New Studio in the Works

So the past several months have been CRAZY for me. I took a huge leap and quit my job, sold my house, moved 1200 miles away from my hometown, got married and joined a volunteer organization that has been immensely rewarding, but time-consuming. To say that I’ve been challenged to find some balance in my life would be accurate, but I’m the happiest I’ve been in a long, long time.

I’ve also found it challenging to dedicate the time I would like to my lapidary and metalsmith work. The house I left had the perfect work area built into the basement with work counters for my grinders and saws and a built-in desk that was perfect as a jewelers bench. The new house? Not so much.

Disorganized Mess!

I’ve been able to limp along with a makeshift workspace in the garage, but it just isn’t the functional space I had before. It requires moving one car out of the garage just to sit at the bench. Not to mention it isn’t climate controlled or insulated.

The state of my bench. 😦

But, I’ve been lucky enough to have family and family friends who have the knowledge to help me turn a cluttered garage into a functioning studio. Of course, that also means that we have to coordinate schedules, so it’s a slow process.

We started with putting up insulation. And then we found a leak in the wall. So, we moved on to new wiring for new wall receptacles and overhead lights. And then we found that the existing wiring was done wrong. Way wrong. So wrong, we are lucky no one ever electrocuted themselves or the house didn’t catch fire. So, we called in an electrician, and lost a few days in the process, but we now have new wiring and juice flowing to all the right places!