Sunday, January 17, 2010

Garage Conversion to my Studio! Day 1

Today was, or yesterday was a very stressful day for me. I have never experienced any kind of remodeling. This starts the 3rd week that we are working on various upgrades to our rented, yes, RENTED, home. Today, or yesterday, we started with my studio!

DAY 1:
Here we are transferring all our junk to the newly built storage room to the left of this garage.

This little building is the newly built storage room. There are the two colors that we painted the kid's rooms. Amal got the purple and Ali got the turquoise. There is other junk not worth mentioning!

Once the garage was empty, I had a really good look. IT LOOKS SO VERY SMALL! Not complaining! Here, there is some water damage that needs to be addressed.

I'm inside looking at the wasted space for 10 years that is now interlocked and a side space to the storage room. This is the door that we will or did take out and place inside the house. Here, I will have a window. I will have the gardener clean this all up and plant some pretty flowers so I have something to look at when I need to.

Because the ironing board was in the maid's room and that room has been having some renovations done to it and the men have been using it to track through the house; we had to put the ironing board in our entrance. Right behind the mirror is where the new entrance from the house will be to my Studio!

I moved all that to make space for the door.

By this time, the cats and I were freaked out with all the hammering and noise with the drill. It was stressful for Peaches and Uki. Peaches really had a hard time settling and even let me cuddle her. I put the girls in the kitchen with food and beds but Peaches peed on my countertop. I took a picture but can't bring myself to post it. I have bleached it out. Ick.

Finally the drilling stopped and the sledgehammer started up! This went on for quite a while.

Here the door is coming to light. The black doors are my front door. There was so much concrete dust. That also upset me a great deal.

I kept checking on these men and you can see my footprints.
They have now taken the door frame out of the side entrance to the garage and are putting it in the house. The door is gross so I hope they cleaned it up. Of course, I will have to do it. I hope to remember to ask them to show me how to take the door off the hinges so I can paint if I need to.

The concrete has now been filled in. Don't know the proper terms. You can see straight through the gaping hole that is to be my glass door actually. The foreman told me he wanted to put a glass door with a grate for protection whereas Waqar told me it would be a window only. So, I told the foreman to check with the Man! I like the idea of being able to open up the room for fresh air in the winter time but don't like the idea of yet another entrance to the house!

I kept mopping and those footprints kept following me!

I had to make lunch for me and a snack for the kids for when they came home and for my lovely friend Larissa and her lovely daughter Paulina for picking up my kids in the morning and dropping them off after school. They were devoured. P likes my cookies though and dug in to those!

I freaked because I did not like the fact that the glass was not delivered yet for the outside and that it would be open. We are currently storing the gypsum ceiling tiles for the house in there so there is nothing that the feral cats can really damage but not being able to lock the inside door because the concrete is still wet and would crack unsettled me greatly as it did Amal. I did not get a picture of the door in place but only to block the hole. There is a huge hole at the top of the door where the other portion goes. For the back, they nailed in a piece of plywood and told me basically to deal with it. The cats could still get in and therefore that is why I am posting this at 3:23am. I can't sleep cuz there is a huge opening from the outside to inside my home and Waqar is in Dubai. My ear hurts as I stuck something in it again. Yes, I should know better but there, I did it and it hurts like hell. Sounds like fireworks are in there. Also, I was being eaten alive by mosquitos and gave up and came to the computer after I put out these coils to kill the little bastards. The cats are great because they sleep with us and get up with us. We are currently sleeping on the couches as the kids rooms are a mess and we are waiting for our furniture and they want me with them so we are all downstairs! It's like a huge slumber party every night!

Well, this concludes our first day. I will try to get a picture of the current solution they gave me for overnight and today they will be putting new ceiling tiles in the guest bathroom and the garage or should I say........ MY STUDIO!!

3 comments:

Laila said...

Wow Aliya, i am impressed at the speed at which they are doing things and as for the dust, it won't go away for a while! i am so excited for you, we can all come round and admire it once it's done(you'll need to put a comfy chair for big lots of big bums in there).

What were you making in the picture, it looks super yummy and what grill were you using. We need to have a chatty crafters morning soon... Look forward to seeing you, Laila xx

Coffeebean's Dailies said...

Thank you Laila! It seems that the speed it good in which they are working. This is all new to me and I have been stuck in the house for the last two weeks and this week is the third!

Yes, I see that the dust will be around for a while! I finally got the entrance 'decent' and wood colored again until I walked in the garage, er hmm.. my STUDIO and tracked it all back! Still, for the kitties' sake I need to make an effort and my skin is crawling with all the debris everywhere!

It looks so small but I hope to get some folding chairs in there at least!!

I just grilled some hamburger meat. A little salt, pepper and an onion diced in. It was my lunch with was initially supposed to be a gorgeous salad but all my veggies rotted!! So, I had them with Cheez-its! It was a nice 'snack' for the kids and my friend whom was my chauffeur yesterday!

This is a really cool grill I found at Tavola (21 OR). It grills over two hobs on one side and the other side is for making pancakes or bacon. So far, it is BRILLIANT!!

Yes, I certainly will have you ladies over once I settle in and all.

Unknown said...

wow great work and sorry about the dust it is a real killer but just think of the end result.
Alia ..that "junk" I have one word for you OMANBAY ... get it on there girl and make some money towards decorating your new room ;-)