A very boring blog post

I know things have been quiet here, and that's because there's really nothing new to report.  Our brick/stone mason is busy chiseling out the old mortar between the stones in the basement, and we're still busy priming the upstairs walls.  Very boring! 

Last weekend we went to the Riverside Festival of the Arts in Easton and talked to a few really talented artists that seemed interested in teaching, so we're still busy on that end of things. 

The stones getting ready to be repointed

Oh yeah, Tom painted the loading dock door, too.

A little light in the darkness

After months and months of searching, and almost giving up, we finally found some darkroom equipment we needed!  Score!  Yesterday we purchased a revolving darkroom door and a film drying cabinet from Easton Area High School.  Sadly, their darkroom has closed because the teacher retired and they are not replacing him, so they are selling off the equipment. 

We were getting ready to bid on a revolving door on eBay and
take a 4 hour drive to Maryland to pick it up, when we
saw Easton H.S. advertise this one on Craigslist. 
It's the perfect size and in fantastic condition.

We had almost bought the identical film cabinet from a guy in
upstate New York and were going to drive up there to pick it up,
but it had some problems so we passed on it. 
This one is in MINT condition!

We also purchased a like-new safe light from the high school.  Our darkroom is just about complete!

The awning of a new day...

Our new awning arrived this morning!  We finally have:

* a cover from the elements
* a number on the front of our building
* class

Okay, it may take more than a new awning to give us that last one, but you must admit, it does class the joint up a bit.

Not to belabor the point, but remember what the place looked like just a year ago?:

Well, here it is today!:

 

 

 



Can we get some support?

Our contractor began taking up the concrete around one of the support beams.  The beam had been encased in a concrete covering, and now we know why.  It was extremely rotted.  He also doesn't think the concrete floor was original, even though it's fairly old.  



No, it wasn't beavers that did this.  Water damage over
a century rotted away the wood.  Note how the beam
is resting on a steel plate underneath it.

Checking things off the list!

Tom was on vacation for the last two weeks and feels like we got a lot accomplished:

* Front of building painted
* Landscaping and painting done on side of building
* Other half of floor prepped for sanding, and some edging done
* Priming of ceiling and walls begun

 

* Slab roller for the pottery studio purchased

* Outside of ductwork being cleaned

30 or 40 years of dirt and nicotine stains coming of with Windex, Magic
Erasers and LOTS of elbow grease

* Support beams in basement are prepped to be repaired/replaced

Our contractor cut around the beam and is going to lift
the concrete out and check what's under the slab.  He
has a feeling it's water.  Bottom of water-damaged beam will
be cut and replaced with a concrete mold.

How to overcome acrophobia in 3 easy steps!

1.  Buy a building with really high ceilings that are in bad shape.
2.  Be on such a tight budget that you don't want to/can't pay a painter to paint them.
3.  Get up on a ladder and do it yourself.

Tom and I both suffer from acrophobia (a fear of heights).  That's why these pictures will be so surprising.  They still are shocking to us.  This week, we are doing "high up" work which simply needs to get done.  So we did it.  High up.  No nets!



Tom was over in the corner sitting on top of the darkroom priming
the ceiling, while I was busy cleaning the top of the ductwork.

Top of the ductwork.  Gross.



How high up I was.



How high up I felt.

 



A little history

Occasionally I Google Chipman Knitting Mills, South Bethlehem and I recently found this excerpt from a book titled "Moodys Manual of Railroads and Corporation Securities, Volume 1."  We already knew that our building was built as a satellite location for the larger Chipman Knitting Mills in Easton, but this tells us what was in our building.  According to this, it housed 188 knitting machines, 73 loopers and 19 sewing machines. 

Looks like the Chipmans were doing pretty well for themselves...those are some mighty large numbers on their balance sheet for 1920 and 21. 

 

This is a photo of a London hosiery mill c. 1914-17.  It's interesting because
it's around the same time Chipman was in operation and they're using
circular knitting machines which were used to make socks and stockings. 
I can only guess that these may be similar to the machines used in our building.
Note the support beams which are so similar to ours.   

This is a photo of a looper.  A looper attaches a toe portion to a sock, in case
you didn't know (I didn't!).  In this photo, eleven year old Nannie Colson can
be seen working as a looper at the Crescent Hosiery Mill
in Scotland Neck, North Carolina, 1914. 

Here's a photo, c. 1918, of one of the workers and a pile of the heavy wool
socks made for the government at Chipman Knitting Mills, Easton. 
I would assume these socks were issued to soldiers serving in WWI.