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Not Looking Forward to This
Jan. 19th, 2005 02:26 amI work in a very old building (approx. 90 years old). It was originally designed as a children’s orphanage named the Children’s Home and run by the Ladies' Relief Society. The city purchased it in 1950 as a recreation center and it also housed an art program. Over the years the recreation program shrank and the arts program grew. By the time I started working here in 1987 there was virtually no recreation programming left. A few groups like a stamp collectors club and a diving club still used the facilities for their meetings; and city staff ran a senior card/bingo game on Sundays. The rest of the building was devoted to drama (a small theater, large costume room and scene shop), photography (b& w darkroom), full ceramic, jewelry and stained/fused glass facilities. The remaining rooms were used for painting, drawing, yoga and other arts and craft classes. I started as a volunteer photography lab monitor and within a year I found myself employed as the photography coordinator and an instructor. Over the years I worked my way into behind the scenes admin stuff working mostly on the computer.
The building has been out of city compliance re: earthquake safety for over a decade. But since the city makes the rules, what’s it going to do – fine itself!
With time and some pressure from neighborhood groups we finally found funding in one of those big bond measures that covers everything from creek clean up to our building renovation.
That brings us to the here and now. Jan. 2005. We are scheduled to leave the building by the end of March. We have classes until Feb. 19. That means we have a little over a month to completely vacate the building – 20,000 sq. feet of building that has been our home for 55 years. Throw out the junk, box up some things for storage, sell other things and move what we need to a temporary location a few miles away in the downtown area. My head is reeling at everything that has to be done. Kilns, enlargers, pottery throwing wheels, easels, tables and chairs, OH MY! Desk, computers and filing cabinets galore!
I wish I could take an extended vacation right now! I lived in a medium 2-bedroom apartment for almost 8 years and I remember how much STUFF I had to deal with when we moved.
Oh yeah, and least I not forget, we had a leak in the plumbing in the ceiling last week. It was caused by a consulting firm cutting holes and walking around in the attic to see how best to attack the gutting of the building. This has caused enough wall/floor/ceiling damage to need removal and it all has asbestos in it so we have abatement and repairs in process. Yes on a building scheduled to be completely gutted in just a few months. I’m just flummoxed by it all.
And sometime in the next few weeks I will probably have the out patient surgery on my knee. Holy Cow Batman! “If it ain’t one thing it’s another.” Thank you Rosanna Rosanna Dana.
The building has been out of city compliance re: earthquake safety for over a decade. But since the city makes the rules, what’s it going to do – fine itself!
With time and some pressure from neighborhood groups we finally found funding in one of those big bond measures that covers everything from creek clean up to our building renovation.
That brings us to the here and now. Jan. 2005. We are scheduled to leave the building by the end of March. We have classes until Feb. 19. That means we have a little over a month to completely vacate the building – 20,000 sq. feet of building that has been our home for 55 years. Throw out the junk, box up some things for storage, sell other things and move what we need to a temporary location a few miles away in the downtown area. My head is reeling at everything that has to be done. Kilns, enlargers, pottery throwing wheels, easels, tables and chairs, OH MY! Desk, computers and filing cabinets galore!
I wish I could take an extended vacation right now! I lived in a medium 2-bedroom apartment for almost 8 years and I remember how much STUFF I had to deal with when we moved.
Oh yeah, and least I not forget, we had a leak in the plumbing in the ceiling last week. It was caused by a consulting firm cutting holes and walking around in the attic to see how best to attack the gutting of the building. This has caused enough wall/floor/ceiling damage to need removal and it all has asbestos in it so we have abatement and repairs in process. Yes on a building scheduled to be completely gutted in just a few months. I’m just flummoxed by it all.
And sometime in the next few weeks I will probably have the out patient surgery on my knee. Holy Cow Batman! “If it ain’t one thing it’s another.” Thank you Rosanna Rosanna Dana.
