behind the scenes studio update

Here is a photo of our almost-finished fabulous new studio!!! We are SO excited that it is almost done and cannot wait to move in! Although there will be LOTS to do once we move in, we are close enough that we should get our temporary permit to allow us to get occupancy THIS FRIDAY! Hooray! Here are a few photos... (oh, and the above photo shows the wrap still on the front of the building. This will be covered in a glossy-coated cedar wood, which we are waiting on because the wrong wood came in the first time so now we have to wait a few weeks on the right wood to be ready!)

This is the studio where we will be taking lots of photos over the next several decades!
This is one of our changing rooms. Dan's dad and uncle built custom shelves that they installed today for these changing rooms as well as the bathrooms and makeup area and they look absolutely awesome. (So excited!!!) We will be putting in bamboo floors, some cool furniture, and possibly one wall of cool antique-ish wallpaper in this room. We have so much to do in every room! It's hard to believe we will be able to start moving in this weekend and working on the finishing touches.
This is what you see when you first walk in our front door. The hallway divides the offices which are all on the left and studio/waiting room/kitchen/viewing room which are all on the right. All the track lighting needs to go in, the plexiglass needs to go up above the offices, and the paint needs to be finished (by Friday !!!). Oh, and yeah, it needs to be CLEANED too! 
This is the waiting room. Frosted plexi will cover the area above the windows. The doors are 10' tall. The brick on the right is reclaimed brick that came from an old building. The area on the left is the kitchen. The kitchen won't go in until we've laid all of the bamboo floors, which are going in the hallway, waiting area, kitchen, cafe (red room left), viewing room (not shown, right), and changing rooms. All of our light fixtures that we've spent sooooo much time finding over the last few months will be hung before Friday too! (Those are all paint cans on the floor!)
The studio is wonderful and we are so happy with how it has turned out so far, and even more excited to put all of the finishing touches once we move in. This space has kept us so busy; it just seems to never end. There seem to be a million people working on this studio at the same time and we get calls daily for things we need to attend to. For example.....

"The toilet you bought for the front bathroom is ADA but the handle is on the left side and it will not be ADA compliant unless you return it and buy one with the handle on the right side---and by the way, those are special order and take 4 weeks to get in----and you won't get your permit to start moving until this is fixed! So---call every plumbing supply place in town, find one [on the far west side] that has one in stock, and go buy it now!!!" 

"When we changed the bathtub in your private bath from tile, we adjusted the wall, which adjusted the door, which now swings directly into the vanity you purchased, so what would you like to do about that?"

"Your pendant lights came in for the kitchen bar and 3 of the 5 are broken----okay, no big deal, call the company, send them back, but then receive ONLY the glass and not the fixtures to replace them---but we sent the fixtures back too because it wasn't specified on the return instructions---soooooo, call the company again to get another shipment!" 

Oh my....I think you would be really, really surprised how many examples of us running around town for various reasons I could put on this blog, just like the ones above. We have learned SO MUCH through this process. And, as much as we are constantly exhausted, the most important thing is that the end result will be amazing and to say we feel blessed to have this opportunity IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT!!!!!!! 

And on a different note, after we went to the studio and I snapped these photos, we stopped by my parents house for some homemade delicious chinese food. After dinner Sammi opened her Halloween gift bag from grandma & grandpa. :) Had to throw in a couple photos of that too! 
She LOVED her stickers and pumpkin straws and Dora fruit snacks and glow sticks! :) Thanks, mom and dad, for having us over! We REALLY appreciated a nice meal with no cleanup! :)