April Begins At The Extraordinary Light Gallery

Well we have made yet more progress on our soon to open business venture. In early April, we arrived to find the drywall taping completed in the living quarters and much to our suprise, the walls were all primed.

So I set to work painting the living area. We decided to go for a warm chocolate family of colours. It would help offset the super bright colours in the main gallery that are so not what we would choose to live with. We also decided the kitchen counters would be tiled. Our regular home has granite counters and we love them but could not see putting that kind of money into the living quarters of the gallery. Luckily, Heather found some super 18" Travertine tiles that we could use for the counter. So another nice warm tone will be added to the oak cabinets in the kitchen.

Two coats of paint later and here is the result.

I will have more photos soon of the finished tile counter. We can't wait to get the place open!!

Let there be flooring

Well another couple of weeks have past since we installed all the hanging lighting in the gallery. This past weekend, we went back and began to install the finished flooring on the main floor. We chose a hard wearing and attractive dark laminate flooring for the gallery last fall. A sale came up and we purchased it early due to the great pricing. So the flooring has been sitting in the gallery for months waiting for its time to be installed.

We worked hard and completed about 1200 square feet of the flooring!!! There is only a small area of laminate remaining in a hallway which we left undone for now due to the drywall taper, electrician and plumbers that are still coming and going up and down the hallway.

The picture is of the food service area in the gallery with Heather smiling at our success with the flooring installation. It looks beautiful. It was hard work for the two of us, but once we could look at it knowing it was finished, it became worth the work.

Of interest were the two floor mounted receptacles that had to be installed. I understand the need to keep them from getting wet while cleaning floors, but wow, were they complex things to get installed properly. I also discovered that the electrician had left that circuit live for some reason.... discovered it the hard way..... Oh well, it provided Heather with a laugh!!

So progress was made and we are continuing hard at things. More for you next week!!

Brent

Let There Be Light

Well progress on the Extraordinary Light Gallery and its cafe has been made again. This past weekend we hung all the track lighting in the art area. The tracks were hung using threaded rod in a pendant mount fashion.

This was an interesting job. We located the lights on the floor and then used a laser plumb bob to put a dot of light on the ceiling where we wanted to suspend the tracks. Then I would climb a ladder and determine if the spot was directly under a truss or not using a stud sensor. We would then shift the tracks on the floor until they were lined up under a truss (for sections running parallel to a truss). Once we had a section under a truss, we would mark off hanger holes on the sections running perpendicular to the truss at 2 foot intervals (The truss spacing). Then I would drill the hanger holes and use the laser plumb bob to shoot a dot of light right from where the

hole was drilled onto the ceiling. Then it was up the ladder to install a hanger bracket with the laser passing a dot through the hole for the threaded rod. It made it a piece of cake.

There were a couple of large boxes that had lights in them as well that were hung. The boxes have 4 lights in them to create puddles of light on parts of the gallery floor. These boxes we hung using 1/8" aircraft cable. Overkill for the light weight of the boxes, but it looked more substantial.

Next we will move onto laying the finished floor in the gallery. It is a very exciting time!!!

Something You Dont See Everyday!

Once upon a time, there was a company in Montana called "Northern Manufacturing Company". The company began building tractors in the 1970's if I remember correctly. They produced a line of tractors called "Big Bud". In fact they built one tractor that still holds the record as the largest tractor ever built. But they also made some more modest sized tractors that are pretty rare to see today. They stand out in the fields because they are painted bright white.

I was returning home from an art sale in Medicine Hat, Alberta when I spotted a white tractor on a hill. It took me a moment to realize I was seeing a rare Big Bud tractor sitting in a field waiting to goto work.

With a large set of disks hanging on it, this Big Bud is in fabulous shape and made for a couple of beautiful images of this beast waiting to get out and stir some dust again.

Just waiting to "Giv Er".

The Gallery In Early October

Well the outside of the gallery is pretty well finished the construction phase. Some details here and there like skirting the deck and parging below the siding remains, but you can really see how things are going to look now.

Our fabulous contractor (Tim Hovdestad of Westward Homes in Moosomin) has done a brilliant job of managing the project and some incredible carpentry work outside on the deck where we will have seating for customers of the cafe. Tim's work is second to none and he is a super nice guy as well. We were blessed to have him on the job. The handicapped ramp is totally amazing work.

This shot was taken a day before the final grading of the site was to begin.

More Gallery Pictures From The Early Construction Phase

This is myself and my older brother at the end of his stay helping me. He busted his tail (And elbow, one thumbnail and a mysterious scrape that got infected) with me making my dream come true and I will forever be in his debt and of course his wife Pearl who fed us and kept us working. Thanks you two!!

Very Late Update On My Gallery's Contstruction Progress

Well this update is long overdue. I seem to have a bear of a time posting multiple pictures in the Blog so I will add a couple of entries today just to show where the gallery has progressed to.

I also need to thank my oldest brother Garry and his wife Pearl for contributing most of their summer holidays to helping with the construction. They were awesome and I am in their debt.

The summer rains held our contractor up continuously and when I arrived on site in the second week of July, I was not met by a building shell that was closed in and ready to work in as I had hoped. But, it was closed in enough for my brother and I to begin the interior work.

We threw ourselves into the job and began building all the interior walls on the main floor and then the walls downstairs. Followed it up with insulating and vapour barriers and then hired some awesome guys to hang the drywall. Here is what things looked like as we arrived on the job site. Definitely not the closed in shingled shell we had hoped for. But it didn't slow us down.