The Big Studio Reveal

After waiting patiently nine months (not) for my studio to be carved out of the gigantic basement in our new home, I'm thrilled that it is finally finished. This is what the basement looked like the day before we moved in when it was turned it into a huge storage space for 170 boxes of my precious junque.
After the movers left, the basement looked like this. Yikes!
The contractor finished up last week and since then Howie and I have been setting up the cabinets and worktables. Thank goodness for IKEA.
This is the same view as the first picture. The French doors at the end of the hall lead to the studio. The door that you see on the left leads to Howie's "Man Cave."

The "Welcome" banner was a special gift from my good friend Kathy McElroy. Kathy sent this to me just after we moved in and I've been waiting to put it up until the studio was finished. Today was the day! I felt as if I was christening a ship with a bottle of champagne when I tacked it up. It's now official. The studio is open and welcomes all kindred spirits who wish to come and "art" with me.

As you enter the studio, on the left is a wall of doors. What's behind the doors?

Lots and lots of glorious shelf space soon to filled with what's been residing in the 170 boxes. Of course, I know it all won't fit in the space I have so I will have to be creative and find some good hiding spaces for the overflow. The picture above is the left wall of the studio as you enter. Look how clean and neat it is! It won't be for long. I'm going to use this area for sewing and paper crafts since most of the supplies for that will be housed in the big closet. The table in the middle of the room (with the blue tablecloth) will be a great place to sit and create when then there is more than one person working in the studio.
This is a view of the far wall with another workspace. I'm planning on using this area for my polymer clay and jewelry projects. Moving around to the right is another surface soon to be cluttered up. This is where my computer is going.
And last but not least, this is the area to the right of the door when you enter the room. Yes, it's already filled with boxes of junque waiting to be unpacked. When this area is unpacked, Howie is going to put in cabinets, a counter top and a sink. No more running back and forth to the kitchen or bathroom to wash out brushes.

You'll notice that I chose Daffodil Yellow for the walls of the studio. I had a hard time trying to pick a color that worked for me. For some reason, I kept gravitating towards yellow. Thank goodness that you can now audition a color by buying a small sample from the paint store because the first yellow I tried looked horrific. When I tried this one, it was love at first sight. It was only after the room was painted and I looked around that I realized that this was the same color as my mother's kitchen when I was growing up. My mother's kitchen was always a happy place for me, and I guess that subconsciously when I was choosing a color this yellow made me the happiest.

I'd love to have you come and join me in the studio. So when are you coming?

We've moved!

If "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words," I guess this blog is worth 8,000 words. Here are 8 pictures of our new house.

I know the house looks small, but it actually is very big.
















The main level has a Living Room-Dining Room which I am hoping to convert into one large Dining Room. Since we have a Family Room, I don't think we need a formal Living Room but I do love having a Dining Room where everyone isn't cramped around the table. The challenge is that there is a ceiling beam separating the LR from the DR and we need to disguise the fact that the room was intended to be two separate areas.

In addition, there is a large Kitchen with eating area. The cabinets are so tall that even Howie can't reach the top shelves! You can see the LR/DR through the door.















Here's a view from the Family Room looking into the Sun Room. I love the Sun Room! It makes the house look so bright and cheerful on a sunny day. Too bad we haven't had too many of those lately.















There is also a Master Bedroom and Bath on the main level as well as smaller bedroom and guest bath.

We had two criteria when we decided to look for a new home. One was to be closer to our grandchildren and the second was that the house had to have a basement so that Howie and I could have space for our hobbies. We used to live an hour from our son's house and now we're 15 minutes away so we accomplished that goal. However, finding a home in an over 55-adult community with a basement was a challenge. Most people want to downsize when they get to this point of their lives. Obviously we didn't downsize at all since we bought a house that had a huge, and I mean huge, basement. It's the same size as the main level. Here's a picture of the finished section of the basement. It's 60 feet (that's not a typo) by 16 feet!!! I'm going to have a wall built at the far end to make that area into the studio. It's the area with the largest windows.



















This is the area where the studio will be located.


















Speaking of studios, here's a horrifying picture of what the boxes look like all lined up waiting to be unpacked when the studio is finished. It looks like a warehouse. There are 4 rows of boxes and each row is 3 boxes high. The rows are about 20 feet long. That's 80 feet of junk (translation: valuable art supplies.)
















In addition to the large finished area, there is an partially finished area which Howie is going to have split into two rooms. One will be his man-cave/office and the other will be his workshop. Here's what it looks like currently.















We're not done yet. There is also another large guest bedroom and bath in the basement. It has large windows so it doesn't feel like a basement.
















We have our work cut out for us, but we're up for the challenge. LOL