Hoo, Boy, Am I Glad THAT'S Over!

Well, long time, no post. I have to say, I've never been in such a deep hole for so long. So glad to be back among the living after that horrible hiatus, and may it NEVER return!

So, what's been going on, you might ask (that's for the 2.3 of you who may have wondered whether I might surface again one day!)? And thanks, QuiltingFitzy and Clare, for rattling my cage and motivating me to get going.

We started on our renovation project in September, with the demolition of the garage and outbuildings. It's been a slow process from there, mainly because of the weather: lots of rain, mud, wind, muck. This picture is, I think, worth a thousand words. The garage has looked like this for the last two or three weeks, but today (Saturday, of all days!) there are workmen here putting on the outer "skin" of the garage. The weather is holding so far, today, and I'm hopeful that we'll have more clear weather next week. The cats will have two rooms at the far left of the picture, with kitty doors to an outside wire enclosure. I will be SO happy when they can move out to these new digs. Right now, all seven are living in the house...yikes!

And speaking of the house, here's how things are looking in there...warning, it's NOT a pretty sight:

All the stuff that was in the garage and the cats' house has moved inside, mainly into the living and dining room. I also had to empty a few kitchen cabinets onto the dining table so they could remove one section of cabinets when they removed the double doors to our outside screened-in porch, so the dining room now looks like this:
And instead of looking out at the lovely view through the French doors, that's been replaced by this:
And doesn't EVERYBODY have a chainsaw and whippersnipper on their dining room floor?
BTW, I wish all those boxes you see stacked up there were full of our stuff, but unfortunately they are still just full of the old packing paper from when we moved in. I need to get started packing things up very soon.

Here's the plan: in another two or three weeks the garage/cat rooms will be finished and the cats can move out there. We will then pack up the stuff from the house and movers will carry it all out to the new garage. At that point, we will move to our neighbors' cottage a few doors away for the duration.

So, that's what's up with us. I haven't been doing any quilting at all, but I did loan a few quilts to the local society's quilt show a couple of weeks ago...it was in Burradoo, a nearby suburb, and was just a wonderful show.

I've also been knitting like crazy (poor choice of words, that!): four and three quarters sweaters and nearly 20 pairs of socks since I last posted. Knitting is small, portable, and manageable, when everything around me is in chaos, for the moment. Still, it's going to be wonderful when it's finished.

I've been reading all your blogs regularly, and want to say a big thank you to you all. Your sharing of your lives has really helped keep me sane over the past three months, and I LOVE you all!

BTW, for those knitters among you, and I know there are a few, if you aren't on Ravelry yet you should be. It's a great site, still in beta so you can't log on until you're invited to join, but you can add your name to a queue and they'll let you know when you can get on. I wish there were such a wonderful site as that for quilters.

Not to worry...I'm back! And there will be more pics of the project and my handiwork, but Blogger won't let me put up more than five pics at a time.