Progress as it stands

Well, I'm working along at making the shop the kind of space I want it to be. So far, I did a bunch of patching and sanding and taping-off (which Loren L. came along to help me with the second leg of, yesterday, thanks for that you marvelous Loren you!).

This process has also involved a very trying series of episodes with the ridiculous wooden spars that were attached in a heinous manner at the bottom of the mirrors that cover the walls of the shop space. "Heinous?" you say. "Ridiculous?" you wonder. Yes, heinous, because the prior tenants used Liquid Nails to attached the mirrors AND the spars to the walls, and then for good measure (enter "Ridiculous"!) used very long, very obscure nails (square and star ended screws, as opposed to the friendlier phillips-head or straight-head screws) which were put in at all sorts of weird angles -- and for extra fun some were even stripped in the process.

All this made it impossible to get the spars off the wall without at the very last resorting to hauling out my large hammer and prying them off after spending what time I could undoing screws with my drill. I'll share some photos of the typical damage done to the walls by the prior tenants' creative problem solving efforts. (Those poor walls!) After pulling the offending spars off the wall, I replaced them with low-profile heavy-duty mirror clips, and patched and sanded the terrible holes and gashes that resulted from the amputation.

Finally, after getting covered in blobs of spackle and a coating of plaster dust for the third day, I managed to actually get around to doing some painting this afternoon and evening. The excitement is palpable. And probably covered in paint, like me and everything else. I figure I finished about 1/3 of the walls and trim. The areas that were rehabbed around the mirrors and elsewhere look great -- you will never imagine the carnage that preceded, if you look at them now!

What's next (besides the other 2/3 of the painting)? Well, due to the fact that my carpenter has been hard at work building wonderfully towering shelves that will be installed along the walls, I will be staining and sealing bookshelves all next week. Then maybe I can actually get to working with the actual books, which have been accumulating in piles and boxes and bags, which are usually piled in an area inconvenient to the renovations going on (resulting in a large amount of lugging, pushing, and puffing about getting them into slightly less inconvenient spots).

We won't get into the nonsense about city permits and all that. That's another ball of wax entirely. We'll just cross our fingers and hope that everything gets approved in time for the opening!!!