Wednesday 15 May 2013

Building a Studio

When we had children, we made the decision for me to stay home and raise them full time. I was in a few galleries and things were moving along.  I also saw the hiatus as an opportunity to change paths artistically and take care of some gallery situations (that's another story)...

Changing paths was more getting back to my roots of representational drawing and painting.

About a year and a half ago we decided to move. A bigger house and a place for a studio. These next series of blogs will follow the progress (hopefully) of the studio build.

I think it was October of 2012 that I finally secured a contractor. I'm fairly handy and I knew exactly what I wanted. There were, however, a couple things that were over my head and I wanted them to meet code. I met with several companies and I went with the people I am using because I felt comfortable and they said they could do what I wanted. They asked how long I planned to live in the house. I guess it's because although I wanted to do a really nice job, taking a garage out of the package of the house would decrease it's value. I said I plan to die here; not today or tomorrow, but I'm never moving again. It's a really nice house and we are really happy. My children can deal with that problem.

I gave them some money and they went away.

My space is a "super" single, detached garage. It's close to 400 square feet. I would've wanted more, but I have a workshop space in the basement that I can can use for storage, framing, and whatever else I need. It is also doubling as my studio right now.

So the space will be used just for painting, drawing and teaching.

In April I got the drawings. The start date was scheduled for May 1st. They have started, albeit a little late and are well under way. I gave them some more money.

 I will blog it's progress and go into detail what is being done and why.

Here's the where it's being done:

That doors opens facing north.

We will remove this overhead door and seal it.

North side. French doors and a big bay window.

It will be a very nice view into the garden.