Digging the Studio Out Week 9: Moving Furniture and Building the Saw

I have decided that I am not a reliable source when it comes to numbering my posts from a long series. The photo trail tells me it's week 9, but I already wrote a post about Week 10 and these pics are from the same week. In any case, it was a busy week and I got a ton done. So for the sake of me not having to renumber everything, this will be Week 9. And next week we will skip to Week 11. You guys all totally know what I am talking about, right? Me neither.

So this was the week I really decided to tackle the deeper mess. My kids were all at camp all day everyday, so I put up my big folding tables and put everything out on them. It was so cathartic to see it all NOT in my studio. There is something about seeing something in a different location. It changes from "that blob over there" into something you actually see. 

A lot of this week was spent organizing this stuff into coherent groupings, 

so I could see what I had and figure out where and how to store it.  

By the end of the week, I had things in decently organized piles. It was so random, you guys. I really do have a little bit of everything. And a whole bunch of stuff that I needed to get rid of. 

One of the most surprising things was that I had rarely used anything that anyone who was moving had given me. And with all the military families in the area, there are always people moving. And I always think I can make use of stuff. So I take it. I had extra tiles, craft kits, various types of paint, lumber, you name it. Most of it was at least 5 years old, a lot of it closer to 8 or 10 yrs, and I had never even touched it. So much for "perfectly good," right? 

Out it all went. Along with a ton of projects that I don't really want enough to finish. They just aren't "me" or I have changed focus or I never really liked them that much to begin with. I just gave myself permission to keep anything I really wanted to work on and made myself get rid of anything that I didn't want to finish enough to put it on the calendar. And I felt so free after it was gone!

It was about this point that the Sisters showed up for the week. 

In case you guys are wondering, 

yes, Blackberry Ginger Ale is the bomb, and 

yes, Sister missionaries do make everything more fun. 

I was tired of sorting by they time they got there, so I decided it was time to use 

their muscles and move furniture around in the studio. This is how things started: 

After a lot of trial and error, we decided to move the plastic shelving across from the saw, to slide the large wooden workbench down as far as possible towards my drawing table, and to move the fluorescent light fixture on a completely different diagonal over the table.

We kept a gap between the table and the wall so I can 

hang stuff to dry on the boards and clips. 

But the biggest change we made, and the project that kept the Sisters busy for the brunt of their time there, came from my garage. My wonderful dad had bought me a stand for my miter saw last Christmas. It was still in its box, taking up valuable parking space. We decided It Was Time. (7 months in the garage is actually pretty fast for me. Sigh)

The first thing we had to do was get it into the house and down the steps: 

I think we only slipped once. And Sister Kleven was being supportive and filmed the whole thing, being careful to laugh into her elbow so we couldn't hear her. That stand was so much heavier than I thought it would be! Sheesh! But Sister Anderson was a champ, carrying the load from the bottom. 

We got it in the studio and they started unpacking. 

They found the directions at the very end, because, of course

 I opened the box upside down.

I made them check to be sure we had all the pieces before they started. It took a while, but I have gotten in the middle of a building project too many times, and not had all the piece I need to finish. So maddening!

It was trickier than we thought, but little by little, the stand came together. 

And here is the finished product:

My precious! I love this so much. 

My saw is so much easier to use in the middle of the room on the stand. Before, the poor thing was useless, squashed into the corner. Can you even find it here? Tell me how I was going to cut anything like that.

The Sisters had to go at this point. But I still had two kid free days. So I kept working.

At some point, I realized that this blank wall was a peg board. Duh.

So I went to WalMart and with the addition of  a few hooks and dowels,

I turned it into the perfect home for my pretty papers that have been all bagged up for years. I went back for more hooks and added all my maps to the pile. It is one of my favorite parts of this renovation. 

The peg board hooks solved another problem for me. I have had these pieces of fence and banister for years. With my new hooks, they became usable! I started out with them under the shelves, but I decided that I wanted something else there.

So I just moved them above the shelves. And I LOVE the way they look!

I fussed and moved things around for the rest of the week. I tried so many variations.  I even found a home for my unsold book lamp. This was exciting, because it meant I could keep it. I really needed some light right in the middle of the space after I moved my ceiling light. And  it was so much easier to work on with the debris out on the tables, instead of cluttering up the space I was trying to work on. By the end of that week, it had turned into a space that I loved.

 I haven't felt like that in years. 

I'm not done yet, and there were still two tables full of debris in the other room, 

but I really felt like I turned a corner towards "success" during Week 9. 

Have you guys ever just pulled ALL THE THINGS out and refused to put them back until you had made sense of them? I'd love to hear about it.

Talk to you soon,

CM Shaw