Independence Art Studios, Houston, Texas | ArtLab Summer Art Camp for Kids » Studios

All rented out, but come by anyway!

Stephen — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 14:10:06 +0000

Though we do not have any studios available at the moment, we still want to grow the community of artists and friends connected to Independence Art Studios.

We have a waiting list for studios (email info@independenceartstudios.com to be added)
We do plan on building more studios (know anybody with unwanted shipping containers?)
Sign up for life drawing classes that we’ll be starting this fall (details TBA)
Sign your kids up for the summer ArtLab camp
Stop by for Vodka Fridays (or “cherry limeade” Friday, if that’s more your speed.) They happen about once a month — next one is September 23)
We are very welcoming to artists, kids, dogs, chickens, potlucks, firepits — even collectors! Just drop by and visit.

Call Thedra if you have questions or just want to visit at 646-269-4132.

Studios ready for renters

Stephen — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 11:53:00 +0000

Give Thedra a call at 646-269-4132 to set up a visit.

A nice place to make art

Stephen — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 14:59:36 +0000

I was finally home during daylight hours to be able to take some photos of the recently-nearly-finished interiors.

Dramatic Developments

Stephen — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:21:10 +0000

What a month it has been! We installed insulation, tried to do sheetrock ourselves (before hiring somebody who knew what they were doing), got the walls painted, the electricians installed plugs and switches and turned on the power! The interiors needs some trim work and cleaning, but they’re 95% complete and they look great.

For anyone interested in rentals, we only have one left.

Looking At Art has been our first visitors. They originally scheduled the two nights of visits to see Thedra’s work and the new studios, but hey, now we’ve got a gallery building in our backyard so we asked a few friends to install some work too. We had Stephanie Toppin’s paintings, Tara Conely’s installation, and Philip Durbin’s paintings.

Only one studio left

Stephen — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:30:48 +0000

We have two of the studios rented — we’ll introduce the new artists soon. Since we need one for Thedra’s studio/classroom, that means we only have one more available. If you’re interested, here’s the scoop.

Electrical inspector is there today. Hopefully we’ll be able to insulate and start on sheetrock this week. Getting very close!

Passed city structural inspection, now ready to finalize electrical work

Stephen — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:38:58 +0000

Turns out Stephen didn’t need to stress about the city inspector as much as anticipated. He made a number of suggestions, but they were all to be completed before the finish inspection — he signed off on structural. Now we need to buy a few cases of gap filler and caulk. We’ll get the electricians out (hopefully this week) to finish their work.

We took a little break from construction this week to plant some more in our new garden. We’re following the Square Foot Gardening method and are having a fun time with it. We planted two tomato plants last Saturday, both about 5 inches tall. The next day, one of them was — no kidding — 10″ tall. It doubled in size in 24 hours. You could almost sit and watch it grow. It has calmed down a little since that early exponential growth (thank goodness.) You can see for yourself in the photo. The plant in the cage on the right was the same size as the thick, tall sage plant in the middle of the garden last weekend

Deck is done and we’re ready for the structural inspection

Stephen — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 02:40:26 +0000

Stairs are done. Railings are up and look good.

stairs

Stephen — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 14:35:21 +0000

Floor

Stephen — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 12:41:00 +0000

We have a renter — even though we don’t have a complete studio yet. I put down 2×6 pine boards for a floor, close up gaps around the rafters, clean up the top of the container and generally tried to make the place a little more usable. The floors look good now, but we’ll see how they look after the boards expand and contract a few dozen times with the Houston humidity.

We have the electrician coming this week (for the second time) to pick up drawings and give a revised estimate. With me being off most of this week, I hope to have our revised submission to the city in by Friday so that the electrician can submit his plans and get started soon.

Little Details

Stephen — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:55:00 +0000

It’s amazing what a few (relatively) inexpensive details can do to make you feel like you’re making progress. I’m in the Lowe’s knob section and notice a Schlage package of light duty commercial levers and deadbolts. For some reason, this is the first time I’ve ever noticed them, though I’ve looked before. $300 later, I’m installing the little suckers.

Deadbolts and door handles are on each of the units now so the doors look finished. Too bad it has been more than a month since I installed the door frames because now two of them aren’t quite square any more and I’ll need to do the whole shimming and attaching thing again.

It’s also amazing what a single (expensive) detail can do to keep the water out of your building.

We got a little insurance money for Ike damage to our kitchen, and promptly spent it at MBCI on metal roofing. The valley gutter at the bottom of the slope once again is the tricky part. On the first one, I used sheets of lightweight aluminum that I could bend by hand, fitted them under the windows, along the cricket, and up the slope aways. Then I’d caulk the sheets together and lap the roofing over it and screw the whole thing down. Not too bad, but lots of room for leaks and the aluminum was pretty expensive.

Finally went to United Lumber and they sell rolls of metal for exactly this purpose. I think it’s galvanized steel instead of aluminum, but it will work. It’s lighter weight and one piece will do the whole run, so it’s an improvement. Much cheaper too.

The other big news is that I’ve figured out how to nibble. I was irritated that my expensive tool wasn’t going to work on corrugated metal when I realized that I could rotate the little chewing head sideways. This means that I can make it go up and down the hills and valleys of the corrugation. It’s fast, but it does seem to clog up with debris pretty often. Still figuring it out.

I now have metal roofs on two of the four units, with good waterproofing on all four. Still need to do trim on all of them.