Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Another Kind of Determined

When Meredith moved out, I decided that I was going to move my sewing room from the back of the house in the small room where the water heater is, to the bigger room at the front of the house that used to be her bedroom.  It's been a slow process, and I'm no where close to being done.  My sewing table is one of those honking big old oak teachers desks.  The top was quite a mess so a long time ago we found a piece of white arborite to sit on top, it is perfect. The desk is so big that the only way to get it through the doorways is to put it on end, and then get the front legs through the door first and then sort of swivel it and bring the back half through after.  One day I decided that I was going to try and move it myself.  I took all the drawers out and carried them over first.  Then I decided that two book cases either side of the doorway were going to be in the way, so I dragged one out of the room and into the bathroom which was the next room over.  The other one I pulled further into the room.  There was lots of other junk stuff that will be useful someday, in the way, so I moved it around, piled it precariously, whatever it took.  I got the desk up on end and managed to maneuver it through the door, and then slid it down the hall on it's end on the tile floor.  Then through another doorway, and the flooring changed to laminate, so I put a rug under the end of the desk and pushed and pulled and got it to the doorway of the new sewing room.  I tried to get it through one way, and that wasn't working, the wall was just too close.  So I swivelled it around and realized it wasn't going to go through the other way either.  I figured I was going to have to take the door off it's hinges, but then I realized that there were 8 screws that were holding the top of the desk on, so decided to take that off instead.  It was at this point that Larry realized what I was doing, and he wondered why I hadn't asked for help.  Well I'm kind of ornery that way sometimes, and just like to do some things myself!  I knew that he would have done it all properly, got me to move all sorts of stuff in the sewing room, you know how it is when you have to do six other things first before you can do the project you actually want to do.  I just wanted to get that table out of there.  So I got the screws undone, the top off, and then I just managed to ease the desk through the doorway.



This is my spare sewing machine.  $20, works great.  Actually, it's my bobbin winder.  The bobbin winder on my main machine isn't working, and it was just easier to pick up an inexpensive machine at the thrift store rather than take it to be repaired, and wait weeks for it to be done.  


Oh, and I have a spare for the spare.  I got that first, and then saw the spare one a week or two later, and thought it was a much better machine, so bought it. I've bought three sewing machines at that thrift store.  For some reason they seem to get lots in there, and no one there knows anything about them, so they are priced quite well, and if they don't work, you have a day or two to bring them back.  The third machine is at Oliver.

The next job was to run the cable for the little TV through the wall from the other room.  It is a bearing wall, so is 8" thick.  We didn't have a drill bit that was long enough, so Larry measured from the corner in each room and drilled matching holes, but we couldn't see light from the other side with either of them.  After a lot of poking around with knitting needles we realized that when we drywalled those walls, we had buried a lot of scrap pieces of drywall in there, and that was what was sort of springy in there and blocking the holes.  So put the drill back in and drilled through that and got the wire through the wall and I have my TV.

Then there was the shelf to put the TV on.  I had a wire one, the right height, but it was kind of deep, and since I wanted to hang or place that thread holder in front of it, or underneath it, the wire shelf just wasn't right.  We found some boards that would make a shelf if fastened to the wall, but then we couldn't find the studs in the wall, or if we found one spot to put a screw in, we couldn't find another one further over to pair it up with.  We do the 16" on center measuring and all that, and we thought we had found the wood plate that sat on top of the concrete foundation, but when we went horizontally, all of a sudden there was nothing but air behind the dry wall.  We tried some of those drywall plug things that you screw into, and couldn't seem get the screws to tighten up.  It was a gong show, good grief.  We spent so much time fiddling around with these little things....it made my struggling to get the desk into that room seem like the easy part.  Finally we went outside to do something else, and I said I'd have a look around in and behind the shop to see if I could find anything that might work.  So I found a couple of drawers, and one was perfect.



I fastened the thread holder on with hinges.



And put a shelf across the middle of the drawer, and made a stand to hold the thread rack up....and ta da.... a great place to store a lot of the serger threads.  Love it!



Of course they don't all fit in there, so there is a drawer full as well.


Do you think I have enough thread?  The last few months I've really lucked out in the thrift stores and have found bags full of spools for a dollar or two or three.  

And as for the subject of the original Determined post....well she was waiting to get in the coop one morning later last week.   I took that opportunity to go check on the eggs she was sitting on.  They were all smashed up, so I don't know what happened there.  I think the hen must be spending her nights in one of the evergreens now, because Larry has seen her waiting in the morning too.  
No Easter chicks this year.

6 comments:

  1. That drawer idea is perfect!! Looks like you can sew up a storm now. No Easter Chicks too bad for the broody hen:(

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  2. The colours are so organised. It's beautiful! Happy sewing. :)

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  3. Karen, I can totally TOTALLY! relate to your story about moving the big heavy desk all by yourself. I had to laugh. I've done the exact same thing! If I ask poppy for help, it's, Mel, we can't move it now! First you've got to get all this furniture moved, and get all those books and that stack of fabric out of the way, and you need to bring the tool box out of the shop, etc. etc... My daughters laugh. They are just like me...I think I could move the house if I made my mind up to do so! : )

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  4. Very informative, keep posting such good articles, it really helps to know about things.

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  5. You are so clever ...and determined. I have one sewing machine. It is one of those old little black singers that quilters love so much as it is very portable in its little black case. It works great for minor alterations.

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  6. Awesome work.Just wanted to drop a comment and say I am new to your blog and really like what I am reading.Thanks for the share

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