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.

Another Tree Planting in the Neighborhood

Matt and Ramona Dimon get 2 trees this time.

We were joined by these inspiring little whippersnappers!

A Rainwater Collection Tank

One morning, Paul called me up and said "hey Ben do you want to go get some 1000 gallon water tanks with me?" (A typical request from Paul) "Sure!" I replied. Rainwater collection has been a goal - albeit a future one, but when the opportunity arises... The other tub, in the foreground will make a great hot tub. All for a total of $25.

Some New Pics, in no particular order, with scattered Narrative

Oh Verna...This is a nice moment - but imagine this picture with grass and plants instead of broken glass and asphalt?

We brought a guy in who has a portable saw mill. Weird Dave from New Jersey, a physical therapist by most days, a "sawyer" by night slash other days. He liked to talk a lot, and was often embarrassingly revealing about his marriage.

But the guy sure knew how to run a bandsaw...

It started to rain the first day. We were not deterred.

This is the wood we got out of the deal. All in all, amazingly cheap. Recycled wood, resawn. High quality vintage shi-ite if you're into such things.

Cherry Trees in Bloom

Randolph St is without a doubt one of the prettiest blocks around when the cherries are in bloom. There's our place, and you can see our little cherries planted there - not blooming right now with the pink ones, but we'll see. I know they'll open up soon.

We now have a mailbox

Made of the finest recycled electrical box that one can buy at Fazio's Steel in NJ. Finally, after two years of soggy mail, we are moving up in the world.

Our First Tenant

Demitri Ponns, Chef and International Man of Mystery Extraordinaire... We've known him for a while but didn't know we shared the same dreams for our event space. Demitri will rent the medium-sized of the 3 offices for catering/storage and he'll throw dinner parties in our event space. We are so happy to have him here. And he made us dinner!

Philly Cleanup Day Spring 2010

Some hot white girls planting wild grass seeds in an empty lot on Thompson and 5th. I must say that I nearly gagged emptying a trash can that contained what is probably best described as "liquid dog poop"

A Jewish Carpenter arrives after Easter

We have been meaning to get rid of this door for a while - ever since last summer, when we put in our new door. It somehow just never got done. What we needed was a miracle... A visit from a Jewish Carpenter!

And now we have a nice yellow wall here.

Every good carpenter deserves a nap after a few hours work...