We have barely landed from our yearly excursion to Planet Christmas — but we are already embarked upon the Studio renovation that I have been so eager to do since we remodeled our kitchen and family room nearly 2 years ago!  In that process, my Studio (which honestly was due for a good going over, organizing, etc.) became storage space for the remodeling project and my fiber arts components took refuge in several other rooms temporarily.  Once the remodeling was complete, we planned to renovate the Studio properly — I moved some bins of yarn and the books back, but left everything else where it was until we could get the work done on that room (the carpet and wallpaper in the Studio dated back to the early 1980s!).  But (as often happens!) for a while there were other priorities for time and resources…until now!

Our contractor came on Friday and said he was ready to start Monday!  So a bit of scuttling around getting paint chips and carpet samples — and then a full day spent hauling everything out of the Studio and lodging it elsewhere in the house.  Kind of tricky as we still have Christmas ”up” (in our defense, the liturgical season of Christmas only concluded Sunday) and there weren’t a lot of places to stash things that weren’t already being occupied by things we had stashed in order to cover the house with Christmas!  And I knew we had to keep our living spaces livable during the project (so no covering the table where we eat every meal with boxes or putting bookcases in the middle of the living room).  

Also, the Studio (a long narrow room with a solarium on one end — it had once been a covered porch that we enclosed in the early ‘80’s to make more indoor space for our growing family) had become something of a giant ”junk drawer” filled with useful (and “maybe not so useful, but you never know…”) things, as well as our DVD collection, boxes of stuff from George’s parents that we couldn’t part with, George’s stained glass paraphernalia, the kids’ projects from high school pottery class, a steampunk pelican, a whale sculpture and several teapots (these last few items had been kicked out of their usual display locations by the Christmas decor), the clothes steamer, my Bernina sewing machine, two old office chairs….you get the idea.  Most recently, we had been using the Studio to wrap presents, pile amazon boxes, and stage family dinners — when I say that we were able to hide a full-sized basketball hoop set-up in there for 2 weeks…..well, again, you get the idea.

Whoo weee, what a mess!  Well, all of that is cleared out now (tho there is still a goodly amount of sorting and organizing to be done — but that will be part of the “move back in” process!).   

And now our contractors are at work!  Then comes the new carpet (the tile floor section will remain, as will the old oak dining table which will serve as our craft table).  Some new storage units are on their way — and also 2 new book shelves (one of ours broke in half when George moved it after I had emptied it!).  The goal is to make a Studio that is both functional and pleasant — as it is located right off our family room and kitchen and is, in fact, the main route from the house onto the big back deck.  As it is central in our living space, we want it to blend with our Arts and Crafts/ Lodge decor.  I am so excited!  But what I am most looking forward to is having my fiber arts materials and tools and books organized and set up in one room 🙂

I will keep you all posted on the progress!