coming along
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 6:36PM We are hard at work on the new studio. We have a little more than two weeks to get it operational.
I won't pretend this doesn't frighten me just a little. But everyone assures me it can be done, so that's what I'm going with.
This is Nick. Nick has a beard and a ponytail.
Just thought I'd let you know.
Nick is spearheading the construction portion of this shebang, and by that I mean he's tearing down walls, putting up walls, and doing other important construction-y things.
He calls Shamrock "Mrs. Baby." The other day he told me, "I'm going to pick up a lead testing kit, because if you're going to have Mrs. Baby down here a lot, you don't want her to eat any paint chips and get lead poisoning."
True.
Given a choice, I would prefer that Mrs. Baby not eat lead paint.
Some of the peg board has been taken down to expose the brick and the wood posts.
I would like to offer a home decor suggestion for you. When in doubt, don't go with the pegboard option.
Unless you want to live inside a connect-the-dots book, in which case, exercise your right to peg.
Soon, a portion of this will be the office, with new flooring and new wall colors. Mrs. Baby approves.
Today, the building owner had a worker there installing the new bathroom. New bathrooms are good, especially since we won't have lots of barefoot, stinky kettlebell worker-outers trying to use ours all the time.
Are you a worker-outer?
I'm not, why do you ask?
I checked on the bathroom progress, and the dude (not Nick, not anyone I hired) was installing the counter with the sink and faucet. The countertop was -- I kid you not -- two inches above my knee.
"Hmmm, that's kind of low, don't you think?" I asked him.
"Well, you're pretty tall," he replied.
"Yes... But standard counter height is not to my knees. Unless I've grown 10 inches overnight. Most counters come up to my hip."
He thought about this for a while.
We stared at each other.
He said, "Do you want me to raise the counter?"
"Yeah, let's just put in a standard counter height counter," I responded.
He looked at his tape measure. "What do you suppose that is?" he asked.
Nick was able to jump in with some standard counter height options. I picked one. The other worker pulled out his tape measure and stared at the number, trying to fix "36" into his mind.
We'll see what happened when I go back in the morning.
I'm thinking about putting down cork flooring instead of hardwood or laminate in the office area -- anyone have thoughts on that?
Reader Comments (22)
What an awesome space!! Congrats! (and Nick rocks, btw)
Oh man! I hear you about the sink, when we bought our house we never noticed how low they were until we moved in and noticed we had to bend over to wash our hands lol.
Over all looking good! I would love to see cork flooring since it is the most eco friendly option :D
Glad you were able to prevent the knee-height counter! Sheesh!
I think cork is a great option, it's supposed to be good to stand on for long amounts of time too. We almost got cork floors in our condo when we redid the floors.
Cork flooring is awesome. It is nice on the feet, earth friendly, and I think it looks cool.
Nick is awesome! And Mrs. Baby is a great second nickname for Shamrock :)
Cork floors are on my shortlist - like Jenna said, supposed to be easier on your body for standing/walking, environmentally friendly, and it comes in lots of great color choices. Do it, do it! ;)
I'm so excited for you to have this new studio, and will say prayers that it all goes super smoothly!
I'm glad it is going well! Cork is supposed to be great for comfort when standing a lot. Good for the joints and a renewable resource. Sounds great!
Sharon - you have such a way with words!! As someone who works in construction, it's amazing how quickly the finishing will go! I am happy to hear it's going so well, aside from "dude" and his idea of counter height. LOL
I love Mrs. Baby...too cute!
As mentioned above - cork is beautiful & is definitely a softer option than hardwood for a space you will be doing a lot of standing in!!
Put in the cork floor and I'll teach a yoga class on it if I ever make it into your brightly coloured corner of the world.
I worked at the world famous Mayo Clinic back in the 70's, in a lab in the Plummer Building, it had cork floors. One thing it did was decreased the noise, very sound deadening material. It also decreased breakage from dropped glass test tubes. I was very sad when the lab moved to "modern"quarters.
Definitely go with the cork floors! We installed them in our kitchen several years ago and can tell a big difference just when standing to wash dishes. They look awesome, too, and are easy to clean.
If cork is such a fabulous, renewable material, why are wine corks disappearing? If the demand for cork flooring is somehow contributing to the faux plastic plug and screw top trend, I cannot in good conscience lend my vote to this scheme.
(Opt for bamboo instead. That stuff grows scary fast...)
I don't know about the cork...how does it hold up to kettleballs?
I like the 'Thank you . . . please come again'. Are you keeping that? Even if only employees get to read it I still think it a nice sentiment. And cork floors are great, just a lot more $$.
My only concern with cork is the horse-dogs. They don't join you at work, do they? I desperately want cork for my new kitchen floor, but I have a horse-dog of my own and word on the street is that they tear it up and quickly.
I wonder--you have wet floors from time to time, right? So something that will stand up to being wet...and the dogs, of course, but wet is my bigger concern. I like bamboo as an option, but again--how does it do wet? What about something rubberish?
Good question about the cork flooring vs. wine corks. I'm sure they're different somehow -- I will look into that!
The cork flooring will be only for the office area, an area with computers and filing cabinets that doesn't get wet. And the horsedogs never come to the studio -- dear Lord, that would be a disaster.
And if I never see another kettlebell as long as I live, that will be fine with me.
OK, I've investigated the wine cork vs. cork flooring, and thought I would report back.
Wineries have started going to plastic corks and screwtops because there have been batches of tainted cork that contaminated bottles of wine. The contamination is random and untestable, and there's no way for a consumer to know if their expensive bottle of wine has a bad cork. If it does, they have to dump out the whole bottle.
Cork flooring is very eco-friendly in that it's all harvested in Europe under very strict standards. They can only take the bark from the cork oak tree once it's 25 years old, and then only every nine years thereafter. It doesn't hurt the tree at all, and cork floors are comfortable, insulating, and sound-deadening. They are roughly the same price as hardwood to purchase, but we can save a lot of money because we can do the install ourselves, rather than having to pay professionals. Cork tiles can also be replaced if damaged, whereas hardwood is harder to patch.
I've also read that buying cork flooring is good for the environment because when the wine industry started moving away from cork bottle sealers, many farmers lost their livelihood and cut down their 100+ year old cork trees to plant something else that would make money. They found that when the cork oaks were cut down, the land was not fertile and turned to desert. Buying cork flooring keeps the trees alive, in that it prevents them from being cut down and the land from becoming barren.
So. Cork it is!
Hmm... I think I know that Nick. Unless he has a twin that works downtown. It's a small world/town(s). Congrats on the new digs.
Mystery solved! I'd suspected the disappearance of wine corks was more of a cost vs. supply issue because the pricier bottles still seem to use cork. Now we know! Those screw tops leave much to be desired in the style and substance department, but I'll be sure to console myself with the knowledge that I'm less likely to drop dead from a nasty case of botulism.
Have fun installing your new floors and breathing new life into an endangered economy!