Thursday, March 5, 2009

why construction is like art ....

i think building a house is similar to painting a picture .... 
like ... empty lot=blank canvas ... 
is breaking ground a big freak out like the first splat of paint on a white canvas? 

not that my house renovation started with breaking ground ... but it started with kitchen and wall demolition ...... i don't think i do much demolition in my art life .... 

but .... this stairway pic?
something from nothing .... 
dreamed up a stairway-->built it = dream up a painting --> create it

this photo above is from my second floor .... outside my bedroom door ... looking down the stairs that have always been there, looking up the stairs that are going up to the new rooms in the attic ..... this stair way is the hardest part of my renovation to fathom ... it is what my youngest, little.e.beck.artist, absolutely could not wrap her head around ....whadaya mean there are going to be stairs there ... how can there be ... it's just air? and now she's still a little scared to walk up them because there's still just a bit too much air .... "mommy, make sure they build in that part right there so no one can slip through ..... "
and then the attic was a HUGE space of nothing .... so we're making it something .... two bedrooms and a bath for the boy.beck.artist and girl.beck.artist .... they framed it in, moved the hvac out of the way .... put in some dormers for windows and such ....and suddenly we have real space .... in that pic you can see the angle of the old roof line .... and where the dormer sticks out into the world ....

and now i get to fuss about light fixtures and tiles and counter tops and paint colors .... paint colors are a total joy .... i could just dither over paint chips forever .... i can't begin to tell you the conversations i've had about the color orange .... just orange ... days worth of conversations .... 

and .... just in case you are keeping track? i'm blogging about the house reno today because i did not do the journal page that i HAD to do today ..... that i promised to blog today .... oops! ... but my deary friend and i had never won a match as partners ... and we did today .... 6-4, 6-2 ....not that we used to be that horrible, it's just that we don't get partnered together very often ....

  so ... if you can't do art, at least play tennis .... and if you can't blog art, at least blog something .... 

what did you do noteworthy (or blogworthy) today?

5 comments:

shrink on the couch said...

stairway to heaven? LOL

so are you going wild with the colors? bright & perky? or subdued and earthy? I agree, the paint is the most fun. where to locate light switches and outlets? not so much.

3rdEyeMuse said...

wow - thanks for sharing some reno pictures. stairs are always tough to imagine ... why is that?

congrats on winning!!

should be studying. thanks for the distraction, but now I am out of excuses.

happy weekend!!

aimee said...

how cool must it be to see your dream materializing before your eyes! it looks great and looks well worth the effort! we had architect plans drawn a few years ago to do something similar, then chickened out.

Chris said...

I have done nothing today.

This is a lovely dream of mine. picking out colors and starting afresh. I hope you're enjoying!

Anonymous said...

Orange - good and turquoise, blue, red, and various shades that are blends and mixes are good too.....even white is good! we enjooyyed the house building especially the big steps - first bulldozer, first concrete pour, first walls up! and when the frpnt porch had steps, that was great..no more climbing to get into or dream house!

happy choosing.....