We’re a small community of passionate visual artists filling the first of what will be several buildings.

◆ Two work studios are left. $385 per month, with all utilities included
◆ 340 square feet each, including 120 square feet in overhead storage lofts. Outdoor workspace available for larger projects.
◆ Designed and built to meet the special needs of visual artists with a 10-foot tall, 19-foot wide work wall.
◆ Good light from north-facing clerestory windows and built-in track lighting
◆ Individually-controlled air conditioning and heating
◆ New electrical service with plenty of outlets
◆ Conveniently located at 419 Janisch Road 77018

If you’re interested in seeing them in person, please e-mail us to set up a time.

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.

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

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

Stairs are done. Railings are up and look good.

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.

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.