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January 28, 2020

MOTH's Masterpiece

ちびちびと地下室の建築作業進んでいます。
天井の電気つながりました。明るいと作業もしやすい。


Slowly but surely, but mostly slowly, the construction of the basement room continues.
Man of the House hooked up all the lights, 8 of them.

発光ダイオードの電気が8つで、天気のいい日の日差しが入っているぐらい明るいです。


The ceiling painted and lights put in. Probably the most exciting part of this room is this bright light (well, plus the natural light from the french door). It's as bright as a sunny day and it's dimmable!

オットの強い希望で、部屋の壁の一つにレンガ風のベニヤを張ることにしました。


MOTH really wanted to try the fake brick wall over one of the walls. Kind of ironic considering the exterior of our house is all brick and we are putting in a fake brick wall inside.

嘘くさい偽レンガの上に、壁の補修に使うパテを塗ります。まだらに塗るのが決めて。ピンクのパテは乾くとクリーム色になります。


MOTH spackling.

乾いたらこんな感じ。


Dried spackled fake brick wall.

私は飾り板にペンキを塗りました。右側4本は壁と床の継ぎ目の飾り板で、左4本は壁と天井の継ぎ目の飾り板です。


I painted the base boards and the crown molding. So much easier when it's not on the wall.

ユキは断熱材の上で巣ごもりしてました。断熱材掘ってたよ。


Dog nesting on the insulation. She shredded the fiberglass by "digging" the insulation.

水で薄めた白いペンキを塗って完成。裏通りっぽい感じ。


MOTH's masterpiece completed. To finish off and seal the spackle, he painted watered-down white paint over the entire fake brick wall. I really like this sort of back alley look.

January 21, 2020

Miscellaneous

出来上がったクッション、ユキも気に入ったようです。


Dog has approved the new cushion.

急に最低気温が氷点下8度ぐらいになって、大急ぎで水仙を植えた鉢を家の中に入れました。しっかりモモヒキはいてます。


The night time temperature dropped to 17F and I had to bring my daffodil pots inside. Yep, I'm wearing my long johns.

すごい田舎に住んでいるので、犬の散歩でほぼ毎日野生の鹿に遭遇します。っていうか、うちの裏庭は鹿家族の通り道なので、朝晩鹿が通り過ぎていきます。珍しく群れになっているのを写真に撮れました。9頭いたよ。

Living in the boonies, I literally encounter wild deer every day on a dog walk. Our backyard is also a part of their daily walking route so they pass by pretty much every morning and evening. I was able to take a picture of a family of 9 today.

January 18, 2020

Cushions!

もう10年ぐらい使っているソファーのクッションに、新しいカバーを作りました。
元のクッションはワインレッドとマスタード色だったのを、青、黄色、ピンクの3色クッションにしてみました。


We had this cushion (2 burgundy and 1 mustard color) for about 10 years now and I decided to make a new cover. The new ones are tri-color!


The original cushion dissected.


I reused the piping for the new one.


New cushion cover fabric. It's like a velvety fabric and the circles are sewn with an elastic thread in the bobbin creating this bubbly texture. The thing is, the tightness of the circles are not quite the same so the fabric was slightly torqued. I steamed it a bit in an attempt to square it out but it just got shrunk more.


New piping.


When I cut the fabric by counting the "bubble" and sewed the 2 pieces together matching the bubbles, because of the torque in the fabric, the cushion ended up all wonky. So I had to unpick everything and re-cut the fabric and sewed them together without matching the bubble.


I added a concealed zip so that (1) I don't have to hand-stitch it, and (2) so that the cover can be taken off easily for a quick wash.


The combination of the textured fabric, piping, and the concealed zip made a simple project very complicated. It took me 3 weeks to finish 3 cushion covers.

January 12, 2020

Basement Update

地下室の建築作業の途中経過。
ペンキの下塗りまできました。しかしここで義父が帰ってしまったので、ここから先の作業はオットと私。あぁ、今年もペンキ塗りが多い。


Our basement construction continues. After a few rounds of mud touch-ups and sanding, the ceiling and the walls are painted. We had a couple of cans of old paint that the previous owner left with the house so we used them for the base coat.


The closet doors are hung. Luckily, the previous owner (who custom-made the house in the early 2000s) had already bought the the closet doors and baseboards and left them with the house so we are using those.


We are planning to put a faux brick wall on one of the walls.


So this is as far as it got, then MOTH's father went back home, so now it's me and MOTH to do the rest of the work. Which means more painting on the weekends. Yey.

January 4, 2020

Construction Continues

年末から取り掛かっている地下室の工事、お正月も元旦から頑張って作業してます。
断熱材を入れ、天井を張り、壁を張りました。


The construction for the basement continues.
The insulation is in.


The ceiling is up.


Walls are up...


and mudded.