Excavating The Yard

Kevin (Irish Kevin) claimed that he would excavate the whole yard in one day. I didn't quite believe him. He started at 7am. This photo shows where he was at 7:15. And thus it was and it was thus and all that it was was good. Thursday, May 20th, 2010 our yard was liberated of the confines of it's asphalt.

We found the remnants of a cobblestone street under the asphalt. We saved them a big pile. We're imagining parking area made of cobblestones.

There was also loads of slate and bricks. We saved what was good. Bricks for building repairs, slate for a patio.

THE AMAZING STORY OF THE CHEAPEST RAINWATER COLLECTION TANK EVER, AND HOW BEN NARROWLY ESCAPED BEING BURIED ALIVE AND YES I POSTED ANOTHER PICTURE OF OUR CATS AND THERE'S A BURNING BUSH AND OTHER STRANGE BIBLICAL STUFF TOO.

We measured our $25 1000 gallon water tank and picked a spot for a 7' deep 6' wide hole. We'll eventually run the gutters into it, and stick a pump down into the bottom and irrigate our garden with rainwater. But first before the garden exists, we wanted to bury the tank. A "cistern" I believe it's called. I gave Irish Kevin four pendant lamps that I bought at an auction. I had bought 28 of them for $7.50 a piece (I have trouble with quantities at auctions) Anyway, Kevin liked the lights and said he'd dig the hole for the tank as a trade. So we're up to $53 now...

Funny thing is that we found an old basement right where we started digging. A nice flat basement floor 7' below the ground. How odd. It seems perhaps that the Lord wanted us to put our tank here.

My job was to go into the hole (may I call it a "spider hole"?) and help place the tank as Kevin lowered it in.

It was a little scary but apparently not scary enough to stop taking pictures. Have I really become such a blog-dork? Can I invent the word "blork"?

B L O R K

And now here's the blork underneath the water tank.

Wait! No Kevin! Arrgh!

I narrowly escaped a horrible fate.

The world is just a giant litter box isn't it? I've always thought so.

A post-work barbeque in front of a gaping hole, beside a fig tree. It seems rather biblical, doesn't it? Perhaps it is the fig tree that is on fire, and God (or perhaps Satan) is speaking to us through this burning tree... and then suddenly the earth opens up and swallows the young Abraham (Blork) into it's dark crevasse. And then the followers of Jesus all ate hot dogs and drank cold beer. Hip hip hooray!

A Quick Tour of the Spaces as of May 1st, 2010

The upstairs space (1250 SF) is getting close to ready. It's got a front door, lights, and air conditioners are almost ready to install.

This is the little loft that's a part of the upstairs space. It's nice to climb up there. Great view from those windows. Lots of light.

This is our smallest space (460 SF) and it's serving as the shop right now. I'd like to get some of my students to open up a printshop here. But there can be only a few free months of rent before the bills we have call for real money.

This is the space that we have rented to Demitri. His lease began on May 1st, and he's moving his stuff in slowly. Still need a back door for his space - and the air conditioning needs to be hooked up. But Demitri is flexible. Works for us.

Here's the yard after throwing away probably 3 tons of trash. We are getting closer and closer to being able to tear off the asphalt!

Our 3rd dumpster we've had here. Duke the dumpster guy is probably one of the nicest people I've met through the whole construction project.

You may ask... Did we throw everything away? Clearly we are unable to part with the 100+ windows, 18 radiators, cobblestones, sinks and broken chairs that remain. If anyone has ever seen the Polanski film "The Tenant" I'm feeling it here as I have slowly become the previous owner of our place, the salvage guy. I sold some doors last week, and a bunch of fluorescent lights the week before that. Actually, I'm more successful of a salvage guy than he was. He didn't sell anything.

Ping pong in the warehouse - this is "our part" of the warehouse, the future studio and perfomance space. As of now, still plenty of work to do here. But the doors are nice and the space stays cool in the summer because of all the concrete.

Glass Door on the Second Floor

Here's Matt, helping us put in our most expensive door, on the second floor.