Frank Notes

And again, none of it because of me!

Yesterday we hired a painter to spray the inside of our garage.  After spending WAY.TOO.LONG when we tried to use brushes, we decided to hire someone (AND it cost half what we thought it was going to cost!) to apply two coats of primer.  We thought perhaps that would be enough to give us a clean, fresh look.

Unfortunately, most of the wood is really, really old and has never been primed.  So it sucked it up, even when it was sprayed and in some places gave it a yellow cast.

It’s a HUGE improvement over what it was before.  The lighter color helps to make it much brighter in there, even on a cloudy day like today.

DH spent most of today assembling a set of metal library bookshelves in the back of the garage and then unloading containers of stuff.  It sill looks like a pit because there’s a lot of things in the garage that are going in the Community Yard Sale we’re having next Saturday.

We’re getting closer!  Can you sense the anticipation?! 😉

Spring has mostly sprung here, with ocassional bouts of summer (it was in the 90s on Tuesday!).

And with Spring comes the blooming of our wisteria (which was only planted a year or two ago, but is taking off!).

Unfortunately these beauties don’t last long; they’re already starting to fall to the ground.  😦

Apparently Spring also brings opossums, because we saw this little guy scampering around the backyard this morning!

I guess that explains why the neighbors dog is barking at all hours of the night!

I have been bouncing off the walls with excitement since last night when DH and I figured out the floor plan and details of my sewing studio.

Isn’t it loverly?!

Let me explain more (humor me).

Starting on the left (or the back of our garage) is where tall shelving units are going to store the contents of our garage.  I found some great shelves (yay Craigslist!) that were in a library that will fit back there perfectly.  It comes with lots of shelves (that used to hold books, so they’re very strong!)  so we can eliminate most of the dead space.  The shelves will make an upside down L shape and will mostly go from floor to ceiling.

Curtains/drapes will block that space off from the rest of the studio.  (I found a 25yd roll of muslin (yay Craigslist!) for $20 that (if it’s still available) I’ll use to make curtains (after I dye them at the laundromat).

In front of the curtains will be our current Ikea Expedit shelving unit, filled to the gills with fabric. 😉

Along the wall at the top of the drawing will be a countertop that we’re making from the huge desktop in our office.  It’s about 7-foot by 4-foot at present, but after we saw it in half lengthwise, we’ll have two pieces that are 7-foot by 2-foot.  Those will be placed end-to-end against the wall on top of three 2-foot by 4-foot, 2-drawer filing cabinets (the grey rectangles on the drawing), with the one at the right end sticking out into the studio to preserve some leg room for when I am sitting at my machines.

Above the countertop will be narrow shelves for me to store sewing notions, put my picture frames, tchatchkis, etc.  Hanging over my workspace will be the light that is currently in our office.

In the center of the floor will be a 36″ high, portable, folding cutting table that’s been languishing in my garage and has been moved three or four times and never used since I got it over 7 years ago!  The great thing about this 3-foot by 5-foot table is that when I don’t need it, both of the ends fold down to a compact fourteen inches wide!

In there somewhere will also be my humongous Michael Graves ironing board, Rowenta iron, and Rowenta Steam Generator!

Sigh, I can’t wait…

I’m not sure if y’all know this, but DH is an interior designer (Yes that’s why our home is so beautiful and No I don’t very much say about what goes where, unless I do it on the sly, which he eventually notices and changes anyway.  Much like The Borg, resistance is futile.).  Other than the aforementioned parenthetical annoying part of living with an interior designer, there is an upside: he’s well-connected with trades people.

Case in point: he told me that we could have our garage painted for $200 plus the paint!

I almost fell over.

Because 1) my time on the weekends (or any time really) is worth far more than $12.50 an hour (presuming the two of us were to work 8 hours, side by side), 2) there is NO.WAY we’d ever finish the primer and likely two coats of paint in 8 hours, and 3) I wouldn’t even consider selling a quilt for $200!

So hopefully our garage will get painted this Saturday!

Despite not feeling well this weekend, DH and I (mostly DH, not so much I) started the transformation of the garage from a storage space into a combined storage and sewing/creative space.

The garage is more the size of a large shed.  These are the doors facing the driveway.

This is with the doors open.  Geesh, there’s a lot of stuff in there!  (The metal cabinets in the front are leftovers from when DH moved offices.  We’re thinking of using them to rebuild the garage storage.)

These are the shelves that we’re remodeling.  Our plan is to put them in the back so they don’t take up so much square footage and space.

This is the side door that opens onto our patio.  We hope to replace it with french doors.

This is our patio, um, with what used to be IN the garage.  SO.MUCH.STUFF!

DH starting the demolition.

Demolition done.  DH took all the dry wall off the walls and ceiling.  The light coming through the back is from missing slats on the back wall.  Clearly those will have to be replaced.  Although the natural light it provides is nice.  😉 We’re going to keep the ceiling open to help it feel larger and more spacious inside.

And notice our little helper!

Here we’ve started to prime.  Unfortunately our social calendar got in the way of our painting (and the old, unprimed wood was just SUCKING.UP the primer!).  So we had to clean up after having gotten very little primed.

Dh and I were a little bummed out that the priming was taking so long (not to mention we only got two gallons of primer and are going to need about twice that!)

So I took these two shots, to remind myself of how BEAUTIFUL it’s going to be when it’s done, with the light and view of the bougainvillea.

Eventually we hope to put a jungle gym to the right of the bougainvillea (the view of which is currently blocked by the metal cabinets) so Oliver can play outside while I’m creating.

Anyone know a painter who’s willing to barter for a quilt?  😉