My husband, Mike, and I have been renovating the studio since we bought our home two years ago. Our house is pretty small, even for the Seattle area, but we bought the property so the garage would be my studio. It’s a three-car detached garage and it has been a beast of a renovation!

We committed to tackling the project without taking on any debt, so we’ve saved money chunk by chunk and worked as we had enough for each step. Sometimes the winter weather delayed our progress too, so it’s been a lot of start and stop. At this point we are both ready to wrap up the work, but doing it without loans or credit card debt has eased the load a little bit.

Over Christmas and New Year’s, instead of vacation, or even a staycation, Mike and I took two weeks to work on the garage- putting up walls, painting, and installing shelves. We got as much done that we could with our time and materials. Now we’re saving for one more lumber delivery to wall in the upper rafters, install large pin boards made from Homasote for hanging in-progress art work, and build a large work table that will live in the center bay.

The finish line in sight is a huge motivator! I’m visualizing where I want to hang artwork and my imagination is exploding with ideas for new artwork! It makes sense, but I never realized how much the renovation and it’s state of flux was mitigating my creativity. It’s been mentally taxing for both Mike and I, so we are looking forward to completing work on this gem of a studio space.

Can’t wait to share before and after photos when it’s done- Wish us luck in the homestretch!