Friday 3 September 2010

We Are OPEN !!

Well. I made it.......... sort of.. still things to do behind the scenes....... but so far so good.

The Horseracing and large vibrant flower macros are Ruths the rest mine !







 







Now I need to go down to open at 2.00pm.... a whole new way of life begining !

Thursday 12 August 2010

The sign has gone up !!


While inside I layed .a second roll of flooring.



Sadly I cant use the mirrored door as the glass isnt toughened and it cant go up in a public place :(   So it now has two primer coats of white on it..... awaiting a decision as to what the top coat will be !

The Chimney has now been capped off........ so hopefully thats an end to rain down the chimney.


Also some work done on fireplace .. but not ready for viewing just yet !

Counting Down the Days :)

Monday 2 August 2010

Closest yet !

Today I cleaned up, stacked the furniture and unrolled the flooring to see how it will look... as well as how it would match up ( it will - much relief !)

Starting to look like a real gallery at last !






A bit more floor levelling....... move the furniture back to the OTHER end ( no , not a mistake, method in my madness... I needed 3 metre wide space space to unroll the vinyl!)

Oh , and I've found the hanging rails !!!   Now I have to decide whether to line them up with teh ceiling or the floor - or neither .....just make them horizontal !!!!

Sunday 1 August 2010

Its August !!!

... and Im committing myself to opening for the Bank Holiday weekend just four weeks away!!

here a shot from thisafternoon complete with glowering cloud..... those of you who know The Swan Hotel ( now Inn) can see it at the top of the hill.  That's a friends daughter waving!



And this is the view folk will see from teh front door.....well not quite this .. maybe I should say 'the aspect' !  The blue doesn't look this light and the lobby is no longer white !




I've been decorating in teh gallery most afternoons.... and 99.9% of the painting is now finished... the bit under the window is still damp and I'm waiting for some stuff to prevent that coming through the paintwork   I decided to match the beams to the wall colour .




The erstwhile kitchen door is now Gloss white like the other white paint  - not satin..... a decision I made when thinking of all those paint- covered fingers going into the storeroom !!!


I am toying with the  idea of painting the part walls around the chimney breast in a deeper colour.....at leas the one on teh left  for more balanced proportions..... here it is with only  lining paper on teh wall and undercoat on teh beams.  Head on it looks a bit too lopsided.  May try some of the terracotta left over from Ivy Cottage-assuming I have some.  Remarkable the leftover  'magnolia stretched exactly round the walls with enough left over for patching up !



Tomorrow a tidy up day and clean out the fireplace......maybe a bit more floor levelling..... ready for laying the flooring !!!!

Now to find where I hid the hanging rails when they arrived MONTHS ago !!!  Ive looked in teh obvious places and not found them yet - a bit worrying as the package is over 6 feet long !!!!!!!

Saturday 24 July 2010

... still on schedule ..... assuming I have one !

A few afternoons in the gallery and I have lined the two walls that need it and filled a few holes in the floor.........




Lots of fiddly work round those bricks and beams... glad my father taught me how to do this.....

Also filled some holes in teh floor with self levelling compound.

Tomorrow painting starts again..... another undercoat on the beams I think ..and the brown door..... then the walls !!!

Wednesday 21 July 2010

The sun shone all day......

..so the gloss painting got finished......

........this is how it looked in January...... complete with rotten cills and peeling paint......



and NOW!



.. earlier in the week I unrolled the sample of vinyl wrapping the full rolls as a taster of the finished floor



....tomorrow I intend to go down and start on lining the walls ........since the white gloss is finished there too .......


And I need to create the hanging sign......which will look something like this


 


and hang at the left of the left hand window .....

.. getting closer !!!! 


......suupose Id better get some paintings framed too and publicity going !!!!







...

Friday 16 July 2010

Amazing what a little paint can do.....

Things moving a-pace now.. or so it seems.......

.........the frontage now has all its undercoat in the right places......



The dark blue on the inside of the door and window is an approximation of the topcoat colour.....(impossible lighting to snap by!)



... and   I made a sensible decision.... and asked the builders to do the white gloss paintwork inside ( I will  emulsion the walls ).. so far only one undercoat ... but what a huge difference difference it makes ! 



 It also gives them something to do when the rain comes and they have to stop painting the outside......they are hopping in and out like yo-yos... or those little weather people  in teh weather house (I even suggested one should wear a skirt to complete the image!!!) .so benefits us all... and will get it ALL done faster and better than I would !

Note the rolls of  flooring sitting there...... I unrolled a bit today wide mock light oak boards ...and its going to look great..... it links with the lonely stripped oak upright... so may allow me to keep the ceiling beams white after all.......the open door you see reflected in the mirror is the one to be replaced by a full length mirror door when its closed... bouncing light and images across the gallery,

I've also spent two wide awake night re-jigging  the interior plan.... there going to be a distinct seating / book browsing / commission discussing / coffee drinking etc area  on the left inside the door with its own fire  ... well I have to do something with the one no longer going in the main fireplace. !  The oh-so-comfortable sofa/couch however is going up to the far back of the gallery so I can have a quick nap  unobserved from the street !!!!

We have had more heavy rain ... and wind........ so not vertical stair-rods like the last time....... and only dampness in the fireplace - not flooding... the proposed cowl on the chimney should solve this last problem

My excitement is building !!  I think I will get there by September after all !

Saturday 10 July 2010

frontage ready for painting!

The builders have made great progress..... I am really pleased with the way they have matched up the false timberwork.  here it is with the primer......... and the paint arrived so I guess that will start happening next week :^) 



The flooring  is ordered for delivery next week.. and the cable protector to stop folk tripping over worklamp cables when painting.   I am spending money like nobodies business.......and realise time is getting short!!!  Hoping for good health until opening....!!

Heres the  inside view right now

Tuesday 6 July 2010

Transformation taking place....

I am getting excited because work has started on the front !


Apparently there have been many positive comments already about the dreadful tiles having disappeared !!  This is good news !  I have definitely decided to go for very dark blue and white.

Last week I painted out the black interior beams



They probably wont stay white ... but will certainly not go too dark ... probably the wall colour. .. a  darkish cream 'magnolia' Paintwork will be white .. I think !!!


Meanwhile we have gone through two very heavy downpours... and on each occasion the floor has got wet again :(   But we think it is now coming down the chimney...... so I have taken the gas fire out which needs the ventilation and will install a modern stainless steel and pebbles electric job... to match the contemporary lighting and hanging system ( which I stashed way somewhere. hope I can find it !!!) ......... I hope an interesting mix of old and new.


Hopefully am also getting the light bulbs sorted at last......but the place is full of woodshavings right now so that will have to wait.

Building work will take another week at least .. then  I can really get cracking on the inside .... so a late August early September opening is now  a distinct possibility.

need to start thinking about some of the details now !

Saturday 5 June 2010

...... getting somewhere at last !!

I seem to have lost most of May to doing anything useful ...... mostly because of a strange episode of amnesia during which I ended up in hospital with a suspected stroke and have been awaiting a CT scan.........results yesterday and scan showed 'nothing sinister' ...... so we have to see if the doc thinks the source is worth pursuing.  meantime I had to rest......couldnt drive or exert myself physically !  Not good for decorating !!!

The GOOD NEWS is that Ive just learnt that Ive got the shopfront grant......... and am hoping teh builders can fit that work  in before the end of July... ...so I can open in August ...... I need to be open in time for H Arts week mid September even though Im not taking part....

Light bulbs are proving a bit of a problem.....amazing waht some sellers think is 'daylight'  The last lot had an eeerie green glow !!!!   However I have now got 7 daylight hobby lamps for the painitng/display tables

Meanwhile more heavy rain showed no extra water influx... so hopefully that problem solved at last and  I can now get on with decorating and then getting the floor laid....... and I MUST pay attention to dealing with teh 'kitchen ' area!!!!

But none of this while sun shining and untl Ive got rid of this horrendous summer cold which is draining my energy right now.

Sunday 25 April 2010

The Lighting is in!

... and quite a lot of rewiring done as I made a bad miscalculation and needed to split the circuits or blow the place up.  The good news is that there are now a number of switches and I can turn banks of lights on and off as required to suit the activities.....if I can just position them right !!!....even two separate bars of 6 each in my work space .. and extra sockets on two walls

The sofa has two adjustable drop ends...... a good ebay buy...... sturdy with high seat but quite light to move around....good for customers as well as for posing models for painting drawing



Now to get the window repaired and the decorating done while waiting for news re the shop front grant.  Am now thinking of Dark blue and warm off-white now as colours to go with William Morris  'Ianthe' fabric curtains and dark blue based persian rugs from house

Saturday 20 March 2010

Turning the Corner?

First of all,..... thank all of  you who offered sympathy for the broken window ......an arrangement has been reached with the miscreants (though sadly it seems they were not the main trouble makers, rather goaded into it after too much birthday celebration) to pay for the cost of repairs over the next couple of months... and I've already received the first instalment.

So time for some more upbeat news.......

It seems there are to be more 'Shop Front Grants' available from May..... and I shall be applying to transform the gallery into something like this


However this means putting off the opening until the early summer....... absolutely no point in patching and smartening up for the opening then doing the work all over again.....

Pride of place inside will go to this..... which I bid for on Ebay and my friend Caro bought as an opening present for the Gallery

 

The artist perched on it is Picasso.....  

produced for me in a Charity Shop in Kington Yesterday !!

his eyes follow you about the room!  Or the garden in this case !

 

How could I be miserable with him around ?



Sunday 7 March 2010

Im not a happy Bunny : (

All has been going well in the gallery.. if slowly.....we seem to have sorted out the water ingress problem ... and the floor has now been skimmed and holes patched up in walls and skirting boards.......


there is still a bit of smoothing off to do .. but I was looking forward to moving on to the next stage....... fitting lights, decorating, flooring etc.... when.. at almost midnight on Friday.... I got a phone call reporting this..........

 

it seems two GIRLS from the flat opposite were having a fight during a rowdy party!!!

They were taken into custody  and are now released on bail !

The glass shards have been removed....

  

And the window is boarded up.   

 



I now have the hassle of sorting it out ....... whether its insured, and if it is, if its worth claiming on.........whether we can alter the window so the large pane is split as in the other one....... half the damage in future...... ( conservation officer), getting estimates, passing them to the police........ No wonder I have an upset stomach today !!!

Still better now than on Friday April 30th !


Thursday 11 February 2010

Slimline pillar

Great things going on now... though not all visible from  inside.  The Gallery has had a concrete mixer in the middle ( fogot the camera :( ) and loads of 'muck' going through the window to fill gaps and cracks in the courtyard... hopefully the end of water problems.....

But on the inside.....a small change that has made a HUGE apparent difference to the space....... the large fat 10" vision obscuring pillar has now gone leaving the original support timber ....

  

 

I am planning to put  blackout blinds in the large front windows...... white side to the inside so the one on the right showing here can be used as a projection screen.

Last night I decided those horrid plain brown doors HAVE to go... to be replaced with ledged and braced doors more in keeping with the properties age.

I really should start taking a serious look at sorting the kitchen- cum- storeroom next !!

The spotlight bars will be despatched on Monday......but probably wont go in until the floor is levelled and plasterboard fixed and some sockets moved.......

For those of you who paint.. there's a very good lesson on reflections.... just look at what you can see in the mirror  in teh top pic !

Out of interest here's the way it began with all the bar paraphenalia in place.

Sunday 31 January 2010

Visible Changes

Yesterday I took down the restaurant curtains and rolled up the rest of the carpet.......and reintroduced two Kingtonians ( a friend of mine and my builder ) who were at school with each other's brothers and sisters several decades ago!  Some more Art books may be coming my way for the library :^)



Today I hung some temporary, washable, voile curtains in their place, discovered another unrelated damp patch........ and remembered the camera had a wide angle lens !



..... makes a bit of difference from the outside.... ....not a lot but its a start..... the notice board is displaying posters  about events during an Eco - fortnight in Kington, the blackboards about the gallery ...... I so need to do something about the outside !!



.......boy do those tiles need painting...... and the cills ...... if only temporarily..... but with temperatures back to -4C and snow flurries today and more due,  now is NOT the time !

.....and here is the other bit of damp that needs some investigation ......  probably of the internal plumbing !


...so now I await the postman and the samples and goodies  I keep ordering........including samples of cushion vinyl...... the floor levels are all over the place!

I am considering hanging blackout blinds at all the front windows for use during slide shows... one may possibly even double up  as projection  screen........ that would be good !!

Artists and their relatives  are now starting to call in and enquire about how things are to be organised, costs, dates, opening times etc.... and diaries are wanting to know too !!  I have two more weeks to decide on whether to risk announcing a date!

Apparently at a Tourist event lunch today I got a free  plug !!!

Seems its all going to happen !!!!!