Farmin', queens style

Most recent IKEA hack are the Ivar shelves left behind by the old tenants, cut down with casters leftover from an IKEA file cabinets assembly freelance gig. The recycling bins and soil beds are cut from extra shelves and the storage really cleared up the storage area, AKA "the back 40."



Gravel/rocks from the neighborhood for drainage, cheesecloth, then potting soil.


Drainage spout into a cut 2 litre bottle, H2O can be put back into bed.



I made out like a bandit at the farmer's market at 43rd St. and Skillman, one of the cenyc markets. Hudson Valley Farmhouse was out of the kick-ass cheese ravioli I had last week, so I'm trying the spinach pasta instead.

A day's work

The best part about this feeble attempt at time lapse is Rusty bustling around. Good view of the state of things, though.

Major progress moving the kitchen off of the stage so I can finish the floor and "lounge it out." I should've learned my lesson about white shag carpets in dusty lofts, but I still want one. Bad. The artist I'm working for, Fabian Marcaccio, has one in his loft, it is wool, nice quality, needs a cleaning once a year. Hmmm. I got inspired about the floor paint from helping him with his new space. Oil based "silver grey" from janovic/plaza. Did wonders on raw plywood and may be a bit more manageable than white, even if it means sleeping on a friend's couch while it dries.




Fabian's new studio, before and after.

To Do

After a visit with my sister Sarah I realized there are a ton of half-done projects, the short-term mixed in with the long-term.

Thus the new to do list. Small bites, chew each 10 times before swallowing.

Rusty!

Russ McClintock brought a little Miami flava to the joint last week. He's a good buddy from Chicago who fixed up a photo studio there and spent a week helping out while waiting for his visa to relocate to London. He's an incredible photographer, there are some images of the space on his blog .

Taking down florescents

Russell and I took down the florescents and said good riddance. What an unbelievable difference.

New Kitchen/New Lease

The deep clean worked its way up onto the kitchen stage, made myself a fabulous lunch to go with the new lease under "Softbox LLC." I stopped by NY Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts to get my membership and make an appointment to start the process. My Suzie Secretary alter ego is twitching in anticipation

Is it spring cleaning if it is June?

Been doing more scrubbing and mopping, half the space is open again. I built a "test pod" to practice living in 8' x 12'. It is more spacious than I thought, or maybe I've just been conditioned to New York City standards of personal space.




I also built a new temporary window for the skyline side, which is much better for the elements and can be taken off when AC becomes necessary.

Spring Clean!

Did the spring cleaning last night, got a bit carried away. Even the plants got a new clean home.
Took these dreamy pics of the vespa and column with Photobooth

Studio Rat

I've been super busy at school this month, up for mid-program review so softbox construction got put on hold until May. I'm still dreaming of her though, you can see by the pod-models.


Softbox pipe dreams translated into site specific piece for my review.

Momo's green

Check out my project inspired by looking for greenspace for Momo, my neighbor's pup, around Softbox.

Softbox model

Andrea's Party

New floor done!

Andrea is a paint rolling maniac. Floor is finally done. Party pics soon.

Sunburst over Sunnyside

Gorgeous coming home on the 7 the other day, had to hustle up to the roof for these.

Final pod design

Got the pod design truly nailed down (har har) and even made a nerdy excel spreadsheet to estimate costs. Looks like they'll be $400 each, which doesn't account for some free supplies we already have and any other stuff we may be able to scavenge on craig's list + the like.

Stage, part deux

OK, so Bamboo would be fabulous, but maybe a little out of our "start up" budget. I had the idea to floor the stage with boards from woden pallettes left on our loading dock. Since they did a big cleanout today, I was able to harvest a bunch.


Not sure about the patern yet, I love the idea of a rough edge. I have a feeling it'll be pretty "mosaic-ey" when dealing with the real rough wood.