Monday, June 4, 2007

Studio improvements

As you may know, I live in Arizona, the land of the blazing sun. The house we bought is fairly large and on half an acre. However, the previous owners were very averse to yardwork and apparently anything green. So our yard is a half an acre of gravel (even though the house is 30 years old). We are slowly putting in trees and I am jealously guarding any wild ones that spring up (which means the previous owners were assiduously ripping them out because we have several). In our backyard I have my studio--400 square feet of space with air conditioning but no water. There is a concrete patio but it is in the full afternoon sun so we were not getting much use out of it and the studio itself was very hot in the summers.

Enter my father-in-law and a pile of wood. Here you can see the beginnings of work (and my view)

The end of the second days work.

The framework is done and Mr. Plum is priming (I was helping too!)


The roof is going on, there you see Father-in-law Plum. Isn't the roof lovely?

The kids are already enjoying the shade.

I have to touch up the paint in a few places and put up some fun lights and soda can flowers (and wait for the camera batteries to charge) then I will put up a finished picture. And then I need to have a party!
That's 200 more square feet of shade in the yard folks!

















2 comments:

Sonya said...

It is criminal what people will do to unwitting plants. We have too many trees in our small urban garden, but our neighboring yard, the former owner - not one tree, lots of red lava rock, but the saving grace of a spectacular lilac bush. But the difference - it's like two different ecosystems.

I do love your studio colors, like a little bit of the Bahamas.

Regina said...

Wow! What a great studio!! THat patio will be so nice in the spring, fall and winter (ha ha). We just found a place (central- craycroft & 5th) It needs some major yard work too, but it does have a palm tree, oak tree, citrus tree and some cactus. All are on the parameter and then there is just dirt in the middle. I guess there used to be grass. Anyway, lots of work, but all worth it in the end :)