Tag: Building

Half walls in the art studio

About Michele, Building Cool Stuff, Making a Cottage Art Studio

As I was beginning to plan where to put all my shelves in the art studio, I realized I didn’t have enough wall space. I decided to build a wall between the two halves of the studio to give me room for all my hanging shelves. I didn’t like how closed off it felt, however, so I cut a large opening in the wall at eye level to open up the space.

Since that leaves me only half a wall when I needed a whole wall, I’m also putting half a wall between the breeze through and the far section of studio. That will allow me to mount all my shelves and still have a view of the entire studio as well as the horse corral and yard.

I thought I would be done with my studio before Thanksgiving but, as I should have known, projects always take 2 to 4 times longer than expected.

New pasture for the horses.

About Michele, My Horses, On The Farm, Paradise

The neighbor behind us used to have sheep in this pasture. Unfortunately the sheep were killed by coyotes and the pasture has been farrow for a few years. I finally got a hold of our neighbor and he said I could use the pasture for our horses.

I built a little gate and let them out into the long grass. They wandered around a while looking bewildered but now they are grazing up close to our back fence. I guess they don’t want to get too far away from home.

I can’t say I blame them. I love being here myself.

Finally got all the shingles on the fancy roof.

About Michele, Building Cool Stuff, Cheryl's Studio

I’m so excited I can now move on to the pop out windows which will be in the open triangle spaces below the upper roof. After that I will put in the large triangle windows for the loft area on all four sides of the building.

Working on construction in my life reminds me of sewing a dress one seam each day. The process takes a long time but eventually I end up with a finished product.

This sort of reminds me of the baby steps I take in my life. Moving slowly through life’s lessons I sometimes wonder if I’m making any progress… But looking back on everything I accomplished I realize how much I’ve learned. Realizing that life is a series of baby steps helps me feel happier and more content with the process.

The new barn is going up. 

Building Cool Stuff

Yesterday evening we worked in the cool of the late part of the day. We had Ryan helping to place the hurricane ties for the rafters.

The last two nights I’ve had dreams where the 6 tons of hay we bought were being rained on! Makes me feel a great sense of urgency to get the haybarn part finished and the hay in it.

We have the floors and corner posts in the for the haybarn structures and the roof will be going on soon.

Another toy for Ryan and me. 

Building Cool Stuff, Homeschool Fun, My Horses

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I borrowed a friends tractor and had a great time grading our back half acre.

We smoothed out the pasture area and created a nice slope in the new barn area where we will be building this summer. Also, spent some time smoothing out the old garden to extend our grassy back lawn.

The new barn area will have a solid run of packed gravel base and pea gravel on top to keep the horses feet out of the mud this winter.  We will also have a hay barn included so that we won’t have to drag the hay on dollys through the rain to the barn!

We are building 12 small structures to make our new barn. Each structure is under 200 ft.² and can stand alone.

I drew so many plans before I finally settled on one. The planning is so fun.

I kind of love projects. 

How crude can it be and still work?

About Michele, Building Cool Stuff, Making a Cottage Art Studio

The day was warmer, and Melanie was over, so John and Melanie and I finally put the front door in on the art studio cottage.




Watch video below to see how amazingly it works!