well color me stupid

So last Thursday I started on Farm House the next Anniversary of the Heart series. And got a lot done in just one train ride I thought. On the way home I picked it up again totally meaning to keep my momentum going. Then I noticed that I started this piece one block short on the left. I would have to pick out what I've done and start over. Bummer! I so didn't feel like doing that then and in any case, I wanted to have the chart from the one above just to make sure they lined up correctly before I start again, I just put it aside and napped on the way home. This loomed over me all weekend. So much so that I didn't open my stitching bag. So this morning I remembered that I still needed to check the first chart to line every thing up and I tossed it in my bag. The start of daylight savings always messes with me so I just slept on the train into Chicago and never even looked at it. When I got to work I made a quick copy of the top of Farm House and the bottom of Snow Garden so I could tape them together so I could see exactly where I needed to start.

So what did I see when I lined everything up? That I didn't mess up! The lovely BBD ladies made the left hand edge almost the same in both charts and I wasn't off after all. :-) Yeah for this. But I did lose an entire weekend of stitching. Bummer for that.

I started my house quest in earnest this weekend. How distressing and depressing it turned out to be. What I can really afford right now are short sales and bank owned homes. At least half of the ones I looked at where unlivable in their present state. The people living in them either striped them bare before moving or just gave up on doing anything even remotely resembling maintenance. I actually went into one place (that I had high hopes for) that had two feet of water in the basement! The other half needed major work like roofs and windows and things like that and I don't want to start out my home ownership adventure doing that.

So I'll pull ten more or so and go out again this weekend. I'm really sad that I might not be able to have a yard after all. If none of the older homes in the area work I might have to start looking at townhouses. They are newer and for the most part in good repair but very, very few have yards and fences for the dogs. Or another option is to start to look in Wisconsin for houses. But that will add an hour a day to an already almost three and a half hour a day commute. I don't like either option very much at all.