At last I can ALMOST truly say.....

....that 'Snippets' will be coming from my studio - not my lounge room or my bedroom or my workroom :-).  The saga of my studio is a long one, and one day I will fill you in on the drama.  Mark I was great but short-lived, MarkII is much smaller but nearing completion.  Finally!  Hopefully.

I have waited 3 1/2 years to have this second attempt, and it has taken lots of effort to get it this far but I am becoming hopeful that it will be ready to move into soon.  How soon?  Maybe by the end of the month soon,  but I'm not holding my breath!

We had saved the timbers, cladding, windows and doors, flooring and roofing from the first studio - which had to be dismantled.  However over the last 4 years the timber had deteriorated, my brother had appropriated the door to use in the house that he was renovating, we had used the cladding on our house and  the windows had become smashed because my dear brother and nephew had decided that they wouldn't be used again!  They had underestimated this lady.  Wouldn't you think that after knowing me all of his life my 'little brother' would know how put it politely - determined I am?

So I asked whether it would save time/money/effort if we just bought a shed and clad the outside and lined the inside.  Both my husband and brother thought that was a good idea.  I didn't particularly, but if it got them moving and I got my studio I was happy.   Peter had rung the Council to see what details were required for the plans he had drawn up, to be told that if the building was less than 20 square metres he didn't need Council permission.  Good-o!  We would make it less than 20 square metres and not have to jump through Council hoops - I didn't want to wait and I didn't want the paperwork if we could get moving while the menfolk were ready to do so.  After not finding what we wanted in the places that sell sheds around the area I went on-line and found one that was suitable.  We ordered it and within a week it was here.

While we were waiting the area was prepared.  After changing my mind twice about it's orientation (oops!) I finally decided to have it north-facing to get the best light (we're in the southern hemisphere, remember), and the smallest possible area exposed to the western sun.  It will be tucked in under our jacaranda tree (on the right of the photo) and in front of our small pink-flowering yellow gum (at the back), both of which had to be trimmed to fit it in, along with the poor old bottle brush struggling along in the back corner of our yard.   There's also a gum tree against the fence that will provide a bit of shade from the westerly sun, though you can't really see it in the photo here.

It doesn't look it here but there's quite a slope to our land in this corner and the least expensive way was to raise it on stumps.  It's always my preference to have a wooden floor too, because it's a lot easier on my painful knees and back so I had asked for this.

I wanted a shed that was about 4 metres by 4 metres (13 ft 1 1/2 ins) so I could have a verandah on the front but the closest we could get was 3.75m x 3 metres (a tiny bit over 12ft 3ins x 9ft 10ins).    Peter and Terry dug holes and put in treated pine stumps then put down bearers and joists.  My brother is a carpenter and he had some time off so helped with this early bit which was wonderful.

Next step was to put the floor onto the bearers and joists.  I'll be covering it with vinyl or something so we just used yellowtongue pineboard  flooring.

It was a big day putting up the shed, taking Terry, Peter, Terry's son Mark (who lives with us) and me.  But it looked very small when it was finally up.  The guys had made the floor so that the shed slid partly down over the side then rests on the bearers underneath to prevent water from getting into the shed.  Then Terry also put in the bearers etc for the verandah - which he was able to make 2metres wide and still keep within our 20 square metres.  It will be a great place to sit and work or just enjoy the sun.

In between helping Terry, Peter spent some time sanding back our recycled windows with his belt sander.  I had been tackling them with my palm sander but they needed the big brother treatment.

  Being a chippie, Terry was quickly able to set up the posts for the verandah and figure out the support beam for the verandah roof.  He braced it all with these angled beams.

 You can't see it in the photo but there is a layer of thick ceiling fibreglass insulation over the top of the shed roof, then a layer of sisalcraft insulation (sarking) under the mid blue Colorbond corrugated iron.  So the roof is really, really well insulated.

Then Terry cut the holes in the walls to fit the re-cycled windows we had, enlarged the doorway to fit the standard door we  bought, and trimmed out the openings.

Because I want to line the interior and clad the exterior, battens then were put on the higher parts of the corrugations on the exterior.  This meant that there is room to put more insulation in the gaps between the battens.  The summers here are quite hot, and we can drop below 0 deg C in winter so I want to decrease the temperature fluctuations as much as possible and make the studio as comfortable as possible to work in whatever the season.

The children next door are fascinated by the whole thing, as is our neighbour Tarnya.  In conversation with Terry they have decided that the studio looks like a cubby house, and the name has stuck.  Even I am calling it 'the cubby' now :-)

The nice wide verandah will prevent too much sun shining in during summer whilst allowing the lower winter sun to come in during winter.  The little window on the left is on the east side and will possibly have a little awning over it later on if the room gets too warm too early in the day during summer - we do get temperatures in the 40's at times (40C is 104F, 42C is 107.6F) so if the sun stays on a room too long in the morning it does get warm, but being due east I doubt this will.  The rooms facing this way in the house don't.

Because there is a sewer pipe between the cubby and the fence we can't plant any more trees there to shade from the western sun.  However, we do want more shade and also to attract more native birds.  So that six foot stretch has now been cleared and prepared for planting in recent weeks, since these photos were taken.  I will be going to the Forestry Commission nursery to get some seedling native plants to establish a 3-layer planting in there - a bit of a jungle to discourage the grandchildren from running through it and disturbing wildlife: some ground cover, grasses,a couple of grevilleas, and some taller growing plants.  I'll cover the ground with mulch, put a few stepping stones for access to the sewer outlet if necessary, some bits of interesting timber for habitat, and leave it to itself.

 Here is the cubby receiving a nice warm woolly coat of insulation all around, then the insulation is covered by sarking.  Double insulation.  The silver side of the sarking is turned inward but it still helps keep heat out in summer and in during winter.

 Below you can see that the verandah has now been finished completely.  Though later on we will be adding two railings around it except for the middle section where the step will be, and probably some pickets between the railings too - it will look even more like a cubby then!

 And then finally the cladding could go on the exterior.  This was really exciting for me.  I chose a hardiplank with a timber grain pattern on it.  

 And today Peter did the almost-last piece of that cladding  - woo-hoo!

I painted both sides of the door with sealer/undercoat.  I wanted to do the windows too but my endurance levels are very low still after being ill.  I was very pleased that I was able to get that door done.  Tomorrow I'll start on the top coat and see how I like the colour scheme I have chosen.

I am feeling very impatient to get in and start setting up inside and organising things, but we still need an electrician to wire up for the six power points and to install the ceiling light.  We have the gyprock ready to put on the walls and I am pushing for us to do that, leaving some broad yellow plastic tape threaded through where the cables will go and let the sparky work out how to get them through, if we can't get one soon.  I just want to get going in there!  We need an electrician!!!!