The building itself was a farm at one time (or so I am told) The first floor houses several small businesses, the owners of which are friendly and always ready with a prompt “hello”, and “how is your day going?”. The second floor is our apartment. But the basement is where the fun begins. It is a granite foundation and the joists holding the old floor boards of one of the businesses above allow only 6 feet of headroom. As I am 6’4 I stand between them, and am very careful when I am moving around a lot.
I noticed once that there was an old home made workbench there, but it was completely covered with the accumulation of 50 years of stuff from all the businesses and past tenants. As I started to uncover it, I quickly realized that it was very well built, and had some great features not the least of which was style.
Once I had it uncovered, I had to do something about light. The flood of natural sunlight from the half window above was fantastic, but it only lasts a few hours a day this time of year. Between the lights that were there already that I was able to position as I wanted, and a broken lamp that still worked just had no base, I was able to get acceptable light into the workspace, and it was now ready to be worked in.
I was very excited yesterday to get down a base coat onto 22 frames. That means I should be able to reopen even sooner than I thought. Keep an eye out, with this new found space, who knows where my creativity will take me, and the best part is that you get to see it all at www.jcrabbit.etsy.com .
I noticed once that there was an old home made workbench there, but it was completely covered with the accumulation of 50 years of stuff from all the businesses and past tenants. As I started to uncover it, I quickly realized that it was very well built, and had some great features not the least of which was style.
Once I had it uncovered, I had to do something about light. The flood of natural sunlight from the half window above was fantastic, but it only lasts a few hours a day this time of year. Between the lights that were there already that I was able to position as I wanted, and a broken lamp that still worked just had no base, I was able to get acceptable light into the workspace, and it was now ready to be worked in.
I was very excited yesterday to get down a base coat onto 22 frames. That means I should be able to reopen even sooner than I thought. Keep an eye out, with this new found space, who knows where my creativity will take me, and the best part is that you get to see it all at www.jcrabbit.etsy.com .
