still in recovery xoxoxo
Happiest of New Years Sorcha. I do think that I will enjoy painting the inside of the house (thankfully, the contractors are doing the outside), and yes, a clean & clear slate. Anything is possible, and this will be our best year yet!
Me and everything about me is a work in progress. And that knitting piece you’re working on is quite beautiful. xo
Thank you Becky, and Cheers to the New Year & all of the processes we get to involve ourselves in! xx