Well, it was our goal to finish Eric's studio before the long weekend and we just about almost succeeded. In fact we are so close that let's just say we did it. We need to pat ourselves on the back after a crazy hard weekend. The only thing remaining right now is to attach the rubber molding which is all cut to size and ready to be applied with liquid nails. We might still do that tonight, but it's getting late and there is work tomorrow. We didn't get Eric moved in like we wanted, but we are so damn close let's just say we did.
Holy crap, I never thought I'd say this but this crazy, dust factory of a messy studio room is finally starting to look amazing. There are a few small odds and ends that need to be finished, like tiling the area in the corner by the hatch and finishing the rubber molding, but other than that we got everything done that we wanted for this weekend. We also just ordered and will need to set up the steel storage cabinets that will go on the ledge. I found some pretty great cabinets from Sears that will fit perfectly on the long ledge and will provide Eric with tons of music equipment and guitar storage in style. The ledge provides 70 inches of space to the ceiling which made finding something pre-fab hard since most cabinets were a full 72 inches (6 feet). These cabinets are 67 inches without the self leveling feet, so they'll fit perfectly height, width and length wise--hooray! Much cheaper than a custom solution. We ordered them yesterday thanks to some great holiday prices and will post pictures when we have them up and installed. I'm so excited for him to have lots on enclosed spaces in which to store all his crap. What better place to hide clutter than with a swanky enclosed steel cabinet up out of the way on a ledge?
So here are the results so far.
You can see most of the molding just lying against the wall, almost ready to be installed—we ran out of liquid nails half way through the job so we'll have to do the rest tomorrow, but that will take all of 10 minutes. We also sanded that metal door to give it a polished look and will most likely coat it with a shiny acrylic spray at a later date. We have a justified aversion to polyurethane now, which was used on the other metal doors in the house by our polyurethane happy but none-too-bright original contractor. No more poly for us ever again—we hate the stuff as it represents one of the biggest things completely and totally wrong about our house. Stupid poly.
The area on the ledge between the wall and the electrical panel is where the two steel storage cabinets will go, so that uneven seem between the green and the blue where the pipe is will not be seen. This is what the cabinet looks like. Two of them next to each other will fit perfectly in that space and utilize pretty much every inch of usability on that ledge.
You can also get a better look at the stained and epoxy'ed floor.
Same thing, different angle—taken from the ledge near the hatch to the outside.
Here's the other corner of the room along with the vent and sewer access panel. We sprayed each of those with Rustoleum's Professional Stainless Steel paint to get a good match to the steel doors and the stainless electrical plates. That is the uneven stucco corner that we did our best with—we are not really big fans of stucco either. We will be doing an aluminum L-channel bracket on all the ledge edges we can which should tie this together much better. We'll also do a 1 inch aluminum strip on all the flat walls separating the green and the blue sections.
Here is the crazy uneven corner where we did the self-leveling concrete to try to even out the floor. It is much better, but this area will still get mortar and tiled with the multicolored slate tile we have left over from the other rooms. It took us three tries to get the concrete correct in this corner—no one tells you how hard the self leveling stuff is to work with and how little time you have until it sets! It took some carefully coordinated teamwork between me, Eric and our new more powerful ½ inch drill with 5 gallon paint/drywall stirrer attachment. That stirrer attachment has got to be one of the best tools ever—turned a huge hassle of a job into a piece of cake. Yay for using the right tool for the job!
Needless to say that corner will be much nicer when it and the top of the stairs are done in the nice slate tile, but for now it's livable.
So, the weekend is over and we are exhausted, but some major progress was made so we are pretty proud of ourselves right about now.
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