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 mywhereabouts! 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 wassalvageable. 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.
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.
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 wassalvageable. 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.
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.
* * * * * * *
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.
