Life Update: New Studio

The new studio! Of course I’ve already made it a mess.

Super big life update over here: We bought a house! We have been looking most of the year and finally found one we like. We moved in around the beginning of August and have been slowly making it our home. One of the great things about homeownership that I am really excited about is the ability to basically do whatever I want to the house. So, first order of business after unpacking and getting the essential furniture pieces (ie. a bed) was to start renovating one of the little bedrooms into a studio for yours truly.

During the Strada Challenge

I honestly am so excited to finally share the process, and the final result of all the work we have put in over the last several months. And I am so glad to finally have my own workable space designed exactly the way I want.

The first order of business was choosing the room. Our house is five bedrooms but really, the two basement bedrooms are very tiny and not much space for a single bedroom. The previous owners had a family member living in the basement and she took up both bedrooms. I decided to go with the slightly smaller one for my studio mainly because it got more light, and also because the ceiling was higher. Also, just logistically it made more sense.

We tore out the carpet pretty soon after deciding on the space. One fun adventure was finding a squished mouse under the carpet —gross. The room sat like that, concrete floor and few baseboards, for a while and I set up my small easel to try and do small paintings. This was when I completed my self directed, modified Strada challenge. Though I was antsy to get a real room.

The bulky closet that had to go.

After a few weeks of this, we finally decided to do some demolition. The room itself is about 10”x9” and about a third of that was taken up by a very bulky closet. In order to maximize space, we decided to take the closet out. And for those of you already thinking about the resale value that could affect, we looked up the building codes and made sure that a room still can be counted as a bedroom without a closet where we live. That was a relief to be sure!

Tearing out the walls and cutting through the framing was one of the most satisfying parts of this entire process.

My cousin then came and fixed the drywall for us. He did a really great job and it was really nice to visit with him while he was in our house. He is starting his own contracting business (True Ridge Construction LLC) so if anyone is looking to get their kitchen redone, or shelves built in, or any of the various construction projects homeowners get to do, he’s your guy!

After painting the beautiful new wall, the next step was the floor. Since it’s a basement bedroom, the floor is all concrete. Something I learned about concrete floors is that there is no possible way to get a concrete floor perfectly flat. That is only a problem when you are putting anything that’s not carpet on top of it. And our concrete floor was massively uneven. We learned many skills throughout this process, and one of those was how to mix and lay self leveling concrete. I’m sure we didn’t do it as well as a professional would, but it worked well enough for us to then start laying the flooring.

Mixing the self leveling concrete

We decided to go with LVP in a color that matched the upstairs. Mostly because there was an open box of the stuff left in the garage by the previous owners. Wes’s dad came to help us lay the flooring. And it only took a couple hours on a Saturday afternoon. It was really great of him to help. He also came to help us put in the baseboards. Once all of those were put in, it was actually starting to feel finished!

Wes and my father in law laying the flooring

The final steps in getting this wonderful new studio space up and working was lighting, and then finally moving and unpacking all of my stuff. The anticipation was so great! It had been so long since I had been able to really do full work and have a consistent schedule. My supplies were scattered and packed away just waiting to have a home again. The feeling of finally being able to organize my work and work in a space that is suited and designed just for me is incredibly satisfying. It makes me so happy and gives me such a feeling of ownership and validation to have the space, to be able to make it my own and to finally work on paintings that have been in boxes for months. I’ve felt so unmoored and unproductive without my oil paints!

So stay tuned for lots more work and commissions coming in the near future!

The finished flooring, before putting all of my stuff inside or changing the light fixture.

Obviously it’s still a work in progress, I need a small cabinet for supplies and have plans for more floating shelves on the walls, but I’m really happy with how its turned out, and it is a workable space now! The new light fixture absolutely makes. All the difference as well. I feel like you can see it in just these two pictures above and below!

All moved in!