Rome wasn't built in a day...

...if it was we would have hired the same contractor!

Why have we been away from this blog for so long, you might ask?  Well, it’s because we’ve been super busy getting stuff done!  Our new contractor is amazing, and we’ve accomplished an incredible amount of things in the last couple of months and are delighted to share them with you!

 

The handicap ramp is done!

The mat cutting station is built!

The elevator is being prepped for gallery lighting

The gallery windows are covered and ready for painting

The furniture for the lounge is bought!  Black leather sofa, love seat, chair and large ottoman (we'll use it as a
coffee table).  So comfortable!

The classroom has walls and doors!

The darkroom is getting set up!

Custom-built enlarger tables

Darkroom sink set up

New tile and lighting in foyer

Front offices are almost done

Pottery studio is beginning to take shape!

5 brand new pottery wheels delivered!

Back basement wall paneled and painted

All emergency lighting installed

Just for fun, this is how the foyer looked when we first bought the place...

This is after we pulled the linoleum and paneling off...

And today!

Some of the other things we've done/are being done:

Phone and internet service hooked up

Alarm system to be installed in the next week or two

Website being worked on

Basement floor will be painted next week

Gallery lighting getting installed in next week or two

A million other little things

Beam us up!

Big changes afoot at The Art Establishment!  First, we cut ties with our contractor of a year and a half.  The work was proceeding waaaaay too slowly, was becoming way too expensive and the quality was becoming shoddy.  So, we hired a new contractor last Monday and fired our old contractor the next day.  New beginnings!  Our new guy, Oscar, has proven to be an honest and hardworking guy.  The first thing he wanted to do was re-do the support beams that our old contractor reinforced with concrete last year. Oscar didn't like the look of the cracks in the concrete.

Remember this?:

The idea was to cut the beams off at the bottom because they were compromised due to moisture damage, then pour concrete into a mold surround and when it dried, we would have a beam supported by concrete under and around it.  Well, our old contractor did 4, and we started noticing cracks.  Then the cracks got bigger.  So yesterday Oscar  knocked the concrete off , and lo and behold...the old contractor had only cut 2 of the beams and the other 2 he didn't bother to cut, but just poured concrete around. This just hid the problem and did not fix it.  Here's what we found:

This is one of the beams that should have been cut.  The bottom was rotted halfway through.

This beam actually was cut, but with rotted wood left in it.  Why not cut it off above the rot to strengthen it?

Oscar is on the job now, and when we left him at 5:00 this evening, he was mixing concrete to patch the floor under the beams.  When we came back at 9:00, this is what we found:

In under 4 hours, he had put supports up alongside 4 of the beams, cut those other 2 beams off, and patched the concrete floor under all 4 beams.  Amazing!

In other news, progress has been slow but steady.  Here's what's been happening:

The upstairs bathroom is finished!  Just needs some paint touch ups and a good cleaning.

The new block glass windows in the upstairs bathroom - letting light in but still
maintaining privacy!

The block glass from the outside.

Before...

After!

The downstairs bathroom is done!

We now have a small deck outside of the loading dock!

The front offices are drywalled, spackled and ready to be painted.  New flooring laid!

The front foyer is ready to have tile laid.

So that's all the news for now.  Stay tuned!  Hopefully things will start proceeding at warp speed!

A sign from above

It’s official now!  The Art Establishment sign went up on the front of the building yesterday, so I guess there’s no turning back now.  Tom designed the logo and Mike Kingcaid (wearing the bandanna) made the sign.  We think it looks great!

It took a while to hang, as you will see by the ever-increasing darkness in the photos,

Had to switch from a ladder to scaffolding.

Almost time for the unveiling!

Here's how it looks in daylight!

Introducing our newest teacher, Joyce Danko!

We are very excited to share the news that we have a new teacher on board!  Her name is Joyce Danko and she is a professional Colorist/Artist from Bethlehem.  Joyce is a lifelong painter who, for the past four years, has been closely involved in the traditional atelier method of art training. This reflects the recent movement in the art world towards a revival in the classical approach to training and technical proficiency. She also has an impressive background in color theory (she is a strong advocate of the Fletcher color system), and is a professional color consultant for interior design. Her paintings were included in a number of recent juried exhibitions, and she is also a noted award winning canine painter.

Joyce is very excited to share her knowledge, and we are just as excited that she will be joining our studio! Here are some links to her work:

http://joycedankopainting.com/

http://www.joycedankodesign.com/

"The road to success is always under construction" -Lily Tomlin

Since our last post, things have been moving at lightning speed (including the money out of our checkbook!). Our contractors have been hauling ass and getting lots of things done.  Here's what's been going on:

* The downstairs bathroom, which had to be enlarged to be handicapped accessible, has been framed out and the handicap ramp built.

* The upstairs bathroom, which also had to be enlarged slightly, has been framed, dry walled, and all of the flooring and fixtures purchased and ready to be put in.

Where Tom does some of his best thinking.

* The darkroom is almost done – the lightproof door has been installed and new drywall put up and primed and handicap door installed. 

* Last but not least, the “deep, dark room” which is used for unloading film and has to be absolutely pitch black, has been built, primed and painted, black of course.

In other news, our gallery sign has been printed, looks fabulous, and just needs to be hung.

Whew!  I'm tired just writing about all we've been getting done!  Stay tuned...lots more to come!