Construction and Deconstruction

Construction:
I was finally able to finish my first sewing project yesterday with my mom. Apparently, we took on a fairly advanced beginner project, but I think I did OK. I would say that this project took at least 5-6 hours. Granted, there was a lot of learning involved, so I went a lot slower than the average joe. I made a large two-handed potholder for taking things out of the oven. The pattern said to use pre-quilted fabric...but we pieced together scraps the old fashioned way with fabric and batting and I quilted it MYSELF!! I know...impressive =) I suppose the hardest part was putting on the final trim, but I managed OK. So, with 3 mother-daughter tutoring sessions, this is what I was able to make...and NO, my mom did absolutely ZERO sewing to help me out!

Deconstruction:

We purchased a travel trailer with some of the money we got from selling our house in Cornelius. We were so excited to bring it home and put it in our "new" 6-bay shop. The previous owners of our new home stored their travel trailer in the shop, so it seemed we could do the same. Well, we brought it home, backed it up, and realized that our trailer was probably a foot taller than the bay opening! So, here we have this HUGE shop, and we're not even able to store our trailer in it. We were bummed, but we weren't lacking options. We toyed around with a handful of ideas and finally resolved to just adding a lean-to onto the already gigantic building. We figured we would start building in the early spring. Then, while our dear friends the Carrolls were staying with us a couple of weeks ago, Jeremy suggested that we turn our animal stall into the new bay for the trailer. Duh...brilliant!

This was taken almost a year before we purchased the house. Left is the tree we cut down, and the animal stall is on the right.

I think we were just keeping the stall there because it was nice, and because maybe we would use it someday. I guess we just didn't see that as an option for us. That same day (all on Novie's birthday) my bro-in-law cut down the large alder that was in the way of the path to get the trailer into the shop. So, everything was coming together. We had a plan, and now we just had to figure out how we were going to convert the opening. Anyway, Adam began taking the stall down last weekend. It's quite a chore since it's put together with lots and lots of large nails. While he did that, I began clearing the fallen tree. Hopefully, we'll be able to have a nice home for our trailer by the end of spring!

The stall with about 90% of the roof taken down

We plan to use the lumber from the stall to build a loft in the shop, as well as a shelter for the goats we want to get someday!