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Cheers,
Rich and Lori

This is Lori and me on our 5th Anniversary trip to Jekyll Island last September 1st. So much has happened in this past year. Moving to Boston and beginning the transformation of The Boardwalk Art Space has been a wonderful part of it. We will enjoy celebrating six years together by working on the building over Labor Day weekend.

WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER!!! The Boardwalk is a tandem effort. Lori is the reserved, quiet, grounded, meditative center. I am the excitable, impulsive, emotional yo-yo. We make a great team, a wonderful complement.

We are both artists and want to make The Boardwalk a creative space for both of us. We both want to make artwork and share it with others. We both hope to offer classes and other events that involve the community.

Lori has so much experience with managing and owning a gallery, plus museum, curatorial and arts administrative experience. She is also a master artwork framer and knows the archival materials and practices are best for preserving artwork. She also has a great eye for design and display.

I have experience with art events, performances, installations, and creating unique arts experiences. I love interacting with the public and exposing them to the wonders of personal creative expression. My art-making and teaching and living are all one and the same.

Please stop by The Boardwalk Art Space and say a quick "hello" if you see the lights on and door open. We may be sweaty and covered in dust, but we always have time to talk.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST IN OUR ENDEAVOR.

We are slowly tearing away the old pegboard and panelling to reveal the original walls. Since the framing is still in good shape we plan to use it to hang drywall. We love the old brick, but we also want clean, functional gallery walls.

I decided we should keep the exposed fireplace in tact and do some mosaic work around it. I want it to become a kind of cool focal point in the space. We also plan to refurbish the old doors and emphasize them in the space.

The roofers are about half way done with the coating process. Looking forward to spreading out in the space and really getting to use it!

Here is a shot of the walls in progress...

Hit the Reset Button!

Lori and I met with Bill Edding, the County Building Inspector, informally to get his opinion about our building. We also wanted to get a sense of how realistic our plans were to create a living area in the space. His answer, in short, was: No. It would be entirely too costly to do it properly. We looked at the back of the building, which has a slab and tin roof covering (no walls). He suggested perhaps building from scratch on the slab. Several issues came up. First, plumbing is an issue. The sewer line is under the concrete and runs to a small toilet and sink within a small addition. Second, the electrical for the entire place runs to one breaker box. If we create residential space it would have to be separate. Third, firewalls would have to be run from the foundation. Building a new structure outside would be the easiest solution, but either way it all adds up to way more money than we could ever spend.

Our new plan: We are going to create an area for storage of our belongings in one corner of the space. We will prep the space for retail and events. One area will be our studio, as we have always planned. The rest will be finished in such a way that it can accommodate a wide variety of exhibits, displays and activities. If, in the future, we are able to create a living space (probably in the back as Mr. Edding suggested) we will do so. Until then, we will remain in the apartment...

A lot of progress was made today. We tore off most of the panelling and peg board covering the original walls. Beautiful textures!!! More progress...

"Up on the Roof"

"When this old world starts getting me down,
And people are just too much for me to face—
I climb way up to the top of the stairs
And all my cares just drift right into space ..."

-- Carole King and Gerry Goffin

I wish our roof was a place of solace and care-me-not. Instead, every morning is met with a pit of anxiety wondering if the roof will hold, if the sealer will work, if the roofers will do the job well. Lori asked me this morning if we could have done the job ourselves. The short answer is: probably. However, the roofers will be repairing the blisters in the foam, sealing the problem areas and patching. And their work is guaranteed. We would have saved money doing the job ourselves, but I don't know if we would have been able to buy the materials they have. I certainly wouldn't know what the Hell I was doing. It would have been a learning experience on a project that needs to be done right the first time.


So... while money is tight and we don't know how we are going to afford it, I would rather the roofers get paid for doing a professional job than us fouling it up and having to repair it again in the long run. I will stick to my limited skill set of knocking stuff down, hauling it to the dump, nailing down the loose boards and painting the walls.

I ripped out the propane heater and piping that was strung around the building. The heater itself was mounted on a platform above the side door... yikes. In the process, I also unearthed this fireplace from behind the tacky wood paneling that covers the original back wall. I scrapped the copper and heater with some other metal. Got $50 for all of it. Yeeeee haw! :)

The weather has made it impossible for the roofers to do their job (but not impossible for them to cash the 50% advance payment check). It has been raining buckets every day! More leaks have been forming. They aren't consistent, though. One day a certain spot will have a leak. The next day it will be fine, but another spot will need a bucket. It is SO frustrating. I got up on the roof and swept several of the major puddles away. I don't know that it really helped.

Lori and I got a lot of work done this weekend. We tore down shelves and wall mounted platforms. It really opened up the space. Now we are kind of at a stand still until the roof is secured. We don't want to spread our stuff out until we know it will be dry.

We also bought a dehumidifier! What a great purchase. It has sucked (literal) buckets of moisture out of the air. The space doesn't smell nearly as musty. And the air is not as steamy. Hopefully it will keep all the personal belongings and other stuff we stored from getting mould and mildew ridden. This South Georgia humidity is devastating!

Demolition Day: We hired Benjie Cook to take out the counter that was in the middle of the space. He also fixed the second set of double doors on the front. He did a great job for a reasonable rate.

The Roof: What a disappointment! After being told by the previous owners that the roof doesn't leak, and getting the "OK" from the inspector, we have several leaks. The main roof is tin over wood lathing. This is covered by a thick coating of foam insolation. The foam is supposed to be sealed with a silicon-based coating every ten years. Of course, it had not been properly maintained. The shingled roof over the boardwalk also leaks! So... we are having a roofer seal the entire thing with a special coating that should extend the life of the roof a little bit longer. It is the cheapest option and buys us time to save up for re-doing the roof properly in about five years.

Other Updates: We are also having a former student of mine do some demo in the space. The counter in the center of the space is an eye sore. We are knocking that out, which will really open up the space! He will also repair the second entrance on the front, a beautiful set of antique double doors.

We have TONS of can of primer paint. I haven't opened any to see if the paint is still good. If any of it is good, I can use it to paint the inside of the front wall. It needs to be lightened up!

The other thing I have been doing this week is hauling all of the metal shelves, peg-board brackets and other metal sundries to the scrap yard. I made over $250 in five pick up truck loads. For a little while I have SCRAP FEVER! :) But, now, I am just ready to be done with it...

This is a Community Events Notice Board I installed outside the front door of our space. I hope it is a point of contact for activities and events in the community.

We got a fence installed to enclose part of the yard so the dogs would have a place to run around. Some stray cats have taken up residence behind the building. They make Dexter and Daisy (our two dogs) go crazy!

First week done! We made a lot of progress... not that you can tell from this image.

This coming week we will have a fence installed for our dogs and a coating applied to the roof to stop a few leaking areas.

(More on the roof woes in the next post!)

Panorama #3:

This is the sign I made for the front. I just used spray paint on an old piece of plywood. I will make one that is more waterproof. This one may end up hanging inside.

We are making progress with cleaning up the space and organizing all our stuff. Last night, however, I discovered a leak in the ceiling around one of the fans! It stormed all day today... I am dreading what we find when the roof man comes tomorrow.

Yesterday I papered the windows in anticipation of the renovation.

I cut a small hole in one of the panels and wrote:
"Please do not look".  In the space that is visible, I used ceramic letters to spell out: "U R Art". My plan is to change out the message or object every few days. I took this idea from a similar novelty at the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum in Tennessee.

Later, I would like to have a shoebox diorama competition that is open for all to enter. The winning pieces would then be featured in the window.