Paint and Juice

While I was away in California teaching, my husband did an amazing amount of work on the studio. To start with, he primed and painted the walls. I chose an off-white because I'm going to have a ton of stuff on the walls (shelves, etc) and decided as long as it was neutral it would be ok. I've heard gray is the answer. I suppose if I have a problem I can always repaint it.


Then he dug a trench beside the house so that we could take juice from the electric box on the house and route it to the studio.

When we poured the slab we had a pipe put in that would go from the outside of the slab up into the walls inside. This allows us to get the juice inside.

Below is the box inside the workshop part of the building that will power that and my studio. See all the fancy wires and conduits? I have no idea what they do - thank goodness my husband does.

Here's a close-up of all the breakers and whatnot.

And here it is all closed up and perty.

And some of the naked outlets ...

And now wired up with switches ...

And now pertified.

And the real test ... does it work?!?

YES IT DOES!

We are keeping in mind resale and making this first a room that someone else might want to use. The main light I'll be using is a florescent above my easel, and another above my workstation. This one with the fan is just for show, though the fan might come in handy.

Now we are working on fixing a crappy stain job on the floor (long story!). Then we will put in baseboards. Then we will build some shelves and I will move in. Should be in a week or two!!!

Pretty in Pink & White

My husband spent 2 days last week putting in the insulation in my studio. We decided to hire someone to do the drywall and floating/taping/texturizing because we've never done it before and figured it would take forever (where it's taking these guys 3 days!!!). We're just having it done in my studio (back part of picture below) and the workshop/garage ceiling (front part). We will do the rest ourselves.


Here are a few pictures before the sheetrock. I loved the pink insulation and the blue (tarp, outside) color combination!

Below is the wall of my studio with a hole for an a/c unit. It's illegal to build a space in Texas without one. Ok, I'm lying - my parents have lived here for many years without a/c - but they are tougher than I am.

Here are the guys today putting sheetrock on the ceiling of the workshop/garage. These guys are very good. If you need good dry wall guys in the Austin area I would highly recommend them.

Below are the 3 north light windows in my studio, with the sheetrock installed all around. You can sort of see our shed outside the window and I'm thinking it may be a problem in terms of reflected light. I'm seriously considering painting it gray.

Tomorrow they will start floating and taping. They MIGHT be done tomorrow - we're not sure yet. After that we will paint, hook up the electric, install some lights/fans/stuff, build some shelves, and I'm so in there. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to it!!!

Juice it Up

My husband has been installing all the electrical stuff for my studio. He had to drill a bunch of holes through the studs, and then string the heavy yellow wire all around, connecting the outlets. The metal plates are where we had several studs close together and couldn't drill a hole - instead we chiselled out a chanel. The plates are to prevent anyone from accidentally drilling/nailing into the wire once the wall is done. I'll have 10 outlets in my space! Apparently you can have too few, but never too many. We'll have 5 circuits between the studio and the workshop/garage, with 20 amps per circuit.

The next step is insulation for the walls, which my husband is being super safe with. He's wearing an air mask and being really careful with ventilation and not wearing the same clothes inside the house. Fiberglass is nasty stuff.

After that we've got just a few little details to attend to, then we're moving everything out before the drywall crew comes on Tuesday. Besides the slab, this is the only other thing we're paying someone else to do. Why? Because honestly we don't want to do it, and this way I can move in faster! : )

Siding - So Many Sides!

Well, we've had A LOT going on the past few months, and while we sneak in studio building here and there, we've had long stretches of it languishing. Unfortunately. My husband's birth-father in Germany went into the hospital and isn't expected to get better, so my husband went to visit them right after we got home from Sedona earlier this month. He is getting home tomorrow, which I am VERY glad about. Not only because he can get back to work on my studio. : )

Before he left we had gotten pretty far on the siding. We're using hardiplank, which is fiber cement. It lasts much much longer than wood, doesn't need to be painted as often, and is way more fire resistant. The downside, it takes freakin' forever to hang!! We're using it to trim the windows and doors too - see below.

We bought our first load from McCoys then realized we could get it A LOT cheaper at Home Depot (for the exact same thing). Unfortunately the new load was ... yellow. So now we have a multi-color building. But, we always intended to paint it - the panels only have a primer on them anyway.

Here is a bonus photo of my cutie pie husband (I haven't seen him myself in 12 days!), from before he left, in his cold-weather work clothes, contemplating what to do next.

Our new estimate for completion is February. We've still got a lot of work to do on the inside.

We've been doing a bunch of piddly (but necessary) things on the studio the last few weeks - I didn't want to bore you with the details. But, in the last few days we made some big moves, mostly in preparation for leaving town for a few weeks. As you can see below, we wrapped the entire studio/garage with Tyvek. Like a big present!!



Then we installed all the windows and doors. The latter took quite a bit of work because, even though they were pre-hung, our slab edge wasn't exactly level so we had to shim things quite a bit to get the doors to open/close correctly. Below is the door to my studio.



The stuff you see all around the edges of the doors/windows is called ProtectoSeal. It's a REALLY sticky rubbery stuff that will keep any water from getting inside the walls around the openings. The three windows you see below are along the back of the building, my north facing studio wall. I will stand near the nearest two windows to paint, as you'll see in future photos.



We had some roving teenagers recently in the middle of the night caught siphoning gas and stealing tools from neighbors, so we took precautions and ordered a security system for our house and our new building. Better safe than sorry. When we return from Germany we'll get started on the siding, and then the inside!

Galva - what?!

As you can see we've gotten most of the sheathing done (OSB on the outside of the building). We've been cutting and storing stuff inside, out of the rain (our county is in an extreme drought but we finally got a little rain!). With all the holes we've got quite a nice breeze through most days and ... best of all, shade. It's been over 100 degrees a lot lately. My studio will be in the back - where you can see the 3 windows on the back wall. My studio will be 16x18 feet. The rest is a garage/wood shop for my husband.



Here is an overview of our progress. Today we started putting metal on the roof. We are using Galvalume, which is Aluminum-Zinc alloy coated sheet steel. It is a little more expensive than regular aluminum, but lasts a lot longer and doesn't turn as gray as fast.



Here is a stack of the Galvalume. It is difficult to move because it's relatively delicate (can't be bent or dented) so we end up moving one or two at a time. Today we pre-drilled a bunch of holes on each and then put up about 3/4 of one side of the roof.



My husband finally got brave enough to bring the camera up to the top and shoot this picture of all we've done so far. It was hard to get all the sheets perfectly square, and we kept having the adjust them.



The only sad thing is you won't be able to see our beautiful roof from the street, as the gable is pointing the wrong way. But, we are thinking about putting metal on the house as well, to match the garage/studio and for the energy savings.

Back to it

We're finally getting back to the studio after a break for, among other things, putting together 40 frames!! Just in case we're ever exposed to hurricane force winds, here I am putting on hurricane ties with a nifty little pneumatic nailer thingie.



Next we're sheathing all the walls with OSB. Here's my handsome man with the oh so heavy nail gun - so heavy my arm muscles cramp just looking at this picture.



Here's a whole wall done. So far we've just got the long side walls completed - the gable ends will be more complicated, and we're waiting on more wood.



Next we cut out the holes for the windows and doors with a saws-all.



This is the side closest to the house, with the two doors - one for my studio and one for the garage/wood shop.

Here you can see the fancy framing on the front of the building ...

... and my husband is particularly proud of this boxed soffit return. : )

Next we'll get the metal for the roof up, and sheath the rest of the building.