What really goes on in the studio...

So this is what I have been working on...2 portraits of my Pizza! And can I just say, he is the cutest! OK now, about the paintings... I used some pictures that I took when I was visiting this summer. In the second painting, he has a really cute look on his face, but I had such a hard time with the eyes and mouth. I think the eyes finally look like him, but the mouth might not be quite right. But overall I think you would know it was Pizza. The first one I think is right on! It didn't give me nearly the trouble as the second one. I should add that the reference photo for the first painting was of much better quality than the second, and that may have made some of the difference. Another factor might be having the mouth open vs closed. I'm not sure about this, but I don't think many portraits have open mouths (and I may have found out why!). Yes, these are gifts, but the recipients never check my blog :( so I figured it was safe to post them!

My New Studio!

Let me start by saying that we can hardly believe the transformation! Maybe we are patting ourselves on the back too much here, but see what you think. Since we moved here 6 years ago, this room has been known as "The Scary Room," as you can see in the first pictures...

Our best guess is that the room was last occupied in the early 1900s, therefore I probably don't need to mention how sick it was to wash the floor before priming... When we first moved in, this room was the least of our problems and we figured we'd just never go in there. But then, as we finished other rooms, and especially the fabulous bathroom just on the other side of the door, it became the room that we'd have to renovate, just so when we sell the house, the people don't open the door and pass out! Then we thought, wow, it could be a really cool studio! So one day while I was in CA, Ted was home alone and decided to gut the room instead of work on the bathroom project that we had going on...

He found mud wasps and other really gross stuff that I won't mention.

And he also found a cool brick chimney and some very cool accordion lathe from pre-1825!

Please note his "nest" on the floor of tools and stuff that I have been working around for 6 years.

The room had no insulation, so he ordered some spray foam insulation, completely falling for their motto: "Unleash The Beast!"

Then Ted rebuilt all of the original 6 by 6 windows. It sounds like I was just sitting on my butt!

But no, I was having fun taping and mudding the joints of the sheetrock, leaving the collar ties exposed because it would have been too easy to cover them up!

And finally, after months, we started painting!
Note the sick floor! I also did wiring for 8 outlets and 4 overhead lights with 3-way switches. Ted installed speaker wire in the walls running to the bookshelf. And we did countless other things to make it nice, but let's move on to the final photos...Ta Daa!

We built a bookshelf with wiring for a light switch and 2 outlets since this wall is the outside of the brick wall of the main house, therefore no light switch in a brick wall. I'm so proud of my bookshelf design!

And wow! Look at that amazing sheetrock job!

Now, the room is so cool, it might be too cool for a studio! To celebrate, Ted took me on an early birthday extravaganza to IKEA where we picked out some uber cool furniture. I love IKEA and we had the best time! When we get it all arranged I'll post final pictures, probably next week.

And no, we never imagined that we wound stand in that room in bare feet with clean clothes on.