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.    

Moving Along

 Things are moving along again today.  Had a rain event, which at this point in time anything is welcome.  It did slow things a little yesterday, but I am not complaining as we need the rain!!!
  
    I am sure those in the upper Midwest were wishing that the rain would just stop in CO for awhile instead of heading their direction.  It is hard to watch the news and see their fields flooded back there and know they are having another tough year.  

  The photo above is how it looked on Tuesday morning.  It wasn't long before it was a beehive of activity with 5 wheel barrows moving the concrete to the footing area.  They managed to keep all the wheel barrows upright and didn't have any wrecks.  
  
  So the footings are poured, had only one minor mud slide onto the concrete.  They are here today to put up the forms so they can pour the crawl space walls, I think tomorrow?
  I enjoy watching the process and learn something new about building each time we have done it.  I am glad the guys that have built for us over the years have been able to read my plans, even though they aren't always quite the way they should be.  

  Things are looking good so far and it will become more of a reality today, once the forms are in place.   

   

June has arrived along with the WIND!!!

The wind has been blowing for 4 or 5 days now and I know for Eastern Colorado that is not an unusual thing, but I am tired of it!  It is starting to remind me of last year, which I would just as soon forget!

The studio is moving forward.  The crawl space has been dug out, footing forms are being put in place as I write and the concrete will be delivered this morning at 10:00.  

This is the hole and no we don't have much front yard left, but then we seldom used it anyway.  I think the trade off is a good one.  
  Joedy saw the hen turkey standing at the edge of the hole Friday evening, peering over the edge, looking a little lost.  Since Wed. they have lost their roosting spot, the electrical wire that hung across the back yard, and now their grazing area is a big hole in the ground.

This is what it now looks like out the front  door.  Not much of a view at the moment. 
I am finally getting excited about the end result, it is all the stuff in between that is going to be the pits.  Such as tearing the office apart, moving it and setting it back up, tearing the office walls out, and moving everything from the current studio over here and everything from the sewing room in the basement up to the new studio.  It really looks bad in writing.  

We did purchase the lighting fixtures yesterday that will hang over the cabinets on the south end of the studio area.  My big issue now is finding the proper flooring.  I need to make some phone calls and hopefully the flooring people will be forthright in their answers to my questions.  One always wonders if they just want to sell their product more than they want it to be what the customer is needing.