It was this time last year that I signed on the building that would become my studio. That time right between Christmas and New Year’s Day. It was a rush because I was trying to get the bought before the end of 2018. Problem is that most offices are in and out between those two holidays. So it was quite the struggle to get it all lined up. But we did and we got it purchased!

Then we had to wait a month for it to get built. While we waited, Brent started clearing out the trees and leveling out the pad that it was going to get moved to. I am lucky he runs a landscape business. And I shopped! Shopped for wiring, insulation, drywall, paint, flooring and a heating-A/C unit.

The first part of the video is just trees with a small clearing that Brent had just cleared, but that is all that area used to be. Just trees

Next we started to bring in rock to level out a pad for the building. We brought in so much rock. And when I say we, I mean Brent, my brother in law Brandon and Jay, our cousin. They did so much work on getting that pad leveled.

On January 31 the building finally arrived. It was a crazy sight seeing the building come down our narrow street. They had to cut branches the whole way down to keep it from being scratched. It actually got stuck in the intersection before entering our street because it was so huge and it had to make quite the maneuver to enter our street. When it finally got to our property, the driver unloaded it all by himself. It was quite impressive. We blocked the street for probably a good half hour. Irritated a lot of the neighbors, because they had to turn around.

When they finally put it in it’s place, I just about started crying. I have seriously dreamed about having this little building for so long.

Little did I know that getting the building was the easy part. Now began the long process of finishing the inside. I had some idea in my head that we would be finished by the end of March. Boy, was I wrong and impatient. First we started with cutting out the holes for the windows and getting them installed. I ordered custom windows for my natural light studio.

After wiring, we started the itchy process of insulation. Some of my clothes are still itchy from that process. It’s amazing how much insulation it took for that little cabin. I even got a really bad cough from inhaling so much insulation dust. It was not a great time. I learn quickly to wear a mask, gloves and a paint suit.

Guess how many panels of drywall it took to finish the studio? Any ideas? It took more than 50 panels to get it done. Brent and Jay struggled so much with the roof since it has two angles and there was two lofts.

I was somehow convinced that I could do the taping and mudding. I have never done mudding and taping before, and I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. It sucked. I was ready to pay someone a lot of money by the 2nd and 3rd layers of mudding and sanding. It was so much work. But with the help of Jamie, I don’t know how I could have gotten it all mudded and sanded without her. She sanded A LOT. So whenever you come in the studio, please don’t judge my mudding and sanding skills. It is not great. I promise.

The part I was actually looking forward to was painting. I felt like it was the part where I could actually see it come together. But painting also was really hard. The angles and lofts really made it difficult to see all the areas.

But I actually had a lot of help with this too. Jamie, Courtney, and Austin helped a ton in getting the painting done. Because at this point I was already eye-ball deep in the wedding season.

When we started putting in the floor, I really started seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. The floor was perfect and it was going in quick.

After that it was just starting to bring in props and my super nice natural edge desk our neighbor made me. Jay sanded it and put all the finishing touches on it. Which created a whole new sanding epidemic in my studio. But that desk is beautiful.

So thank you everyone. Seriously. I could not have done this without you guys. You guys very generously gave a lot of time and effort to help me finish it and I appreciate it so very much. Enjoy the video!