Welcome to my almost completed studio

French doors

Welcome to my almost completed studio and I have to thank my husband for getting it this far. 

One of the things I wanted when we started this project were French doors.

It was quite nice to walk up to them this morning, open them and walk into the studio, knowing I would dye fabric today!!!  

Design wall and old door

But first there was one job we had to finish this morning.  

  We had to finish the design wall.  We started it last night, but didn't want to wait until the fabric was dry.  I dyed it a light grey.  What a mess!!  It took forever to remove the fuzzy bits of flannel from the main fabric before it could go on the builder board and then up on the wall.  

We had taped the pieces together last night and placed batting over the board as well.  
  To the right is the old door from my mother and father in law's original home when they moved to the farm.  We striped it of old varnish and stain and re-stained it.  I am so pleased it is a part of the studio.

barn doors--storage area & long arm

  A couple of other things on my list were barn doors and a brick wall. Now I have both of them.  

  There are two storage areas, one is for books, rolling carts that hold various items, cabinets that hold items for dyeing, batting, etc.  The one on the far end will hold the fabric once the units are built. I love the rolling barn doors made of knotty alder, thanks to my husband.  

  This is the barn door on the west end of the room and the long arm.  This is where the cubbies will be built to hold the fabric.  I did some calculation and it will be slightly bigger than what I have now, but not much.  
  The longarm is something I decided not to part with.  I think it will be much easier to use it since it will be close by now.  

South end and middle area of studio

The beams turned out great!!  Erin and George Grinnan did a fabulous job in turning sheet rock into wood. The beams help pull everything together.  

  Now I need to start using that cutting table, those machines to piece things, the drafting table to design and get everything cleaned out again after stashing stuff here, there and everywhere getting ready for company this past weekend.  

Table

First I have to use the design wall and the machine to make that quilt for Kali.  The table that Joedy built out of the coral boards and the old wooden windmill legs is quite useful as a desk as well.  Always needed something more than the corner of the sewing machine cabinet to figure things out.

This little table was suppose to be a work table where I could do a little pounding too.  It is too beautiful to pound on, but it is sturdy enough to do that.

Fabric for quilt in new sink

The fabric is batching in the sink.  It was so nice to walk out of the dyeing room, around the corner, into the hall and be at home!!!  And it is really nice to have more than 17" of space to dye fabric in as well!!  That is such a bonus!!!   I hope one of these colors will work for the quilt so I can get started on it.    

It was nice to walk out this evening and shut those French doors too.

The End Might be in Sight!!!!!

The Vanity

The vanity is in, it is plumbed and it doesn't leak!!!!   My husband is always happy when that happens with plumbing projects, not one of his favorite things to do.  
We found a vanity design online that we liked and built it around two drawers he had previously made. He made this out of knotty alder.  I am very pleased with it.  Need to find a basket or two to sit on the shelf.   

New steps

The new steps and landing area were poured this last week.  They have not washed the powder off yet, but will tomorrow.  I am anxious to see the color under it.  Looks very purple right now.  

It was stamped with a texture stamp and I can't remember the name of it. We will put a rail on the west end and have a little table out there.  We can have coffee and cherry Dr. Pepper out there in the summer time when it is hot on the east side.

The storage doors

I finally found a color I like for the doors on the storage area.  I thinned the paint I used on the dyeing room wall 1 part water to 1 part paint and washed the doors with it.  I can still see the knot holes and all those character marks in the wood.  I was pleased with the color.  Had a hard time deciding what to use on those things.

The cutting table????

Most of the studio is in chaos at the moment.  The cutting table is doubling as a saw horse for the doors that are being finished.  We did manage to get the two sets of closet doors out of there today.  Even the drafting table was drafted to do double duty.  

Great ebay find

One of my favorite things in the room.  Found this on ebay.  

  And the bathroom floor, turned out great.  Had an expert laying the tile and he did a wonderful job.  And there is carpet butting up against that tile!!!!

Bathroom Floor

 That is it for now on things going on.  I will post more of the finished studio when the thing is together.  I do have one side of the storage unit put together and it is filling up fast.  Still lots more to bring up and over though.  

And since we will have a house full of people for hunting season next weekend, it is a good thing we are almost done and I need to make a quilt!!!

Fall colors

 The backyard is full of color this fall.

  This photo shows the Hawthorne, Red Oak and Cottonwood.  The Red Oak seldom has this nice of color, another time was when we built the sun room on 17 years ago.  

 This might be the last year for the Hawthorne as half of it is dead.  I am in hopes it will come back, next spring will be the deciding factor.

  The Red Oak, again.  We also have Burr Oaks, but they generally have brown leaves.  There is a hint of color in them this fall, but a cold front is coming in next week so that will probably turn the leaves brown.  

  I feel like we didn't have much of a summer, dealing with all the building. And now we are half way through fall, speeding toward the cold months of winter. I am in hopes the windows will be fixed soon so that winter stays outside. 

 And on the window note, an engineer is coming all the way from Iowa next week to look at them. Some how I am suppose to be impressed with that "all the way from IA" part.  Heck, that was an easy drive last fall when we went to the quilt show in Des Moines.  All I have to say is that it is about time someone got out here.  

This last photo is of the Aspen.  I am the most thrilled to see it dressed in pale yellow as it is one of the two times they have been anything to look at in the fall.  Brown is their usual dress color.  

Hope to post a few photos of the studio this weekend.  It is finally coming together, I am hoping by the end of next week I have moved most everything from the studio and some of the items from the sewing room in the basement.    

New Windows

If I knew how to put a large red circle with a slash through it I would put it on these Eagle windows made by Andersen!  They are nothing but a piece of very expensive junk!!!!!  And if you are thinking of buying Andersen windows, think long and hard before throwing your money down the drain with all the dirt you will be cleaning out of them!!!

What you see on the INSIDE ledge of the window is dirt, not just dust, but dirt and other particles of debris and I cleaned it up once before this photo was taken.  And there was another one that was worse yet!!!

These windows are the brand new windows in the studio, office and bedroom.  There are twelve of them and every single one of them leaks air, therefore dirt, dust and whatever else is blowing around in the air, when the winds are blowing, comes right under the the window.  If we had a blizzard it would be snow coming in and ruining the windows.

We purchased them through our contractor who is building the studio from a local dealer here in town.  Of course I got the usual lip service of it being an easy fix with this and that, well guess what, that didn't work and it has been a couple of weeks now and the dirt has blown several more times since the initial big blow and there has been more dirt and dust.  

Andersen is suppose to be sending some replacement weather stripping.  If it is the same stuff that is in there now, it won't work.  It is a poorly designed window!!!!  That seems to be the name of the game these days, proclaim you have a high quality product and sell junk.  Two of the casements aren't even square.  One is over 3/8" out of square.  That is Eagle quality by Andersen!!!!  
We spent extra money on the insulation in order to help keep dirt and dust out of the studio, extra on the can lights to keep dirt and dust out of the studio to no avail because of the windows.  
  
The studio is coming along, but at this point in time, I wish we hadn't built it because of the issues with the windows.  

6.95" and Counting

 It is still raining this morning!!!  Not complaining, as we have been so dry, we were in dire need of rain.  I do not remember having this much rain over a 24 hour period ever and this time of the year!!!  We might get our wheat up, once it dries out and we can plant.
  This is Sandy Creek, which is south of us.  This one was running earlier this summer when we were all plastered with hail and rain about 5 weeks ago.  Normally this is a dry creek bed.    
  We brought the 'official' rain gauge in this morning and measured the rain in it.  We will have missed a little, as it was starting to rain hard again when we brought it in.  So we have received 6.95" of rain as of 8:45 this morning.  

The next photo is of the Smoky Hill River which is also a dry river bed the vast majority of the time.  Rivers and creeks around here are simply drainage areas when we do have large amounts of rain.  Like every river or creek in Colorado, it carries water out of the state to other states.  Even though it doesn't look very deep, it is probably 12' down to the river bed.  
  
 In the foreground is the Smoky River from another location.  In the background is a field, flooded with water.  I would say half of this field is flooded.  Hard to see how much water is actually out there, but there is a lot.  

  There is a small habitat area north of our home and draw is running through it.  Have no idea how long it has been since we saw that happen.  

  I hope friends and family along the Front Range are safe and their homes are safe.  Far worse up there than it is out here.  

I am finally back

I finally have my regular computer hooked back up to the internet.  I will have photos tomorrow of some interesting things with the studio and dragonflies.

Freedom and Chaos

 Thought I should update the blog.  It has been so hectic that I haven't had time or access to the computer most of the time to do any posting.   There has been some positive progress made with the studio.  We are finally to the painting stage!!!!

 We did take a few days off last week and went camping in the mountains.  Camped at a friend's ranch.  The weather was great, had a heck of a thunderstorm on Sunday though.  Nothing like being in the mountains with lightning all around. It was a very enjoyable trip, just too short.  

It was a bit depressing to come back home to the chaos.  There is not a room in the house that hasn't been touched by the addition in some way. Dust abounds everywhere!!!!!  We took up the sticky plastic that we have had down on the carpet and replaced it with some fresh.  There is a plastic curtain hanging in the hallway until the sheet rock and texturing is completed.   I will be thrilled when it comes down permanently.  


                                   

  It remains folded up to the ceiling unless the dust is flying.  We took the wall out that separated the new addition from the rest of the house Tuesday night.  We decided we had waited long enough and why leave it to those guys.  We left the messy part up on the ceiling for the guys though.
  We had already removed one ceiling from a closet in the house when we remodeled 17 years ago and had an idea it would be a very big mess as they didn't believe in putting anything up there to hold the sheet rock and insulation up if there weren't any walls doing the job when the original house was built.  And that is exactly the way this one was, too.  

dyeing room

 The walls in the dyeing room have been painted once, need to paint the dark one again.  I really liked using the dark paint as it widened out the room and didn't make it feel so long and narrow.  As soon as that wall is painted, there will be some cabinets going up on the wall to the right.  My cabinet builder is ready and waiting anxiously for the moment.  

south end of  studio area

They will start on the underlayment in the areas where there is vinyl either tomorrow afternoon or Tuesday.  That will be a big day when it is completed 
as well as the base  cabinets can be set.  I hope it will continue to come together each week and be in the studio in a month's time.

The beams are being prepped for what they will become.  Will post the end result.  I think they will look pretty darned good when completed.  

The bricks were delivered on Wednesday and we picked up tile and vinyl yesterday in Denver.  The doors, counter top, and large window, providing it was ordered weeks ago (no faith in the guy that was suppose to order it and it was a mystery to the one guy at the lumber yard the other day when checked on), all should be here sometime this week.  

The stucco guys were here yesterday and put some of the chicken wire on the outside so that should be underway tomorrow as well.

 Of course all is not well as the a/c is leaking on the floor in the furnace room. That took a few phone calls to convince the installer that we knew what the heck we were complaining about.  Always have to have some wrinkle in the plan.

  Picked up the barn door hangers the other day so we can start building the doors once the cabinets are out of the wood shop.

The project

The most exciting thing is that the new front door is now in, but it has clear glass in the top and the side lights instead of leaded glass.   Hopefully the correct glass has been ordered and hopefully it will take less than 2 months to get here.   Doubtful though, as it took that long for the door to get here to begin with and it really isn't anything that special.  I sure hope the guy at the hardware store can handle it and doesn't think it is more than we should be spending to replace the glass though, if he does he might cancel the order.  Love it when others know how we should be spending our money.  Great thing about living in a small town!!!!!

  

They did come and insulate the walls with the spray-on insulation the other day and now they are putting the batts in the ceiling.  The guys who will hang the sheet rock are scheduled to be here tomorrow and the new office window will be put in and the closet rebuilt on one end and maybe we can start putting our office back together. I live in hope!!!!  

The garden is starting to produce, I put up 7 qts. of dills yesterday, 6 pts. of tomatoes a couple of weeks ago and working on some salsa today.   The green beans have been delicious and we have been enjoying cabbage.  There are some that think they want to become kraut already so that is on the agenda tomorrow.

  

I also need to make the tissue holders for Guild.  They are to be favors for those attending the Quilt Show in Oct.  Have them cut out and ready to go.  Another project for tomorrow.  

Update on Studio

We received approval from the electrical inspector  to "close it up"!!!    That is a new term, which I have learned a few of on this project, new terms and new sayings that is.   Some more interesting than others.  We can now move forward.

The spray foam insulation guys are here this morning.  We are having the walls sprayed and the crawl space sprayed.   Hopefully it will  seal it up and stop the dirt and dust from penetrating the structure, as best one can prevent that from happening out here.
 
The guy who will bring the gas line to the outside of the building stopped by to see where he needed to bring it in and the carpenters are working on the soffit.  That is one time consuming and tedious job.

Everything is ordered and on its way, the vinyl, bricks, tile.  Hopefully the front door makes an appearance on Wednesday.  That will be the next big addition and then the sheet rocking might begin on Thurs. or the following Monday, along with the stucco on the outside.  So things will change quickly in the studio and I am ready for that next step!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I will have some new photos once my computer is set up and running again.  I need to work on perfecting my skills of getting photos from other areas and to the iPad.

End of July

Front entry, roof shingled

 Thought I should do a little bit of catch up and post one last post before this month was over.  

  They have been busy this past month and waiting on different things throughout the month and we are still waiting for a front door. There should be a before and after photo today with the front door in the area of the place where the two wraps meet, but it is missing.

  We are waiting for an electrical inspection.  Probably the less said about that, the better.  And when that is complete, we will be ready for the insulation in the walls and the ceiling.  So everything is at a stand still until he shows up and puts his stamp of approval on everything.  

  The windows were put in about 10 days ago.  We have had some very large trucks in the yard during this project. I have seen some pretty good drivers as they maneuvered their rigs around in a small area.  

The "WALL" is down

 The "WALL" was officially taken down today and a beam was put in place to span that area.  When I saw the date of production on it, I thought it was a good omen as that is Jennifer's birthday.  It has always been a good day in my book.
And it is a very happy day and long awaited to see that wall out of there.

 I already mentioned that the front door didn't make an appearance today, hopefully next week on that.  

Dyeing room door

On the right was the view of the front door this morning, it is no longer there.  We put it in a little over 5 years and it is in good condition so we thought might as well use it for the dyeing room door.  Which everyone refers to as the "kitchen" when talking about that room.  I do brew some things up when dyeing, so I guess that will be okay for now.  The door was re-located to the dyeing room and will now be the door I go out when I want to hang things on the line or dye something outside.  And that was another thing that made my day today!! I finally have a door in the dyeing room.  

And last, but not least, the garlic has been curing over the last few weeks.  Once again I missed out digging it when I should have, so that will be something to improve upon next year.  I thought I had read one thing, but that was not correct.  I am slowly learning about this stuff.  I need to take notes on which ones I will not raise again.  I wanted to taste each after they had cured.  

  We did have a couple of ears of sweet corn for supper last night.  Hopefully we can eat it faster than the coyotes as it matures.  They are tearing the stalks over, ripping ears off, etc.  

Things going in the Studio

Catching Up

Thought it might be time to post again as there have been a few changes to the studio since last time, the garden is producing produce and we have most of the wheat cut.  

The wheat is less than fantastic this year, remarkable we had any to cut at all given the weather conditions it has suffered through. It has shown its resilience and toughness between the drought and the late freeze that killed some of it. 

The garden has finally managed to get ahead of the bugs, for the moment.  This photo was taken a week ago and things have really grown since.  I have enough tomatoes to can a pint or two, thought I might as well get started on that project. Picked the first green beans the other day, always a treat, the first batch.  I am sure they need picked again today.  

The cabbages are growing by leaps and bounds and have formed some very nice heads.  I am hoping the Stoneheads and the Caraflex produce some good sauerkraut later this summer.  I would say fall, but I have put up some of the best kraut in August.  I believe I am currently winning the battle with the aphids, but one never knows when those blasted little things can explode to uncontrollable levels.  

The progress seems slow when we are building something. Looking back on photos helps realize that progress is being made.  

This area is where the storage area will be eventually be built.  The open area is where the long arm will be located, the hallway between the old and new is in this area along with the furnace room, bathroom, and new bedroom.  

 The hallway wall has been put in place, along with the closet in the bedroom.  The window is our current office and that will be turned into the hallway, hopefully very soon.  The electricians were here and have most of the wiring done, the plumber was here the day before and has everything done that he can do for the time being.  

One of the big concerns we have had is lighting.  We have recessed lights in the ceiling and there will be track lighting on the beams above each work area.  I am a fan of track lighting in that it gets light where I need it when working on projects. Might not be aesthetically pleasing to some, but it is the best solution for my needs.  I have used Ott lights placed in track lighting above my long arm since I purchased it 14 years ago.

The track will hang on the bottom side of the beam/truss.  I think the type we chose will work well.  I didn't want the regular looking truss and found this online the other day, just in the neck of time as Dan was ready to build them.  They are difficult to see right now, but will show up better after they are wrapped with wood.   This photo also shows the storage area wall. It has a lot more work to be done on it.  More on that as it progresses.  The last photo is pretty boring to most, but I can't wait until the washer is hooked up.  That means I will be able to dye fabric again.  The A/C went the trip over at the old studio and I had to move all of the dyes out of there and store them in another location.  And I think I have mentioned that the water heater is less than safe and doesn't work part of the time.  I am ready to dye fabric again and looking forward to the washer sitting in front of the drain and hook up!!! 

The Studio

 I missed the floor joists and the sub-floor photos.  They are really not much to see, the walls are a lot more to my liking and show some real progress.  They have been moving right along lately.  Wish it could go faster, but that isn't the way building projects work.  It has been unbearably hot and I can't expect them to work on it day and night!!  Even though that would be fine with me.  

The second photo is from the corner of the garage, where I have taken a number of photos to document the building.  The area that comes forward in the photo is the north end of the studio where the storage area will be.  There is about 27' of wall on this end and it is going to be one of the focal points in the studio when it is completed.  That will come in time.
The hallway window is in the wall running into the the studio wall.

  The first photo was taken out the front door.  The new front door will be in the area of "Do it Best".  The window straight in front of me is the east window on the north end of the studio.

 This area is the hallway to the studio, which lines up with the current office, that also becomes part of the hallway and on the far side is a new bedroom.  It will have a small bathroom off it.  So now friends can come and stay and have their own 
private little suite.   

This photo shows the bathroom area.  It is also shared by the studio area.  I had a dream the other night that friends I have met from classes I have taken came and stayed at our home and we had a great time.  Barb from MI was here, along with the sisters from Maryland I met in David's class last fall, Ricky came from Canada, Keri from HI, Michelle from AL, Priscilla and Karen came from Texas and Hollis even showed up.  

This is a photo of the dyeing room.  I have to be careful when I say that and usually have to add "fabric" dyeing room.  I get some funny looks on occasion.  Joedy has the cabinets built for this room, has had them built for some time.  I have an awesome pantry type cabinet with numerous drawers in it where the dyes and chemicals will be stored.  On the wall shown in the photo there will be an opening for a small refrigerator to store unused dyed, a small 12" cabinet for some items, the sink and two other cabinets.  I will have 3' of one side of the sink and 5' on the other side of the sink to work.  I am not sure I am going to be able to handle that much room.  I currently have 17".  

The door going between the main studio area and the dyeing room will be at the end of the cabinets on this wall.  It is a special door as it came out of the original farm house that was built here.  When my f-i-l and m-i-l remodeled their house 30+ years ago, they took it out.  It has been stored and Joedy found it about a month ago.  I am very excited to have it be a part of the studio 


This shot was taken from the east side of the studio looking west.  I will have an awesome hutch that will hold my rulers and rotary cutters on the bottom that Joedy built.  The top is from the cabinets I currently have in my sewing room and it will hold books, it think.  Lots of decisions to make as to where things will go in the new studio.


This is the southeast corner of the studio and bedroom area.  The dyeing room is in the southeast corner with a door that will access the outside.  The rest is the studio area where some cabinets I currently have in the sewing room will be moved upstairs and set below the windows on the left hand side of the photo.  

They are putting the sheeting on the outside today and the trusses should be here sometime next week.  
We have a long way to go before the move in date, but we are getting closer. I did find the vinyl flooring I wanted, so that is one thing I don't have to worry about anymore.  That was a big consideration for me.  We did come across some really cool new flooring, but it is too much like the feel of tile when standing on it.  I am getting anxious, my dream studio is becoming more of a reality each day.  

The Garden

 The garden is doing well despite the onslaught of aphids on the cabbages and thrips on everything, particularly the tomatoes.  In short, our oasis has been invaded to largely to the drought and the fact that we are an oasis.  

This photo is looking back to the west.  We have green beans in the first bed, with carrots down the middle.  Then we alternate between tomatoes and peppers in the next five rows, with cucumbers in the far west bed.  

 So I have been smashing nests of aphids, then washing them off with water.  I have no idea what kind of cabbage crop we will end up with as they are going way down inside the leaves.  Have had to pull two cabbages due to the fact they were a total loss.  But I will prevail over the little *&^%$.

The sauerkraut jars might be few and far between on the shelf this year.  They don't seem to bothering the Stonehead cabbages as much as they are the Late Dutch and the Bourbons.  I don't know if it is the luck of the draw due to location or variety.  

I did get everything fertilized this morning with the exception of the green beans.  They are nice and green so will keep an eye on them if they need it later on in the summer.   


The cucumbers are doing well with the exception of the thrips working on them.  They are bothering the English cucumbers to a far greater degree than the pickling cukes.  I hope I have some dill left to make dills by the time the cukes are ready.  That always seems to be a challenge.  I am leaving little plants here and there throughout the garden in hopes there will be enough.  

The winter squash has really taken off in the last week.  I have five varieties of it planted, Rumbo, Long Island Cheese, Black Bellota Acorn, Early Butternut, Sweet Dumpling and Bonbon.  I hope they do a little better than last year.  I think the heat was more than they could handle.  I have not raised a couple of them before, the Long Island Cheese, Rumbo and Sweet Dumpling.  Very anxious to try them, especially the Sweet Dumpling.  There are so many different types of winter squash.  I have a lot more to try out.

My grandmother use to raise Blue Hubbard squash.  Those things would get so darned big.  She was a very accomplished gardener.  She would have loved the hoop house to keep the wind and hail off the plants.  

The garlic are starting to mature.  I will probably start digging some at the end of July.  Another thing I am anxious to test.  Should be much easier since I have them labeled this year so I can keep track of them when I harvest them.  I am going to print out the labels on Tyvek and tie them on as I dig.  I know it will stand up to anything as I use it to label fabric when dyeing.

Another post will be dedicated to the progress on the studio.  It is coming right along too.