I'm seeing an end to the construction phase of this!  Just in case I haven't mentioned this before, I'm a sculptor, not a contractor or builder. No one ever told me this learning curve would require climbing gear and oxygen just to get to the top.   Not that I'm bitter, I've learned tons of useful stuff.   It just took a bit longer than I estimated. You can visit earlier construction pictures and read previous rantings on the following pages: December 26th through January 5th January 6th through January 28th January 31st through February 6th A huge page of random and extra pictures of all the crew can be found here!

Tuesday, MARCH 18, 2003 Man, oh man, does time FLY.  It seems as if it was just February 6th a paragraph ago.   I want to thank Richard in Los Angeles for e-mailing me a very motivational message, something about his life revolving around MY web site, salmon farming, and how he couldn't go on without constant updates.   Just knowing there is one person out there in the world hanging on my every word makes it worth the hours of work it takes me to do it.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll just use a few pictures to get you all up to speed on what's been going on around here.  Misty and I finished framing in the 14' x 14' opening, built the two doors, and got them up.   One exciting note here...  In order to build the doors on the saw horses, one person (can you say "Misty") had to be under the door to tighten bolts.   On the second door, the frame for it separated a bit and the half-built door fell to the ground, missing Misty's head by inches.   Being the trooper she is, we got it back up on and she went right back under.   Whadda gal. We also got the 10' x 10' door framed in with 4" x 6" lumber to get it ready for the roll-up door for that side.   And since we had a bit of extra wood, we framed in for a regular-sized door, commonly referred to in this crazy, mixed-up, sexist world as a "MAN-door"	James working one of the two 7' x 14' doors.
It was a simple 40' ditch to the power pole (seen in the background), but the clay was so hard, a full swing of the pick went into the ground 1/2".  The ditch took three days to dig.	Once again, our neighbor Dave Sundburg comes to the rescue!  He's the owner of Northwest Land Development just in case you might need such a service one day.)  The picture in the manual shows two men lifting these MONSTER doors into place by hand.   Obviously the illustrator of the manual is delusional.  Sadly, Misty-the-photographer was working her ass off while the doors went up, so we have no action shots.
The guys from A-1 doors here in Port Orchard putting in the first section.   Just a non-paid-for plug here, A-1 Doors was fantastic!  The best price, friendly people, and attention to detail to die for!   If you're local, use them.	Here's the studio from the main street!  I may be biased, but this building looks cool.
My machines arrive!   We get the last door lock on the building and the final building inspection, and 30 minutes later, the truck from Pacific Welding shows up.	I wanted to put up walls inside to protect the building from my abusive ways as well as having a place to hang things.   It was a little tricky cutting the curves to match the building, but it worked quite nicely.   I used strips of scrap sheet steel left over from the building with holes drilled into them to attach the boards.   I bolted the strips to the exposed ends of the bolts already there.

So, that's nearly it on the studio, fondly referred to it as the 'shed' around here.   There's a story behind the name.  During one of our MANY travels to a local hardware store, one of the more dim-bulbed employees said "oh, a shed" after Misty described the size as 30 feet x 50 feet, with a 17 foot ceiling.  Funny thing is, I got an e-mail from an Australian, and they informed me that Australians call art studios sheds down under.  Who knew? There is one story which I forgot to tell you.   While we were putting up the sliding doors, I somehow managed to slice a finger open without even feeling it.   I felt something wet on my finger, and when I looked down, blood was dripping.   A band-aid kept the blood from draining from my entire body until we could finish getting up the doors (hey, an artist has to have priorities, doesn't he?).  Once the doors were up, Misty convinced me that a rather large flap of skin would do better with stitches, so to the urgent-care center we went.  (but wait! there's more) Did you know that when you need stitches, they actually numb the wound by STICKING A NEEDLE INTO THE EXPOSED FLESH, over and over again??? Neither did I. So, there I was, sitting in the bed, taking my shots in my wound like the sissy-girl I am.  The Doctor left to let the cut bet numb. . . a minute later, I started feeling sick to my stomach, and Misty asked if my yellow complexion meant I wasn't feeling too well.   I suggested that she find a bucket or some other such thing... quickly. She went to the door to ask someone and, well... this is where things get sketchy for me and I have to go with what Misty tells me.   She describes my eyes rolling up into my head and me slowly going from a sitting position to the classic "falling-four-feet-to-the-floor-and-landing-on-my-head" position. For me it was very interesting.   One second I was moments from throwing up, the next second I was laying on the floor with 6 people looking down on me and no idea how I got there.  Fainting sucks.   (and landing on your head sucks too.)   For those of you who want to know...  No concussion, just a sore back and neck for a few days. For you sick bastards, lovers of gross things or anyone who watches the FOX network, if you go to the very bottom of this page, there's a picture of Where I got the cut by the building.   How did I know where I got cut it since I didn't feel it happen?  Easy!   There was hair and flesh still on the metal the next day.?

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Yes, all the stuff you see there was part of my finger. I presume that edge of the metal is very sharp... I didn't touch it again to find out. This is the rain shedder above the 14' door, so I'll never have to go up there again. Misty thinks I'm wrong for posting this here. She's probably right.