Guest Bathroom with air-conditioning

Yippee! It's finally gone...almost. Jay disconnected the plumbing and removed the disgusting pump-out toilet. He's hidden it next to the garage until the weekend when we can haul it away. The shower is next, but he discovered last night that the existing stall is set on a 5" concrete slab which we will have to bust up and carry out. Now we are a family of 4 with only one bathroom. Hopefully not for long, but I imagine it will take a few months to finish everything downstairs. Until then, houseguests must be very understanding. Consider bringing a tent and practice peeing in the woods.

Your attention please...

I am pretty jazzed right now. The Asheville Airport just called and they want these 3 pieces for their exhibit this spring! I'm not sure of the exact dates, but I am to drop off the pieces the 2nd week of March. Honestly, I have often said that I live my life with no expectations, and this one definitely caught me by surprise. I LOVE surprises!

The demolition continues

After a successful Saturday, we decided to keep the momentum going. Ben even got in on the action pulling nails, although he was more enthusiastic about hammering holes in the panelling and drywall! The mirrored walls of our most hideous bathroom are gone. You can see straight into my studio now(I'm sure that will inspire some new work...), but I'll be happiest when we've hauled away the disgusting shower and toilet! I think the dust got to me because I felt like sh*t Monday--body aches and fever. I feel better today, but definitely not 100%. Thank goodness we can't work on this again until the weekend!

Let the demolition begin!

Although we technically started demolishing the basement in September when we were looking for the source of a most horrible smell, we have started making some serious progress. Ben got in on the action and took out part of one wall. Most of you haven't seen this house, but it has some of the strangest features. Perhaps I'll start cataloging them when the blogging gets slow. If I had a nickel for every time I've said "What were they thinking when they..." I'd be able to pay for remodelling the basement. The strangest thing we've run across by far is the octopus wiring which makes tearing out walls a bit scary. No one got shocked though, which is a good thing since we really don't like the ER here.

Anyway, the outer walls of the "finished" basement were panelling overtop styrofoam insulation. Very easy to remove. However, behind the styrofoam we found a bizarre purple mold. This one is not a health risk. Oh, and a few termite trails, but no significant damage. The sill plates are sound (unlike those in my studio which Jay has already replaced). We're starting to be able to visualize what the space will look like when it's finished. I'm visualizing it finished by next winter so we can have some extra space on those cold winter days.

Finished firing

Here's the finished kiln! I fired a bunch of heart bowls in Spruce blue and my red version of VC 72. I just put them on my Etsy shop. The garden pot on the shelf below this one turned out pretty cool!

Another snow ripple

Snow ripples

This is snow melting and sliding down the side windows of my van. It reminds me of the texture on some of Joy Tanner's pots. You can check out her blog http://joytannerpottery.blogspot.com/

Other than that, the snow storm has been a bit of a bust. It's SO windy and cold that the kids haven't lasted more than 30-40 minutes outside. And we didn't get the 3"-6" predicted. It's really beautiful outside so I'm not complaining.

Calm before the storm

I saw this cool cloud as this new snow storm approached. I know this is my third post today, but bear with me. I am trying to get my blogs to post to my FB page. Here goes.

Electric Glaze firing

I've finally got the electric kiln loaded for a cone 6 glaze firing. These are the pots I had intended to fire in the gas kiln, but I had to lower my expectations. I just couldn't get enough pots made. I plan on kicking ass every chance I get from now on. The pot in the kiln is one of my garden pots. I use Val Cushing cone 6 VC 72 base. I can't recall how much copper is in my green. Then I sponge the same base glaze blue over the green and a rutile-red iron brown last. The resulting glaze looks almost like marble with a bit of iridescence. This has been the most exciting surface I've gotten out of my electric kiln. I'm eager to see what will happen in reduction.

While the cat is away...

the mouse will play...or something like that.

I was out of town last week for my grandmother's funeral, so Jay decided to tackle another home project. Thank goodness this was a minor one: properly installing the bathroom vent since the original one vented straight into the attic. However this did involve cutting a hole in our roof. If I had a nickel for everyitme we've run across something in this house that makes us scratch our heads and mutter "...what were they thinking?"