Moving In! (01-30-11)

What a day! I finally started moving things in the studio! Of course, it's total mayhem inside. It's going to take me a while to sort all this stuff and get it put away.

Sturio Interior Views

From left to right and top to bottom:
- Photo1: The big table in the foreground was displayed in pouring rain in front of an interior decorator's shop in Sellwood; it was a bargain at $60.
- Photo1: The gorgeous pine wardrobe in the corner was found on Craigslist.
- Photos 3 and 6: The big cabinet with the doors and shelves was a rare find from the Rebuilding Center.
- Photo 5: Of course, there is the Warped Table, a unique find from Tropical Salvage; they thought I was crazy when I bought it (for a pittance); the table is so freakishly wavy, it's like something one would expect the Mad Hatter to use.
- Photo 4 and 5: The small Restoration Hardware bookcase was only $60 on Craigslist.
- Photo 4: I got the library card file cabinet years ago when Jackson County Library was converting to computers.

Final Touches: Baseboards (01-24-11)

Everything about the Shed/Studio Revamp project has been meant to be done economically. Of course, this has not worked out in many cases due to contractor-related surprises, but that was the initial plan. Since Gary lost his job recently, we really are on a shoestring. 

We went to the Rebuilding Center hoping to find some materials we could use for baseboards. It was disheartening to look through the warehouse, and see only piles of junk stacked up against the walls, old cracked planks thick with chipped or peeling paint, nothing that one could imagine to be useable... Finally, we located some beat-up siding, and figured out that it could work out...despite the $30 cost (now, I know, that's a minimal charge when it comes to construction materials, but it was in pretty bad shape).

Once home, Gary braved the cold to install the makeshift baseboards in the studio. The look is now genuinely shabby chic!

Work on the Studio Exterior (12-31-10)

In retrospect, the hardest part of the project has been to find reliable contractors; in addition to Gary, this carpenter is the sixth contractor to work on the shed/studio.

Replacing the missing battens

The Lights are Installed! (11-20-10)

I never thought this would ever happen, but we finally got the lights installed in the studio (can't really call it a "shed" anymore).

The big chandelier was in the dining room when we bought the house, and I immediately hated it with a passion; it was too big for the small room. ( It made me think of a monstrous space alien mothership looming in the sky, with tiny people running in panic on the ground.) But in this space, it looks just right.

The light in the foreground is a lovely small 3-light chadelier I got it at Hippo Hardware many years ago. It was on the upstairs landing in our old house, set with flickering flame bulbs (it drove Gary nuts, since it didn't light the staircase at all).


Next in the project is coating the OSB floors with polyurethane, to protect them and give them some sheen.

Contractor Update (10-01-10)

Well, it turns out that the genius carpenter was also a flake. So annoying.
After installing the French doors, redoing the ceiling, setting in a large decorative beam supported by two beautiful rustic posts, and laying the floor out in the studio (aka "the shed"), he disappeared, leaving work unfinished on the outside of the structure. Pretty annoying since he left work unfinished.
I could see it coming a while back: he was getting here later every time, yet leaving earlier. There always was an excuse of some sort; he seemed flustered; he "was having personal problems," "was busy at his other job," etc. I almost expected him to say that the dog had eaten his homework.
Now I am in the frustrating position of having to pay someone else yet to finish what he didn't.