The Studio Build (Pix & Narrative)

Dang! Ok, I admit it. I'm mad and beat. My sinuses picked this weekend to go haywire on me, so I've been walking around here feeling just gross for two days. The decongestant I take drugs me out and I totally hate that.

So, alright. I'm going to put enough text in here to surround the pictures that I want to share with you...

Okay. The week after Memorial Day is when I had the contractors come and construct a building. I read up on lighting and space requirements many months ago and determined I needed a space that is 16'x24'. I saved every spare cent I had, including our tax refund and stimulous check, and with a "teensy" loan from my dad, I FINALLY had enough to build the building with money left over for little things...you know...electricity, drywall, and insulation (which, if you read my last post, is a cute shade of pink but itches bad if and when you get it on your skin).

So over the Memorial Day weekend, we were busy pulling fence panels and gates down to make room for the studio. On the day after Memorial Day the guys got here and started building the structure. By the end of the first day, all four walls were up and the beams in the ceiling were a skeleton, but this thing was huge by my standards.

On Wednesday, the contractors came back, but had to quit shortly after eleven that morning, because it rained. And rained. And rained. It doesn't rain for weeks here, but when I'm having work done the sky absolutely has to open up. Go figure. My luck, right? So the guys come back on Thursday and knock out the rest of the roof.

By Saturday I'm stoked and can't wait to get started on painting the exterior. (After work both Thursday and Friday I put Kilz on the trim and the base to get it ready to paint by Saturday morning. Saturdays dawns bright, clear, and hot, but my step-daughter and I are out there with rollers going to town with the exterior grey we chose that matches the siding on the house. We are some painting fiends. We painted until about noon, at which point we felt like it was getting too hot so we thought that would be a good time for a pool break (which we took).

The following day (Sunday) found me on a ladder putting semi-gloss on the trim of the building; door frames, roof trim, etc. Of course, it got hot early, so I packed it in for the day.

The following week brought up record high temps and a freelance assignment, so you know I didn't put a lot of time into the building. I skipped a weekend, and last weekend I finished the exterior paint and started working on the electrical. Please know...2x4 studs are not in the least easy to drill through, yet that is what I did for the better part of Saturday and some Sunday. Johnny and I ran wire the rest of the day Sunday.

On Monday we acquired two new windows (the octagons didn't work for us, due to the fact that they weren't exacty compatible with drywall and security) and a bunch of bats of insulation. (That stuff itches hardcore, in case you didn't read my previous post.) So Monday we installed windows, and started the insulation. Tuesday we framed the windows and continued the isulation. Wednesday we finished the insulation. Well, as much as we could, as Johnny still had a bit of electrical wiring to do. Tim (my 13 year old) helped me get the bats in between the studs and behind the wires we'd run the weekend prior. I'm sure the people at Builders Discount Center know us by name after having visited them repeatedly this week.

So last night, I got bored and started painting doors. I'd done the exterior of the back door and needed to do the interior side of the back and both sides of the front door. That was as good a time as any, I guess. Once I was finished, I thought I would paint a personal touch on the inside wall prior to the insulation going in. The darned building was built with love, so I wanted to document that somewhere in the building...So I figured it out and made it happen. :)

So this brings us to the present. Today. 0400 hours. 4:00 a.m. and waaaaaaay to early for my butt to be up and moving, but my nose was stuffy and I totally couldn't breath and it just wasn't meant for me to sleep until the alarm went off at seven, so I watched the news. Forecast called for rain. Darn it. We actually made it to Lowes and Builders Discount Center before ten this morning. We got some pipe for wiring at Lowes and all the drywall at BDC. We'd just gotten all 21 sheets of drywall and 5 gallons of mud (not to mention a handfull of corners, two boxes of drywall screws and two rolls of tape) into the truck when the sky opened up. Mind you, Builders Discount Center is about 2 miles from the house down US-70. Those folks were so nice! They hooked us up with plastic sheeting and a couple of bricks to keep the drywall out of the elements. By the time we got done covering everything, the downpour was all but a drizzle, so we made it home safe and sound. Come to find out it didn't rain a drop at our place.

So between Tim, Johnny and me, we got 21 sheets of 4x8 1/2" drywall into the studio before it never rained again until tonite. Of course I felt like crap and took some Sudafed, but it put me to sleep. We only got a bit of the drywall up, but I guess that beats nothing at all. So guess what I'm doing in the morning?

Needless to say, I'll put more pictures and updates as things happen in the studio. :)

Stay tuned!