My new Studio being built Sept 2006

In Sept 2006, the big thing that I was blogging about was the construction of my new studio.  After nine years, it is still wonderful to go in there, close the door and shut out the hustle and bustle of life. It is my safe haven, my own little piece of Heaven on Earth.

Men at work - on my studio.

 

I stood on the verge over the road to take this photo of the workmen's vehicles out the front of our house. I was standing in front of yet another truck with a bob-cat on the back while I photographed the cement mixer vehicle, a truck full of wheel barrows and shovels etc and one of the young "boys" car. As you can see, I live in suburbia, however we don't have houses across the road, we have grassy areas, a creek, then a railway line which carries freight trains and in the winter months we get the occasional preserved steam train and behind that, paddocks and the hills of the Darling Ranges..

It's finally happening!

 

The bloke in charge of the concreting team thought I was a complete nutter, running around taking photos of the wooden formwork, the black plastic and the steel re-inforcing mesh on top. It looks so small in the photo but the studio will actually measure five metres (nearly sixteen feet) across by four metres (just over 13 feet) deep. I hope it is big enough to keep my stash, my cutting table, sewing machines and overlockers etc..... I really can't believe that after all this time of waiting, it is finally happening.

Studio - Work in Progress

I took this photo from our patio at 6 o'clock this morning to show the work in progress on the studio from when the two guys arrived at noon and left at 5pm. This photo shows the proximity to the end of the patio so that I can walk out the family-room door and into the studio without getting rained on. The back wall has been insulated and cladded so I guess the other walls and roof will be done today. This is so exciting after the long 6 months wait.......at least things are moving along quickly now.

Now it is November 15th and the studio is still going up..........I remember now just how long it took to build, I think it was six months in total.

Side view of Studio

Another view of the studio frame although it doesn't look very big in this photo. The long window is on this south side looking into the garden while the door and smaller window face into the patio.

Another view of the studio and signal

This is another view of the studio showing how low the patio roof is compared to the wall of the building - it will have to go - this shot also shows Eddie's railway signal which is the reason I got the studio in the first place. I wanted to move to a bigger house with a bigger sewing room but Eddie just couldn't bear to go through the hassle of moving his precious signal which a fully restored, fully working 1911 West Australia Govt Railways signal. The post is solid jarrah and took eight hefty blokes to move it from the car trailer to the backyard while all the metal bits were imported from England. When we have a bbq, all the blokes think it's great fun to move the lever which moves the arm, which changes the colour of the light from the lamp from red to green and which also makes every dog in the neighbourhood bark like crazy! We saw it in the back garden of a house which was for sale on Great Eastern Hwy. It was the day that runners were taking the Olympic flame through Guildford so we there to watch. The agent came out and asked "Are you interested in looking at the house?" I said, "No, but how much do they want for the railway signal?" A month later we got a phone call to say, "$500". It was in a pretty dilapidated state but Eddie thought $500 was really cheap, so it's been in our garden ever since. Actually the signal makes the studio look like a signal box or some other station building - I hope Eddie doesn't want to use it for a model railway room...........nah, it's mine now, I've waited all my life for something like this!!!