Going the Distance, but Still so Much Farther to Go

Joey plaining our redwood beams down to beautiful 1x6 siding and molding.  We were super lucky to find him, his tools, and a kindred designer/maker's soul.

Dan, so tired after attaching our roofing material to the interior commercial storefront.  He came down from Oregon to give us some help for the week, so great!

This is our interior wall in the office/storefront - depending on the renter's choice.  It will look great with bright white walls/ceiling and shinny OSB flooring.

Here is our loft space closer to being complete (redwood walls to come).

Our first dinner with friends in the loft, more to come

Nicole and Wanda came to celebrate Amy's birthday and to help us scrub walls, floors, and get the place ready for our next week (and closer to completion).  So much help and awesome company.

In progress

So, we now have a real loft apartment (all still rough though).

This is Amy and me trying to layout our kitchen.

More soon...

Lovely Bones

We started round two of demolition and framing this weekend.  Our goals are: demolish the existing ceiling and floor assembly between the two levels, expose two walls, and build a new floor/ceiling assembly that creates room for an apartment on the second floor.

Our dear friend Roger has taken on the role of dad-figure/contractor for the next month.  He basically gives us "to-do" lists and checks in on us periodically to make sure we haven't cut our arms off or hit a gas main.  Otherwise, we are left to our own destructive devices.

Well, not entirely alone.  Our friends Christi and Lukas came on Saturday to help us break stuff.  Lukas is 10 and has a way with a crowbar. See below: 

On Sunday we asked a bunch of our friends to come help us continue to break things.  No one could make it, and Jon had to work a ropes course.  So it was just me. So sad.  And also really, really bad-ass.  I was a one woman wrecking ball- tearing through lathe and plaster until I hit brick and redwood.  I only concussed myself once.

We since have managed to convince two carpenters, Joey and Greg, to help us out with the framing. We met Joey when we visited his mom's shop in Arcata, the K Street Annex.  We loved the stained concrete floor and counter made of wood scraps, so we asked the girl working there about the guy who had done their construction and design.  She thought we a little creepy, I think.  But we left her our contact information to pass on to the mystery designer.  Eventually Joey called us, seemed pleased that we liked his style, and agreed to join Team Coat Shop.

I went to a show with Greg on Sunday night and found out he was looking for off-season gigs, so we grabbed him too.  Greg goes on 4 hour bike ride sin the morning and then comes and does construction with us until 8 at night.  His blood is pure diesel, I think.

We are a few days ahead of schedule right now, so our next adventure is to haul some major appliances up to the second floor before the subfloor goes in.  Jon insists this will be a piece of cake, just a matter of "setting some anchors and tying some knots."  We'll see...

For Lease

Yes, we are getting closer to leasing out our commercial space.  We are looking toward April, 2012 for the lease start date but that is dependent on our construction progress.  Our construction loan gives us till June to complete the project, so we have a bit of flex-time.

We have two options of leasing out the space:

1. Lease the entire storefront area + the office space + 1/2 of the basement (all for below market rate, per square foot) for $1250.
2. Lease a 1/6 share of the storefront, office, and basement storage.  This would be a COOP model where we would be part of the community and help organize the store.

We are excited that we are looking to complete this entire process in 12 months, a year early (fingers crossed!)

Here is a picture of my mom helping me with the For Lease sign.  Its a board we spray painted with chalkboard paint and then hung off the illuminated Coat Shop Sign.

Project Updates

Below are some pictures and project updates.  Only about 6-weeks+ late, hope you enjoy.

Our friend Clark measuring OSB for a wall covering

Here is the application, at the top of the wall, with the "stamp" as the molding

Post Rappel (side of the building) beam install

Our friend Laird installing a dual-paned window.  Heat loss if bad for all involved.

Bench making with all reused materials.  This project was fun. 

Hindu God Garuda, from Nepal, now a door handle

Amy and her love of metal rolling carts.  I think we now own 7 large metal rolling objects, not exaggerating. How could you say "no" to metal carts when she looks so cute?

Fake Fire, heater actually.  A good upstairs substitute until we hook up our natural gas fireplace.

Salvage Love

So it turns out I'm a bit of a hoarder.  Not of cats or coupons or canned goods.  But of twists of rusty metal, glass jars, and wooden crates.  Since we've started this horrific restoration/renovation project, I've found myself scrambling up piles of scrap metal at the salvage yard and digging through dusty root cellars at estate sales to find objects I can re-purpose.  I'm not much of a crafter or seamstress, but I can go to town with iron wool and a palm sander. 

There is so much cool stuff out there, guys! 

Above and below are photos from Housewerks Salvage, the most bad ass salvage spot in Baltimore.  Jon and I have become building material tourists, and unfortunately the result is a bit of hoarding blue balls (sorry, Dad).  We see amazing things when we're traveling that we have no means to bring home with us. So instead we take pictures and caress old doors and metal lockers lovingly, mournfully.

My latest project is a redwood window frame with peeling green paint.  I found an old, huge mirror at a yard sale that I'm going to cut to fit the window.  It's going to be awesome and look something like this:

This is Jon's latest project, but I couldn't resist mucking around. 

He found an algae-covered clawfoot tub (without feet) at a used furniture store that's going out of business.  The proprietress basically begged Jon to take it away, but she thought it would be too heavy for us (ahem, ME) to lift.  We hauled that sucker out and away like it was nothing. Jon wants to turn it into a fountain, but until then I'm scrubbing layers of mud and green gunk off the cast iron.  I'm thinking of leaving some of the green, though.  I reminds me of the well in the Princess and the Frog. 

 

If you need me, I'll be rooting through your trash.

Phase F#$*ing Two!

This blog has been dark for a while, not because we've taken any time off from the Coat Shop.  Rather, we've been bringing new meaning to the phrase "DIY." 

As it turns out, DIY doesn't just mean tiling your own shower or sanding your own floors or making cute little sconces out of wood chips.  DIY also means shuttling your own blueprints to the city building department, taking copious notes on the detailed reasons the city is rejecting your plans, and then crying a little in the bathroom of City Hall. 

During the past few months, Jon and I have become intimately involved with the City of Eureka.  We read fire and building code at night on the couch.  We got to be on a first name basis with the Fire Marshall and the Chief Building Official.  I'm pretty sure they finally approved our plans because at some point they were just ready to see other people.

Once our plans were approved by the city, we brought our business proposal (written on the beach in Maui by Jon on our honeymoon) to our local credit union.  We were terrified that they wouldn't approve our construction loan due to the economic climate.  But the credit union's VP came to the Coat Shop and took a tour.  He said he was really impressed and has since helped fast-track our loan.

Now things are moving at light speed.  We're lining up sub-contractors (because at this point neither of us is willing to turn the project over to a general contractor, we're still steering this ship ourselves) and tenants and re-drawing plans and begging friends to join our demolition crew. 

We're doing a week of major demolition and then two weeks of framing and floor laying and then HVAC and electricity and plumbing.  We're moving in at some point after the floor is in but before the basic utilities are hooked up, because we like urban camping.

We have a hundred decisions to make.  We need to figure out where to put the heating vents and how to remill the redwood and whether to spend $4000 on the gas fireplace Jon is currently obsessed with. And amidst that chaos, it feels like things are working out. 

We have been preparing for doomsday since Day 1 of this project.  What will we do if the economy collapses? If the walls fall in? If the basement floods?  We have laid in bed and mapped out worst case scenarios, along with second-worst case scenarios.  We have meticulously planned for doomsday and and it has not arrived. 

While that worst case scenario might still occur, I will be surprised if it does.  As opposed to opening the door, sighing, and saying, "Oh, there you are.  Come on in.  I've been keeping dinner warm for you."

Happy New Year!