No fooling, people: I had a tooth removed today, one of the big honking molars from way in the back mandibulars, so my head is a little over easy at the moment. (Favorite phrase of the day: “You’re going to hear a loud crack; don’t be alarmed.”) So don’t expect a whole lot from this edition of RRR; the hydrocodone’s just kicking in.

As we move along on rebuilding the studio, I wanted to give you a better picture of what we’re going for. So here, fresh from the architect, is the working sketch.



Just for comparison’s sake, here’s a shot of how it stands now.

(There are plenty of other shots, of course, in the RRR backlog, if you'd care to take a closer look.) Notice that we’re moving from a simple gable roof to a sort of clerestory/saltbox combo. We were going to stick with a full line of clerestory windows, but adding the aforementioned solar thermal system – those big black panels to the left – changed our minds. Right under that is a trellis so the grape vine currently growing outside my studio will have a nice place to creep. Notice also the south-facing roof to the right. Someday I might throw some solar PV panels up there and take the whole studio off-grid. Just in case.

Right now we’re just finalizing the dimensions of the thing. The current building’s north wall, which abuts our neighbor’s back yard, is a little under 7 feet high. Any amount we raise that is going to affect the amount of sunlight that yard gets. And whatever height that north wall ends up being will affect the proportions of the rest of the studio. So I’ll need to first clear any roof-raising with them. As soon as the drugs wear off, I’ll get right to it.