Hello Darkness My Old Friend

Hey, look at me

Day 22 (9/19/16)

It has been awhile since I have been under the hall and now I remember why. As I mentioned last week the one big project left before winter is to build walls in the crawl space under the bathroom and insulate them so the water pipes don’t freeze. This weekend I started working on them as planned. The first wall and a half went pretty straight forward except for having to do everything within a two foot crawl space. It was when I got to the third section that things started going south. I had made the walls to exact tolerances and when I came to installing it I couldn’t wedge it into place. After several attempts we decided to call it a day and start fresh this morning. We had to run some errands and got to the hall at about eleven. Nate and Wade stopped by so we spent some time goofing around but did manage to get the fireproof filing cabinets moved to the studio space with Nate’s help. Wade got a big kick out of climbing under the building with Grandpa. After they left I managed to get my wall into place. I then started on the front but an impending storm stopped us from getting it finished. While I was under the building Eileen has been finishing the interior. It is finally starting to look like a gallery. There is plenty left to do but it is gradually getting closer. Hopefully next week I can get the crawl space finished.

My first wall and I am still clean

Look Mom, No Walls

Eileen working on blue bench

First wall getting hoisted into position

More Blue

Damn

Trip to the Loft

Look I can see Russia from here.

Just Wow

This is why Wade likes the "Belgium House"

Finally!

Red Bench

Halfway done

More Windows

One done

Day 21 (9/18/16)

A retired teacher friend, Ron, has been doing a lot of subbing at school lately. It has been a very timely occurrence since he is doing a remodel of his own. He and his wife Joanne bought a old saltbox farm house out in the country and started remodeling two years ago. When I look at what they have had to do, my project seems small. Their plan is to remodel, enjoy country living for a couple of years and then flip it. Like so many things of this type it is nice to know somebody going through the same things. We laugh about the nights that we lay awake prebuilding some big project that lies before us. We both know what it is like coming home with our brains pounding from trying to wrap it around the latest dilemma. And yes, we have both questioned our sanity a time or two. Finally we both have shared the knowledge that our spouses have been there beside us sharing the head and back aches.

 With the end of summer near Eileen and I have had a couple of major projects we still wanted to get done. One was to finish the exteriors of the windows. Again the problem was how to increase the insulation value without spending too much money and compromising the look. I had noticed on the Het Museum in Cedar Grove they had put fake shudders over the windows. I used the same technique with the inclusion of more polycarbonate on to top for light. Only time will tell how it will work but we now have three layers where before we only had one. As of now we have the windows mostly done except for some paint and trim. That leaves us with one big project left for the fall which is skirting and insulating the crawlspace under the restroom. I can’t say how many nights I have lain awake building this wall. With any luck I will get a start on that this weekend and considering how many times I have already done it maybe it will go easy on me, LOL.

peek-a-bo

What would a Art gallery be without Art

Getting a hand from Wade

Waz up?

Gratuitous cute kid pic

Meanwhile at home

Upward mobility

Cleaning the ceiling fans

Day 20 (9/11/16)

Even though school has started work on the hall continues albeit much slower. One of the situations that we weren’t sure how we were going to deal with was painting the ceiling. We had looked into having professionals do it but when we received the estimates we realized it was way out of our price range. We had thought about renting scaffolding but since we can’t do it all at one time decided that would be a hassle. Then quite by accident while looking at a little rolling scaffold for painting the walls we noticed that they had a larger one for not much more money and it was stackable. It meant buying two but since we will need to insulate and paint the outside it seemed like a no brainer. They came in very handy during the painting party and our grandson loves them for climbing on. This week I had to paint the peak so Eileen and I decided to stack them and see how it was going to work. It took a little trial and error to figure out how best to assemble them but once we figured out a system it was quite easy. For stability sake we left one platform low and then raised the other one up to the height we needed. I was a little apprehensive making the first climb up into it. By nature it is a little wobbly but very structural and after a little time gaining my sea legs I was able to move around comfortably. When I start doing the ceiling I think I will place some two by four rails just to add an element of safety. It easily reached the ceiling and is going to make painting and fixing lights a lot easier and safer.

A little scary at first

That's the ticket

Eileen painting the ceiling of the studio area

Painting at the Hall

The Gallery so far

Day 19 (9/5/16)

It is hard to know where to start, so much has happened since the last blog. After we removed the Reznor I was able to paint and install the old railing. I wanted to paint it with the color changing characteristics of my artwork. It ended up being a much bigger task than I had anticipated. We decided that painting it up in the loft might be best but it got quite cramped at times. I also didn’t count on the lack of control that I would have doing it with aerosol cans. After getting a trigger handle it was a little easier but still did not have the control of an airbrush. Also, the enamel paint wasn’t as transparent as I would have liked so it was impossible to get the layering that I sought. It didn’t exactly match my vision but will have to do for now. Installation was pretty straight forward and soon we had the railing in place. Eileen and I then started putting a coat of white paint on the walls and floor of the loft. Eventually we would like to spatter paint the floor with leftover paints. We decided we would see if we could recruit some friends on Facebook to help paint the walls. We couldn’t believe how well received it was. I had students representing over twenty years of teaching along with in one case her spouse and children. Some teacher friends showed up again accompanied by their children. Our grandson Wade brought his mom and dad and the day ended up being quite the celebration of painting. At the end of the day we were amazed at the amount of work that had been done. Almost all the walls have at least one coat of paint on and some were done almost completely. It was after dark when we finally left which was also a new first; we had never been there after dark before. I hope that everybody had as much fun as we did. I know Wade did. He was everywhere at once. Having other children around was quite exciting for him and even though they were older he wasn’t going to let a little thing like age get in his way. He was painting, climbing ladders, up on scaffolding and just genuinely enjoying himself although he may have given his parents a few gray hairs. Looking back on it makes me so proud and appreciative of the students and friends who dropped by to give a hand. We only that we can make the Old Town Hall live up to their expectations. 

Spraying the Railing

Eileen painting the Water Closet

Still Smiling 

The Water Closet

The Railing from the East

Railing from the West

All sorts of activity

Work continues

and continues......

Rita in Safe Mode

.............

Finally they give us a break

Wade and Finn

Wade and Gramps going to the Loft

Look at us

Not out of the "Woods" yet

Emma in the Loft

Whats next?

Sitting on the Water Closet

More painting

It is finally starting to look like a gallery