I previously lived in a 2 bedroom cottage and used the spare bedroom for my photography space. It measured 8ft x 10ft and at one end of the room was a bank of wardrobes which I needed access to and at the other was a double bed complete with mattress propped up against the wall, a chest of drawers and a dressing table, so the space I had to actually do any photography was the size of a postage stamp. I could also never have friends to stay!

One of the main reasons for buying the bungalow that I moved to last March was that is has an integral garage, with a door opening into the hallway, and my plan was to convert that into a dedicated photography room. It has a side window which lets in muted natural light and in September last year I had the garage door bricked up to begin converting the space.

I’ve been left with a workable space of 8ft wide x 15ft long (2.5m x 4.5m). The room is actually longer than that, but I had a new hot water tank which had to be housed in the corner and the rest of that wall is taken up with cupboards and drawers in which to house all my photo gear. It’s not a big space but it’s better than what I had before and the huge advantage is that I can just leave all my gear out and not have to keep putting it all away!

Until January it was full of stuff. It was a dumping ground for all my furniture when each of the other rooms in the house were being renovated and the tradesmen all made good use of it, especially the joiner who cut all his wood in there when it was too cold or wet to be outside. So it wasn’t until the lounge was (mostly) completed at the end of January that I was able to unpack the last of my possessions and put the photo room into some sort of order.

The room still needs a shed load of work. All new electrics, the floor needs to be raised so that it’s the same height as the rest of the house (obviously being a garage it was level with the driveway outside), the walls need to be boarded with insulated plasterboard then skimmed with plaster and the ceiling needs to come down and a new plasterboard ceiling installed. Then there’s the consumer and solar units on the wall, around which a cupboard needs to be built, and the same for the new hot water tank, then sliding doors will hide the shelving. It will then need to be painted and a new lino or laminate floor fitted. We’re talking £2000 of work which I currently don’t have the money for, therefore it won’t be getting done any time soon.

However the space is still useable, if not the gleaming, white, posh little studio I’d envisaged in my head. I have extension cables everywhere for my lights, a sagging ceiling with a hole in it and where my models will stand to be photographed is a pile of plasterboard waiting to go on the walls, but if you ignore the cobwebs and don’t fall down the enormous hole in the concrete floor, it’ll do for now 😉

For several weeks I had a slow heart attack as I unpacked box after box of equipment but didn’t come across my studio lights. I unpacked the last remaining boxes at the end of January and still didn’t find them – I had no clue where they might be! And then this morning I decided to tidy up my shed, which is huge and another dumping ground. Right at the end of the sorting out I discovered a box in a cupboard which said it was a bathroom extractor fan with timer and being as though all my extractor fans are installed I thought I’d sell it. But when I opened the box I literally danced with delight as inside were my studio lights, woohooooo!!!

So now I’m all set and can get cracking making some new creative pictures, my first in nearly 2 years 😲

I now have my ‘galleried’ hallway which leads down to the door at the far end which is now the photography room. So when I do the Art Trail in September people can come in the front door, walk down the hallway looking at pictures on one side, meet me in the photo room at the end of the hallway for a chat, then walk back up the hallway looking at pictures on the other side before exiting the front door again.

I’m sure nobody who follows my photography blog is the slightest bit interested in my house renovations, but nevertheless I have some photos online here. Not a single room is totally finished, although all of the main work is done, and this summer I intend to tackle the garden which I haven’t even thought about yet. I had planned to blog about the renovations as I went along, but to be honest I was wayyy to tired (and for 3 months way too ill) so am only now starting to write about the experience, more as a diary for myself as much as anything. There is still loads to do but I’m now going at a much slower pace and only dedicating 2 days per week to the house, instead of the 7 previously! The rest of my week will be taken up with resting (I am beyond exhausted), being with friends (who have long been neglected) and doing the things I love ❤️.