Fresh Craft by the Pound.

Yesterday. We're next door, up the scaffolding, working on the siding.
(We are finished the long wall. YAHOO!)
An RV pulls into our driveway. New York plates. A man gets out and heads to the front entrance.....................................................

The studio is closed. Really. See photo below.

I climb down the scaffolding, drop my fat max hammer and head to the house to answer the door. KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

I open the door.

Man asks, "So, how much is a pound of crab?"

UGH!

Making hay........

We're finally finished the wee shed and even made it a little deck. Pam nearly jumped off the top deck when she put up the last row of siding. Yahoo! The upstairs is done. The orange house renovations are coming to an end and we are a week closer to starting our gallery!

Apologies to full bladders......

Our studio is at the back of our house and to get to the washroom, you have to walk through our kitchen and living room. Sometimes we don't feel that the house is quite tidy enough for unfamiliar eyes and when asked if we have a toilet, we on occasion, say we don't!

Top 5 excuses of 2009

1. Mother in-law is visiting, taking a bath.

2. Feral cats convalescing from surgery (sometimes true)

3. Pipes broken, plumber is on the way

4. Sister is visiting, bathing children (I don't have a sister)

5. We don't have a bathroom (I only said this once and looked as confused as the customer)

catscats

cats

To all of those full bladders, we apologize. Most often we offered an alternative and to be fair (to me!) if someone truly looked like they were going to burst on the spot, I did swallow my pride and let them walk past a sink of dishes to get to the toilet. (Only so I wouldn't have to clean the floor in the studio)

Our new gallery will have its very own guest bathroom....it will always be available, full of lovely toiletries and ready for use! DRINK UP!!

Images Above: Our Bathroom!

Caulker and Fetcher

We've been working non-stop on the orange house. Pam has the roof deck over the sun room done and now we've got to finish the siding and do a bit of scraping and painting. Then, on to the sun room and we're done! I wish I could help more, I am the caulker and fetcher. (Wasn't that a T.V. show?)

I am not allowed to take measurements or use anything with cords or electricity. Pam wrote up an agreement and I had to sign it. It also includes things without cords, but that use gas and oil. Like chainsaws and whippersnappers. The only exception is the electric sander....I CAN use that, IF I don't sand things on my lap, like the time I sanded through the knee of my new jeans......ANYHOO....once we get the orange house done, we can start the new gallery. I hope it is soon because the new doors and windows have arrived (all 30) and we will have to keep them in our tiny living room( 12 x 12) until we have gallery walls. Great for entertaining. Please stop by any time.

Roomless with a view.........

We enjoyed our morning coffee in the new gallery/studio. I have become quite fond of the Tyvek building paper covering the foundation. Pam is thinking that perhaps, it would be practical to have walls and a roof....especially during the winter months. After some thought, I had to agree, but for now, I will enjoy my roomless foundation with a view.

Little Miss Muffet..........

Huge spiders everywhere. Fat Aunt Sylvia was ambushed and had a web spun on her back while she was snoring. I was bit while tarring roof shingles. Pam said Newfoundland spiders are not poisonous and don’t bite. I watched the bite swell up and said that the spider had red dots and yellow poisonous-looking bits. I wondered if I should go to the emergency room and would they have the anecdote. Pam said that if I did need medical attention, she was sure there would be a doctor at the Carbonear hospital with a good sense of humour and a funny story to tell.

"Grease", "Cats" or "Robin Hood"?

This is the foundation of the new gallery. Not sure if we'll get the main floor walls up this fall but I have loads of ideas for it if we don't. Polka lessons for the whole town, theatrical performances, plays, musicals....really, the possibilities are endless. I think Pam could pull off a snazzy "Danny Zuko" from GREASE, OR, if Mile One closed down, they could have the Rick Springfield concert here!

Gretel Myfanwy DerFrankenfurter the 3rd is hoping to get the role of Robin Hood in the animals autumn production of " The Merry Men of Sherwood" and would love to have use of the "stage". But really, it's all up to Pam and the casting director.

Gretel Myfanwy Derfrankenfurter IS Robin Hood

She steals from the cats...and......um.....that's it really. The End.

Whistle while you work...............

Pam is doing a terrific job on the renovations next door. The orange house looks amazing. We can't start the new gallery walls until she finishes up there for the neighbors. Rain, rain go away....

Coming for a swim?

Ahh.......what a big hole you have!

I misunderstood.

I didn't realize that we were building a pool.

I am so excited to have my first domestic home renovation project problem....damp.

I have a very damp basement.

I googled "damp problem in basement".

Apparently, if I just plug in a dehumidifier, it will be cleared up in no time at all...............

Yikes..........

Breaking the Ground..................

So....here we go! We've decided to build a new studio and gallery beside our wee house, Crabby Cat Cottage. It will be called "The Grumpy Goat Gallery". Hmm......you'd think with all of the sparkles, bright colours and general "cheerfulness" around here we'd have come up with a peppier name. Nope. We've got to call it like we see it. Grumpy it is. We've got the crabbiest cats in the village parked outside our door and just down the lane are the resident grumps of Spoon Cove. (I'd be grumpy too, if I had a pool noodle tied to my back....true story, photo to follow). The big machine that excavates is here(Pam said it is called an excavator, escalator sounds better). The digging has begun. No turning back now.......