Just When I Thought I Had It Made...

"Sarah and Annie" WIP

What a difference a week can make, huh?  A week ago, Monday, I was feeling pretty good about my "artist life".  My studio was humming along - I had three projects underway: one on the "paint wall", one on the floor easel and another "Stuffed" piece on the table easel.  I even managed to get a plein air piece done in my garden. And then it happened... I discovered water seeping under my interlocking floor tiles.  I thought it was another situation where the outside drainpipe had gotten dislodged and the rain water was running down the foundation wall.  It had happened before, no big deal, all I had to do was put the drainpipe back on, right?  Oh no... that would have been easy....  We discovered water was in the pantry as well and it wasn't coming from the notorious corner culprit.  It wasn't coming from the drains because the drain in the laundry room was dry and that's the first drain that would overflow.  Where the heck was it coming from?  Ugh... behind the "paint wall"... and there's only one way to find out what's going on behind it - demo the wall.  So, that's what my husband, Steve, and I did today.

Before we could start the demo, we had to move the love seat out of the studio.  I had moved every possible thing I could out of the way and the love seat was simply taking up too much real estate. It was never meant to stay in the studio anyway.  We removed anything that could impede the path of the love seat on it's way up the stairs.  The idea was to take it to my old studio space, off the second floor master bedroom. Ha! Hahahahaha! Yeah.... that didn't work out.  We got half way up the basement stairs and that baby got wedged.  Steve, at the top end, kept trying to pull and I could see, from my end, that the feet were not going a-n-y-where.  Ladies, you know how that goes, don't ya?  I made the decision we should smash it apart with a sledgehammer and take it out in pieces. After all, I said, it really wasn't worth saving.  Our Lizzy had wanted us to save it for her, but her memories of  it's condition didn't match its reality.  I think Steve thought I'd lost my mind.  It took a bit of convincing, but I won out and went and got the sledgehammer.  BAM! BAM! BAM!  Okay... forget that.  Let's saw this baby in half!  And that's what we (mostly he) did..  So much easier to get it up the stairs!

Behind the "paint wall" - YIKES!

Now for that wall demo... Living in a house built in 1926, with a number of renovations in the basement, over the years, led to a hap-hazard mish-mash of paneling, mouldings and 2 x 4's.   We managed to get enough off the foundation wall to see an old wall, damp footing in spots, but nothing that was obviously the problem.  So, now it's time to call in the professionals.  I've placed the call, I'm awaiting a callback. 

Needless to say, studio work is not happening right now.  I guess I'll do some more plein air work in the garden and maybe start a new anatomy and figure drawing notebook.  I'll think of something...