Dream Come True

*edit: I wrote this post and have had a REALLY hard time adding all the images I planned! So I will eventually go back and do that. The post makes more sense with images!*

For the past 4 years, I have dreamed of one day having a real photography studio. Rearranging my entire living room and setting up backdrops and lights every weekend gets old! But I had no other choice, if I wanted to continue offering indoor sessions. This year I've seen a boom in newborn sessions, which I LOVE and am so grateful for!

I think it was back in September that I purchased a new light system. It was a huge purchase, the biggest I've made for my business thus far besides the actual camera. The improvement in my indoor images with the new light is AMAZING though. It was a total game changer! The only downside to it is that its humongous, haha.

Then in October I advertised Christmas mini sessions. I didn't offer Christmas minis last year, and I was expecting it to take weeks of advertising to fill even part of the spots I was offering. My clients had other ideas though! (I'll do a separate blog post about Christmas minis.) I offered 34 spots, and within 12 hours booked them ALL. To say I was shocked was an understatement!! I told my husband it was too bad I didn't have a studio so I could offer more days (as it was, I was looking at having to set up an elaborate Christmas set on two separate weekends in our living room, not to mention find somewhere to store all the props during the week).

Well, my husband is very handy with building things, and he went to work calculating how much it would cost for him to build me a small studio. He discovered that to do it "right" (and he doesn't do anything unless he can do it right!) would cost a small fortune, and actually found that we could purchase a premade building for less money (plus it would be less work on him). He looked around and found a Graceland building place and went to have a look in person. He was impressed with the quality of the buildings. According to him, they are built like houses. While there, he looked at one of the repo buildings (nothing was wrong with it, the person who bought it just changed his mind and returned it). He came home and told me about it. We went that afternoon to see it in person so I could determine if if would even work for a photography studio.

I was skeptical because those little buildings seem TINY. I was pleasantly surprised at how roomy it actually felt once inside, though. I fell in love with the repo'd unit. We looked at several other larger ones as well, but they each had elements I couldn't make work for me. So we decided to take the plunge and purchase the building! I have never made such a large purchase on my credit card, haha! It was so scary but at the same time felt so right. I was finally getting a studio!!!!

That all happened on October 10. On October 16, my building was delivered! Watching the pros unload it and place it where we wanted was wild. I took a video but didn't think to also take pictures. Once it was put into place, my husband got right to work. The building was completely unfinished; on the inside it was just plywood and studs. That first afternoon he got the electrical boxes and wires up.

My husband told me that my studio would be ready to go by November 1. I can't tell you how skeptical I was, haha! He expected me to believe that in 2 weeks it would go from studs to real walls, floors, paint, and climate controlled??!!

He enlisted the help of a friend and neighbor, and before I knew it, insulation was up on the walls and I had a real ceiling! He also made an access door so I can have attic space.

We took a family trip to the mountains towards the end of October, but our friend continued working on the sheet rock while we were gone.

The following week, we had wide front steps built.

Then the walls were mudded and ready for paint! It took me a while to decide on the perfect gray (I knew I wanted gray walls, but dang there are SO many options!). I settled on Valspar's Gravity, if you're curious.

My husband then dug a trench so we could run power out to the studio from our house.

The windows got framed out.

And then finally it was time to prime the walls!

The very next day, we painted! It doesn't take too long to paint a 10x20 space, haha.

That evening, we also painted all the trim white and then painted the baseboards and quarter round. (Eventually I'd love to do crown moulding, but that was an unnecessary expense right now.)

The next day, the baseboards went up.

My husband was on a roll, so he decided to go on and start on the floors. (That was also a tough decision to make! We knew we wanted laminate floating floors that look like wood, but there are a million different color options there, too. I settled on a nice grayish tone - I forget the name!)

We figured it would take a while to do the floors, since you have to do so much cutting and measuring. But lo and behold, he finished it up that night!

My brother is an HVAC guy, and he came on the 31st to install my heat and air unit. Yay!

And sometime that day, my husband installed the quarter round to finish off the floors, but I didn't take a specific picture of that.

With that, my studio was officially ready for me to move in!

On November 1, I did just that! I gathered all my photography props and supplies from various locations around my house and moved into the studio. The things I don't use often went into the attic space. For a few days, everything just stayed piled up on the back wall while I decided what kind of storage system I wanted. Again, so many options!

My husband custom designed a backdrop hanging system that is permanent, which I love! Since that pic was taken, he added two more heights for me.

A few days later, I decided on a Rubbermaid closet system for storage, so we purchased and installed that one afternoon.

Didn't take me long to fill it up! haha. I'm already planning to go back and get more shelves because my fur and fabric collection keeps growing....

The first time I used the studio was November 3. It was perfect! Its a small space, but about the same size as my living room, so its been working just fine. I've now had 55 sessions in there (!) and I love it more and more each time.

After the first weekend of Christmas minis (let me tell you how nice it was not to have to break down and set up an elaborate Christmas set more than once!!!), I knew we had to do something to the parking situation in front of the studio. Our plan was to "eventually" have rocks coming off the driveway and up to the steps, so people could park there and not have to step in the grass (or mud, as it usually is around here). The first weekend of Christmas minis, it poured all day, so my yard was basically a swamp. So that week, we went ahead and had a load of rocks delivered, and what a difference that made for the next round of minis!

Probably next spring, we will add some sort of underpenning to the building so it will look nicer. A