My Studio Comes to Life

Or maybe we’ll call it my Mom Cave….. 🙂

We started in earnest right after Christmas the large job of clearing what we have planned to use for me studio space for my long-arm.  I shudder to think of showing you a before photo.  Just imagine the standard 34 year old basement with nary a path to the walls.  Or the need to make a path to whatever you want type of storage.  Ack!!  Nothing to be proud of and I never wanted to think of a flood or fire involving that area.  (really any area, but YKWIM!)

Putting it mildly... this shows 75% improvement! hahaha!

After clearing out via saving in the storage area, truck loads to Goodwill, books to a homeschooling friend, Craigslist, FreeCycle, the dumpster, or the burn pile… we finally had a room to redo!  I washed the walls and then put on 2 coats of primer.  They are just roughly poured cement foundation walls.  Nothing fancy.  Two are cement, one is old drywall, and the 4th was yet to be made. I put on 2 layers of Sherwin-Williams Swimming paint color… a light aqua.  (I found the Swimming color name fitting since I do aqua aerobics 2x a week.)

Phil did a lot of electrical work.  The dangling outlets got permanent homes with me choosing to have 2 outlets in my space along this (above) east wall and he added a 3rd near JP’s drum set a bit farther down.  The drywall covered wall got 2 new outlets that are on a separate circuit for my machine.

He moved switches so that the ceiling lights for my studio are on a different switch than the rest of this side of the basement.  He made the switch IN my room to operate the track lights he installed.  He moved the ceiling lights to be over the area away from the machine and the track lights. I’m still working on knowing which switch does what!! Of course, he has learned along all the update projects I’ve done, that I want new white switches and outlets.  Yeah for not having to ask!!!

He rerouted a furnace duct pipe to not go diagonally across the ceiling and also built a box to hide it that I was able to paint.  He moved the furnace vent for this room to the center of the room instead of the heat falling down an outside wall.

After all the electrical work was done, he installed a (barely) dropped ceiling.   I was NOT even asking for that; I thought I’d either paint the floor joists above or hire someone to do that.  He wanted a ceiling.  And I must say… is is quite lovely!!!  🙂    He installed a vent for the relocated furnace vent and I’m able to open and close that for the room.

We bought 3 sets of 3 lights each track lights that he installed through the ceiling tiles and fastened in the floor joists.  I love the track lights — never had them before!  (The rest of the lights will be added once the machine is set-up and I  know where & how many I want.)

One day while Phil was working there, I attacked the windows.  Molly, our collie, loved to lay outside along these windows and would throw dirt on them.  Plus these haven’t been part of the regular window cleaning routine!  😉   After getting all the layers of the window clean, I painted the trim area around the windows gloss white.  What a delightful change!!  On sunny days, I hardly need the lights on as the sun pours into these south windows.  🙂

After the ceiling was finally finished, we cleared all his tools away and I put down cement epoxy on the floor.  This was hard work but I love it!  I had mopped the floor twice in preceding days and then one evening we did the concrete etch need to prepare the concrete for the epoxy.  As JP noted, this area would be the cleanest cement we have down there.  However, that concrete etch pulled up lots of yuck!  I was SO glad I used it!  It also made the concrete really smooth, soft if you can imagine!, and they say it helps the epoxy adhere to the concrete better.  Time will tell on that.

I was SO exhausted and achy after doing the etch.  However, I felt normal the next morning with no sore muscles.  Yeah for kicking fibro in the can!!  🙂

I applied the epoxy the next morning to the very clean and now dry cement.  It goes on really easily and looks great!  Because I needed the time back to back to etch & then epoxy the floor, the 2nd area didn’t get applied until a week later.  Because the epoxy can’t be stored like paint, we cleared enough area to use up the whole second gallon.  It looks nice.  I think it will keep the dirt from sinking into the cement and will be easier to clean.

The fourth wall of my room is a curtain.  I snowdyed about 17 yards of duck cloth / canvas for this.  It was much more difficult working with the heavy canvas than regular cotton quilting fabric!  Exhausting!  I did this after our blizzard … but a few days afterwards when we had added 2 1/2″ of light fluffy snow on top.  It was very hard to scoop the blizzard snow.  Here are some in-process photos of that —

Finally, yesterday I sewed it all together, Phil hung 1/2″ metal conduit for my rod (with some adjustments) and waa-laa….  a new wall!!  I had grown accustomed to the larger space, all cleared out for putting down the floor epoxy.  It is so different w/ the curtain… but I love it!

the 4th wall

Today I dyed more fabric for the doorway to my studio.  I did regular low-immersion dyeing methods like I taught at my classes.  I used a lighter pallet of colors in contrast to the stronger colors in the other curtain.   Tonight Phil hung the rod for the doorway.  I attached this with shower curtain rings & buttonholes in the fabric so it slides to either side very easy.

from the doorway

the doorway closed

I’m ready!  🙂

Before & After

Tonight we moved all the parts boxes into the studio so JP has plenty of room around his drumset to give a lesson tomorrow.  We also added a rug remnant for some of the floor.

(please be gentle, I can’t believe I showed you the before (but really not the honest before) in this post!)

This has been a huge transformation over the last 2 months.  All the sorting, purging, and cleaning are done.  (for this area! haha!!)  If I didn’t have so much to do tomorrow, I’d be basking in sunshine over this!  Next week, I’ll bask!  🙂