English country dancing, Indiana style

We were privileged to be part of a dancing party on Saturday in Indiana, featuring English country dancing called by Jonathan Sivier.  Mr. Sivier led us through a variety of dances, helping even the most clueless among us to be part of the beautiful rhythm and symmetry of well-composed country dancing.  I think a good caller can transform even average dancers into a coordinated company, and Mr. Sivier did not disappoint us.

Hosted by the Franks family, many of the families of Hope in Christ Church attended, including The Smiling Sisters, the ladies of Noble Rose Press, and dozens of others whose websites I haven't yet found.  Kathryn and Tara convinced their parents to make the trek, so we weren't the only non-Hoosiers in attendance.  We even got to spend more time with Sean Kelley and his two oldest daughters.  In case you don't remember Sean, we met his family in Colonial Williamsburg back in 2009, so our conversations already had a head start.  We didn't take our camera to the dance, so we don't have any original photos to document the evening, but a photographer from the Knightstown Banner was very busy shooting and taking names. (We'll let you know if we see his photos online in the future).

In addition to the enjoyable dancing, and delightful company, I found the venue memorable.

In case you don't recognize it, we danced in the Knightstown Gymnasium, now known as "Hoosier Gym" due to its prominent part in the movie "Hoosiers."  Thanks to moviescreenshots.blogspot.com for the image above that was taken from the movie.  The gym still looks almost identical to its appearance in the movie, and added a charmingly vintage atmosphere to our wonderful day.  Our family owes a debt of gratitude to the Franks family for organizing a day we won't soon forget!

Beautiful sunset #25 seen two ways

January 4, 4:49 PM

The sunset on January 4 was so big and beautiful that even the widest angle view through my camera didn't really do it justice.  So I thought this 180-degree video sweep might do.



(you can watch the wide-screen version here)

Actually, even that seemed less impressive than it did when I was standing there in the middle of it.  Maybe next time I'll just have to climb on the roof and shoot a 360-degree video.

Main bathroom remodel, part 2

When we last reported from the bathroom, things were still pretty rough.  The photos for this post span a couple weeks, so we've got a good bit of progress to report.

This shot shows the west wall covered in drywall, which means the supply and drain plumbing were complete in that wall along with the wiring.  The north wall still needed a little more work before it was covered.

The new tub found a home at this point so it could be plumbed before the walls were closed up.  Notice we put fiberglass insulation in the east wall as a sort of noise isolation between the bathroom and our bedroom.

Here's evidence the supply plumbing for the bath and shower were properly installed before the sheetrock covered it up.

This new window was part of the unfinished work on the north wall.  You might recall we said the old window was pretty leaky.  This new window, on the other hand, appears to let more light in the room while allowing less air to leak in.

Next came the mud to patch the joints and holes...

...and following that a coat of primer on the ceiling and all the walls.  Our next post will document color choices for the walls and floor, which turned out to be a bigger event than we'd anticipated.

Finally, I wanted to share this shot of part of the bottom of the old tub.  Notice the manufacturing date for the tub recorded as November 27, 1956.  I consider that good evidence that the house was not built before that date.  I could be wrong, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.