Photo by Rick Gush
I inherited old wine bottles with my new studio and office. They will be perfect to use in my current art project.
The adventure at the new office/studio continues. One of the nifty parts is that I have inherited a whole lot of old stuff. I’m a junk fiend, and the stuff in my space that was left by the owner is treasure to me. There are a bunch of big, old wine bottles—10-liter and 25-liter sizes. That’s really swell, because my current art project uses old wine bottles.
There were also a bunch of old agricultural implements among the inheritance. Even though I already have a nice pick in the garden, getting two more picks and another hefty sledge hammer in my gift bag was a pleasant surprise. Among the stuff, there were also big coils of rope; two really nice wooden ladders; a little, old porcelain gas stove in great condition; and 25 boxes of ceramic tile from the 1960’s. The Italians were pretty arty in the 60s, and all of this tile is in pretty wild patterns. I think I’m going to tile the floors in a few of the rooms.
Photo by Rick Gush
I may use my new grape squeezer to make grape juice next year.
I also discovered a lot of old, fir flooring planks. There’s enough that I am planning to put a wood floor in the office room. Pictured to the right is my new grape squeezer. Some of my friends have these machines, and they use them to squeeze the juice out of their grapes before they make it into wine. Even if I don’t make my own wine right away, I probably will use the machine to at least make some grape juice next year.
Stuck in a corner of the room that will be my new workshop were a whole raft of old construction timbers. Some of the planks have cement on them, but there are around 50 pieces, most about 4 meters long. I’ve already used some of that lumber to build a new lumber rack along one wall of the garage. It was quite the luxury to already have all the free eavy lumber I could want during the building. I’ve tucked away the rest of the old timbers, all the assorted smaller lumber pieces, and the whole recent delivery of plywood, composite and finish trim pieces in the new lumber rack. I know it might sound funny, but I get a big kick out of now having my own little lumber yard right in my garage. Life is good.
The bad news is that during the heavy rain a few days ago, a leak developed in the ceiling of the room I’m planning to use as my office. There’s a garden terrace overhead, and apparently some of the tilework is cracked. The building administrator has come out to take a look at the leak and to plan the repair work, but I know that will take some time. So I’ve had to change my plans slightly. I built a temporary desk and Internet connection in the space where I plan to build a rustic kitchen to hold my coffeemaker, microwave and mini fridge. No big problem. I’m having more than enough fun to make it through a few problems.
