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.

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.

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.  

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.