Without Sin

Andrea in Blue

2009-06-04T20:05:00.001-07:00

I was a guest blogger at Andrea in Blue today. I made a rambling, stream of consciousness comparison of painting and freeform fiber art. Check it out!

BTW, I am teaching a freeform knitting and crochet workshop July 10 at the SLV Folk Art and Fiber Festival.

Almost a year

2008-09-21T09:31:00.000-07:00

And not so much done to the place. Sometimes I get hurt, or sick, or tired, or too much of the day job.

Since last November?

Hmmmmmmmm..........

The Holiday Fest wasn't so well attended. I blame it on the freezing rain that turned into an unnavigable sheet of ice covering the whole valley. We'll try that again this year, but slightly differently.

I've gotten most of the outside stuff hauled off as well including the badly poured pad behind the garage.

Right now I'm working on re-doing the water pipes entering the place. They were leaking and that just isn't good. Hopefully I'll finish that this or next week.

Next weekend, the 27th, is a yard sale there again. We'll use this money to re-do the sidewalk out front so I don't keep killing myself trying to shovel the damned thing through the winter.

When the water pipes are done I'll get to the boiler install. I'm a bit weary of the three trips over during the night to keep the place from freezing by stocking the wood stove. :) More expensive to use natural gas, but lots more convenient and once I free up some time it just becomes cumulative.

I've been working too much at the day job, and selling off old stuff to build up a pile of cash to really get to working on the place this winter. Perhaps we'll get ready to open up in the spring.

OK, I'll try to get back to update a bit more often.

Untrashed

2007-11-28T06:44:00.000-08:00

Well.... I got the trash out. Not a whole lot else but then that was a really huge chore. It took 5 trips with my trailer to the dump to get all that crap gone. Feels good to be able to have room in the yard to move around, and to be able to get a vehicle to the garage door for unloading and such. We also got about 3 cords of wood laid in for the winter and over the Thanksgiving weekend I started fires. That's later than usual, but then the cold got here with snow and a vengeance.

Laura is gone to Denver for a grant writing workshop so I'm tasked with getting the building ready to hold art for Christmas. The Monte Vista Holiday Fest is this Saturday. Our art group took the money from our yard sales and invested it in a holiday art tour complete with buses and a Christmas train along with 35 artists showing in 8 locations that have snacks and some with wine. Having decided to help make this town value it's artists and their revenue generating potential it was time to put our money where our mouth is. Laura is the force behind these things. I just do what is asked of me. :)

So I'm getting all the nails pulled and stuff rearranged in the building. Most of that got done yesterday. Today I'll get it cleaned up and hopefully lit up. Nothing too fancy since it's temporary. Flood lighting for the gallery portion along with sweeping the floors but it sure is nice to have all the little bits of leftover destruction gone. I'm a little sore from all the nail pulling and such but hey (!) it keeps me off the streets.

Oh .... and there are a bunch of pots to get glazed as well. :) There has to be some just plain old good fun in the mix you know.

Time sure flies

2007-10-07T05:43:00.001-07:00

When you're having fun. OK, I got a cold and now I'm sitting and it's a good time to catch up and post stuff and update things.

Hmmm....... since July.........

The walls around the staircase on the second floor and the entire staircase to the loft are gone. Eliminated, completely gone. Even the debris is all cleared out. The Art Thing had a yard sale there for two separate weekends and even that pile of crap is all gone. We've fired the kiln a few times and gotten a bit of pottery out of it, even some that we like.

Right now I'm tightening the place up for winter. It comes early and cold here so keeping the heat IN is a really good idea. I replaced 5 panes of glass, foamed and caulked every window in the place and started laying in some firewood for the chore of keeping the place above freezing. Really soon I'll get measurements on the 4 exterior doors and put storm doors on all of 'em to keep out just that much more of the hawk. My outside shed is mostly cleaned out thanks to some wonderful folks who wanted the junk wood for a chicken coop they're working on. I even got a better weather shield/strip for the garage door so we'll lose a little less cold through there.

The last bits to do are some tearout where the new bathroom will go, a couple trim boards around the roof to seal it up better and a rain gutter over the studio entry door. It would help if I got some water run to the sink in the studio but I think we can struggle with what we have for a bit longer while I get the really big stuff done.

I'm hoping to have the main area open for business next summer. We've recently decided to have the upstairs as exibit area as well since it looks so nice an big and open with all the walls outta there. I think it'll work out well.

Sometime before the snow flies I'll be making a whole bunch of trash go away. The backyard has turned into the pit where I throw all the shit I've torn out. It's gotten a bit too big to manage and needs to go away post haste. I have maybe a month or a month and a half before it'll be buried until spring. Reckon I best just get to it.

Bigger rooms

2007-07-13T05:35:00.001-07:00

Well, in the last month a bit has happened but not too much. I tore off some more plaster so the middle of the place looks right rather than all pieced together. Tore out some walls upstairs and am working on the ceiling boards so that the light can filter down. We're throwing clay in the studio and did our first cone 6 fire in the electric kiln last night.

This weekend is all about the Fiber Fest that Laura and Crys are throwing in a park down the street. Hope it all goes well for them.

Bricked up

2007-06-19T05:09:00.000-07:00

OK, been a while since I posted to this story of repair. :) At this point it's all good news. The mason, Chuck, from Cornerstone Masonry in Center, Colorado is all done. We kept finding more stuff that needed fixing as we went along but the house, which was a bit unstable when he started, is now structurally sound and beautiful to boot. I ended up losing my chimney in the back because one of the past owners had their head up their butt and took the support out from under the chimney and then cut a door in under it. Sometimes what folks do just boggles my mind. We also found a whole lot of loose brick at the bottom of the wall all around the house that had to be reset. Not repointed mind you but taken out and reset. Chuck and his co-worker Jeff were there for over a week, nearly two with a short break here and there for other small jobs. My original estimate of $1500 ended up at just under $2300 and I think I ended up getting in incredible bargain for that. Makes me really glad I saved that tax return for the problem I knew I'd encounter. It paid for almost all of it.

So now it's all ready for the next 100 things. Another part of the good news is that I can now see the end of the dust. It's a pretty far ways off but I CAN see it. Part of my plan will include getting all that old plaster stripped off the walls before I put in the baseboard heaters, since dust isn't so good for the fins on those. Gotta get that bathroom moved and get that dust outta the way as well. Oh and redo the water and get that pesky boiler set too. That should do it for the rest of the year. :) Of course there are windows to fix and ceilings to redo and insulate. All dusty things. I'm hoping to get the place ready for freezing by late November, but we'll see.

Wrinkles

2007-05-20T09:26:00.000-07:00

In the big tearout weekend we found a wrinkle or two in the old joint. :) I knew I'd find something eventually I just didn't know what. There's just no way to avoid it when fixing up a 100+ year old brick house. The stuff is the brick around the front entry door. It's sagging because someone loosened it up quite a few years ago, and a door that they just hacked into a wall. The odd thing is that they hacked it in just a few feet over from a perfectly good door. Weird.

So I called a local mason that LOVES working on old houses. He came out and I got an estimate for around $1500 to fix the problems the place has. I think that's pretty cheap to fix the front door, brick up the one that they hacked in, and fix a spot or two around the floor where the old soft brick has just disintegrated. He can't work me in until around July 1st, so I have plenty of time to finish tearing out the old plaster cover on the brick. That promises to be messy fun. UG. I've had about enough of the dust, but the good news is that the dusty bits are just about over. Soon it'll all just be building, I'll like the change.

Today I'll clean up the yard a bit more. It's an ongoing process and I hope to have it all shined up by June outside.

To help with that? I bought 1/2 a dumptruck. It's old and clanky but works. Wish me luck.

Rip and tear.

2007-04-07T18:57:00.000-07:00

It's funny. The word is funny..... tear. I can say, "I'm going to tear out that wall", or you can say, "there's a tear in my eye". Today I did both. :)

Today at the gallery there was a nice 20 yard rolloff dumpster just waiting to be filled. We managed about half. Of course I decided to start the day with a bang. There's this door that the previous owners had walled up, and I've always wanted to open it back up. So.... first thing....... I took a run at it from across the room and hit it with all I had.

I bounced.

Ten feet.

Then I landed in a heap on a badly twisted ankle. Funny part? Just after I hit it and began flying backward I heard my friend Roger say, "I wouldn't do that". :) I laid there for a minute, or two, until I had feeling in the ankle again. That's when I noticed the horrible pain in my left side ribs. I finally got up. Then I went over to my house and got some advil, an ankle brace, a wrist brace and went back to work.

All in all 5 people showed up to help. I'll post some pics tomorrow probably on my flicker account. We tore out all the stuff in the laundry room, including the subfloor. We tore out the ceilings in the downstairs and some of the wall stuff.

They went home about 12:30, Crystal brought pizza for everyone around 1. It was kinda funny. I ate good, not much more to say about it. Then I went back to work.

I went upstairs and started ripping on the interior walls that need to go out of the house. Before I ended up falling down tired I got all the drywall pulled out, and all the first cover off the ceilings. Tomorrow morning I'll suit up in a hazmat suit, mask and goggles and pull all the lathe outta the ceilings. It should be huge dirty fun. Then we can finish filling up the dumpster.

I can hardly wait.

2007-03-28T17:18:00.000-07:00

And so I talked to my friend Tim about giving me a hand setting the cabinets in. He says he will and we just have to pick a time to get to it. He's pretty good at this sorta thing so it should go pretty well. We just have to figure out the puzzel of how they were taken apart!

In other news...... This weekend we're headed to Phoenix to pick up a Lockerbie pottery wheel. It's what I learned on and is my very favorite kinda wheel. I'm quite sure I'm going to love the Thomas Steward as well, and maybe even the little home built one in there. Time will tell with the last. It's kinda ......... invented.

So now I only need an extruder. Somewhere there is one that will go for not too much money, and that's a good thing as I may need to use my available money to help out a dear friend.

You'll have that you know.

Slowing down

2007-03-25T09:46:00.000-07:00

Not a whole lot getting done this week. Had grand plans of cabinets and all kinda stuff this week. I did get the cabinets moved into the space, they just aren't set yet. And yesterday I was gonna get to the dump but that didn't work out because I ended up getting called in to work and was there all day in the snow.

And when the day job takes too much of my time I do need some down time so the studio/gallery waits.

The good news is all the machines are in there and I can throw if I feels like it. The pugmill needs a bit of a tune-up but I don't think that'll take very long at all.

Maybe this week. I do need to get a bunch of stuff made........

Machines

2007-03-10T10:52:00.000-08:00

Roger has been busy. :) The kiln is wired in. The clay mixer is wired in. Two pottery wheels are assembled and plugged into the wall and all that remains for the pug mill to be ready is a table which Roger is gonna make up next week. The cabinets aren't yet moved in because there is a mud pit between the shed and the garage and I just don't want the whole thing tracked up and filled with mud beause I'm impatient.

NCECA is next week. We're getting trucks ready and clay ready and things set up to go. I'm going to miss my Laura a whole bunch next week. And she's not feeling well so that makes it just a bit harder.

We'll come back and get to work. There are fests to make shamelessly saleable things for. And several people want to learn to make clay stuff. I have no idea why they would want me to teach them. I'm really demanding.

We'll see how they do.

Hiatus

2007-02-25T16:53:00.000-08:00

Not so much getting done for a bit. The floor has been waterproofed, much wood has been cut for the last of the winter, and I've moved a bunch of stuff out of the way so that we can get to the equiptment that has been sitting in storage for months. Maybe tomorrow we'll finally get something moved into there. I want the stuff in this week so that we can get it situated and ready for us when we get back from NCECA.

Time for the oscars now.

NCECA

2007-02-19T16:22:00.000-08:00

I'm going to NCECA, the National Clay Educators Conferance. I love going to it, thought I wouldn't have the money to do it this year but thanks to my family I get to go. And Poly is going with me, this should be pretty fun. The other two folks I usually go with couldn't do it due to funds and moving this year and it'll be kinda cool because we get to drive and that's a good savings.

At the studio? I got the floor finish washed today. That means in a day or two I can get in there and seal it up and about 3 days later on I'll get to start moving stuff in. I can't wait to get started moving stuff in. It seems like it's taken forever! In reality I didn't get to work on the place nearly as much as I'd have liked to, and sometimes injuries kept me down. But in the last year we got the yard pretty well shaped up, and all the serving utilities except water have been replaced. We've even gotten a bit of tearout done and much more of that will be done next month, if things go according to plan.

In the meantime, we're going to the clay conferance. And things are moving ahead. Laura is spinning her fingers off and selling yarn hand over fist. Crystal is doing much the same thing.

Now if only I could win that pesky lotto.......

Rock and Roller

2007-02-03T08:47:00.001-08:00

Concrete and paint. Last week I finally got that stinking hole filled in the garage floor that has been taunting me for a year. Sometimes it's amazing how much it can take before I can take care of the thing that annoyed me from the first. To fill this hole in the garage? I had to pour a footer, build a wall, wire, insulate, drywall, tape, texture, paint, move the electrical/phone/cableTV and gas, and totally replace a sewer line. All that to reclaim a 4 X 9 foot section of the garage where I will now put a heating system. Goodness gracious but I find following what other people did to a good house annoying at times. These people built this garage onto the back of the house on PURPOSE. Why the hell did they not fix the sewer and move the gas and electric when they did it? It would have never been easier to do than it was then. AND they would have avoided a number of annoying problems from the git go. It's like this bathroom they built. It's totally in the way, It interrupts a logical intelligent flow through the house and they did it badly to boot. At this point the bathroom is my next task. I'm moving it to a different corner of the house, where it will fit, take up less space and function so much better over all. It's going to take a LOT of work. But this beautiful 100 year old house DESERVES to be treated with respect.

So this Saturday I find myself sitting happily in my chair. The painting is all done. The concrete is all poured. Almost all the electrical is done in the garage. Tomorrow Poly and I go to Pueblo to get ceiling (paddle) fans, some breakers, a few outside lights, and a cover plate or two for some 240 outlets. (There is no such thing as 220, unless you live in Europe or your voltage is totally screwed up in which case you need to call your power company). We'll also check on stairway spindles for the staircase in the living room which we'll need when we get into the main house.

This project is taking a lot longer than I want it to. But since I reckon I need my job to afford the fix up........ it'll just take a while! :)

Texture and paint

2007-01-27T16:16:00.001-08:00

Whoooo HOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

It's moving forward. Friday at work we dug in electric, gas, phone and cable TV to a new set of condos at the local golf course. I dig the backhoe and shovel work so when I was done I saved a bucket load of dirt for the hole in our garage floor that I need to fill up so I can pour concrete. I threw the bucket load of dirt in the back of my little Nissan and hauled it home to wheelbarrow in to the hole. It was perfect! I had 1 1/2 wheelbarrow loads left over.

Laura got the texture all shot on the walls and ceilings in there so that was set and the masking stayed up so we were all set for today!

Today was painting. My friends Mary, James and Jane came over and the four of us got it primed in about 2 hours. We were higher than a kite when we got done, even with a fan on and a door open. It looks great in there! Tonight Poly and I will caulk the corners and seams that need it and tomorrow we'll finish up the painting!

This is incredibly exciting to me. :) This week Roger and I will install sockets and switches and perhaps a paddle fan or two. These electricians make me laugh. It's not a ceiling fan, it's a paddle fan.

By the end of next week we'll be moving in equiptment and thinking about how to get the cabinets all installled. :) Life is good. Heck, we're even having our next art meeting in there.

Done. I think.

2007-01-14T18:59:00.000-08:00

It was a successful weekend. Today I finished up the sewer reroute. I spent from 11ish till 4:30 and at the end of it all the gluing was done. I still have to check under there when the water has run a bit. But all the pipes are put together, and I installed the new cleanout and floor drain.

This is one of those projects. When I started it there was a riser pipe in the garage in one of the dirt holes. Now that I'm done? There are two cleanout pipes and a floor drain in the dirt hole. I spent a week working. Digging and tunneling and gluing and cutting and crawling around on the dirt and through holes wearing dust masks and helmet lights and ear muffs. At the end of the whole thing it looks almost exactly like it did when I started.

Now I have to find some more dirt to bring up the dirt level since all the concrete I moved outta there underground left a sizable dent in the volume. Then I can pour it fulla concrete and it'll finally be a finished floor.

Laura is gonna get the texturing done pretty soon after Crystal gets a last sponging done on the drywall in there. Then we can prime and paint and move in cabinets and equiptment.

Excited? Yes I am.

Part way there.

2007-01-14T09:32:00.000-08:00

I forgot to take pics! What a dumbass.

Anyhow....... Yesterday was somewhat productive. Got parts on Friday and then again on Saturday morning since once you bust out the old sewer connections there is no #2 until you get it done. :) Saturday morning after parts runs I got under the house and did most of the rest of the prep digging. Pablo and Crystal were in the garage drywalling sometime in there. I even opened up my first under the house trench with the hammerdrill so I could get the proper lift on the pipe. Then I prebuilt the cleanout and pre-cut some riser pipes. Time I got done with the digging I was by myself again and it was nearly 4 PM. Luckily at that time Roger showed up to check on me and I had help. Much appreciated help. It's really nice to have someone to hold things in place while you measure and cut. Saves a LOT of time.

By 7 PM I had the laundry room crawl space sewer done and some dirt on the stuff in the garage. I had to stop there since I ran outta glue. Today I hope to finish the piping and get the hole in the garage filled as best I can and get the busted crappy concrete hauled outta there. Oh and maybe I can get that pesky floor drain installed. We'll see how far I get. Crystal is gonna finish the drywall sponging and then might help me do some hauling and shoveling unless she goes over to spin with my sweet LoLo. Either way, it promises to be a good day.

Sewer, I hate sewer

2007-01-07T21:18:00.000-08:00

It was a battle royale at the gallery today.

I dug sewer pipe today. I HATE sewer pipe. I started following the cleanout in the garage. It lead down diagionally to a plastic pipe. Good news. 2 feet closer to the house it turned to clay pipe. Not so good. 2 feet later it turned into concrete. Worse. 2 feet after that it lead to a kitchen barrel grease trap. Now we're in nightmare catagory.

I just kept digging.

And breaking concrete with sledge hammer and bar and shovel.

HOURS later I had a good path through the old kitchen trap, has unearthed the "Y" that lead to an angled pipe for the kitchen and was still digging my butt off. Then I started trenching under the foundation for my "future" pipe. I tunneled under for a bit. 18 or 20 inches in I hit more concrete. I took that out with a 1/2 inch by 6 foot steel pipe and a freakin sledge hammer. Things work if you simply refuse to admit the impossibility and insanity of it all.

I quit around 7ish to come take a long hot bath. Tomorrow maybe I'll dig down inside the house and find the tunnel from the other side.

Oh and Pablo was in taping drywall today. He works so hard and does such good work. It's really cool to watch. You should come see......

Decisions made

2007-01-07T09:19:00.000-08:00

Projects this big are always tough because there's so many ways to go up to the point when you actually start doing it. Like right now I'm 99% decided to move the bathroom. In fact I'm SO decided that today while Pablo is taping and texturing drywall I'll start digging in a new sewer line and prepping the floor for fixtures. The real goal is getting the garage/studio done and with the new sewer line in I can finally cement in the last bits of dirt in the floor. :) This will be a good thing.

My dear friend Roger will probably pop by today. He came by yesterday and basically offered himself as crew boss on days we have a lot going on. This will be a good thing. I'm not terribly good at bossing people. Roger's response when I said that?

"I am"

I love my friends. They're wonderful people.

Nekid walls

2007-01-01T09:08:00.000-08:00

So while I'm waiting on taping and texturing to be done so I can start finishing up the studio and throw pots I've found other things to do. The flicker badge has updated pics as is usual when we've gotten something good done.

Saturday Crystal and I tore out the wall that made the dark, tiny hallway leading from the kitchen to the main building. It was sadly fulla black mold that I'm very glad to have out of there. Crystal got a good laugh when I was taking out the cross studs that ran between the upright studs (after we tore off that crappy, dark paneling). I had to hit them HARD to get 'em out and, of course, I found one that was crappy wood and not nailed in so well and it flew into millions of bits that covered me and everything in the room. I would suppose it did look pretty funny.

We had to cut out bits here and there to get the wiring outta the existing studs and the pipes settled nicely without causing leaks. And when we were done there is room and light and no mold left where there was a dark little hole before.

On Sunday I wandered over and started taking out the corner, bearing wall and putting up a header to hold the existing roofline. It was fun but took lots more thinking than wall from the day before. Had to pull out paneling, then drywall, then the funny angled 1X boards. Following that I removed all but one of the studs so that the header would fold in when I was done. Then I jacked up the roof with a spare 2X4 and my car jack so I could take out the last stud. When I took the jack off the ceiling didn't bow so I hurried up and stuck the header in to keep things nice and tight.

Now I'm going to head over and do some research for the smallest footprint possible for a bathroom. Because.... you know..... now I wanna move the bathroom into the space I've just created and reclaim the 60 square feet the existing one takes up by replacing it with a smaller one that functions better and doesn't take up such a prominent and unwieldly section of the prep area.

I'm flying off to the internet, try to keep up!

Heat

2006-12-13T16:32:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a few days since I last posted. The drywall is all up. The mudding has begun and Pablo is working on it as he gets the chance. We've done "secret" work there for Laura's grad present. Lots of wood has been moved in and is curing nicely. The plumbing inspector has come and gone after looking around and leaving an approved sheet there. I've got a heater up in the garage and we've struggled a bit but now it seems like it'll keep going. It got a "Denny" fix.

A Denny Fix is all about using what you have on hand to alter things in ways they weren't specifically designed to achieve the desired result. The pilot light on the heater kept going out and to fix it I wrapped a chunk of copper around it so reduce the size of the ambient air orifice so that things would work right. This is the third day of those kinda fixes. It might be time for a break.

All one color

2006-11-26T21:27:00.000-08:00

This week. :) I had the week off. I originally took it off to help Laura (my sweet wife) get the grunt work done on her installation for her thesis show. The opening is this Friday at Adams State College in the art building. BUT, there was a good bit of time when she didn't need me.

So I got lots of things cleaned up at the gallery/studio. I got all the leftover 2X4's and 2X6's cut up into stove length and out of the yard. I got the siding put up on the 2 wall sections we installed earlier. I did lots of running around concerning Laura's grad present. I got lots of the yard waste cleaned up and made a trip to the dump. I got the yard mowed for winter. With some help from Pablo I got the ceiling in the garage and kitchen and laundryroom insulated to over R-30 for this winter. With Crystal's help I got drywall hung and scaffolding moved and big piles of dystroyed lathe and plaster moved to the trailer to take to the dump later on. We also got every storm window in every hole in the house save one. That one I have to take to the glass shop and repaired, it's a downstairs one that's pretty large and is important to get done. I moved out lots more trash. I got the garage/studio all cleaned up more than once. I prepped the installed siding and later on today Crystal came and helped me paint it. I love love love that it's all the same color in the back now.

So here I sit, getting ready for bed. The big hairy stuff is hung for Laura's show and the gallery is ready (mostly) for winter. This week I'll get the last couple tiny sheets of drywall hung and work on getting some good heat in there. It's still being heated with a woodstove at this point, but it's having an easier time with all the storms up and decent insulation in the place. Today I also started removing the old driveway, it's higher than the garage and water runs in. I kinda like tearing out old concrete. :) It's a little twisted but I do like it.

Coffee breaks over, back on my head.

Warning. Update ahead

2006-11-21T07:55:00.000-08:00

I've decided that since I have a few days to work on the place that I'll get pics and a good post going when I"m settled and too weary to move my legs anymore.

It's not far off.

Let there be light

2006-11-12T19:32:00.000-08:00

Today we got some work done! Yesterday most all I did was cut up firewood. But today:

Roger came by and put in the new 60 amp disconnect for the big kiln;

Crystal got a piece of drywall up;

I (with some help from Crystal) got 5 of the 8 lights up and they work! :

We all got together to replace the entry door.

I'm thrilled to have the new door in. And just as thrilled to have the lights up. It took a bit of invention but now it seems like it'll work. See, the lights are the ones I got really cheap off craigslist and they're flush mounts but for drop ceilings. Luckily they mostly fit between the studs in the garage ceiling. It took a bit of shaving drywall here and there, and I had to shim one space. We'll have 8 lights on three switches. I like having lots of choices on lighting.

So this week I'll try to get the rest of the lights up, then next weekend maybe I can get set up to blow in insulation. I'm gonna get that thing done and heated yet.

The Doors

2006-10-29T17:48:00.000-08:00

It was a productive weekend over all. I worked today by myself and I actually like being by myself so that was fine. It's always nice to have the help and Crystal almost got to help some today, but then something came up.

I got the garage door in! I still have to install the springs and attatch the back end of the tracks to the ceiling but I have all that framed up and ready to go. I think I already said that we got most of the drywall up yesterday. I figured out that I need to cut a hole through to the kitchen and see if I can get a nice new pre-hung entry door from the kitchen to the garage. That and I have to get the local locksmith to change the locks now that we can use all of them. Hopefully in a week or so I can start on piping for temp heat for the winter. I'm on a schegule, gotta finish it up in the back before Laura's graduation.

Time to go rest my back now.

The end is in sight

2006-10-28T20:26:00.000-07:00

Got almost 2 walls done today. There's a little bit left on one wall and then the back wall to go and all the rock will be up. Tomorrow we'll finish that bit and maybe the back wall and we'll start on the garage door. There'll be one little bit left to go because I want to look into replacing the existing door with something more appropriate. The old door is this heavy wooden thing with a diamond shaped window in it. We need something there that we can see through. Hopefully I can make it just a tiny bit wider as well. It's a tiny 32" door. Even a 34 would be better, though to my way of thinking there is no good door less than 36" wide.

So now I've slathered stuff on to relieve the sore muscles, and I'm in my chair with my feet up. I like my big purple chair. I'm never gonna be sure that I like it better than my old crappy green recliner, but I do feel comfortable in it.

Pics tomorrow.

Another weekend to work

2006-10-28T09:15:00.000-07:00

More drywall today. Crystal and I got the ceiling done last weekend. This weekend we'll hope to get the stuff up on the walls so that I can put up the door and put in some heat so that Pablo can tape and texture. Once he's done with that I can move lots of stuff in and set up the cabinets! I have a ventless heater for one spot but I'll have to come up with another heater for either the kitchen or garage. The wood stove seems to be keeping up so far over there, and last week I got a couple windows fixed. There are lots of windows yet to fix, but now there are no large gaping holes to the outside and that's a good thing!

Back to work!

Sheet!

2006-10-22T08:05:00.000-07:00

A whopping two sheets of drywall on the ceiling yesterday. I did get things moved so it can be put up on that side without too much problem. That involved moving about 14 of the 12' sheets onto my cart and moving the garage door to the other side of the garage. I also had to move a bunch of firewood inside and close up the holes in the building for the winter. Then it was a trip to the hardware store for ....... oh hell one of those cords that keeps a pipe from freezing, sometime I can't remember what the names of things are. The good news is that the measly two sheets I put up are the ones that everything else works from for the ceiling. :) One more little piece and I can fly across that ceiling like Grant went through Richmond.

OK, back to work.

Rock and roll

2006-10-21T07:49:00.000-07:00

Today is to be more drywall. Not sure when I'll get started as everyone seems to be sleeping and there's breakfast to eat first. I love breakfast, but really only breakfast that you eat out. Mostly morning comes too early for my stomach to be awake and want food in it, so I wait until later on. Today I'll try to get the rock up on the other half of the ceiling and around the garage door. If we manage that, then I'll work on finishing up around the walls and plan on getting the door put up thru the week. Then I can put a heater or two in there and hope to pass a temp plumbing permit so I can get a gas meter set and some less expensive heat in the place! Then lights in the garage ceiling and some blow in insulation and we should be set for winter as long as I can find a long enough heat tape for the water line. :)

ROCK!

2006-10-17T20:14:00.000-07:00

Well. Last weekend Paul and Crystal came over and started hanging the drywall. I worked on finishing up the stuff that had to be done before the drywall could cover the parts yet to be rocked. They started on the ceiling with the new drywall lifter and pronounced it to be a fine piece of machinery. I finished up the furring on the garage door, fixed the roof in one corner so it wouldn't leak anymore, hung plastic, ran errands and did a little more electrical work. For two days I worked as hard as I knew how to stay ahead of my friends hanging drywall. Come Sunday night they'd done one side of the ceiling, the East wall and started on the West wall. Monday I worked on the house we live in for a little bit with Laura's help, and tonight I finished up hanging the plastic over there.

This weekend I wanna get enough more of the rock up so that I can put up the garage door. I'm hoping it all fits right.

We'll see.

Winterizing day

2006-10-08T07:11:00.000-07:00

It's raining today. I kinda wish it weren't but one never gets to curse the rain here in our desert valley. I've been cutting up those elm stumps from last spring, man they're HUGE! I have a 20" chainsaw and it doesn't even get close to getting all the way through the trees near their bottoms. And since snow is predicted soon I'll have to take time out to winterize a few things. Gotta get a heat tape on the waterline at the gallery and seal up the leaky roof over the studio. Gotta disconnect all the outside waterlines so they don't freeze and burst. If we get time there will be framing and wiring done. Yes, believe it or not there is STILL wiring to do. IN fact I have to get some pipe and a couple boxes and check the motor load on my clay mixer before we get to hanging the sheet rock. That'll happen pretty soon, the drywall lifter should be here tomorrow. Not that I'll get to it tomorrow. Why? Well, because I am volunteering at the local public radio station from 6 to 8 AM tomorrow (Monday October 9th). Then I have to come home and cook. The democrats fund raiser for our little county party is on Tuesday and it is to be a chili supper and desert auction for which I have to cook two pots of chili, cornbread and a couple 12 packs of pop. OK, I don't have to cook the pop, I just have to go get it. OH CRAP!, I'm doing something else on Monday night, so it's even more full, I forgot until just now. But that means Wednesday is free for either resting or working.

Resting is a bit more important these days. I'm turning 46 soon. It's not old (unless you're 10) but neither is it young. I can't go 24/7 like I used to and the worn out bits (like wrists, shoulders, back, hips) that 28 years of powerline work have degraded don't bounce back like they used to. :) Thursday is pretty full also, and Friday we usually have something to do. Maybe I can get some work done on Saturday and Sunday if nothing comes up. I have GOT to get some heat in that place.

Sometimes it all feels too big. And then I have to remind myself that it's like the huge stump I sawed through yesterday. You can only do what you can do, a bit at a time, a little progress here and there and eventually you get it done.

Insulated

2006-10-03T06:29:00.000-07:00

Been a while since an update. Yep, the boiler is sitting there on the floor quite nicely and waiting to be installed. But FIRST, the walls and the last door have to go in. Progress is being made in that area. The wiring is done all but a tiny bit here and there. Last weekend we got almost all the wall insulation up too! :) There's a bit of framing to finish up on the garage door and some prep to do before hanging the drywall in the ceiling. But it really exciting to have the insulation in and the plactic holding it in! Last Friday I went to ebay and bought a drywall lifter to make hanging the 12 foot sheets as easy as possible, it should be here soon. The drywall got delivered yesterday! (Monday). 26 sheets of 1/2" in 4 X 12 chunks. A few folks have volunteered to help hang it, and I still have to get the 5/8 stuff for around the boiler but it should go pretty fast.

It's sitting there

2006-09-11T18:31:00.000-07:00

Sunday. Went to Denver with truck and trailer, this was the second trip for a truck this week. We got the boiler and valves and tank and pump and lots of copper and a couple extra thermostats and headed back after a short stop for lunch and a couple to-go orders for the folks that had to stay home because of work. New cost? $4200, our cost? $750. Of course I got soaked and at one point the guy had a plan that included dropping the whole works down on me (which Crystal put the kabosh on faster than I could), but it all worked out well. I think the soaking with old waste water brought the cost up for me, but then I'm a bit squickish about that sort of thing so ........... all's well that ends well.

Now we just have to get it installed before winter sets in. That thing will heat the studio and the rear of the gallery just fine. I'm pretty sure it'll heat the whole thing just fine but I kinda have to close up all the open holes in the main part before I try actually making it liveable for humans.

Tonight? Sitting in my chair with a monster headache. I could get so much done if I were superhuman, but then that would just make every one else feel inadequate.

Lighting all set

2006-09-09T07:44:00.000-07:00

OK, so the lighting has figured itself out. It was Craigslist! I was bopping around there and lo and behold someone has EXACTLY the fixtures I was looking for available for $15 a piece! I had been searching and it would have been around $75 for the things brand new. So we arranged a time for pickup and I trucked to Denver (in my old blue pickup to try it out, what fun is life without a bit of risk of getting stranded hours from home?). It all worked out well. The fella (John) asked how many fixtures I wanted and I told him I could take 10, maybe 12. He said he had 15, not all of them perfect and I could have them all for the price of 12. I peeled off the $180 and loaded the lights.

They're great! 10 even have good diffusers on 'em. That's the plastic thingy that spreads out the light. One even has a dandy battery back up thing that turns the light ON if the power goes OFF. :) So now all I have to do is figure out where to mount my "j" boxes to wire the lights into and run a couple spare pipes and I can get my rough inspection and start insulating and drywalling! WHOOOO HOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is, of course, depending on my call to another fella on Craigslist. He has a nifty boiler for sale. Good sized with 3 zone valves and 30 feet of baseboard along with the expansion tank and a circulation pump. WAY cheap. I gotta call this morning and if I can have it I'll head up as soon as possible and get it. This would save me THOUSANDS, so it would be well worth giving up a day of production to get it. It would also solve me delima on a heating system, at least for this winter.

Don't cha just love it when things fall together?

Radio Day

2006-09-02T06:41:00.000-07:00

Well, it's Saturday again and we got a little bit done on Wednesday but that was it for the gallery. My pesky day job has been fairly demanding of late and takes too much time. Last Wednesday Roger and Crystal and I did a bit more work. We got the pancake boxes up for the exterior lights and mounted the last outside box for an outlet along with it's nailer. This is where Crystal and I learned that you're only allowed to have two wires running through a hole in the wall. :) We only had to move a few to get it all right and ready. Except for getting lighting figured out and putting up nailiing blanks it's ready for the rough inspection so that we can start insulating and hanging drywall! :)

When we originally bought the building last November (and finally got the renter out in January) I had hoped to have the place done by this November. Such is not the case. I got busy at work, then sidetracked into getting the yard sort-of done and there were lots of other demands on my time. As it now sits I will be quite thrilled to have the yard settled and the garage turned into my pottery studio by November. In fact I believe our next step after getting the more finished parts (studio/kitchen/utility and bathrooms) a bit better insulated for winter will be to build the kiln yard. I better get hopping on that since it means pouring some concrete and running a gas and electric line out there and actually constructing the dang things. :) Funny, you buy an existing property and it just doesn't occur to you that you'll have to re-build EVERYTHING including a bunch of tear out before you can actually get some thing you want built there!

Sometimes I am a bit of a dumbass. (but a happy one with a nearly completed studio!)

Wired

2006-08-28T20:21:00.000-07:00

So a good bit got done over the weekend at the studio/gallery. ON Saturday after yard sales of course...... Crystal and I started on the wall for the existing garage door. By 7 PM we had put up the wall, faced it with OSB and put in a window. Sure sure sure, we didn't have all the screws we needed in the OSB and the window wasn't quite all finished but we were bushed! We assembled the wall on the floor after taking careful measurements and then we stood it up to slide it into the old garage door opening. It was a shade too tall so we just jacked up the wall a tiny bit. :) Car jacks are very good building assistants. We went to get OSB at the local wood products store only to find out that they'd closed at noon. So we went to Alamosa to find it. Those two stores were also closed. We went to my friend Ernie's house and got a couple sheets of OSB outta his pile (I left him a message and paid him for 'em on Monday). Then we got it all faced and threw in the window before we went to our houses to sleep a bit.

Sunday I went over and cleaned up our mess from Saturday. Then I got the job site ready. At a bit after 10 my friend Roger showed up. His wife Marian came an hour or so after that. They're both electricians. An hour or two after that my buddy Tim came by and then Crystal showed up. We were wiring fools! My first job was to drag a copper wire from the back of the house to the water pipe up front. The electrical panel has to be bonded to the incoming water pipe and it HAS to be at the front and immediate entrance. :) That house is a hundred years old and underneath is all cut up and has bunches of walls and you have to keep going up and down throught the floor to get from one rooms crawlspace to the other. We finally finished that (Tim and I) and my next task was running a wire for a subpaned through the attic. From up to down. Both were dusty and nasty. UG. Roger and I had set the new panel in when he first got there so that was done too. While I was doing my two jobs Roger and Marian and Crystal were running wire all through the new garage.

It was a day full of work and fun. We had pizza and Que' Papas from Pizza Hut. Lots of laughing and an abrasion here and there. At then end of Sunday it was 90% wired in the garage. AND it was all cleaned up too. We'll try to finish the rest in a week or two. :) And I'll update when I get the chance. I'd be working tonight but I'm beat.

wood and wire

2006-08-21T19:17:00.000-07:00

Last weekend........ shopping for stuff to work on the gallery. It would seem there is a bit of a lottery to the purchasing of wire. The price of copper has gone through the roof and one needs to find a store that has stock from some time ago and hasn't raised the price in anticipation of the next batch of wire. For example....... 12/3 with ground at a really large home products store ..... $98.00 the same wire at my little hometown store? $68.00. So on Saturday I bought $368.00 in copper wire and walked away feeling like I'd just made a giant score! The rest of Saturday was spent (after yard sales) getting my old truck shined up a bit. Then on Sunday we finished up nearly all the framing in the studio and got lots of the electrical boxes placed. Now, very soon, we can work on putting up the new breaker box and running wire all over the place.

I can't wait.

Windows. I do windows.

2006-08-14T19:35:00.000-07:00

Last weekend actually saw a bit of improvement in the gallery area. :) We got a window in. A BIG window. 4'X6'. We put it in the garage that will become the clay studio. We've decided to concentrate on the studio and maybe next year we'll have the gallery part getting done. I pulled the electrical permit today. It cost a whole $40 and we'll see if I can make it fly. IF that goes through then we'll try the plumbing permit next. Those are really the only ones I think a person should ever have to pull. Otherwise it's just governmental oversite silliness. If you aren't gonna drown or electrocute someone then you should really be good to go.

In any case, last Saturday's window went MUCH more quickly than the one I took forever doing that was only like 1/10th the size. Something about doing it the right way that makes a bit of a difference. :) Now we'll start wiring so we can pass a partial inspection and get the drywall in and the garage door in there. That'll close in the studio and then I'll work on the plumbing permit and get the studio heated and the water heater moved out there. That way most of the sub-level work will be done as far as utilities go. Then maybe we'll finish Laura's paper studio and then move on to tearing out lathe and plaster and flooring and basically every damned thing that is not a brick wall.

VA VOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!

All day window

2006-07-04T21:32:00.000-07:00

It's sometimes quite amazing how long it can take to do something simple. This afternoon I spent way too many hours working to install a 2X3 window in the garage which is to become my clay studio. The good news is that the experience gained from this one will make the next two go very quickly. Tomorrow night I'll try to start on the 4X6 window and then I can start framing in one of the garage doors to make it a wall. Because today I hauled my old Nissan to the mechanic!

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I know this blog is about the gallery, but I'm so danged excited about my old truck that I just can't help myself.

Things are coming together a bit. I hope by mid fall to have a boiler put in and much of the tear out done. We'll see if it works out like I want it to. :)

Not much done this weekend

2006-07-02T18:14:00.000-07:00

It's a holiday weekend, and in that spirit I'm not doing so much. We had fun at yard sales, and played around the house and slept a lot. I suppose you have to sleep sometime.

Some done

2006-06-25T06:42:00.000-07:00

Must be time for the week in re-cap.

Saturday/Sunday, lots of overtime at work so it kept me away from the gallery. And I spent much of Sunday collecting tools and cleaning up Laura's paper studio so she could get some work done for the 2 summer classes she's taking. Had to get compressors out and checked and tooled up and all that stuff. Not fair to make her do that since I'd pretty much trashed her area in the process of getting alla my other crap together.

Monday: more getting ready, started a bit of framing, watering the yard and all that stuff. Monday afternoon we finally got it all motivating.

Tuesday: Now THIS was a work day! Crystal and I got the center/main beam in the garage changed out to one that actually does the job and looks better. AND we got most of the walls framed and/or exposed for wiring and such. It was a fab day that ended late but with much feeling of accomplishment.

Wednesday: Valley View Hot Springs, all work and no play...........

Thursday: Mostly an errand and catch up day. Spent a good part of the morning getting our friend Christie's laptop working on wireless. The cable tv company dude had totally jacked up her puter so it took two of us to figure out how to put it all back. Then that afternoon was spent putting a bunch of stuff together on my old Nissan Pickup that needed lots of work and may even be working soon.

Friday: How much danged prep can a person do? Laura's professors were coming over to visit and view so we had to get the house all shined up and ready for human habitation. :) Then I went over and started getting more done on my truck. My friend Marian came by and gave me some electrical advice. I also got a stem wall poured for a wall section that needed to go in and ran errands like getting concrete, bolts, lags, beam ties and all that stuff. Didn't feel like a productive day at ALL and I was grumpy.

Saturday: Garage sales. We do this most Saturday's thru the summer. Good family visiting time. Then I watered and got the studio ready to work in. Then my boss/friend called and I went to get the windows for the garage/gallery. Then Christie and Daniel and Autum showed up to help with the truck. Laura had to crash from exhaustion and Crystal was off at a fiber meeting until later in the day. I got lots done getting parts on the truck. It's fun, challenging and such to find what goes where when it wasn't you who took it all apart. :) The good part of the day? The garage sale score of a nice 24/7 water timer so that I have very little hand watering to do. It's hard to communicate how much this helps.

Today? I'll try to get a bunch of window framing done and see if there's a parts store open to get a battery, gasket, and a temperature sensor for my pickup. That'll pretty much finish up all I can think of and then it'll go to a mechanic to check over my work. It just makes sense to do all I can before that since it's worth, like, $50 an hour to do simple stuff like install thermostats and ptu on fan belts. I'll try to get some pics today. They don't really tell the story of how much work went on since the re-beaming project involved all kinda temporary supports before the old one could be cut out and what went in now just looks right rather than shabby and wrong. But it sure does feel good.

As always I wish I had gotten more done. Folks some times tell me I'm driven. I like to think of it as focused.

Vacation?

2006-06-17T06:28:00.000-07:00

This week is my vacation. :) I have a whole week off. My plan is to do two things. One is to see how far I can get on the studio part of my/our gallery. I/we will be renovating the garage into a pottery studio with a spot for a metals bench and perhaps even a little darkroom (little yet bigger than the present one that resides in a closet.). This will include pouring a stem wall for about 10 feet, then moving a wall out to there so that the garage is a full rectangle instead of the present cut up piece of crap. to do that I have to move the utilities out to the new wall and that will actually be one of the easier tasks. Then I'll fir out the walls of the entire garage so that they can be insulated to R19 instead of R11 thus saving us money down the road. After that we'll wire, insulate, plumb and drywall the place. I'm thiniking I'll call in some help. I also have to frame in to close off one of the two 8' garage doors and install a garage door in the remaining one. No problem that'll only take about 10 minutes. HA.

Yep, definately calling in some help.

The walls came down

2006-06-11T19:44:00.000-07:00

Didn't get much done over at the gallery this week. I've been working at the danged power company a bit too much. We did get over there today though. Laura did a bunch more planting and I'll get to water it the next three weeks while she's in class. While she was planting I started getting the garage ready for a bunch of work that'll start up in a week. I moved every thing out of it and into a shed that sits off to one side. Then I started tearing down the temp walls that some doofus put up for no explainable reason. Thru this week I'll finish getting the walls torn down and hopefull get a footer poured and the new wall section up with the framing for a window in it. Then next week Crystal and I will see how much construction we can get done in a week. It's kinda fun to push yourself sometimes. ;) I would really love to have enough done that we could throw in there and fire the kiln at the end of June.

We'll see if my wishes are bigger than my muscles.

Planting day

2006-06-04T20:21:00.000-07:00

Today was planting day at the gallery. Laura came over and spent a very long day putting plants into the ground and designing a landscaping stratagy on the plot I'd prepared last week. She sure did work hard. :) We took the shepard, Emma, over with us and she had a great time watching us work from her place in the shade. There are new pics up on flicker of what we got done both last week and today. It's really pretty fun to watch it come together a bit. While Laura was planting I trimmed some trees, and pulled extraneous crap off the house, and opened up the upstairs porch, and made tea, and went to work for an hour or so, and stoped at Dairy Queen, and helped plant a bit, and watered the dog, and brought over a swing to sit in.

I'm swamped. :)

Dirt

2006-06-03T20:21:00.000-07:00

The dirt is thrown in. On Thursday the local earth moving company (friend of mine) brought in two semi loads of topsoil, 34 cubic yards. Friday night I picked up a bobcat at 3:30 PM and started moving stuff since I had to have it back at 8 Am the next morning. Got done at 9:30 PM that night. Pretty good job if I say so myself. Got the yard pretty well leveled and the lilacs moved onto my trailer to take to the dump. The dump guy even let me in and out for FREE! Life is good. Things are moving forward.

Finally a work day

2006-05-27T20:12:00.000-07:00

So I finally got a chance to get some work done. Today my friend Dan brought over his backhoe and we dug out stumps. OK, that doens't really put it into perspective very well. The first stump was so huge it would take three folks holding hands to get their arms around it. It took a while. I was gratified to see that there was good reason to take the tree out. 2/3 of it was really rotted down to the roots, and it was the bit that woulda fallen on the house. Then we moved over and tore out the stump that had a root 6" in diameter running right under the garage. It was wrapped around lots and lots of concrete, took almost as long as the big one. Then we went and scooped out a bunch of lilacs where a parking lot is gonna go. Lilacs are really easy to take out with a machine because the roots are wide and shallow and you can dig the blade under and take out a whole slice at once. Then I leveled and raked the dirt in the yard. That looked so good I cleaned out the side behind the garage so that it's easier to get through.

It feels really good to have gotten some stuff done. I'm still working to try to get to the studio build in June. It'll be close but I might just make it. Just about have the fencing up at our home so I'll not have anything pressing to take time away from the studio work. We'll see how the race to the starting gate falls out.

June. Setting my sights on June

2006-05-07T07:39:00.000-07:00

I have a plan. :) This is no small thing with a very large task. My present plan....... The remainder of the month of May will concentrate on our residence. The yard is a mess, there are spots that need to be cleaned up inside as well, I have fence posts to reset and sturdy up the whole fence, and there are raised beds to build and fill. Heck I still have a trench left from replacing the sewer last fall. SO, do that for the month of May.

June.

1) Finish ripping out the bad plantings that have gone to seed and prepare for the parking lot to come.

2) Frame out the studio in the garage this consist of:

a) firring out the walls two inches for better insulation.

b) moving the gas and electric meters out to the exterior walls.

c) removing the siding between the house and garage to get to the plumbing and wiring underneath.

d) plumbing in a sink and or bathroom and boiler

e) wiring the garage for kilns, clay mixers, pug mill and general lighting and wiring

f) insulating and drywalling

g) installing cabinets, wheels and the afore mentioned machinery

h) walling off one garage door and installing a garage door in the other open hole.

Then I can make pots. Sounds like a pretty full monty. We'll have to see how much I get done and if the offered help arrives. :)

Enforced break

2006-04-08T17:07:00.000-07:00

No work this weekend. Knees are torn up so I'm takin a nice enforced break. Sittin in chair, watching movies with my leg up. These things aren't bad if you look for the pluses.

The big purple chair

2006-04-01T18:59:00.000-08:00

I have a big purple chair. It sits off to the side of the TV in the living room and it's MY chair. It has an ottoman for my legs so I can sit with my feet up and a nice blanket and there are tables to put food and drinks and laptops on.

I'm sitting in it.

Why is that? Well, because today saw: the unloading of 20 linear feet of upper level cabinets, 2 seven foot garage doors, all the attendant hardware and springs, and a bit more of this and that; a trip to the dump that saw the last of a big drum of crap, lots of broken glasss, pallets, some siding, a bit of exercise equiptment, car parts, and piles of unnamed crap from everywhere; the digging out of the last of the dirt in the pond; and the spreading of lots and lots of shredded tree crap. It was a really long day of digging and moving stuff and I'm beat. I've already taken the bath I neeeded and now?

Settled into the big purple chair. We all need one.

I didn't drown!

2006-03-28T15:17:00.000-08:00

Nope, still breathing, I've just been busy with other projects. :) One weekend I didn't feel well, the next the wind blew like crazy and the following one I went to Sante Fe to visit Laura at her fabric conference. That was cool, really nice hotel room too! It's always fun to go to another town, especially one that has cool stuff like Indian food and completely different garage sales.

Tonight I've got an appointment with a friend to gather free stuff for the gallery. He has a set of cabinets and garage doors for me. This will be VERY helpful for any number of reasons. For one thing what's a studio without storage space for all the junk you never use but is way too good to throw away? :) And the doors will come in handy because once they're up I can move stuff in and out without the pesky prying eyes of the city on me.

One should never underestimate that little detail :O

OK, gotta get ready to lift and move heavy things now.

Diggin the pond

2006-02-28T06:30:00.000-08:00

So the gallery has a little cement pond out front. And yes, I know I sound like Jed Clampett. It was filled with dirt YEARS ago and I started unearthing it last night. It is 30 inches deep and shaped like a torus. Should be a lovely centerpiece for the dye garden that is to surround it. I hope to make this a welcoming part of the gallery from the outside. Pond, 80 foot Blue Spruces, Posts to have hammocks hung from them, a lovely dye garden for paper making and such and all backed up by a fire breathing kiln yard. Sounds like a slice of heaven to me!

In other news we're checking into getting a roll-off dumpster in the front yard so that I can concentrate on ripping and tearing and then we'll get a whole gang to move the trash out to the dumpster all at once. Nothing like making a production out it!

OK, back to work!

NEWish Pugmill

2006-02-20T07:36:00.000-08:00

Part of building a successful studio/gallery is outfitting it properly to get the work done. My own personal pottery studio, which will be in the garage of the new gallery, has been completely outfitted by ebay thus far. I originally got a kiln, followed that up with a wonderful clay mixer, and finally have added the pugmill. All that remains to be added is a slabroller. OK, I will need to build the brick kilns but I have the brick sitting out back just waiting for construction. The best part? So far everything has been at least half the cost of retail!

The pugmill was in Kansas City, Kansas so it involved a weekend trip of around 700 miles to fetch it. Shipping woulda been over $400 and I could drive it for less than half that. Probably spent the $400 in various shopping and such along the way, but I have something to show for it in the end (Or Laura does). The pugmill is fabulous. 1000 pounds an hours to process the clay, all shiny and ready to go! I'm gonna have to take some flicker pics so that I can show it off, not that I think anyone other than potters will be excited about such a machine. :)

SO things keep coming together, even if I don't get to work on the inside or get the place open in a week all this has to be done. Now I just have to remember to rest on occasion so I can enjoy the actual opening when it actually gets here.

Actually. I love how kids fall in love with that word. We all still should from time to time.

De-posting

2006-02-15T22:40:00.000-08:00

When we bought the place it was ringed with chain link fence. This was most unwelcoming. Since removing the tree I have decided to clean up much of the accumulated junk around the place before moving back inside for the windy season, (we get three months of murderous wind here in the Spring). So, of course, the first thing I've turned my attention to is removing most of the fence to create a more open and inviting presence on the street. It seems to be working. I gave the fence fabric to my friend Bennie for her apartments and she and her son came and removed it. They didn't get the posts as they are cemented in place with about 18 inches of below ground concrete. Yesterday I dug out the 7 posts in the front.

It looks bigger now. Every thing we do there makes it look bigger. I thought we'd bought a good space at first, but now it's starting to feel downright huge!

My changes seem to be taking effect here on the blog. If anyone is curious about what the place looks like all they need do is click on the flicker badge down there on the left sidebar. Every pic is there, from purchase to present. I like it.

Makin changes

2006-02-13T20:48:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to make some changes to the template here on my little gallery blog. :) My changes aren't appearing. Got the trees all shredded over the weekend. Life is good, but man are my legs SORE!

Downed trees

2006-02-04T20:57:00.000-08:00

Yesterday and today were dedicated to the removal of a pernicious weed. Some people call them Elm trees, but in reality they are simply a very tall version of a truly annoying weed. This particular weed was 50 feet tall, and is now in small pieces and several large piles of brush drying a bit so that it can be shredded into landscaping material.

In truth the tree was weak and rotting and needed to be removed before it fell and damaged things. I would much rather be doing nothing other than working on the inside but it's so much easier to remove a tree while the leaves are not yet leafed out.

It's interesting, it is an odd day at the site when someone doesn't stop by and express their pleasure at us having bought the place. It would seem that the previous tennents had less than desireable habits. Like shooting into the business next door. :)

Ah small towns.

Ta Da Dump

2006-01-30T16:08:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-29T07:18:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-23T15:31:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-22T08:35:00.000-08:00

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.....

2006-01-09T18:18:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-08T01:41:00.000-08:00

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?

Still waiting

2005-12-31T14:19:00.000-08:00

Still working to get the tennents out of the building. Looks like I might have to get nasty to do it. Went over today to talk to them, and since they weren't home left a note telling them that they now have week to get out or I'll find a lawyer and the sheriff and toss them. I HATE doing stuff like this, but what else do you do with folks that neither pay rent or move out?

In the meantime I'm making plans and setting things in motion and resting up from the last semester in college which was a bit grueling. :) Back to shopping!

Purchase

2005-11-22T10:35:00.000-08:00

The Gallery is purchased. Contracts signed. Money changed hands. No going back now.

I do still have to get that pesky renter out of there. ........

The buzz

2005-10-23T17:34:00.000-07:00

I'm enjoying being the buzz at school over my/our new gallery venture. People I don't even know wander up and introduce themselves and want to know how it's going. Kinda fun. It was the "art guard" today at school.

And I'm networking in a very modern sense. Today I added a blog/contact from a picture post board I belong to: flicker. Now I'm thinking that I just need to go to a google search and find all the blogs I can from little independant artist/galleries and network them all together. It just sounds like something that will have dividends over the long haul. I can't help but think that a group of folks with a common interest such as being artists with their own galleries would have much in common. Here's hoping anyhow.

Parking solved

2005-10-20T12:33:00.000-07:00

There are a number of things to "solve" when opening a business. One that I've been working on is solving the problem of parking. The city wants 4 to 6 spots for the size of the place and the expected traffic generated. There's an entrance off the highway in the front and an alley access in the back. I find the street access to be problematic, too possible for an accident to happen that I would be responsible for, and since I don't like causing accidents I've been looking for an alternative.

I found it.

The business behind/beside ours (it's a triangle shaped area) has a large weed infested lot behind it. Yesterday I approached the owner and asked him, "If I pave this area and take out that unsightly bush and that overgrown tree, can we use it in common and will you sign a use agreement to that effect"? He replied with a resounding yes.

Problem solved. Now I don't need to spend thousands redoing sidewalks and affording traffic control to do so. All I have to pay for is site prep and paving of some kind. And I think my neighbor who runs the concrete outfit in town needs somewhere to dump the excess concrete from deliveries in this area. Can you say "free concrete parking lot"? I can.

Putting things in place. ......... got my new web enabled cell phone today; put together a photo printing outfit for $3 yesterday; solved the parking problem; closing in on November 1st. Keep your fingers crossed.

Moving ahead

2005-10-18T20:56:00.000-07:00

Well, things move forward a bit. Got the application for the change in highway access. Paperwork is swapping places and gaining signatures. Folks I know are all getting excited about what they might do in my building. :) Our building I guess. We're starting to think up things we might wish to do in there.

One thing is ongoing computer classes for creative people. Mostly because I get completely sick of hearing my artist friends use the old "computer-illiterate" phrase. I despise ignorance in all its forms and this is one we can do something about.j

We've got folks that will teach bookmaking, book altering, pottery, who knows what else. Feel free to add ideas in the comments section. We're making a list.

Possible setbacks.......

2005-10-11T19:45:00.000-07:00

So today the real estate agent calls, and says the city is concerned about the street access and parking and such. I'll get to talk to them on Thursday. I'm not thrilled with having to ask PERMISSION about what to do with my own property. Trips up my personal liberty beliefs.

So I'll go and talk with the city guy on Thursday. I'll tell them that there's already a driveway pan off the highway. I'll tell them that I can install 8 to 10 parking spaces and have a pretty little diagram to show it to 'em. It's useful having been to art school for the last nine years. :)

I'm quite sure there will be other battles to fight as my little gallery moves forward. There will be people who do not want nudes behind the walls. There will be complaints about pottery work, and the occasional bitch about smoke from kilns and such. Those will work out or not. :) We'll see how the first battle goes.

2005-10-09T18:18:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the inaugural post of Without Sin the Gallery. Today we made a verbal agreement on a price for a broken down house to turn into an art gallery. This is a good place to start putting into writing what it is and what it will be and how we'll get there.

First is to close so we know it's really ours. :)

Then we have to tear out all the walls. And rewire and replumb and refloor.

We got a heck of a deal on the place and when fixed up it'll be worth over twice what we paid. That's always a good thing.

Yes, the name of the place is to be Without Sin. The name is conceptual as one might guess. I'm a pagan by religious nature, a polytheistic, anamistic, non-original sin believing pagan. And I love the heck out of that Jesus guy all the Christians follow. I just generally don't like the way they do it. The name is meant to evoke all that stuff. "Let he who is without sin" cast the first stone; criticize the artwork; pick nits with the shows; be angry that the artwork is not the same tired realism showcased all over our little valley.

Salon de Refuse meet Without Sin.

I plan to showcase experimental art, to have a place for classes in both art and craft there, to occassionally show art films in an upstairs room, and to have a pottery firing setup outside in the yard. I want to do large sculptures in the park across the street. I want to have shows of nationally recognised artists. I want to nourish local artists and help them gain a reputation and make lots and lots of money. My sweet wife and I cannot have children. This will be my/our child. It will be combative, controversial, insightful, and stick out like a sore thumb here in our little mountain town.

And maybe, just maybe, it'll make the effort worth it by helping one artist follow their dream just a bit further.