Studio Renew!

For over a year, I’ve been trying to find someone to come install new windows in my sewing studio. Next to this office, it’s the room where I spend the most time and get the most work done, and it has one small window. The cats and I love this west-facing window, never mind that it’s old and all the glazing is gone and it lets in cold air and dust and even moisture–we love it. There’s a daybed in front of it, and on sunny afternoons, we all vie for space in the sun. But the window is, as I said, very old and decrepit, and it had to be replaced.

I didn’t want it just replaced, though: I wanted it larger, tripled in size. And hence the looking. And looking, and looking. Midland, Texas, has been in a boom for years now. While the rest of the country has been mired in recession, we’ve been booming, with construction going at an astounding pace. MacMansions everywhere! Unemployment is now below 4%, and it’s tough to find anyone to help you do much of anything.

As you might imagine, finding someone to do a piddly little window job was virtually impossible. And not cheap. The whole time I’ve been looking for someone to do it, I’ve been saving for the day I finally found someone.

I finally did, and they come tomorrow to replace that one single window with three, tripling the sunny light and making us all ever-so-much happier. And less dusty and draft-ridden.

As with the preparation for anything in the studio, it’s been a big deal getting ready. I’ve had to go through everything as I removed it from the room, sorting and weeding out. Two local artists came and took away carloads of stuff that I had stored in the backyard storage building so I could make room for stuff I’m not going to put back in the sewing studio–shifting space in one place to make more space in another.

Sewing studio wall before

Sunday we removed everything that was left, and at sundown we took down the daybed–the cats won’t move from it as long as sun is coming through that window, and they’re in for a long, frustrating week as they’re shut in the front part of the house while the guys tear apart the room and renew it: new insulation, new sheetrock, new electrical outlets, new windows.

Sewing studio wall prepped for construction guys

This isn’t my first rodeo, of course, and I’m more than a little stressed knowing that there are bound to be glitches, delays, extra expense. The good thing is that I really like this contractor–one of my husband’s former students who’s been in touch from the very beginning, texting updates and reminders and just generally being way more accessible than has been my experience in the past. I don’t have to get in touch with him; he gets in touch with me. And he shows up when he says he will–so that’s a good thing. Really good.

I’ll do an update next week, I hope, when it’s all nice and shiny new. In the meantime, I’m lining up a week of bookbinding goodness for you, so be sure to check back on Wednesday and Friday for that~~

 

Ricë also blogs at The Voodoo Cafe.


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