Studio Reveal Part 1 – Construction
The day has FINALLY come that i can start to share the journey to my UH-MAZING new creative space with you all !!
This has been SUCH an incredible labour of love for me … when we bought this home in 2013, having room to create this space was high on our requirement list when we were house shopping … well that AND a place for a pool and hot tub of course !!
Our home was built in 1960 and while that would be a turn off for some, for me it was a HUGE selling feature. It was built by a local contractor who actually lived in it for the first 10 years. They sold it to the couple that we purchased it from and they had lived here for FOURTY years !! Isn’t that amazing … they were in their 80’s when they sold to us … and to say that they loved this home is an understatement … to say that we had VERY different taste is also an enormous understatement … it needed (and still needs) A LOT of renovations !!
(the exterior looks VERY different now … but i will share that in another post)
At some point over the years the previous owners had closed in the original carport and built a separate 3 car garage … they turned the closed in carport space into a kind of bonus/storage room … and i feel like they may have done this in the 70’s … or that they just liked orange !!
(i mean seriously … who had a house in these colors when they were growing up ?! I am willing to bet there are A-LOT of you raising your hands right now)
… anyhoo, we fell in love with the possibilities of turning this space into all we’ve ever wanted … so we bought it and started dreaming !!
We didn’t live in this house for very long (just shy of a year) before moving from the island to Calgary, AB … we worked SO hard to be able to live in 2 homes and came back to the island for Christmas, Spring Break and the Summer each year of the 4 that we lived in Alberta … we were able to do some smaller renovations while we were away, (the huge pool was one of the first things we had built) … but mostly we just enjoyed our time here when we were home and knew that one day we would live here full time again and I would be able to REALLY get to work on the updates … and THAT is why it stayed an almost all orange closed in carport until just a few months ago !!
I had been thinking about what i wanted in this space for SO long … what colors i wanted was important as i LOVE natural light and the (2) current windows in the room were staying put … i knew i wanted my current dark furniture and shelving to become white and one of my most fave colours is grey, so i knew i wanted to incorporate it too … but beyond that, all i knew was that i would need to start building the space before i could make a lot of the decisions !!
We had to start by removing the enormous (and super old) sliding glass door and building up that wall. This was an exterior wall so it was a big job. I am SUPER lucky to have a very handy friend (who has a VERY understanding wife) and he is my construction help … as i am clearly NOT a contractor … BUT i am VERY handy and i am a quick learner and i LOVE tools !!
REMEMBER: this house was built in 1960 AND we don’t know who did the previous renos/additions, so we very quickly found out that almost NOTHING was straight, square OR level (insert huge eye roll) … this proved to be a challenge from the very start all the way to the very end and also played a huge roll in the length of time that this project took … not only were we working with my busy Mom schedule and Construction Craig’s work schedule, we were dealing with building challenges literally at EVERY turn …
Taking that door out was the easy part (boy was it HEAVY) … and i was super grateful for my parents help too !! Once we got it out we took it to the free store at our local landfill as it would have worked well for a greenhouse or shop project … i am hopeful it found a great new home as it was gone when i went back the next day !!
As always, it’s the little things for me … so the days i got to wear the tool belt were especially exciting 😉
Building the new wall was SO encouraging, as it felt like we were starting to make real progress … little did i know that the real work was just beginning !!
NOW we needed to start work on the demo and rebuild of the new floor INSIDE the space …
j. XOX
