Well here are a few pics of what we've been doing the last couple of months to get the downstairs studio and gallery space opened, while keeping regular classes, private lessons, parties and everything else going upstairs. Thanks to all my students, parents, and family for their patience and encouragement. I am especially thankful to my husband, Tam, for working long hours with me and helping me to bring my dream of this space to life!
Got all the carpet up, thought I could just paint the floor and be done with it. But no, not me, I had to chisel up that 1st tile to see what was underneath...and you know it always seems like it will be a quick and easy job.
Take a break from the tar covered floor and paint the front room for a while.
Wow we've used crowbars, spackle knives, scrapers, hammers and chisels to slowly remove bits of the old tiles piece by piece.
Oh that orange
Is coming along nicely!
WHY!?? Did I want to mess with this silly floor anyway?
We continue on hammering away for over a month. Ting ting clank (at least I was able to build some of my arm strength back up ;) breaking tools, searching for new tools, taking multiple excursions to Home Depot and fast food places. We were slowly getting the tiles up, but had no idea how to get the black sticky tar up. I could see that the original hard wood floor was underneath, but it just looked dirty sticky and had an awful smell... And oh yeah it stuck to everything... Shoes clothes, tools, sand paper....
Nothing seemed to work to get the sticky nasty mastic tar off of the wood floor that I just KNEW was gonna be beautiful underneath and that all our hard work would pay off. We tried solvents, scraping, sanding, renting floor sanders. Everything just gummed up with tar.
Another machine that didn't work
Finally, as we are ready to give in to defeat, I try my favorite little turquoise power tool, a 11,000 rpm Makita angle grinder with a flap disk. I learned as a sculptor (or sculptress if that is even a word) that a grinder is my favorite and most useful tool, and it wins again. We did go through quite a few disks, but it did the job.
It sure was messy though since it grinded the tar into tiny bits and splattered them all over the place. The walls, floor, our clothes were all covered with bits of tar.
Wow, Tam, this reminds me of us grinding all of the chair bolts off of the floor at the old Capri Theater in Fondren about 7 years ago. (all because I had this crazy idea that I wanted to do a performance art show there and display my paintings and....)
I'm seeing some beautiful wood down here. The place is filling up with sawdust now, not just tar! Now time for more shop vac in'
Wow I can't believe this is the same floor!
Rolling on the polyurethane, wow this sure is the laid back easy part!
More painting, I love adding color you know
More painting, rearranging, bringing stuff down the stairs, and setting up the studio.
All of our classes, lessons, parties and events are happening downstairs now. I've still got some more organizing and projects to do, but it will all come in time.
For now, just add people and art!
Come to ArtWorks Studios to draw, paint, or sculpt your own art, buy art, learn about art, or have an artsy party.
Create Each Day with Lori Rene'
Gallery is now selling Lori Rene' paintings, sculptures, and handmade glass and clay necklace pendants.
