Before and After

We finally did it— we opened the studio on Saturday, November 27! On Thursday (which was Thanksgiving), my daughter and I started removing the plastic that had been covering the floor to protect it from the drywall blobs and dust, paint, and construction debris. My husband and son began bringing in the contents of my studio which were still being stored in the Pack Rat behind our building. We scrubbed and cleaned and moved things and arranged it a dozen times. It was a crazy amount of work but we were determined to open our doors to be a part of the community on Small Business Saturday.

The before photo above was actually taken after we had done a fair bit of demolition. You can see the imprints in the carpet showing where the walls that we removed had created small offices. This photo was also taken after we removed the drop ceiling (I blogged about the issues that raised on July 23rd). It has been an adventure! There have been so many people who have helped in this process—Darren Lathan from Nverse Architects, Philip and all the guys are MH Heartwood, Jeff, Jonathan and the rest at J & W Plumbing, Northwest Drywall, Table Rock HVAC, Jeff Mackay painting services, Patriot Flooring, and Chris Franklin of Franklin Electric who was here until the last minute giving us some temporary lights and making sure everything safe. Oak Hill Iron has made a beautiful sign for me that will be installed soon. The local community has been so supportive and encouraging and the process has really been smooth.

I want to shout out my friends and family who came here and spent time with me doing demolition— my good friend, Laura, and my sister and brother-in-law, Gretchen and Brad. And my family who spent their Thanksgiving break working to make this happen— they are the loves of my life— Scott, Alex and Abigail. It has been a labor of love to get to this point and there’s still a long way to go. Please come by to check it out— we’d love to meet you!