Loft Renovation

036 Painting

2007-06-26T09:47:00.001-07:00

We've been busy painting the loft. We bought a power paint sprayer and I'm in love with it! I could paint the entire building. It works as described and fast enough that one coat on 2,500 square feet - including all the pipes - took 8 hours. Another 8 hours for the second coat and all we have to do now is trim out the edges. Next up: Building walls...

035 How To Remove A Monster

2006-12-19T12:42:00.000-08:00

This is the last post about this beast. I will not talk about it any more. I will not post pictures any more. I will not even think about it again. I was able to get it down from the ceiling alone on a Saturday afternoon (my friends thank me). Some rope, some head scratching and a little ingenuity and I'm done with it. Do you want it? It's free. Really. Take it. Please.

034 Doh! Broken Window

2006-12-11T09:13:00.000-08:00

This is what happens when you try to remove gas pipe by yourself. Next time, I'll bring out the saws-all and chop it up first.

033 Take My Heater, Please [free]

2006-12-10T00:07:00.000-08:00

I really don't want to move this. I disconnected the gas lines, with the help of the gas company, and even that was a chore. It's bigger than it looks, and it looks big. It's attached to the ceiling by two rods sitting in eye-hooks. I guess I could strap the heater to the ceiling with ratcheting tie-downs and then remove the bolts to the eye-hooks. But then what? I could also use rope like I did on the first floor. Only downstairs we had poles to tie the ropes to. Here, we have nothing. And if the heater weighs more than I do, I'm going up as the heater comes down. I also have a ratcheting cable mechanism, but it ratchets tight, not loose, so I couldn't slowly ratchet it down. The guys at Adlers Hardware suggested finding old mattressess and just dropping the unit. Maybe. Still seems sketchy. So if anyone wants it, it's yours. You WILL have to take it down yourself, but it's free. And it heats. And it's called Reznor.

032 When, when, when...

2006-12-04T07:36:00.000-08:00

I've taken time off again from the renovation to concentrate on my day job. Despite the mess in this picture, there's really not much left to do before we can begin framing:

Remove the heating unit from the ceiling
Finish the little bit of paint removal off the brick wall
Scrape the last bit of ceiling paint
Move two electric lines
Fill in the hole in the floor
Build up the half walls up to the ceiling
Frame out one last wall and install door
Finish ripping up linoleum flooring from the old kitchen

I can do this quickly, right? Then we can paint. We're painting the ceiling white, two coats of Kilz then a coat of a warm white. One of the brick walls is getting paint, the other polyurethane. And then we're ready to begin framing. Our architect is doing a wonderful job, we couldn't be more pleased. He's also been patient with me as I bop from one project to the next. More soon. Or maybe not so soon, but eventually. We have our first snowfall outside today. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

031 The Wall Comes Down

2006-11-17T04:35:00.000-08:00

We tore down the last wall today. The staff kitchen was behind this wall so we left it for last. The staff are now using my office for the break room. The wall was originally built with 1 x 12 tongue & groove slats for the bottom portion, 1/4" plywood for the top, and drywall on the other side. No studs. Even so, it was more difficult to take down this wall than the other walls which were standard drywall with studs 16" on center. The lighting guys are coming today to remove the fluorescent lights. Now we can finally see the space in it entirety,

030 Scraping Continues

2006-11-15T11:51:00.000-08:00

Why no updates in a while? If I were to update every day or every other day even, the posts would all be the same: Scraping, scraping, scraping. We're more than 75% complete. The ceiling is finished and we're just working on the brick. We need to start thinking about wall finishes. I tested a few spots with paint, clear-coat polyurethane and a pickling finish. It looks like either Poly or nothing.

029 Coldtech Refrigerator

2006-11-03T15:14:00.000-08:00

Picked up the refrigerator today - we found this on eBay. It's not as large as it looks, only 50" wide, larger than a common residential unit, smaller than a commercial cooler. Sort of inbetween. And again, the sellers were very nice and accommodating. We had to hire movers to get it from Franklin, Mass to Pawtucket, Rhode Island. That cost an extra $200.00 but was well worth it. They moved it in a small pickup truck, like a Ford F150. I was concerned when they didn't show up with a box truck and lift gate. But the guys who piled out of the pickup truck were really big guys. Basically they gently man-handled the unit into the bed of the pickup and again at our end onto our dock. Not a scratch. Though now we have to hire a rigger to get it up to the second floor. I'll take lots of pictures when we move in and hoist it up through the barn doors on the second floor.

028 Still Scraping

2006-11-02T19:25:00.000-08:00

The scraping continues. We're about 75% of the way through - I say "we" but I mean Taylor really, who is taking over some of the hard work while I concentrate on design and the business. Once the scraping is complete and swept up, we can think about painting. And building.

027 Viking Cooktop

2006-10-28T13:52:00.000-07:00

Another Craigslist find - a Viking cooktop with four burners and a griddle, you know, for grilled cheese and such. The family we bought it from were really sweet, they helped carry it to the car and even offered cleaning suggestions. They have five children and needed a larger unit, one with six burners. It's cleaner than it looks in the picture. Heavier too. Next up - we need a refrigerator...

026 He Fell Through That Hole

2006-10-24T22:20:00.000-07:00

That is Taylor. I hired him to help with all the paint scraping. He's doing a great job. And today, he fell through that hole in the floor (look at entry #22). Yup, he just fell right through, from the second floor to the first. He landed on his ass and muttered under his breath, "I can't believe I just did that..." we all ran over to see if he was OK, the staff was in shock, a little, after all he just FELL THROUGH THE HOLE. But he got up, apologized for the mess that fell down with him and offered to sweep it up. We said, no no, go take a break and make sure you're OK. And that was that. A few minutes later, after a glass of water, he was back to work. Did I mention that he FELL THROUGH THE HOLE?

I think he's a superhero...

025 The Loft Critic?

2006-10-18T14:48:00.000-07:00

I was pretty excited to come across a site called "The Loft Critic" until I poked around a bit. Is this site for real? Not sure. The site seems to want to push readers towards their advertisers. There's not much in the way of content. Though the definitions for "Hard Loft" and "Soft Loft" were interesting - did you know a soft loft may have carpet? No way? Way!

024 Scraping Is Not Fun

2006-10-14T23:14:00.000-07:00

This has to be the least enjoyable job so far: scraping the ceiling. Paint chips and sore arms. No fun. I'd rather rip down moldy drywall than bend over backwards on the scaffolding with a paint scraper. But I can't afford to pay someone to do it.

023 Tub Foot

2006-10-05T12:34:00.000-07:00

We love Craigslist. This was a free find. A nice gentleman in Pawtuxet Village was moving and listed the tub as "free, but located on the second floor". When we showed up we were all ready to muscle it down a flight of stairs, but found it sitting in the driveway. Nice! It doesn't look like much, but the inside is refinished, though a little dirty. Not sure how to finish the outside after cleaning it up - but maybe Mr. Google can help.

022 The Big Hole

2006-10-04T20:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, there is a hole in the floor, a big one at that. This image is looking up from the first floor into the second. The opening is approximately 4' x 8' and once made room for a conveyor belt which ran from the first floor to the second. On the first floor a square was removed then replaced out of the hard wood floors, which we were told by the previous owners was cut to make room for the conveyor belt motor. The hole is beautiful from downstairs as it lets in natural light in the morning. Everyone has an idea for the hole: fireman's pole, swing, elevator, spiral staircase. The fire safety guys (fire marshalls) aren't having it though. So we're going to plug it up. But it was fun to reveal the opening - and the most amount of work yet, besides tearing down walls.

021 Ready For Painting

2006-09-25T05:49:00.000-07:00

The demolition is almost complete. See that big white "table" there in the background? It's actually a built-in box covering a hole in the floor. At one time there was a conveyor belt running from the first to the second floor. The hole is approximately 4' x 8'. There's no way I will be able to replace the subflooring as well as the maple floorboards, so we're thinking we'll just lift the kitchen off the floor on a platform and then simply cover the hole under the platform with plywood. We need to make sure the material covering the floor passes the fire marshall inspection, as well as all the other miscellaneous holes in the floor: old pipe holes, electrical and plumbing holes and other circular shaped holes which were drilled for who knows what purpose. But once the table is moved and the hole covered, the demolition is pretty much complete. Time to paint!

020 Blueprint

2006-09-23T21:04:00.000-07:00

Blueprint version one. Lots of light coming through on the east and west sides. The kids rooms are free standing leaving a "light well" visable from the kitchen and great room. And a two story library!

019 Riverfront Lofts Pawtucket

2006-09-23T20:30:00.000-07:00

We visited two lofts at the Riverfront Lofts building in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. They were open for the Pawtucket Open Studio Stroll along with our studio. We don't usually get a chance to visit our neighbors during the sale, but we snuck out for a quick peek. The building and lofts are Gorgeous! The exterior, common spaces and green spaces around the building are beautiful. Old, yet new. We only had a chance to see two lofts, both live / work spaces. Ten years ago we rented a studio from Morris Nathanson in the next building over and at the time the Riverfront Lofts property was a working mill. A pretty enough building, four stories, lots of brick. But I never would have thought such a stately and elegant conversion could have been made from this space.

018 Inspiration 1.0

2006-09-23T20:05:00.000-07:00

Found this on Flickr: Jeannie from Los Angeles has a wonderful loft which started out pretty raw. Just a white box. Her photographs are inspiring. Check out the complete Flickr set of her beautiful finished loft as well as a few before and after pictures.

017 Another Mess

2006-09-23T19:46:00.000-07:00

Another day, another mess, another dumpster. Are we really going to get this place cleaned up enough to live and sleep in? I tossed old drywall and 2 x 4's into the dumpster along with a bit of trash that was piling up. Now I'm working on cleaning up the ceiling. You can see in the picture how much crap is attached to the ceiling: lights, ceiling fans, conduit, old conduit, even older insulated cables attached right to the ceiling with copper staples. That stuff is scary: Like attaching an extension cord with a stapler. Ran into our Architect at Whole Foods today. Providence is such a small town, you pretty much can run into just about everyone you know if you spend enough time in Whole Foods. Also made it to the grand opening of the Providence Place Apple Store. They gave us a pretty t-shirt. Thanks Apple.

016 Providence Business News

2006-09-18T13:48:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Natalie Myers, staff writer for the Providence Business News and Stephanie Ewens, photographer, for the nice story about the Building, and the business, in the September 18th issue of the Providence Business News. I look like "The Man" in that photo. Or as Patty said, "You look tired..." Yeah, tired. You said it.

Read the story here
[Registration Required]

015 A Month Off

2006-08-23T17:50:00.000-07:00

First there was the heat. Then a week away in New York. Now a bad wrist. Not sure what I did to it, the doctor says tendonitis, though it feels like a fracture, like a tiny hairline break. I'm not one to complain but whatever this is, it's painful. Which sort of rules out demolishing the last two remaining rooms this week. I called "We Dispose" to pick up the 30 yard rollaway dumpster and will continue the project again either when I recover, or when I break down and hire someone. More soon!

014 From eBay

2006-07-23T17:05:00.000-07:00

I purchased this photograph from an eBay seller. I don't know when the photo was taken, but if our building had been standing at the time, it would have been situated all the way to the right of the photo. I can't say for sure whether the building would have made it into the photo, the photograph may have been taken slightly too far to the left to have shown the building anyway. The long building with the saw tooth roof is still standing and currently houses Central Paper. The building on the left, formerly Smith Webbing, was recently renovated for The Providence Center and the law firm Shechtman Halperin Savage. The walkway seen in the photo no longer exists. I'll take a similar photo to compare before and after.

013 From The Historical Society

2006-07-23T16:47:00.000-07:00

The Historical Society was kind enough to send these images along with this bit of information: "You can see that in 1895, the land was still part of the John Ross property. By 1917, the Ross property was subdivided and Chermack Mfg. had been built. By 1976, there's a merch (?) shop, factory building, and the facility for Providence Braid. So we know that the building was put up between 1895 and 1917, perhaps for Chermack Mfg. There's more to learn with deed, map, and other archival research, but here's a headstart." We have records that show the building was put up in 1900. I need to double check that, I'm going by memory. Friends of ours worked with the historical society and applied for tax credits when they renovated their historic mill building. I want to take a visit to the historical society to learn more. Maybe even find period photographs.

[Left Image] This map is dated 1895. We're currently located in the pink square. In this map, our building would have been on the "Ross" property.

[Center Image] This map is dated 1917. We're currently located in the pink square labelled "Chermack Mfg. Co."

[Right Image] This map is dated 1976 and shows our building in its current configuration (white building).

012 Surprises In The Dumpster

2006-07-23T14:32:00.000-07:00

I arrived at the building this morning and found a homeless person in our 30 yard roll-away dumpster looking for recyclable materials. At first I asked him to leave, but we talked a bit and he helped me get an air conditioner into the dumpster which I couldn't do on my own and I gave him a pile of tangled electrical wires which filled up his shopping cart until it looked like it would either tip over or run away from him. I was surprised to see how much stuff he took, electrical boxes, the ballasts from fluorescent light fixtures, phone cords, even the filter from an air conditioner. Better than going to the dump I suppose. He said his name was "Ry... like the bread". "What kind of bread?" I asked, and I got a laugh out of him. Above is a mosaic of the space now that one of the large walls has been removed.

011 More Demolition

2006-07-23T14:22:00.000-07:00

Going, going, gone. The entire space we're renovating for the loft is currently divided into three areas. This floor to ceiling wall separated two of the larger rooms and now that it is down, the space looks much bigger! It's the first time I've had a chance to work in the space since the heat wave. The double doors with the transom windows on top lead to the roof of the first floor. Maybe we'll build a deck out there someday.

010 Zoning Compliance

2006-07-16T12:08:00.000-07:00

We received our residential zoning approval back in March. The building was previously zoned "MO" or "Mixed Use", which unfortunately did not mean commercial / residential zoning. We made a visit the zoning office in Pawtucket to describe our project and apply for residential zoning. The fire marshalls walked through the building and we applied for the residential zoning soon thereafter. The folks down at city hall were again super friendly and helpful. The zoning variance we received was based on my work as a book collector. The studio I run makes books, but could not be considered my "work" in regards to a "live/work" situation because we have employees, the live/work zoning variance is for an artist with one or maybe two assistants, not someone with a staff of employees. However, we got around that by using my book collection (and other collectibles, I collect polar exploration memorabilia) as the basis for my work. So I "live" in the loft and my "work" is related to book collecting. A creative and appropriate solution and everyone's happy. And my wife says finally my obsessive collecting has paid off.

009 Heater For Sale

2006-07-16T08:12:00.000-07:00

This heater is for sale. Please, take it away. It is a gas fired forced hot air heating unit attached to the ceiling. It's a beast. It works, the gas lines need to be disconnected. I'm not sure exactly where I should post this, I'll start with Craigs List and then ask other building owners in Pawtucket. I can't imagine getting any interest off eBay. But if anyone wants it, email me!

008 Delectrification

2006-07-16T07:53:00.000-07:00

The electricians came to turn off the power on the second floor (the floor we're renovating). There were two circuit panels on the second floor. One in the staff kitchen, which did not power the kitchen, but instead ran a 220 line downstairs to an A/C unit and another 220 line to a disconnected gas heater unit (which is for sale, see the next post). The larger circuit panel ran four 220 lines downstairs (A/C units and machinery) as well as powering the staff kitchen - the kitchen is not part of the renovation and needs to be live throughout the project. So the job wasn't simply disconnecting all of the circuits, we had to follow each line to see if it was needed (kitchen, A/C unit, machinery, etc) and keep it live if it was while removing any inline junction boxes, then disconnect the nonessential lines for demo. I would have done this myself, but the job was more complicated than it looked and I think we got our money worth. (Shout out: H & R Electric, Pawtucket - highly recommended)

007 Work Benches

2006-07-15T09:28:00.000-07:00

This table does not appear large in the photo. It was 15 feet long and the legs and cross supports were nailed together with square nails, you know, the kind you see in "This Old House" historic home renovations. I saved the large pieces, maybe someday we'll find a woodworker who can re-use the wood. The table top was made with a piece of wood 2.5" thick, 12" wide and 8' long. They don't make wood that size anymore... I guess trees do. No idea what kind of wood though. But the table is gone. This was one of three benches which we had to remove. There are a few more built in units, tables and a half wall, then there are only walls to remove.

006 Clean Up

2006-07-06T15:39:00.000-07:00

[click the images for larger views] There's not much to talk about since the renovation really hasn't started yet. Lot's of cleanup though. The 30 yard roll-away is filled, fortunately most of the large debris is in there. We'll have to order another one when the electrician finishes, which hopefully will be tomorrow. He's scheduled to disconnect most of the live electrical system on the second floor so I can finish with the demo. More tomorrow... hopefully. He's already cancelled once.

005 The Walls Come Tumbling Down

2006-07-05T18:34:00.000-07:00

The loft is divided into three areas, separated by floor to ceiling walls. Basically they're three, different rooms which we're opening up into one large room, with a kitchen on one end and the bedrooms, bath and laundry on the other, with an open floor for living and creating in between. But the walls have to come down first. I love this part. The 30 yard roll-away dumpster sits below a set of barn doors on the second floor so it's easy and gratifying to throw away the garbage, just toss it out the window. I threw a dead refrigerator out the window, which was heading straight into the dumpster, until about the last minute, then it wasn't quite heading for the dumpster, but instead about a foot away. It exploded with doors, shelves and fridge debris flying about, but somehow didn't even hit the side of the dumpster. Fortunately a friend stopped by and we stared at the smashed white box until realizing that it probably wasn't as heavy as it looked. It just took up a lot of space. And smashed spectacularly.

004 The Demolition Begins

2006-06-24T12:11:00.000-07:00

These shelves needed to be moved from the North Wall. They are pine, attatched directly onto the wall with screws and nails. They weren't sturdy, and came down completely in about an hour (the timestamps on the photos state 1:40 from moving the scaffolding to sweeping the floors)

Check out the Flickr set of the demolition

003 DIY Scaffolding

2006-06-24T12:06:00.000-07:00

I needed scaffolding to reach the ceiling and remove built in shelving on the north wall of the loft. Being on a budget, I didn't want to buy or rent scaffolding, there has to be a way to build a cheap platform. We have a few Pallet Racks in storage that we're not using. The platform fits a 4' x 8' sheet of plywood, so it's large enough to move around a bit and hold tools or paint. I tried to add wheels to move it around easily. The wheels were $5.00 each, not including the hardware (Home Depot) but once they were attached, the strength of the feet were not sturdy enough to hold the wheels flat when moving. So the scaffolding does not have wheels, but it still slides around OK.

002 Gaggenau & Craigs List

2006-06-24T11:52:00.000-07:00

Thank you Craigs List! We picked up a Gaggenau dishwasher for $100.00 (and trade for art) from a very nice woman who bought a new dishwasher and was getting rid of the old one. There may be minor repair issues (our fingers are crossed) but we'll see. It's a beautiful machine, and a bargain too. Retailed for $1700.00 new, they sell used for between $500.00 and $900.00 on eBay. We have no heat, electricity, walls, kitchen or bathroom - but we have a spiffy new dishwasher.

001 Post Prime

2006-05-27T13:00:00.000-07:00

This blog chronicles the renovation of our ~3,000 sq/ft residential loft located just over the Providence line in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The former textile mill, built in 1920, is a post & beam constructed brick building with approximately 6,000 sq/ft on the first floor, and ~3,000 sq/ft on the second floor, which is the residential portion. The first floor is the home for our small arts business. We purchased the building in summer 2002. The previous occupant used the entire two-storey space for their jewelry company - plating, finishing and warehousing - and although the building was dirty from age and use, they cleaned it out pretty well. We passed the environmentals even with all the chemical plating previously done on the first floor. When we took over there was a funky odor (and a film of dust which weavoided inhaling) but the jewelry equipment and machinery was gone and the floors swept.

THE FIRST FLOOR RENOVATION (11/15/02 - 01/15/03)

It took about 90 days to renovate the first floor as the new home for our company. I was the General Contractor, which sounds nice but just means I hired contractors, wrote checks and am the one to blame for the few crooked walls. The contract work fell into six categories:

Demolition (I did most of this with the help of company employees)
Sand Blasting
Carpentry
Flooring
Electrical
Finishing

DEMOLITION

The demo was simple, and honesty, I really enjoyed it: tearing down walls, removing garbage, panelling, some drywall, flooring and a few buildouts like a small loft for lumber storage and built-in work tables. The majority of the time however was spent removing the electrical system: outlets, lights, conduit, everything. We removed the first floor electrical system prior to renovation, there were two generations of wiring, one which was live when we began construction, another left over from a previous renovation. The waste from the demo filled two 30 yard rollaway dumpsters. We got the rollaways cheap by promising the company the garbage pickup for our company once we moved in.

SAND BLASTING

This is probably the messiest job in the world. The guys wore white suits, taped their wrists and ankles with duct tape and covered their heads with space age helmets connected by flexible hosing to a breathing apperatus parked outside. The job took three days and they told us not to come in during those three days, but we couldn't resist. The first night we came in with a flashlight, but couldn't see a thing. There was a brick colored haze so thick we almost walked into walls. The next day the guys gave us a hard time about coming in to look, when we asked them how they knew we were there, they showed us our footprints in the brick dust. Afterwards, the ceilings were sprayed with a polyurethane coating to seal in any stray sand particles.

CARPENTRY

There wasn't much carpentry to do: in the main area three walls were framed out and a room built around the basement enterance. Several offices were framed out in the "front office" area. All the walls were sheet rocked and plastered. The guy we hired was a real knucklehead. He was cheap and we got what we paid for. We couldn't afford more as the electrical work went way over budget.

FLOORING

Flooring was done in two phases: First, the cement floors in the areas which previously had been for storage and plating were removed with a jackhammer and the concrete repoured. This took half a day to demo and half a day to pour the new floors. We bought the sealer ourselves and sealed the floors when the guys left. We put more than a dozen coats on the cement floor which remained unpainted and it still feels slick - easy to sweep up. Then only a few coats on the floor we painted.

The second phase was sanding the hardwood floors. The wood is maple, and unfortunately, soft pine in a small repaired area which we did not find until the floor was completed. Our other mistake was to sand the floors *before* the carpentry. What happened here was the dust from the drywall messed up the floors a bit and had to be mopped several times. Next time, we will sand the floors last. Also, although the contractors put down three coats of poly, we are getting some wear by the desks due to chair legs scraping away. I think next time we will take a look at the areas to get a lot of traffic and add several more layers of poly ourselves.

ELECTRICAL

Here's where all the money went. As we removed the entire electrical system it had to be replaced. Additionally we had to install lighting. The location of outlets and number of amps in specific areas did not suit our needs. Neither did the very unattractive flourescent lighting fixtures.

The company we used was helpful, just slow and expensive. We didn't pin down the price as we did with the rest of the contractors. When they started running lines throughout the studio, they were running conduit along the bottom of the beams in the same manner as the conduit which was removed, very conspicuous. They had to tear down what they started and instead run the conduit along the edges of the beams or along the beams instead up by the ceiling. This of course took a lot longer and so was more expensive.

The lighting was another problem. We chose track lighting with black tracks and fixtures. The bulbs were incandescent, 100 w bulbs which even with more than 100 fixtures did not provide enough light, especially during the winter months. They looked nice, but we were spending a fortune changing lightbulbs which soon became part of the job description for our company shipper.

We solved the problem two years later by taking advantage of a federal program which provides assitance to companies looking to replace exsisting lighting with energy efficient lighting. The program was run by our local electric company and they sent someone down to take a look at the lights, It was suggested that we replace our lights with flourescent fixtures and bulbs. At first we said, thanks, but no thanks, until they offered us daylight balanced bulbs. They may look like flourescent bulbs, which they are, but the lighting looks like daylight. In the end, we paid practically nothing for the entire job of replacing all the fixtures (and we were able to keep our old track lighting to use somewhere else - like in the residential loft...) as well as financing the small amount by spreading it out on the electric bill over two years. Better yet, our electric bill is lower, we don't generate as much heat with the new bulbs (cooler in the summer) and after two years, have not changed a single bulb. It was a win, win, win, win situation.

FINISHING

When the electrical guys left - and we were left with their big fat bill - we painted, built a few tables and storage shelves, and simply moved in. All in all, the entire renovation took less than 90 days, and would have been done on time (60 days) if not for the electricians who took forever.

Check out the Flickr set of the first floor renovation

000 About The Project / Start Here

2006-05-01T14:48:00.000-07:00

This blog is here to chronicle the renovation of our loft which is located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. We bought the building in 2002 from a jewelry company and renovated the first floor for our business [Rag & Bone Bindery]. At the time we figured we would renovate the second floor immediately. However, the economy and our lack of a budget delayed the start of the renovation. We refinanced the building at the height of the realty boom in early 2006 and are using those limited funds to renovate the space, which began in earnest on June 24th, 2006. I'm doing most of the demolition myself and would like to do much of the construction, but we'll see if this happens or not.

About the space;

Building Size: Approximately 10,000+ square feet
Loft Size: Approximately 2,500+ square feet
Construction: Timber frame & brick
Attributes: Vaulted windows, east & west facing
Attributes: 12.5 to 14 foot ceilings
Attributes: Maple Floors
Attributes: Access to the roof of the first floor (deck?)
Mechanicals: Steam Heat (replacing with forced hot air)
Mechanicals: Electrical has been removed (raw space)
Mechanicals: Water already installed

The former uses for the building were most recently as a jewelry manufacturing space, and before that as a textile mill. The large, steel and wood wheels which ran the pulleys to the machines are still attached to the ceiling on the first floor.