Creeper Craft

 In my second felting project, I decided to stray from using a kit and come up with something on my own. I was thinking nerdy homage. I settled on Minecraft.

Using wool from our own sheep we had a couple years ago that I had cleaned and carded into batts, I felted the wool into bases for all the shapes I was going to need. Taking something that is so light and airy and reducing it tight woven blocks takes some time. Besides the occasional needle poke, it was a relaxing activity to do while watching Netflix. Zachary even partook in the needling at times.

After getting the bases in the right shape and size, I bought dyed wool at the craft store. I felted on thin layers around the blocks. I picked the multicolored wool for the Creeper bodies to simulate their pixelated green skin. Once I had the idea of making one Creeper, it evolved into a Creeper family with a pet pig of course.

Why a Fez? Because Fezzes are cool.

We gave the baby Creeper a non-traditional happy face. Maybe baby Creepers are born happy-go-lucky, before they develop their explosive personality?

The pig's tail is my favorite

Next felting project? Hmmm... still pondering.

Walls and Stuff

 The past week at house has been mostly wall related activity. We pulled off all the car siding in the living room, and de-nailed all the siding boards. We kept all the good pieces (the stack along the back wall) and are storing them in the wave shed for now. Future project wood.

 Zachary has been doing wiring in the kitchen and living room, updating switches and outlets. Also while the walls are open, we are installing wiring for home audio and network.

 Picked up drywall today, in a downpour, but luckily got it indoors without it getting ruined in the rain. 36 sheets.

Zachary had the idea of installing a decorative beam in the living room, to save on wire length for the home audio and to avoid patching already textured drywall on the ceiling. Once we figure out a color scheme for the room, we will stain the beam a color. We also replaced the ceiling fan for a little bigger one, moves the air around nice. We will be adding pendant lights to the beam too, in the same place were the original secondary lights were before.

Still have to run more wire (waiting on the speaker wire to arrive from Amazon), some misc. electrical, and some minor plumbing and we will be ready to hang drywall. This weekend hopefully.

Bye Kitchen

 So after getting the keys to the house and seeing it empty for the first time, our original plans of redoing a bathroom first changed.

 And especially after moving the appliances out, we confirmed our choice. Kitchen it is!

 The cabinet bottoms varied from crumbling to sawdust. Not from termites thankfully, but from water damage from some time ago.

 Our plan is to open up the kitchen, pulling back the interior wall between the kitchen and the front door to the stairs, for more light and open feel. We are debating leaving the open space where the wall was for an island or space for a kitchen table.

Don't freak, it is dead! Found this feller in the wall, dried at a right angle. Sure gave us a scare though...

 We found areas of bad drywall too, from more water damage, behind the sink area. There was also water damage in the celing in the kitchen, from a leaky skylight a couple years ago. Nothing currently leaking though. We decided to tear out all the drywall in the kitchen in the end, so we can have a fresh clean base for  our new cabinets. We didn't want to risk any mold growth chance in the future.

 Where did the kitchen go?

We ordered new cabinets last weekend already, taking advantage of a Memorial Day sale at Lowes. They were delivered today. It will be a little bit before we install them. Drywall, flooring, and a little wiring to be done first.

House

We bought a house! We closed on it last week, after picking this one out in late February. Buying a house wasn't really a priority for us in the short term future, but after looking around the housing market in Florida, there really isn't a better time to buy than now. Really low interest rates, lots of homes below market value, and many motivated sellers. Another big selling point for us is our house payments will be lower than our rent, and our house is twice the size of our apartment, plus we will have a yard and no loud neighbors downstairs!  

This house is in Panama City Beach, about 10 miles from where we are living now. Big surprise, it is a project house. Needs some love and attention. It wasn't a foreclosure, but we looked at a few foreclosures while hunting that were in better shape than this house. We picked this one because it was the best value for the money in our range and it feels like it will be a good investment for us. Also after some renovations and a little time, hopefully a nice return when we come to sell it. We also liked the layout, large wooded lot, and neighborhood too. It has a secluded feel to it, even though being less than a mile to Gulf. We aren't moving into it immediately, we plan to do some remodeling before moving in mid to late summer.  We have a couple months left to our lease and it would be nice to do some of the remodeling in a empty house.

So here is a brief tour. Some pictures are a little fuzzy but you will be seeing many more pictures of this place in the coming months. :-)

Front door, with an attached garage to the right. The front yard is nice sized, but I forgot to take pictures of it.

 Ugh. This is the master bath. One of the rooms needing a face lift. This and the second bath have exterior stone siding cemented onto the shower walls. SO WEIRD. No idea how one would keep that clean over time. Sure will be a pain in the ass removing it, but worth it.

 Master bath vanity and sink area. There is carpet in this part of the bathroom. Ick.

Master bedroom. Nice and large with 2 big closets.

 And patio doors that walk out to the back yard from the master bedroom. I like that. Don't like the big ugly wave outside the doors, but more on that later in the tour.

Second bathroom. Stone siding shower in this one too, but not as grimey condition. This bathroom is nicer of the 2 so I think this one will be done after the master bath.

Laundry room. Needs flooring, nice washer and dryer though. Leads out to the attached garage.

Second bedroom, little smaller than master.

Hallway that leads to the bedrooms, laundry, and hall closet.

The backyard and the commanding wave. That is a storage shed with some original artwork on it. Not our tastes really... oh well. That is what paint is for! I like having a storage shed, but I don't like it there, outside the bedroom. Have to think about a solution for that yet.

View from the shed. The white blossoming crawling plant is Confederate Jasmine. Smells amazing. I guess it blooms in the spring.

And the wave continues on the side of the shed. Don't think you can read it, but it says, "Ride the Tsunami" in the water. Surfers...

Another blooming tree in the yard. Looks lilac-y.

 View from the other side the of back yard, looking at the sliding doors that lead into the living room.

Surf Life.

Around from the back deck area, there is more decking (more decrepit though) that leads around the house to another side patio area and a gate to the front of the house.

Cypress tree I think. And I think we have 2 of them. The yard on this side leads to a small creek/ditch, that leads down the road to a lake by the ocean.

There is a lot of pruning and trimming to be done. We want to open up the yard by the ditch. We have quite a variety of trees and plants in the yard. It will be fun discovering them all, once things get trimmed back to a tame size. There is a citrus tree too, I think it is a orange. So cool. I am also excited about getting bird feeders set up. I think we will have a lot of birds with our yard. The cats will be excited too. They love watching the bird feeders and they have been without since we left Wisconsin.

Back indoors. The back deck leads into the large living room. 

It is big. More of that stone siding on benches along the wall. Those aren't staying. We plan to have our living  area in one section, with a dining area near the corner by the kitchen and still have space left over for our computers and desks in another corner, without feeling too cramped.

The kitchen. The cabinets and counters are about shot; cracked, warped, and crumbling. So this room is high on the renovate list.

And back to the hallway from the living room to the front door. Stay tuned for progress!

Sunday Ride

Another ride to St. Andrews again today, with a detour to the Grand Lagoon Farmer's Market. Came home with some cucumbers. Went there looking for pita bread from the pita lady, but she wasn't there this week. I'll find her next time, it is mother's day after all. My bike was recently out of commission again with a flat tire. Same one I had fixed 2 months ago. The helpful guy at the bike shop informed me Sand Burrs are my culprit, small pickers that stick my tire and eventually creates a leak. He recommended putting in an extra heavy duty tube in my tire. We'll see how it holds up. My back tire has not been stricken with leaks so far, but the burs love chewing my front tire.

A hunting Heron

Lizard

Hello Buddy

 I ran across this turtle in one of the park's parking lots. 2 ladies and I were admiring him and decided we should move him off the pavement into the safety of the protected grassy dunes. I think this is a Florida Softshell turtle, judging by it's nose and shell. Zachary ran into a large alligator turtle on his lunch break earlier in the week. I'll try to remember to post his picture of it later.

Hey You

Quee made a new friend tonight.