ONE STEP FORWARD........

Once again time has flown by and April is 'fast upon us....or me!!"

The good news is that the floor tiles are finally laid. But I have had hang-back with laying the final tiles next too the marble Shop Step, as yet again things may have taken a new direction.

All will be revealed!!

Floor Tiles Finished!

The studio front has been started and is currently being worked on by Raymond my Carpenter in his workshop in Luqa. After a visit from Heritage Monitoring in the carpenters workshop, with all the old sections of the shop front, it was decided that, in fact the original wood was of poor quality, made with several different types of wood , not painted from the inner sides and hence the deterioration of the wood to date. The wood was dry and brittle. Rene & Matthew from Heritage/MEPA hence gave the go-ahead to replicate all the shop front except for the Upper Right Hand 'Boxed' section.........


This will mean  submitting ANOTHER Minor Amendment to MEPA to 'update' my file and that means ANOTHER 175 euros for the pleasure.

I am about to have the Stuido Front paint, mixed today and prepare some small samples on wood to submit to Heritage for their approval. I am working with the Pantone Colours in accordence with MEPA regulations,  that were submitted and Approved for the permit. Unfortunately the paint mixing shops DO NOT have a PANTONE Colour chart so it has be a struggle to match my colour with their colour charts. Anyway according to my Architect, the BETA Centre in Fgura has a Pantone Chart so I will try there today!

Below is an image of the original Shop sign. It is made by painting the background and highlights of the text directly onto the glass, leaving space for the main body of the text, which is then covered in Tinfoil.

My challenge is to find someone who will produce the Studio sign using the same methodology. YOU GUESSED, nobody out there so far that can do this!  Wish me luck. Obviously if I cannot find anyone I will have to give it a go myself BUT hopefully it will not come to that.

ORIGINAL SHOP SIGN

I have received two quotations now for the 2 Metre Steel Push-Pull handle that MEPA requested for the Studio door. NOT cheap.... honestly you would think, that 'requesting' should mean that MEPA actually contribute financially to these things....


And so


The shower room has been prepped for tiling. This might mean, that pretty soon I will have a working toilet in my Studio and will no longer be obliged to use  Valletta Coffee Shop's toilets throughout the day...yeeeeeeeeeeee!


So that's about it really. I will hopefully have some images of the Studio with the wooden frontage on for you soon as......

UPDATE ON STUDIO 104 RENOVATION: WHERE HAVE I BEEN????

I've been right here, at Studio 104.... on site, everyday!!
The relief of being granted an Amendment to my permit that meant I could dismantle the interior wooden/glass display units, quickly passed.

Why because a whole new set of hurdles was thrown at me.....
The plan was simple. Establish a price with the builder for the extra work of laying a 4" concrete floor. This had been recommended by my delivery man Charlie (loads of experience in delivering large, heavy pieces of machinery) and my Architect.

NO Problem!
The price, I thought was fair but defiantly not cheep and included excavating the floors to accommodate the new, 4" concrete sub-floor.

However..
For each inch of soil that came out of the ground, over a dozen bags of material were filled. This ground was so tightly packed that loosening it created mountains of soil and rubble.
Heavy rubble which then needed to be disposed of!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Therefore

That's where I have been.... keeping the work moving forward. Trying to encourage the builder not to leave. Handing over more 'bonuses...or tips' too the builder to keep him sweet and finally....

Excavation of soil to accommodate 4" of reinforced concrete

Reinforced concrete running through the centre of the entire space.

Seeing the reinforced concrete sub-floor going down. I made many compromises, including agreeing that only the centre of the space needed to be excavated(keeping the agreed price the same) and that the sides could be simple covered with levelled concrete after the centre had been laid. This saved more excavation, labour and time.

A Dumpy level was brought in to establish levels for tiles.

I eventually brought in a draughtsman, who marked the levels for tiling. Normally one would start tiling at the front of the Studio, using the original marble step as the guide. My tiler had to start at the back , laying the 'bed' for my heavy equipment that had to come in on the concrete and be Jacked into place on it's bed or plinth of Grez Tiles (l tiles laid with a full coverage of mortar and glue (v expensive glue!!) supervised by myself (I was not taking any chances) .

The tiler was obviously not confident with his levels and literally spent a couple of days 'fiddling' with his Plum Line(if you know what I mean)... He was about to lay the tiles 1.5 inches higher than they should have been to reach the level of the marble step at the front of the Studio.

When when I managed to bring in Lorin the leveller. We went to the studio at about 7.30pm in the biggest tropical storm...me holding the measure/rod and assisting in the job!!! And the rain in Malta means the roads are almost impassible!!! Oh Thank You Lorin... you really are an Angel.

Back section is tiled first to house Studio Equipment

So the back section was finally tiled and grouted. A Pity that B&G who sold me the grout and a 'special' water resistant additive (which is used instead of water to mix up the grout), that would protect the grout from discolouring and

make it water resistant  did not tell me that this additive would slow the drying time of the grout.  What the problem with that???????

For two and a half weeks I thought the Medium Grey or Silver Grout that I bought was BLACK... I was mortified, I couldn't believe that, I thought, the additive had 'enhanced' the colour!!!

Then one sunny but windy day this week I arrived at the Studio and my grouting is Medium Grey!!!!

Oh boy I had actually thought of asking the tiler to take up the tiles with a Jack Hammer and start again, realised he would 'Jack-Hammer me" and spent two and a half weeks 'designing' new floor laying patterns which allowed me to change the colour of the grouting AND to Balance Off the Black grouting at the back....oh boy!

The Shop Front is dismantled with the help of a Senior MEPA Official! 

So finally....... A new less aggressive carpenter has been found, Raymond. He actually speaks good English and TEXT in English which is great.

He has taken the original shopfront down. This is now in his workshop. He will restore the Right Hand Side where possible and will Replicate the left hand side and middle signage sections.

Raymond has agreed to a Deadline of 27 March 2013 for the return of completed shop front?????? Watch this space for news on that! I actually believe him????

STUDIO 104- Open to the Elements!

So the Studio is in transition. Thing have moved but I am not 'out of the woods yet.'

More floor tiling in the Studio and the toilet, Gypsum boards throughout, Soffit ceiling, spiral staircase and interior glass doors....which might I add need to have handles of 2 metres long on them,, by instruction of Heritage,,,,,,,,, which DON'T actually exist (in Malta anyway) so I have to have them custom made before the door can be 100 percent ordered as the glass is cut in the UK and the fixings for holes have to be 100 percent accurate.

Ha

Challenges of Renovating in the Mediterranean!! What delightful Funnnnnnnnnn... NOT.

I will be back.

CARNIVAL SEASON...SO THE RAIN HAS BEEN POURING!!

The tragedy of the Maltese Carnival is that it rains Every year! The effort that goes into the costumes and floats is unbelievable... all handmade in the 'spirit of Community.' Some grants are available for the floats which are about 3000 euros BUT the floats often exceed 10,000 euros.... The reward ... First Prize in your category basically.

Granary Square, Floriana, Valletta. 10/2/2013
Blurry vision of colour and swift run for cover!

The Queen of Hearts is closely guarded whilst exiting the festivities. 10/2/2013

However.... the splendour and magnificence of the carnival's bold and bright floats coupled with unbelievable effort and skill in the costume designs, FAR out weighed the rain!!

The spirit of carnival was alive and kicking on this Sunday's visit. Everyone around took cover in the 'larger downpours' and ran right back out again to perform in their splendour. Hats off to the Maltese and a true fighting, community spirit!!! I thoroughly enjoyed my day in the rain and the competitive spirit that runs beneath the floats, their creative teams and the dance troupes.

FINALLY- The Interior Display Is Dismantled !

So the Interior Display....riddled with wood warm, water damaged and broken has been dismantled.

The Studio looks bigger and brighter.

I met Simon the Audio/Visual Consultant again this morning.
Today we actually set up the projector & Laptop in order to make the correct calculations for the projector screen/distance.

We recapped  on the cables needed to set up the audio/visual system in the Studio space and confirmed everything with the electrician who will be laying the relevant cables. Its a bit complicated at first but I am getting the gist of it all now!

The Skip arrived in the afternoon to clear away all waste material from the Interior Display and some surplus building, waste material from before. Hopefully when I arrive tomorrow it will look like a new place!! I left the guys breaking wood and generally making a lot of mess.

I cant seem to load any images at the moment?????? I keep trying but get 'UPLOAD FAILED' 'SERVER REJECTED.' each time. I am really not sure what to do about this. It is all looking rather SAD without the images. Sorry about that.

BACK TO WORK!

Last week we finally received the Amended Permit... and so are all set to start with the dismantling of the Interior Display cabinet this morning. I woke up at 5.50am ready to start today!!

Yesterday (22 January 2013) MEPA & Heritage Malta requested a site visit, where they could meet the carpenter and run through the scheduled of works for the renovation of the Shop Front. They were once again punctual....11.30am on the dot! I thought that they were very accommodating. They suggested that they be on site when the shop front was either dismantled (if need be) or erected, just in case there are any unforeseen events that they would be able to verify. However... somewhere along the line, perhaps 'lost in translation' to me, my carpenter started to become a bit upset?? And can you believe it walked off site, claiming he was "wasting his time!"  OMG.

We were all a bit in shock I think? The'job' had remained completely as planned with the carpenter, nothing was being said to contradict or change it. The only sensitive issue is the fact that I have agreed to retain and restore the right-hand-section of the shop front and this is a bit tricky. The fragility of the old wood could mean that it gets damaged in the fitting of the Middle & Left Hand Side, new, replica sections?

Anyway I will have to get back to you on this situation because I am really not sure what the next step will be!

Simon the Audio Consultant met with me, on site last week. He is returning today!!!
He basically informed me last week how the audio/visual system connects up, recommended ceiling mounting the projector and said he will return with necessary (extended lengths) cables and ready for a trail run through.

This meeting is scheduled for 11am this morning.

Meanwhile I have been hunting for the toilet room (or Powder Room) tiles. I would like 30x30cm tiles for this project (I have an idea!) but the popular tile size at the moment is 30x90cm....which I may have to go with.
I has been a challenge designing the tiny toilet room to blend with the overall aesthetics of my Studio/Gallery. I want it to be contemporary with antiquity and I would like this tiny space to have the WOW Factor too.

As you can see, I have a lot to keep me on my toes, but am starting to see the end result now which is great.

Let see how the audio/visual goes today...

SECOND PHASE OF RENOVATION DUE TO BEGIN NEXT WEEK- 23 JANUARY 2013!!

Where Have I Been?

I'm back....
After an unexpected trip to UK to buy myself a little car. It is impossible to keep on hiring and I simply thought the prices I was being told were too expensive.
Anyway I arrived in freezing Manchester, spent ten days test driving cars and walking around freezing forecourts and finally at the last minute found and air conditioned small BLACK Toyota Yaris that drove like a dream.

And its now outside my apartment here in Malta! I love it.
The shipping and 'registration fees' where astronomical but the actual registration process here in Malta was better than expected. I think December is a quiet time to register a car. Would I do it all over again.....I don't think so!

Anyway I also managed to find a lovely Belfast sink (weighing 50kg), which I put in the boot of the car so that is another problem solved and I finally found a solution to my interior picture lighting.


The lights are currently being shipped in from UK via Germany. Nothing is smooth.

On my return from the UK I found that all the new electrical installation had been completed. A couple of minor hiccups, like the position of the 'feeder' supply to the proposed centre light which was positioned wrongly. This kinda is important because there are 3 'feeders' for 3 overhead lights and they should all enter at the same point on the light fitting. One of them is now to the left of the light and two are correct and feed from the right....if you know what I mean? Nothing too major though.


Works stopped before Christmas on 23 December and so far because we had not received our approval for the Minor Amendment from Malta Planning Authority, which allows us to take away the existing interior glass and wood display cabinet/shop window. This made it  impossible for us to continue works.


You see the next stage is to dismantle the interior display units, lay a 4inch sub-concrete floor with a damp course underneath and tile the Studio floor.

Finally on Wednesday my architect informed me the Amendment had been approved (I had been hassling him every morning and evening--sorry Willie!) and so I drove straight to Planning and submitted my Commencement Of Works notice (C.O.W!!!) This is the next stage and need 5 clear days notice.

We plan to start works again on Wednesday 23 January 2013 unless MEPA Monitoring contacts us. The Monitoring division of Planning may need to oversea the dismantling of the interior display cabinets and will certainly need to meet my carpenter soon.

The Carpenter will be monitored, for instance, a visit to his workshop and 'overseeing' the choice of wood for the Restoration & Renovation of the shop front.

This morning at 11am I am meeting an Audio/Visual consultant, Simon, who is going to advise on the installation of projector, screen & concealed speakers into the space. These will come in handy for those 'Installation' Art Works!

So basically that the update for today.

Renovation Begins!: EVERYTHING STILL MOVING FORWARD @ STUDIO 104 VALLE...

Renovation Begins!: EVERYTHING STILL MOVING FORWARD @ STUDIO 104 VALLE...: THE MEZZANINE STEEL BEAMS ARE IN!!! So whats been happening? We decided to buy the Steel Mezzanine beams from...... in Hal Zebbug, the guy...