Hi 5 #3: Construction

There was a lot of masonry and a structural beam that needed attention first

We are building a 2nd floor level out of reclaimed lumber.  We spent a long time hunting down the right pieces - big 12x8 trusses from one site, steel ibeams from another site, floor joists from a house being taken down in New Jersey, etc.  You meet a lot of characters in the demolition-salvage business anywhere I imagine... and in Philly, they're even weirder.

Building a wall on 5th Street.  Some of our workers are Mexican guys who live next door. They're nice guys and do good work.

The holes in the wall were Catherine's idea.  Right now they are closed during construction but they will eventually be open so people can peep through.  

Hi 5 #2: The Place

Thankfully, and contrary to popular belief, we are not living in a construction zone.  Our house shares a wall with the warehouse, but it's actually a separate building. It was once a machine shop, and still kind of feels like one.  It's a 3-story house.  A "trinity" (father, son, holy ghost) - a strange Philly term.

The 3rd floor, our bedroom... 

Building some shelves out of salvaged wood...

The 2nd floor: a temporary studio... Most stuff is still in boxes.

The 1st floor:  a living room and kitchen.  Rustic chic.

The yard is gigantic. The dream is that it will eventually be planted with trees, bamboo groves, vegetable garden, etc.  How hard can it be to dig up 110 feet of asphalt?  That's right, 110 feet.

The yard used to used as an architectural salvage business.  The previous owner stored tons of stone, doors, oddities in the yard.  We overlapped with him for 6 months when we first moved in. When we bought the place, we gave him 6 months to move his stuff out.  He took every minute of it, and was out at midnight exactly 6 months later.

The building was full of salvage too.   You could barely walk through it.  There were little corridors to squeeze between the stuff.

Hi 5 #1: Introduction

Simply put, this is an ongoing blog about a project in Philadelphia.  Catherine and I bought a building a few months ago and are transforming it into recording studio and gallery space.  A lot of people have been asking us for photos and I figure that we might as well start a blog and have a central location for that stuff - and maybe make it a little interesting to read at the same time. And um...  maybe explain a bit of why we haven't been so good about keeping in touch. 

A Postcard

"Here we are in front of our building" is in familiar handwriting on the back.  "Hope we survive the winter...!"  ... "Say hello to the fam!"  It seems kind of like a Niagara Falls or Grand Canyon snapshot... Our pleased grins seem vaguely unaware that we're probably totally nuts to have just spent everything we own on a decaying building in North Philadelphia. "Here's having a good time from the land of urban decay!  Have a pina colada on us!"   

Here is a view of the building from further away. The main building was the Charles Maas Brewery in it's former life. This facade was the entrance.  At some point, the building was used to repair trolleys.  We live in a little house in the back which you can't really see from this angle.  The house was once a machine shop. The floorboards are big crazy hewn lumber that looks like it was chopped by hand with an axe.  And it's painted orange.

A bar made out of old porch railings.