.....It's slow, real slow. I've taken apart the work space, sort of. I have a plan which is to defeat the ravages of dust and so everything either goes in a drawer or behind a door, everything. I don't want to see anything extraneous and since I know Curtis never looks at this website, it will put the responsibility squarely on him. If he doesn't come through, he's fired. It's quite simple. And then I'll hire him again over night and then fire him the next day in a sort of Groundhog Day-esque plot line. The shop is so filled up with one job that has been done since the beginning of December and it's starting to drive me crazy. I won't mention names, of course, but I will say that there is a special place in the core of the earth for a particular New York City based contractor at the right hand of the devil only one seat closer than all of the other contractors out there. Except J. Robbie-Tait. He's upstairs next to the big man and the angels and the inventor of pizza and baseball. Everyone else can take a politican with them and get cozy for the long, slow burn.
So, yup, nothing much doing. Working a small favor type job which is a pleasant way of saying I'll probably lose money. Still trawling the calm waters for the white whale that tows us out to the deeps, slows, and tickles the line while we slowly reel her in. She will come in, she always does. But back to back months of baking bread in the evenings for meals through the following days is clogging my resolve. Mostly I work on clarity and reason to believe in this field that is amazing and overwhelming and unforgiving and so underappreciated by the shiny masses.
Gloss White P-Lam on MDF. Sometimes choose the higher bid. I'm just saying. No one ever says, 'Damn, I should of went with the lowest bid'. Nope, they will say 'should of gone with someone else'. When you pick the lowest bid and it goes wrong, you just bought the worst quailty. And then I have to fix someone else's lack of care which is really too bad for me.
While Brian keeps laying in the cut, Joey is out of pocket in Vietnam. (I've started watching the Wire again so my vocabulary has fallen back in line with the Baltimore drug trade). Joey is riding a motorcycle up and down the Vietnamese highlands with several amigos (which, oddly enough, means 'buddies' in Namese too) dodging punji sticks and the wrath of swamp foot from the looks of it. Hope you guys packed lots of foot powder. I expect that they return 30 lbs. lighter each but heavier with rich tales to tell.
Things in the shop are a little slow. We've been up to a few favors and a couple small gigs. It looks like a real sampler of wood species in the shop. Ash, Sapelle, Walnut, Maple, Poplar, it's all there in a heap. Curtis and I pulled the sheet rock wall down that was at the back of the space. It was holding on by a couple screws and jumped well into the dumpster shortly thereafter.
Curtis pitched in on a favor-type of project for a colleague. Here he is pondering the next move in the chess like glue up. It sucked.
This posting is more than a year old. It's taken this long to finally get around to taking nice pictures and still, given the fresh snow and a few minor hold-ups, there is much more to share. The short version of a very long story is that years ago, after moving to Brooklyn right after graduation from boatbuilding school in Maine, one of the first people I met was a fellow named Mark. He had just purchased a building in rough shape and my first job here was helping him do some serious renovation work as he found money to do so. The basement and first floor were fixed up first and enough so that he could live semi-comfortably.
Fast forward a few years and with a little more security, other parts of this three storey building were ready for change. After much discussion, I agreed to take on a full gut renovation, everything. Part of my taking this on was due in large part because the level of accountability in contractors is shockingly poor in this parts. Being in and out of jobs for some time always makes for horror stories to share with colleagues. Of course, great contractors exist but this budget was not scaled in their favor.
I think I bought a box of 40 contractor bags for the first day of demo. My crew looked at me with stupid amazement. About 300 bags later, I understood. I thought demolition would take 2 days. 'The Boys' had the place wrecked and nearly swept clear in about 3 hours. From day one, I was amazed at how fast things can move.
I think the whole job took about 11 weeks. We had a hiccup here and there but for the most part, it went splendidly.
The bathroom before.
After.
The old stairway.
The new stairway.
The job was easily the most stressful and yet most satisfying one I've done just in pure scope and all that was involved. I am happy to have helped out my friend and to foster the project as it grew.
We installed the desks and room dividers for the office project we have been working on. We installed during the work day so we had to work efficiently and quietly. I told the boys to keep the impact drivers in the bag and only use the regular drills. Even still, I noticed a little glare from an adjacent desk and wondered what really could have been expected? But no matter, everything jumped into place and made for a flawless and absolutely simple installation. Everything was in place in 2.5 hours or so and then it was off to the diner for the semi-traditional wrap-up lunch. No DeRosia to be found however which was weird.
Good story involving the diner. Joey and I each submitted our orders and Curtis went after us. The last thing I asked for was some coffee. When Curtis finished the waitress asked him if he wanted some coffee? No. The food came out and again, to Curtis, you want some coffee? No. At that point it had become an odd joke and I told Curtis that if she asked again he would have to accept. Minutes later Curtis was stirring some cream into his crummy diner coffee. It was a victory for pushy and aloof waitresses everywhere. Here's to you Curtis..........
I expect that today will be the last day in the shop for the plywood office furniture. God willing, it will be gone shortly and jump into place on site. It has been much more work than I planned and as per usual, Workshop is heavy on the work side. So long 2011. If I put my mind to it, I'm sure I can find reasons to be thankful 2010 went away and I can certainly find reasons to be thankful this past year is gone. My goals for this year are to do a little bit better business wise, not work with bum contractors and maybe figure out a couple of our own designs for stand alone work.
For good measure, Justin owed me some hours in the shop. So he sanded with little time remaining on New Year's Eve.
To hold the table tops down, we made some plwood clips that slot into the table itself and get attached to the underside of the table.
