woke at 6, slowly got up, sent some emails, walked seth. took off around 8, i think. got chai, went to TBM.
spent the morning hanging the door for the darkroom, planing some protruding edges on the framing i've done, cleaning some more. nervously re-arranged where the presses are sitting, so as to make a bigger clear spot around the darkroom. did tons of random little things to polish off the rough state of completion that the shop is in.
finally at 1:30, steve the inspector arrived. got about ten feet in the door, said "so this is it, huh?"
i said "yeah, unless you tell me differently."
"okay, looks good."
after one question about if i had specified that i'd be insulating the roof (i hadn't, but plan to address that in a couple years when i can afford to replace the roof), i had the green light.
GO!
off to the lumber yard to order drywall, they couldn't deliver 30 sheets until monday. grrr.
john hastie, as always, came to my rescue. arrived 30 minutes later with his empty van. load 10 sheets, drive to TBM, unload, returned for another 20 sheets, back to TBM, unload, send john on his way.
i hung four sheets myself before 5:45, when i had to leave. 5/8" drywall is a lot heavier than the 1/2" i am more used to, and is closer to the limit of what i can lift into place and screw to the studs by myself with only two hands.
drove south to kip's, where dianogah had our first interview and photoshoot for a magazine article about the new record. went pretty well, aside from the shock that the interviewer already had the whole album (we've been super tight about not sharing it). thanks, record label!
home again, trying to get back in time to go to a movie with di, who hasn't been answering her phone all afternoon.
at home, she's here, but we decide not to go out.
i answer emails, di goes to sleep.
i will now, too.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Thursday, December 20, 2007
thursday, back on track
woke at 6, got up and out by 7. chai on the way to TBM.
spent the day working on the shop, in anticipation of the rough building inspection, which i arranged to take place at 1:30 friday.
the way it works is that once you have your plans approved, you get a building permit. this allows you to install framing of rooms, rough electrical, and rough plumbing and heating. meaning you can run conduit, but can't install lights. you can put water supply pipes in, but no faucets. you can build walls, but not hang drywall. once you have finished your rough build-out (as i pretty much did today), you get three inspectors to come: plumbing (done), electrical (done) and general building (tomorrow).
once those three inspectors have signed off that you're doing things right, then you can finish your build. hang drywall, paint, put in lights, faucets, etc. make the place livable. this is what i'm hoping i will be cleared for as of tomorrow.
after you finish building, the three inspectors each come back to make sure you finished the place, and assuming they like it, you get a certificate of occupancy, at which point you (or i, in this case) can run a business out of the space. i have set jan 1 as my date by which i plan to have my certificate of occupancy.
i started at the shop by removing a half-assed 2x8 header i had doubled onto the header holding up the loft. i took the long on down, and nailed up two shorter 2x8s in it's place. looks better, feels better. removed a bunch of protruding nails which displayed the messed-up way the loft was originally built. added a vertical 2x8 under one end of the 2x8 mentioned above, as a 'proper' way to foot the weight of the loft.
at some point i went to kaufmann's deli again for lunch. i asked the same woman to make me her choice of sandwich, and i ended up with an amazing lean corned beef with saurkraut and swiss on challah. AWESOME. so good. i also got some root beers and a fresh-baked oatmeal raisin cookie.
back at the shop, i pulled up the last of the pink vinyl roll on the floor, immersing my gloves once again in the pain-in-the-ass vinyl adhesive.
framed the front wall of the darkroom, and installed the wall. tried mounting the used pre-hung office door into the darkroom, but will come back tomorrow with finish nails and shims, to do it correctly.
here's the corner of the back office, with the new overhead 2x8 in the background.
this is the new spray-out booth, all clean as of today.
the darkroom, behind a pile of crap an the exposure unit, with the door propped in place.
interior of the rear office, looking toward the front of the building.
my new office, behaving like some type of lumber yard.
took out the garbage, took out the scrap metal.
spent a couple hours cleaning the shop, collecting tools, sweeping, sorting trash and mill ends. got up my courage and left for home.
answered some emails (only 460 emails yet to go through in my inbox!) and showered, so di and i could go out.
we drove down to lincoln square to the book cellar, to hear (rock photographer) pat graham talk about his recent book, silent pictures. when we arrived, jon resh was talking to john hastie and CP, and somehow they had never met before. which is weird.
pat arrived, with chris thompson (formerly of circus lupus, the monorchid). hastie introduced the evening, with a surprisingly well thought-out monologue about the interaction between the photographer and the band operating on the level pat works at, basically analogous to the way i work, sort of, (i like to think).
chris talked briefly about his experience of working with pat, then pat explained how he works. told a great long story about traveling across the country through snow with modest mouse, to arrive at the empty bottle, for the first time i saw them play, ca. '97.
nice time hanging out after some Q&A. i bought the second and third "dark materials" books.
hastie, CP, di and i went across the street to cafe sel marie for dinner. i had an amazing ahi tuna wrap with mango chutney. always good to hang with those guys.
drove christy home, while john rode his bike.
di and i drove home, and i blog at you here in bed while di draws beer labels in the next room.
spent the day working on the shop, in anticipation of the rough building inspection, which i arranged to take place at 1:30 friday.
the way it works is that once you have your plans approved, you get a building permit. this allows you to install framing of rooms, rough electrical, and rough plumbing and heating. meaning you can run conduit, but can't install lights. you can put water supply pipes in, but no faucets. you can build walls, but not hang drywall. once you have finished your rough build-out (as i pretty much did today), you get three inspectors to come: plumbing (done), electrical (done) and general building (tomorrow).
once those three inspectors have signed off that you're doing things right, then you can finish your build. hang drywall, paint, put in lights, faucets, etc. make the place livable. this is what i'm hoping i will be cleared for as of tomorrow.
after you finish building, the three inspectors each come back to make sure you finished the place, and assuming they like it, you get a certificate of occupancy, at which point you (or i, in this case) can run a business out of the space. i have set jan 1 as my date by which i plan to have my certificate of occupancy.
i started at the shop by removing a half-assed 2x8 header i had doubled onto the header holding up the loft. i took the long on down, and nailed up two shorter 2x8s in it's place. looks better, feels better. removed a bunch of protruding nails which displayed the messed-up way the loft was originally built. added a vertical 2x8 under one end of the 2x8 mentioned above, as a 'proper' way to foot the weight of the loft.
at some point i went to kaufmann's deli again for lunch. i asked the same woman to make me her choice of sandwich, and i ended up with an amazing lean corned beef with saurkraut and swiss on challah. AWESOME. so good. i also got some root beers and a fresh-baked oatmeal raisin cookie.
back at the shop, i pulled up the last of the pink vinyl roll on the floor, immersing my gloves once again in the pain-in-the-ass vinyl adhesive.
framed the front wall of the darkroom, and installed the wall. tried mounting the used pre-hung office door into the darkroom, but will come back tomorrow with finish nails and shims, to do it correctly.
here's the corner of the back office, with the new overhead 2x8 in the background.
this is the new spray-out booth, all clean as of today.
the darkroom, behind a pile of crap an the exposure unit, with the door propped in place.
interior of the rear office, looking toward the front of the building.
my new office, behaving like some type of lumber yard.
took out the garbage, took out the scrap metal.
spent a couple hours cleaning the shop, collecting tools, sweeping, sorting trash and mill ends. got up my courage and left for home.
answered some emails (only 460 emails yet to go through in my inbox!) and showered, so di and i could go out.
we drove down to lincoln square to the book cellar, to hear (rock photographer) pat graham talk about his recent book, silent pictures. when we arrived, jon resh was talking to john hastie and CP, and somehow they had never met before. which is weird.
pat arrived, with chris thompson (formerly of circus lupus, the monorchid). hastie introduced the evening, with a surprisingly well thought-out monologue about the interaction between the photographer and the band operating on the level pat works at, basically analogous to the way i work, sort of, (i like to think).
chris talked briefly about his experience of working with pat, then pat explained how he works. told a great long story about traveling across the country through snow with modest mouse, to arrive at the empty bottle, for the first time i saw them play, ca. '97.
nice time hanging out after some Q&A. i bought the second and third "dark materials" books.
hastie, CP, di and i went across the street to cafe sel marie for dinner. i had an amazing ahi tuna wrap with mango chutney. always good to hang with those guys.
drove christy home, while john rode his bike.
di and i drove home, and i blog at you here in bed while di draws beer labels in the next room.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
wednesday, at home, mostly.
di got up early and ran out to work at the museum. i had a hard time getting up, but was doing laundry by 8am. spent most of the day answering emails. did a bit of cleaning up the fall-out of moving into two 'new' rooms in our house over the last few days. sunny clear day, 32 degrees seemed warm when seth and i walked around noon. i drank tea all day.
re-submitted a number of color comps for the 'reckless records' tote bags and shirts. bowed out of a half-dozen speaking engagement invitations. hashed out ANOTHER cover concept for the new album with jason and kip. no longer shaving, i guess.
di came home around 2, and brought some lunch. she packed some orders, then we went out to fedex and the post office to send various forms and packages out. di faxed off her forms for flatstock in austin. always on the ball. she makes me look bad.
sitting at home answering more emails now. did more laundry. having a working stereo makes a huge difference.
re-submitted a number of color comps for the 'reckless records' tote bags and shirts. bowed out of a half-dozen speaking engagement invitations. hashed out ANOTHER cover concept for the new album with jason and kip. no longer shaving, i guess.
di came home around 2, and brought some lunch. she packed some orders, then we went out to fedex and the post office to send various forms and packages out. di faxed off her forms for flatstock in austin. always on the ball. she makes me look bad.
sitting at home answering more emails now. did more laundry. having a working stereo makes a huge difference.
monday & tuesday
briefly: spent both days painting the den and dining room, and moving furniture.
monday night, paul came by to have me write some text for him, and he ended up sticking around for several hours, helping install ceiling fixtures.
tuesday afternoon, we went out to the post office, ran recycling to TBM, and stopped at the old man hardware store in wilmette again, to pick up a bunch of stuff, a new mailbox, a bird feeder, some wires for the stereo, paper towels.
more painting.
tuesday night we went to andrew & xan's for an amazing dinner of pork loin wrapped in bacon, with sweet potatoes and shallots, and we brought a chocolate cake for dessert. laid around, exchanged presents, tried to not fall asleep. good good times.
Monday, December 17, 2007
sunday
di shoveled in the morning, despite my protests that that is MY job.
i went out to pick up some old stretcher bars from nina's parents in wilmette (thanks nina), and saw that her parents have several prints by david lance goines in their basement. o the way i got another gallon of green paint for the den, and a chai. from there i went to the hardware store in wilmette, where i haven't been in years, and this may now be even a better 'old man hardware store' than the one i've been going to on central in evanston. i got a present for di, and some switch plates and socket covers for after we finish painting.
i went out to pick up some old stretcher bars from nina's parents in wilmette (thanks nina), and saw that her parents have several prints by david lance goines in their basement. o the way i got another gallon of green paint for the den, and a chai. from there i went to the hardware store in wilmette, where i haven't been in years, and this may now be even a better 'old man hardware store' than the one i've been going to on central in evanston. i got a present for di, and some switch plates and socket covers for after we finish painting.
saturday, with snow.
it snowed overnight, and flurried all day. light snow showers. something.
we woke around 7, made tea, and went out to run errands: bought paint at epco, return DVDs to central street, di went into the spice house, then we went to two furniture stores looking to see what our options are for bookcases. went to whole foods for groceries and lunch pizza, then came home and started painting.
all day saturday and sunday i painted the den and the dining room while di packed mail orders. there were breaks for shoveling snow.
around 8pm i took off to get jason, to go see shellac at the hideout. bear claw opened, and were really good, really loud. shellac played better, more tightly, than i've seen in a while. they had me sing on 'killers' again. jason took some blurry photos.
driving home was crazy due to the snow.
home and into bed by 1:30.
we woke around 7, made tea, and went out to run errands: bought paint at epco, return DVDs to central street, di went into the spice house, then we went to two furniture stores looking to see what our options are for bookcases. went to whole foods for groceries and lunch pizza, then came home and started painting.
all day saturday and sunday i painted the den and the dining room while di packed mail orders. there were breaks for shoveling snow.
around 8pm i took off to get jason, to go see shellac at the hideout. bear claw opened, and were really good, really loud. shellac played better, more tightly, than i've seen in a while. they had me sing on 'killers' again. jason took some blurry photos.
driving home was crazy due to the snow.
home and into bed by 1:30.
friday
inspector came by to re-appraise the house.
i went to TBM to gather prints and books around 2pm, headed towards ispace. highway was really slow.
arrived at ispace around 4:20, realized the pseakers for my ipod were broken. hung remaining prints & signage.
bob farster was one of the first to arrive, and offered to go get me some new speakers, which he did. thanks, bob.
folks arrived, the gallery got pleasantly crowded, i got overwhelmed.
good to see a bunch of folks, including my former professors sarah krepp, peter kursel and tim van laar.
opening was to run form 5 to 7, so around 7:30 mary took away the beer and started turning the lights off. diana left. a select few stayed for dinner of thai food. i talked to renate about printing.
karri sold some prints for me during the evening. at the end of the night, jason helped me load prints out, and i drove home alone.
i went to TBM to gather prints and books around 2pm, headed towards ispace. highway was really slow.
arrived at ispace around 4:20, realized the pseakers for my ipod were broken. hung remaining prints & signage.
bob farster was one of the first to arrive, and offered to go get me some new speakers, which he did. thanks, bob.
folks arrived, the gallery got pleasantly crowded, i got overwhelmed.
good to see a bunch of folks, including my former professors sarah krepp, peter kursel and tim van laar.
opening was to run form 5 to 7, so around 7:30 mary took away the beer and started turning the lights off. diana left. a select few stayed for dinner of thai food. i talked to renate about printing.
karri sold some prints for me during the evening. at the end of the night, jason helped me load prints out, and i drove home alone.
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