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…

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…

Stairs are done. Railings are up and look good.

We are very excited that one of instructor Rex Spencer’s classes from the Art Institute of Houston will be using Independence Art Studios as a four-week long case study project. Each student will work up a complete package for our little bit of nirvana, from site plan to interior finishes. About 20 students toured the…

The framers are really moving things along and I’m feeling a little dizzy from the speed of it. Part of the disorientation is that I’m not actually doing the work, so I feel a little detached. The other big part is that, because I don’t know what I’m doing, when I’m doing the work it…

I’m not entirely new to sacks of concrete, but I have waaaaay miscalculated today. My guess is 3 small sacks per hole. I get a U-Haul, rent a mixer, bring it all home and go through 14 sacks for each of my first two holes. Back to Lowe’s, take a ribbing from the forklift guy…

No matter how professional contractors are, I learn today that it is always best to be on-site while they’re working. The first problem arises when the framers confuse our project with something professional and go and make the deck level. I haven’t found anything on our property that is level or has a 90 degree…

I want to be a framer when I grow up. He keeps the big picture in his head while keeping track of every detail that might affect where to cut or where to nail. He chops a giant timber using a circular saw while holding the wood on the toe of his boot, then pow…

I have a framer and his assistant working with me today. We spend the morning making a list of materials needed to finish framing out the entire building ($2,000 worth) and they finish the last bit of the beams and joists that are under the roof. They also discover that, while the back ends of…

Now that the containers are up on their blocks in the right places, it’s time to cut one side off of each of them. Plasma cutters are probably the easiest way, but the cheapest machine I can find is $1,000 and I’ve heard that welding of any sort can damage your eyes so that you…