Well, it was time to reimagine our creative and living space, and so after getting plans approved for a bit of extending and rebuilding, we demolished most of the more modern back end that had been attached to our Victorian era house. It was less than ideal and had obviously been slapped up quickly after the WW2 Blitz bombs had pulverised the rest of the street. We discovered there had been no foundations used whatsoever. Just a single skin brick wall stuck in the clay! So next job was putting in proper foundations.
I expect Robbie won’t mind me sharing this photo of him missing the foundation ditch and spilling the concrete! Also pictured is Neil getting messy – just how he likes it! They both worked harder and faster than we thought was possible. There were various trades involved in the whole project, but these two heroes did most of the graft – always with good humour – we are very thankful to them. Next stage: walls going up! We were lucky with the weather and so the actual build was pretty fast and we managed to get ahead of schedule until our door got stuck in Dover!
Fast forward and it’s taking shape: Walls, roof, windows, floor levelled and plastering started. It’s not all studio space. We had to fit a kitchen in there too!
Creating a big hole in the new roof to gain loads more natural light makes creating much easier. Now the skylight is installed, it’s cool to look up from indoors and see the sky with perhaps an aeroplane or space station or rainbow, but more usually, a seagull directly overhead! We purposely looked for ways to create more display space. I’ll be showing you what’s going on the walls soon.
We completely trashed the garden in the process, so we had to scrape off the top layer and start from scratch again after completing the building work. More shovelling and concrete, but it finally looks like a garden again! Cat paw prints everywhere: Every time we demolished the old building we found paw prints in every layer of its construction history going back to Victorian times! The last photo shows that our own cat was determined to leave his mark in the new foundations!
Now the building work is done and we are settling in to our new space, we have been busy using it to create in! And also busy finding the right artwork for each wall – It’s been interesting to test the best positions and lighting to show off my paintings properly.
