Friday, February 26, 2010

Weekend Plans

Instead of going to the Rodeo Cook-off like every other person in Houston, I will be in my studio priming and painting the ceiling and walls tonight. I need to get this done so we can move on to other jobs that need to be done in order to finish my studio space. Like finishing the closet and shelves construction and installing the laminate flooring. So, off I go to buy primer and paint.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Construction has Started

Thanks to my friends Sara and Mike, my husband Larry, and my son Michael, construction started today on the renovation of Michael's former room which is my future studio. Here's what the room looked like before:

Here's the loom with paint color samples. None of them made the final cut.

This the the room looking toward the window. None of those colors made the final cut either.

This is the closet. With one tiny door and almost 3 feet of closet space on either side of the door.


This is the closet now, with an opening wide enough for 2 30" doors.

This is the closet now looking through the opening in the short wall which will become a built-in book shelf. That's Michael moving lumber so he can take out the rest of the carpet.

I wish I could say I was a major help in the demo work, but really the credit goes to our friend Mike. He came in, measured and started sawing through the sheetrock and taking out 2"x4"s. And then he reused the 2x4s he had removed to brace the new opening. He also came up with a great solution on how to build the bookshelves. We're planning on reusing other materials from the closet. The clothes rod will be cut down and put back and we'll use the old shelf as well. Larry did his bit hauling stuff out, setting up a fan to blow the dust out the window, tearing down sheetrock, and whatever else needed to be done. You've earned your couch time tonight sweetie. Sara was right in there too, hauling stuff and occasionally annoying Mike w/ remarks like, "Are you sure that line is level?"

Major praise also to Michael who removed all of the carpet, padding and furring strips himself while Mike and Larry were at Home Depot picking up molding and other supplies for the project. He's not totally off the hook for the mess he left in that room when he moved out of the house, but he's definitely making progress.

Sara and Mike will be back next weekend to help finish up the construction. In the meantime, I need to start patching the sheetrock and painting. After buying enough paint samples to paint the room in a rainbow of colors, I've finally decided on a color. It's called Coral Brick. It's a much deeper, richer color than I thought I wanted in this room, but I really like it. Now if I could only get my painting helpers (yes, I'm talking to you Sara, Emily, and Maddy), but they are all away at college. So, it's just up to me. But I may break out the painting music mix cd Maddy made back when we painted the kitchen and the den.