Ta Da Dump

To the dump was todays chore. :) It's the sad part of renovating, at least for me. I hauled a load there on Saturday and one again today. Both were my little 5X10 utility trailer filled to the gills. Almost $30 to dump the two loads. Not bad really. I can make a trip to the dump and back in less than an hour. There's still a giant mess on the floor in one room to scoop and haul to the trailer for the next load, and lots more to tear out. :) It's really really fun to do this. Makes me happy.

And very soon the world of art will get to live there!

movin and shakin

FINALLY started on some meaningful tear out yesterday. :) This means that the ceiling from the front room in now on the floor in a tangled mess of plaster and lathe, the whole house is filled with dust and the main floors are taken up by crow bars and scaffolding. It's beautiful. I love seeing the bones of a place and letting the thoughts of "what might be" tickle over me when the old limitations are stripped away to reveal the basic structure of a place. I've done this a number of times before but this is really the first time I've gotten to do it to a whole house at once. Heck now I'm thinking of taking a staircase out completely and moving things around in interesting ways to make huge amounts of uninterrupted space.

We'll see how it goes. More ceilings come out today.

Always a hand out

I now owe the City of Monte Vista $98 for two months water bill that was supposed to be paid by the guy who didn't pay me rent and wouldn't move out until threatened. Ah well, it's the last of his shit I have to deal with. And I'm glad. I'll get that payment sent off tonight and catch up on the rest of my bills. I'm sometimes a bit tardy paying them. ....... just seems like other things are more important. Not to worry, I'm never more than 30 days behind so I don't trip the credit report triggers.

No work on the building tonight. Tonight is for relaxing with family. Priorities, it's all about the priorities.

In and out, out and in

The renter, Jason, has left the building! Whoooooo HOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been able to get in there for a week or so. Last weekend was spent getting some tools over along with some wood for the stove so I'm not freezing while the work goes on. Also got my trailer parked so I can dump the removed materials right into it to take to the dump. Stuff is not to ever be allowed to accumulate and I only want to move it once.

This weekend we filled the trailer. Yesterday morning was spent hauling scaffolding over so I can tear out ceilings. The gallery is about 120 yards from our home. Most stuff I haul by hand and back from here to there. I also set up a coffee pot :) GOTS to have the coffee pot. Then I got started on hauling more crap outta there so I can see what I'm working with. It was carpets this time.

Can you say NASTY?

My friend Crystal came over and helped to roll and haul carpets and then do the painstaking removal of the carpet padding. Some of it was stapled, some was glued, some had been nailed down! ALL of it had stains that I don't even want to think about the origin of.

This morning I am helping Laura get her stuff ready for a book class today. I've also started up the woodstove over at the gallery so I can get in there and do some cleanup and planning. I'm a bit sore from yesterday and since I still have that pesky day job I need to make sure my body can do the work come Monday morning. I'll keep at it and in a month or so I'm pretty sure I'll be up to the 7 day a week schegule I'm shooting for.

Prognosis so far? Replace the subfloor in the main gallery space down stairs. Removed two doorways to the back and replace with one. I'll move the bathroom door around a corner and remove a couple walls to increase the useable space in the "backstage" of the place. SO => remove walls and ceilings, then the subfloors, then frame in the new subfloors and the new exterior/interior walls for insulating and wiring. :) The upstairs floors look good. A bit of sanding and painting and the additinon of insulated walls/wiring etc will finish that space quite quickly.

Quickly.......


Right.

It's always the little things.....

So I stopped by the building today to take a peek and see if the "renters" were really getting moved out. They are. But they asked about their deposit. I know nothing about a deposit. It's supposedly $500. That would be a pretty large chunk of money that I didn't plan on leaving my hands. So I'm in touch with my real estate agent (Nancy) to find out more. These things always trip my buttons. The folks living there have very little, so it would hurt me to see them walk away having lost their deposit. I'm pretty sure it'll hurt me about $500. I'd much rather do that than start the place with bad karma.

Decisions decisions.

But we ran over there tonight to take another peek. LOTS of work, but it looks like something I can do if I put my mind to it. :)

Moving Day

It looks like the "renters" have decided that we really do want our house after all. This past week they've been moving their stuff out. Yesterday they were hauling the junk cars out by towing them. Some had old motorcycles in the back. Not sure how much junk we'll have to deal with after the final exodus but I'm quite sure I'll spend a weekend or two hauling things to the dump. We're quite hopeful that we can get in there tomorrow or the next day and access the condition and damage there. :) Ah well, when one is planning to demolish much of the facade the condition isn't really that important now is it?