New Year. New Studio, provided I can finish it {New Braunfels Photography}

I have a confession to make. It hasn't really been more than a month since I blogged. I've actually started several of them and they're currently sitting in my blogger account waiting for me to finish them and press "publish." But I can't finish them because my list of other things I have to do is so long. Five months ago I was sitting in my old house trying to keep on top of things and thinking about whether it was a good time to move. It wasn't. It hasn't been for the past 5 years but the more we procrastinated, the more urgent it became. And since it's never going to be a good time to move we took the plunge anyway. We still had work. The weddings kept coming. The school activities kept coming. Now instead of trying to keep up with all that, we had to keep up with all that and also move. Now I sit here in my brand new office, typing on my brand new keyboard (not that that has anything to do with our move, I just wanted it) and contemplating my brand new studio.

Our house hunt brought us many ups and downs. It was stressful and chaotic, but we've finally reached a point where we can say we're mostly settled. I just unpacked some stuff yesterday that I thought I'd lost and was thrilled to be reunited with. Then there are the boxes that I didn't want to mess with unpacking so I stuck them up in the attic where they'll probably sit until my grandchildren come along after our death and open the boxes so they can sell our house. They'll say "why the hell did Grandma save this old rubber ducky toilet seat cover and inflatable model of the Carnival Magic." I saved it because I didn't know what else to do with it. In that way I'm just like the guy who moved out of our house. You see he decided that the stuff he didn't want to mess with would fit nicely in the attic too. Only he didn't leave it for his grandkids to handle. He sold the house to us and it became our mess. I can see the past so clearly. "Dad what do I do with this broken Rock Band guitar?" "I don't know son, why don't you stick it in the attic." "Dear, what should I do with these baseball pinatas that we didn't use for Junior's party?" "I guess we can stick them up in the attic sweetheart, they'll make a nice place for the dirt daubers to build their nests." "What should I do with this broken contraption which nobody will ever be able to figure out what it was for in the first place, let alone how to fix it and besides that it takes up so much space that who would want to pull it out anyway and strain their backs? Why I'll just stick it in the attic next to the broken hamster cage, the pinatas, the guitar, the rusty crutches and the other broken down crap that I stuck up there. Maybe the new owners will be pleased with it." Yes, that's exactly how it went.



We're happy with our new home. It's beautiful. And the main reason for our move, to get more space, has been fulfilled. We went from an 1800 square foot house on about 1/16th of an acre to a 3700 square foot house with a full acre. It's like when you eat too much at an all you can eat buffet and then you get home and change from your jeans into your big ol' sweat pants with the drawstring waist and you can finally breath again. Yeah, that's exactly what it's like. We let it all flop out.

Another big selling point to the place was the potential studio space. I love my current location in the Landmark. I love sharing space with my friends at Diamond Divas. But it's always been a dream of mine to have my studio at home, yet separate from my living space. When we saw this house, the extra 3-car garage just spoke to me. It made the bells in my head go off. This would totally make a great studio, and we wouldn't be giving up a garage because it had another garage as well.

Then skip past all the drama of the contract on a different house falling through and then the drama of the negotiations on this one and all the drama and stresses involved with moving out of a house we'd been in for 11 years and raised three kids in, and getting all our crap across town including a piano, which, as it turns out, probably weighs more than the entire house we just moved out of.

Once we got all the heavy lifting out of the way, we turned our attention to that garage. This is what we were looking at in the beginning.



And here's the plan for the project. First we had to enclose that attic space and add a pull down door so we could access it. Jayme spent most of his Christmas break doing that. We also had to insulate the walls. We did that part together. Before it's over, we'll need to drywall the walls, stain the concrete, change out the garage doors with large frosty glass windows to provide lots of lovely natural light, build a dressing room and a storage room, and then paint and decorate it all.

It's a huge project. Here's where we are now. I'm currently washing and scrubbing the grease stains from the floor.



It doesn't look like it, but it's so much closer to being done. I'm hoping it'll be complete within a month or two. Maybe I can have a big spring grand opening party.

Another perk of the house is that it has a pool. We weren't looking for one, but now that we have one I'll be more heavily pursuing my underwater photography projects. I have so much in mind for that area.



My daughter is excited about all the mermaid swimming she can do now.



Yes, we're settling nicely in the new house. It's going to be a great 2015.

Lisa On Location Photography