So today has been a day. I had a phone appointment for Travis this morning, so I took a half a day off from work. The appointment was super quick and I was feeling really good. I was almost done getting ready to go to work and I heard a pop and pouring water...
...From my studio.
I quickly started moving things away from the waterfall that was pouring inside, starting with the 3 dolls and the TV that were on the desk under the window. The upper level dressage doll I listed for sale yesterday was ruined (the dye from her vest leaked onto her white breeches. She will need repairs) but it didn't seem catastrophic. I grabbed my dye pot and moved as much stuff as I could so I could prop it up to try to catch most of the flow of water. Then I went outside to shovel through several feet of snow to try to get near enough to the window to get to the roof to try to get the snow off. We had a giant blizzard last week, so there is snow everywhere still. The temperatures have also been consistently extremely low. Apparently the roof over my studio didn't like it.
There were some pretty insane ice dams on the roof and there was no way I could deal with them. So I texted my neighbor that is going to be doing some repairs for me in the Spring, and I asked him if he could stop by and help me with an emergency roof leak. He was there within a half an hour.
Drew tried to get the ice off, but it was not budging. He did clear a lot of the snow away at least. At this point I had already witnessed water actively flowing down behind the back wall and I knew the studio would need to be gutted and redone. I also know that it wasn't done properly in the first place. The walls were never finished properly and I am not tall enough to have finished the ceiling properly. I do not have photos of what I did to somewhat finish the ceiling, but it was bare metal roof under a plastic headliner when I started. I took the plastic down, added foam board insulation (which was all I could do without any help) adding a new plastic liner and put up blankets to help some with insulation. That is how it's been for almost 3 years. But today, there is a waterfall inside the studio.
It took me probably 7 hours to deal with the studio today. I have a lot of stuff back in there, but not in a nice, usable way. I am trying to just minimize the damage at this point since I can't get it fixed until Spring. I don't love that it happened but I do like that now I can get it redone properly. And I can have Drew put in a window that opens. Which will also allow for an open window (crazy talk, I know) in nice weather and the use of my portable AC in the summer. Which I might not even need with properly done insulation in there. I am choosing to look at this as a blessing in disguise. I can get the studio redone at the same time that my bathroom ceiling gets redone. And after Drew checks and properly seals anything wonky with the roof. Mobile homes are weird. I have no idea what this is going to cost so I am going to start listing a whole lot of stuff for sale. I can't deal with anything else today so I might start that tomorrow. Or maybe I will repair the dressage doll tomorrow, I don't know.
I may or may not be able to use the studio until it gets fixed, I am not in a place to figure that out today. But I went 16 years or so with no studio space. I can do this. And I can do hard things. But boy would I love for something to be easy once in a while.
