AWESOME!!!

Hello everybody!
Great news! Got the last of the funds in and talked with my contractor. We placed the order for the base materials today and tomorrow we are going shopping for doors and windows. Looks like we're going to start construction on Wednesday or Thursday of this week. The roofing items are custom and are to be delivered early next week. At that time it will be near basic completion minus fancy trim and paint!

I've been busting my butt working on all the rewards. They are coming along quite nicely and I am absolutely thrilled to have "orders" for my art. It is a feeling that I can't quite explain but I can say that it makes me warm and fuzzy. I can't wait for you all to see all the artwork and of course the final studio! The buzz has been great as well. Word is traveling about my work and just before the project deadline, I received 2 orders for pet portraits and a third one right after it ended (all 3 outside of kickstarter). I even had a couple backers contact me for more work outside of this project. This is a very exciting time for me right now and I am so thankful that you all have helped me with this project and pushed the buzz about my work!

I think that's it right now. I'll be posting photo updates of the studio in progress later this week. Alright, back to the studio, er, the kitchen (for not much longer!)

-Will

p.s. I sent out info requests to everybody to get addresses (for shipping of items), choice of piece (if applicable) and if you would like to receive your items before or the night of the reception. Most of you have responded but there are still some that have not. Please fill out the info requests as soon as you can. It will help me with my organization and deadlines! Thank you!

Okay everybody!
So it takes Amazon a couple weeks to transfer the money, thus I won't be able to start on the construction until after all the funds clear. Construction should be complete by the end of October. I'm shooting to have the Grand Opening Reception on Saturday, November 6th from 5:00 - 8:00. The idea is to have all the artwork (created as rewards for all you wonderful backers!) on display for this night only. You are all invited and encouraged to attend! I decided on a Saturday so that some who do not live in Athens might could make a fun weekend trip to the area and attend the reception. However I know some of you live too far away and/or simply can't make the reception. I would like to be able to display all of the artwork that I created for you all, but I totally understand if some of you would prefer to just go ahead and receive your artwork as soon as possible. Another order of business is that some of the rewards were multiple choice so I need to find out from those of you that pledged for these particular rewards which reward you would like. (I have already gotten this information from some of you) And lastly, some of you pledged for commission pet portraits, so there is some special and specific info that I will need to send to and get from you. I hope this all makes sense!

Okay so first order of business:
I will be messaging all multiple choice backers to find out which reward you would like.

Second, I will be messaging all backers to find out who would prefer to have their artwork received as soon as possible. Although I have been creating a lot of the artwork this whole time, there are still many pieces that I will need to finish and will definitely take me at least the next two weeks to complete. So please keep this in mind!

That's the latest for now. This will help me organize the distribution and completion date of all the artwork.

One last big THANK YOU to everyone for helping make this possible! This is so exciting!

-Will Eskridge