In my defense, I was pretty tired from all the driving and actually reasonably sick with coughing and laryngitis when I wrote it, so I have decided to cut myself a little slack and just have this week's post be called "Week 5", even though the events recorded actually transpired in Week 6. You all can roll with that, right? So here goes, Week "5":
This week was about moving stuff around in the studio to make it easier to access and to start thinking through the work spaces and storage areas I wanted to build, as outlined in my original plan. Unfortunately, this was the state of things even after weeks of knocking stuff off my list, with help:
Now, dear friends, please note, I show you all these horrible photos of my chronic inability to stay organized in my creative space for two simple purposes. First, so you all can feel like you are such better people, or at least know that you are not alone. And second, so I can prove that I am actually accomplishing something while hanging out with these darling girls, whom I adore, for several hours every week.
When they all showed up, I was in the middle of another major project.
Because everyone knows it's always a great idea to start a new major project when you are right in the middle of another major project. DK loves it when I do this. No. No, he does not.
You have to admit is IS a gorgeous piece of Mid Century furniture bliss, if you are into that sort of thing... which I very much happen to be.
And the best part is, I got it off Craigslist for $80. No, there is not a 0 missing. I was blown away. The girl who sold it to me, had been kicking around selling it for weeks, but didn't really want to let it go. She bought it from the original owner and had used it for years and loved it. But they were remodeling their house and she just couldn't find the right space for it in the new design, and then her water main broke and there was water every where and she just needed something gone. So she posted it, for a song. I was there 3 hours later, as I had been stalking the site for just such a cabinet for months, but never found anything even close to what I could afford. I told her about being an artist and designer, and my unfortunate lack of budget, but how I was trying to make a teenage lounge for my kids in the basement and how she was the answer to my prayers. She was completely charmed and deliriously happy to the the solution. It was a total connecting of hearts moment. "happy sigh."
I knew this was truly an enlightened connection, when she suggested I refinish or paint it. Most people are super weird about you painting their stuff. I NEVER tell the original owners, when I buy wood furniture, that I have plans to paint it. I know antique dealers and vintage furniture dealers who refuse to sell stuff to people, if they know there are plans to change the original finish. And here she was, suggesting I do it. So amazing!
So after living with the wood finish for year and hating it with my wall color, but loving the lines and the storage the piece offered, I finally took a deeper look at all the goo and scratches, etc., and I knew the time had come to paint it. This particular episode was me smoothing out the finish. Things had gotten a bit gummy when I sanded it with the palm sander, so I had pulled out the denatured alcohol to clean it all up and strip off the extra schmutz without hurting anything else. It worked like a charm, but took about a million times longer than my original estimate for just sanding. And it's the kind of thing that once you start, you just have to keep going. So I rubbed and scrubbed and the girls started organizing and moving stuff.
My oldest had just graduated, but hadn't started her summer job yet. She and Sister Anderson volunteered to team up and take a crack at the tool and paint shelves.
They opened every single can of paint, stain, spackle, and you-name-it on those shelves to see if it was still usable. They mixed up the stuff that was still good, and threw away what was solid and dry. They rewound extension cords and refolded drop cloths.
When they were done, it looked amazing.
And do you see what looks like a grey plastic suitcase, with boxes and tools sitting on it in the above photo? That is my Ryobi multi tool kit. I haven't been able to get it shut completely since I bought it 2 years ago. And these girls not only figured out how to shut it, they found a spot for it to live that wasn't in the center of the room. (excuse me as I wipe away a little tear of joy.)
Ta-Dah! Just look at that order they made from my chaos.
And when they were done with my shelves, there was still time left, so I put them to work organizing the drawers in the workbench just to the right of them. I almost feel bad about being such a slave driver. Almost.
In the meantime, Sister Kleven and Sister Merritt were busy with major projects of their own.
Another look at the "before" pic of the frames area.
Their assignment was to organize my vintage frames so they didn't rub up against each other but also allow for space to walk between the shelves.
They also "got" to move all my long skinny pieces of trim and wood to a different place in the studio, where they would be better supported and less in the way. In order to move the pile, they also had to move a bunch of bins, in fact the exact bins they had already dealt with in this post.
Here's a "Before" of that area:
This one is from the very first pics I took before we had done anything, way back in April, so it doesn't really reflect where we started, but you can see the bins in the top, left hand corner, to the left of the white fan and just below the Christmas wreath.
And here is the pile of wood they had to move over there:
Now keep in mind, I was outside rubbing my Precious with a diaper resurfacing my sideboard while all of this was going on. I only came in to check on them when I ran out of paper towels or something. One of the times I came in, I walked into this:
I'm still not quite sure what that was about. Something about relocating bins and needing to move some of the Christmas boxes higher... And yes, Sister Kleven did start laughing hard enough to almost fall. Sister Merritt was already laughing.
And, in spite of the lack of step stool, they were able to make both areas look like this:
Look how nicely arranged by size those frames are! And all the soft foamy paper between them! I am in heaven. But the most exciting thing by far is the fact the you can walk between the shelves!!!! I haven't been able to do that for 3 years! By the time they were done, I could walk all the way around and between each set of shelves, the way I had designed it 10 years ago. So amazing.
Now most people would think this was enough to ask of these girls, but not me! My oldest and Sister Anderson were still hard at work on the drawers when Sister Kleven and Sister Merritt finished moving stuff, so I put them on a project we had been avoiding for a while.
Sister Kleven reading the directions for the epoxy.
Way back in April, before Sister Merritt or Sister Anderson were even in Burke, and before this idea to clean the studio was even born, back when Sister Kleven was new to the area, she and her then companion came over to help me hang up some metal stars that I had been wanting to hang, but needed extra hands to do it. We learned two things that day. First, that Sister Kleven has enough self control to not swear when she drops a really heavy hammer squarely on her bare big toe (It was an exceptional example of self control I am still impressed by. The hammer fell about 4 ft and hit her toe really hard) Second, that the hanging bits that came on the stars were not going to work with the Command hangers I bought to hang them with. We needed to make new hangers, on metal stars.
Cue the copper wire and epoxy! I even had both on hand. I love that.
I love that Sister Merritt gets the same kind of happy/crazy
look in her eyes that I do when you say the words "wire cutters".
Look mom! Safety first!
I love this girl for the photos she lets me take of her. Gloves, glasses, you name it. She can rock them.
New hangers were cut and epoxied, and left to dry on the craft table. And people were getting a bit loopy from over work and epoxy fumes.
It was about this point, that we decided enough was enough, and headed upstairs for ice cream. What? You thought I was just gonna let them leave after all this work?
And my kid even offered to take a pic of all of us. This is one I will treasure.
Such fun darling people. I do adore them so.
Talk to you soon,
CM Shaw
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