The case of the missing pottery blogger: solved!
Well… after a loooong hiatus from both blogging and making pots, I’m back. I never intended to take such a long break, but the rest of my life kind of took over. Thanks to all of you who inquired about my whereabouts! I kept meaning to write a little update, but it’s been a whirlwind of time the past six months. I thought I’d share with you what I’ve been up to in this post.
As many of you know, I recently moved to Minneapolis after 10 years in Chicago. The move was crazy, but the real crazy part was that we bought a duplex last winter that was condemned, and we brought it up to code through months and months and months of intense renovations. The house had a total of 4 units (2 original, 2 illegal units)- which included 4 kitchens and 4 bathrooms and not a single part of any of them was salvageable. The house has 54 windows, and only 4 of them were worth keeping. The house had been empty for 2 years when we bought it. I’m sure much of the deterioration happened during that time. Minnesota winters are rough! But we saw past all that and we fell in love with the house. It’s brick, after all! And the raw space and layout were perfect for us. So we dove in head first and have learned a lot along the way.
Ian and I live on the 2nd floor, and my sister Nora, and her two little boys, Ayrie and Shiya live on the 1st floor. The attic is Ian’s office, and guest space. The basement is my studio and a shared family room. Lucky for me the basement has tall ceilings and full sized windows. It’s the perfect space for me.
For the construction, we tried to hire people that were friends, family, friends of family and friends whenever possible. Most people commuted to work on bikes, so this is what our yard looked like on a busy day:
This picture will just give you a little idea of what the house looked like when we bought it. Our Realtor thought that we were crazy, but now thinks we were brilliant :)
This is what our kitchen looks like now. It’s a pretty dramatic before and after!
We designed these shelves to hold our pots for every day use. As they were being built, everyone kept saying: what are you doing? These are super engineered to be incredibly sturdy. There are no worries about overloading them! I’ll do a blog post at some point in the future so you can see the interior structure of the shelves.
We live right in the middle of the city- but we have a barn in our back yard! It needed quite a bit of work, being over a century old, but we’re glad we did it. There is a great loft space that I hope to turn into a showroom someday.
Of course I have tons more pictures of our renovations, but I just picked out a handful to give you a sense of what I’ve been up to. If anyone wants to see more photos, I could post a slideshow of the rest of the house. My next post will be of my studio progress so far, so there will be some more house photos to come.
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Then, just as we were nearing the end of our renovations, Ian and I decided, after 13 years together, to make it ‘legal’, and we got married! We had a tiny ceremony, in our living room. It was perfect. We’re planning a larger celebration in the spring in our back yard after the snow thaws but before I begin construction on my soda kiln and kiln building.
So that basically sums up where I’ve been. It’s been a great year with a lot of exciting changes. I’m anxious to be back to blogging, and back to the world of clay! I have a ton a blog posts lined up in my head, and even more ideas for pots! Thanks for checking back in with me.
Eager to see the inside of the barn/studio.
So glad you are back in the blogosphere! That looks like the neighborhood south of Lake St.?
What a satisfying project that must have been — now that it is done!
and a big welcome back…hope this years a great one with all your reorganising it will be super to hear what you’re up to now…cheers ang
What an incredible make-over! Your pots look great on their new shelves. How exciting to be starting the new year in your new home and studio. Lots of good wishes to you for 2010!
congrats on your wedding and all the hard work, your home looks fantastic.
Wow the place looks incredible!!! Love to see the construction on those shelves. Nice having you back.
I’m so glad you are back. Your house project looks very exciting! Do you have more photos on flickr?
Hi Emily.
It’s so great to get a glimpse into your new home and what was obviously a lot of hard work and perseverance!! I’m looking forward reading more about this great project of your.
It would be great if you put up a slide show of some of the highlights of the renovation.
Congratulations on you living room wedding! I wish you and Ian a wonderful new year!
Hi Emily! Welcome back! What a happy post, full of such great news. Would love to see the house photos. Looks like an amazing home.
Woo Hoo! Congratulations on your marriage… that’s super awesome… and welcome back to blogging, I’ll look very forward to reading new posts especially about that awesome house of yours… It looks like you have done an amazing job, very inspiring… ;)
Welcome back! Be careful on the renovation stuff, that is how I got into my remodeling business! Making pots is way better. Looks as though you did a great job! I am looking forward to new posts on your blog, I have followed you for some time now. I promise to begin updating my blog again.
Welcome back!!
Awesome work on the house. And it has a barn! Very cool.
Wow! Impressive makeover. As someone who went through a much smaller scale house “reconstruction” I imagine that you must be feeling major relief and excitement about moving forward with just “living”. I’m really impressed by how quickly you got stuff done! Does your bicycle crew travel??? ;-)
So nice to have you back. Would also love to see the slide show. Befores and afters are the greatest because you get to see the leap of faith and vision realized and appreciate how far and how hard the leap was!
It is great having you back on-line. I’ve missed your posts a lot. I am happy to see all the good things that have come of your move. The house looks lovely.
I found your blog through the Mudstuffing blog and I am so happy to see new posts, as I love your pots. I can’t wait for a house slide show!
I just wanted to say that I absolutely love everything about this post. I got the fuzzies, what a great life you have.
How cool!! Your home is just beautiful. Congrats on everything :)
Nice work and nice to meet you. I love your shelves and your RED RED RED Barn!