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.