Hut one, hut two...

So much has been happening in the last couple of weeks!  We've kicked it up a notch, as Emeril would say - BAM!

We've finished taking all of the paneling down and the flooring up from the 2 front offices.  Unfortunately, at some point, someone adhered flooring directly to the wood floor and in one room there's a nasty, sticky residue left on the floor and in the other room there's a very interesting linoleum floor remaining that just refuses to come up.  Strangely, it looks like a football field.  Our guess is that it's from the 1940's or 50's.  After tossing the ball around and throwing a few touchdowns, we decided that we're not going to have any time to play football, so we're going to cover it with tile...eventually. 

We also removed paneling from around the front door and lo and behold!  The original transom over the front doors!  We're definitely not covering this beauty up again. 

We're going to leave the brick exposed around the front door (with some repair work and a fresh coat of paint), repair the broken pane of glass, remove the wood from behind the transom to let the light through and bring this back to its original beauty!

Here's what it looked like before with the paneling:

Down in the dumps(ter)...

We got a 30 cubic yard dumpster delivered today.  They said we could keep it for a month.  We had it almost filled in a matter of hours. 

Tom was very excited when it was delivered.  He did his "dumpster dance"

Every time I threw him in the dumpster, he kept finding his way out again...

 

Here are some before and after pictures from the cleanout today:

 

 

 

 

Our most likely futile attempt at keeping the neighbors from throwing all of their crap in the dumpster as soon as we leave...

 

Yep, that oughta do the trick.

 

Here's just a fraction of the nails we've pulled up from floors, walls, you name it...

 

 

This reminds me of one of those "I Spy" books...
 

Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept it...

To inspire us when we feel overwhelmed, Tom posted our business's Mission Statement in the "lobby," along with some painter's palettes so we remember what our ultimate goal is: an art studio.

The Art Establishment Mission Statement:
At The Art Establishment we believe art should be accessible to everyone, and that every person, no matter their ability, should have the opportunity to experience the awesome nature of creative expression. We are a visual arts studio especially dedicated to serving the unique needs of the amateur artist and are committed to supporting and fostering their creative process by offering affordable access to studio space, equipment, art supplies, instruction, a gallery lounge, and the dynamic interaction among passionate artists that provides for a richly rewarding art experience.

Answer: Leisure suits, shag carpet, men's perms...

...and horrid 70's wood paneling.

Question:  What are things that should never be in fashion again?

We've been ripping down the old 70's paneling in the two front offices to reveal the beautiful original beadboard paneling.  When the previous owners purchased the building they "modernized" it by paneling, which was very much in vogue back then, but this 100+ year old paneling is finally seeing the light of day again!



From this...






...to this...




...and this.



The thickness of the old beadboard paneling.

Comparison of the thickness of the old paneling vs. "modern" paneling.  Unbelievable!

 

 

 

Going, going...

...GONE!!!

The offices are finally gone, and boy, does it really open the space up!  Tom's been a busy boy, and the fruits of his labor are evident.

Going...

Going...

Gone!

Many thanks to his brother Brian for his help.

The remaining wall in the front is going to stay put for a while for privacy.  Without it people could look in the front doors and see straight back to the rear of the building.  Once we're ready to refinish the floors it will have to come out.

Next project: ordering a dumpster to get rid of all the debris we've accumulated.  Hopefully it will be large enough to hold all of our crap, plus all the crap people will dump in it at night.  Any tips on preventing people from dumping their crap in our dumpster are welcome.

Once we clear everything out, we can move on to our next project which, if this meme is true, will clearly be taking a nap.

As Charlie Sheen would say...

...Winning

I've been taking a "Start Your Business" class since September put on by the Community Action Development Corporation of Bethlehem.  Thursday was the last class and everyone had to give a presentation about our prospective businesses.  The class voted on which business they thought was the "most likely to succeed."  There were many great presentations and great ideas!

Here's a little hint as to how the voting went:

It was really nice to be validated by other future entrepreneurs!

If you're interested and you'd like to get a better idea of what we're about, here's the Power Point presentation we gave.  It's better to use the scroll bar on the right side of the presentation rather than the arrow down key at the bottom.

http://www.slideshare.net/ellenflynn319

I'm ready for my close up Mr. DeMille...

Even though our art studio isn't up and running yet, we're still contributing to the arts, which is pretty cool.  A film student shot part of his film at our building and we think it turned out pretty awesome!  Everything was shot within a 2 to 3 block radius of our house.  The whole thing is really great and worth watching, but just in case you're not into film noir or you're far too busy to watch the entire film (it's only 8 minutes long!), fast forward to the 6 minute mark to see our building's big debut. 

Fin

http://vimeo.com/54531462