Cleaning Up

and it's so rewarding...  Wow, the last few weeks have been such a whirlwind.  We've been pushed to our limits physically, mentally and emotionally.  We've each had our days where we've reached our wits end and broke down and we've each helped the other find solid ground again...and that may or may not have happened several times some days. But now it's (finally) starting to feel like we've made it to the home stretch.  For the last few days we've been receiving deliveries of furniture and art from the members of our little community of Makerflat Artists.  Slowly the place has been filling with beautiful hand-crafted items and with each piece it transforms a bit more into the space we had envisioned.

We installed the new front door, a set of french doors (which pour light into the living spaces and absolutely transform the space), and new windows throughout.  Now we are working on the little details that make a space a home (or a home away from home)... finishing the trim, outfitting the kitchen, arranging pieces with others that mesh well with them, etc.  It feels great to be making the space better rather than ripping it apart.

It hasn't been without its hassles and heartbreaks.  After our first clean 24 hours I realized I had cut the opening for the french doors a hair too small... having to once again cut into the drywall and put another layer of dust over our finally clean home sent jen over the edge.  Spending 12 hours installing the doors only to have them not function was my breaking point...but both issues are now resolved.   

We have also had a few artists back out or decide not to participate last minute and without notice (one emailed an hour after they were scheduled to deliver to tell us they had just decided not to be a part)... a tough pill to swallow when we are already counting every second, and already over due.

But we move ahead.  Because that's the only option.  All in all we're feeling pretty good.  We may not get as far as we wish every day, but there's always progress.  Some feel insignificant and some feel like bounds forward, but we crash at the end of every day because our minds and bodies are spent from another 12-15 hours of a fast paced frenzy of checking off as much as we humanly can.  It's rewarding, but also ridiculous.  Tedious yet also fun.  Insane yet also fairly well planned.

Jen's now making sure we have everything needed for guests to arrive (or for us to stay here without having to eat out every meal...luckily that's pretty easy in this neighborhood.  We've barely had to hit a food spot twice).  I'm moving on to making a few pieces of furniture that either never got accounted for or that someone backed out on.  Wasn't really anticipating that in the schedule, but the idea of this place was to generate creativity and motivate people to make...i guess I shouldn't be any different.  I spent yesterday sketching our a bedframe and a making a media/tv stand... tomorrow I'll head into the shop and see what i can do with the limited materials we have on hand.

Tomorrow morning we take the initial set of photos. It's so close we can almost taste it!