Howdy! I'm off to Kent for to co-author a lovely essay with my dear friend Robert, but before I go I have some pictures to share of the barn (which now has walls; these are kind of old - I'll take more when I get back).
Sand's Embryonic Fiber Studio
A million thanks to the genius that is Tom Watt for being able to read an old farm structure the way I read books. He read the history of the building and managed to jack it up (6 inches in one corner) and install scavenged farmhouse windows and psych out how to maintain or re-use as much of the old wood as possible. He's worth a zillion times more than I'm paying him, but stay tuned for a new web site for his new contracting business as part of our exchange...
This was fairly early in the process; I think he'd jacked up the corners at this point and was getting ready to pour the concrete foot around the walls so that (this time) the wood wouldn't rot out. The barn had literally been so shaky that when he tapped the corner posts with a hammer the whole building moved! Scary...
Tom has designed a different door at this point; a dutch door so that Riley, the beloved Casa del Sand dog, can be out in the studio with me but won't wander (and we'll both get air). The door is wide enough that I can get a loom in; I have a lead on one locally and my Theoretical Mama, Miriam, who just retired from Tel Aviv University, still has her mother's (her parents left Austria two steps ahead of the Nazis, but neither Miriam nor her daughters do anything fiber-related. So we're trying to figure out the logistics to get Miriam's Mama's loom from Israel to Illinois.)
The last picture shows the barn board that we're working to salvage (and re-use, inside, as wainscoating in cases where the wood's just too damaged to have outside. It's beautiful - it reminds me of my grandfather's farm in Ohio, where I tottered about as a wee one...
I hope everyone has a wonderful week, and that the Madame De Farge Society meeting goes well - I'll miss you chicas - and I will return on Friday evening.
*waves*
~ Sand