Plaster! Plaster! Plaster!

Welcome back. It has been some time since I last posted as we have been travelling north to the metropolis of New York. We rest when we are in New York like taking a bike ride up the West St bike/jogging trail in NYC on a glorious saturday morning!

Well, we arrived back in Enfield NC several nights ago and, as naturally, we immediately began to work. Myra stayed by the house to get our 2nd floor bedrooms and bath in shape and ready for painting (alot of cleaning)!

I began to tackle the "Yoga/Dance Studio" room which has one far wall that has crumbling plaster and a ceiling with some crumbling plaster pieces. I used a grinder to cut out a square section of the two ceiling areas that needed replacing. With Harry's (the carpenter) help we hung two new sheets of sheetrock and attached them. I got out my handy dandy trowel and drywall plaster and started to work. When you see the pictures you will understand my craziness. Upon scrapping the "loose" plaster, chunks of the topcoat plaster just fell right off. Pretty much the entire top half of both walls (on either side of the chimney stack). Thus, I had to cake on drywall compound over the entire wall. plus, the ceilings. Harry told me about a product called STRUCTO-LITE (great name eh!) which is a heavy duty base coat plaster for filling in sizable cracks and holes in the wall. But of course, this product is not available anywhere close by and in fact noone around here ever heard of the stuff. I googled US gypsum company that makes it and found a distributor, C&K Supply in Greenville NC. After calling to insure they did have it I took a drive today of about an hour in the pouring rain! Biblical that is!

But alas I got the stuff and brought it back and will start this process tomorrow. Meanwhile I continued my drywall compounding throughout the lodge including the yoga room, banquet hall, hallways and even in the theatre balcony area. I was a man on a mission to plaster the world...okay just the lodge but after a while it felt like I was plastering the world.

But now pretty much all the cracks and gashes in walls are covered and walls should be ready for priming and painting. Still need to do more plastering (probably with Structo Lite on the north wall of the theatre balcony. There was a lot of moisture damage here and I may take the plaster walls down in the balcony and apply a moisture barrier to the brick and then mount sheetrock/plaster back on top.

Did also find some old historic archive info from the old Enfield Progress papers about the dedication and opening of the Masonic Lodge in 1925. Will probably post some of this stuff tomorrow or by the weekend.

Until then, Get Plastered!!!

Drew
March 29, 2010

3rd floor Bar & Hallway 90% done

another Myra Wirtz Fine Art masterpiece!

what a team!!

a princess and her chandeliers

Well the 3rd floor "entryway" (the hallway and bar area) is now 90% complete. We still have to hang the chandeliers (wait til you see them below), install window treatments, add a bar (oh, and put in new refrigeration and electric for the bar).....but the repainting is complete!

The chandeliers were a GREAT find at the Spring Hope NC furniture auction last night. We had a great day trip to the Wilmington NC area and ate lunch along Front St (on the Cape Fear river) at ELIJAH's. This is a great spot. We had oysters elijah which are rockefeller ish with a hot crab dip on top. YUMMO!!! Then I had a soft shell crab sandwich which was rocking!! We then went to visit and pickup some of Myra's art being stored by Dana & Joy (Dana is our friend Dede's sister). We met their ADORABLE 5 year old boy named Spencer! and through him we found out everything we need to know about sharks! This kid has it down and knows them all! What a great (AND VERY SMART) kid! Looking forward to watching him grow as we are watching our own nieces and nephews grow and mature into amazing teenagers and adults.

Anyway back to the auction. ON the way back we stopped in at 7pm (we got there at 7:30 as it was a 2 hour ride back from Hampstead NC). We marked a couple items including a great bar with granite top (we couldn't get them to sell that for less than $300 and we were too cheap to spend 300 on it...but maybe next time..)

Great auction house although you have to weed through ALOT of "interesting" things including a reproduction of an antlered sconce????? very strange looking and there was an antlered chandelier that was particularly gaudy! (but and here is the funny thing....someone BOUGHT them!!)

So enjoy our pics as we pack up and head north back to NJ/NY to get some real work done. We shall be back sometime in April.

Andrew

Continued painting

Well we spent Friday priming and painting the 3rd floor hallway (stairwell and entryway to the bar area). I typically do the "grunt" work of the primer and base coats as I have the strength to use the heavy industrial size roller on the long pole. Then once dry Myra follows me and does the creative faux coats to the walls. I say that I do the "unskilled" labor and Myra is the "skilled" labor! it is a great team though and we work together extremely well.

Found out more info which I will post as a pic. Larry Armstrong, the atty, came over with a Masonic chronology of their meeting notes and there was a picture of the lodge being built in 1925. In the picture are several folks in suit and tie in front of only one story of the lodge. It says the cornerstone was laid in 1924. So, I am narrowing down a history of the building and need to spend time at the Halifax Library and Hysterical Society to get more pictures and details. We have the wall of Masonic Grand Masters hanging in the conference room and there are approx. 20 or so missing. Relatives through the years have taken their fathers and grandfathers (and greats) pictures down to bring home. I am going to try to at least see if we can get copies so that we have a full set of all the Grand masters for this lodge to hang in our "Masonic Museum".

Busy day today

Started off early with two gentlemen from the NC Historic Preservation office to tour the lodge and discuss establishing the building as a historic landmark. We walked through and discussed some of the features of the building and what may or may not have been original. In fact, I had of the opinion that the building was an Art Deco building. However, they seemed to think it was more of the Beaux Arts period. I"m not too sure what this period was so will have to google that.....hmm.
Interesting contacts from them about our house history and the lodge history and they will send some architectural plans and historical info via email and regular mail.

Next, was a contractor (GC) from Wilson NC who came by (Heather) to gain our business in conducting the complete rehab of the property. Again, we walked through and discussed ideas for historic paint samples, restroom facilities, lighting, hvac and other use adaptations. Should be interesting to get a proposal back from them (although the next step is for her to come back with her team to do an extensive analysis of the building to put forth a comprehensive building proposal.

got a quote back from jerry the architect in Raleigh with a $7k number to create arch drawings of the entire 22k sq foot facility. (Now is that a big facility?)

Finished off the day putting the base coat on the 3rd floor hallway (after having scrapped and spackled the last 2 days). Now the 3rd floor from the stairwell into the Bar area will be freshly painted and prettied up. Pictures to follow.

for dinner, we had been turned onto by two different sets of people, a restaurant in Rocky Mount called CUVEE. (love the name). The place is in a little strip mall and has approx. 15 -20 tables and probably does a decent lunch/takeout/catering business. Had a great wine selection including a "Curious Beagle" cabernet from Paso Robles. Was an outstanding bottle of wine with lots and lots of complexity and texture...oh is this a wine blog? no...no..just enjoying some of the finer things in life.

Anyway tired out and calling it a night. Up early to meet the elevator man to come fix the elevator (again). A problem with the CAM shaft (not sure what that is but hey?)

Drew

Finished ANOTHER ROOM

Okay the "majestic bar" room (ie. name of room not determined but we are taking it from the "bar majestic" in Jersey City for now) is NOW FINISHED!! Well, a little gold tint to add to the curved ceiling but basically done.


My little Myra worked her tail off in about a week to get this room ready. See Facebook (lodge at roanoke valley) for pictures until I update here. Meanwhile I met with elevator man to get elevator working and Econ Dev and tourism board pres of halifax county to get grant monies and network with the Halifax development and tourism folks. There are monies available based on the # of jobs you create in a 2 year period. I plan on hiring at minimum 50 FTE per event (ie. security, parking detail, hosts, ushers, ticket takers, etc) and believe I can generate approx. $480k in annual salary paid to enfield/halifax county employees. I think this is a significant boost to the income generated for this little town. I am awaiting the grant application to be sent and will have to delve into it to apply for funds by May 1.
I also have a GC from Wilson NC coming out tomorrow and hope to get a thorough proposal from them to completely rehab and renovate the entire structure including complying with code and ADA issues. I want to get "green" estimates from at least 3 GCs to determine how green a renovation job I can get for this building. I would like 100% green and enviro friendly but I will see what the professionals tell me tomorrow and in days to come.

I am extremely tired and will keep this short but suffice to say was a great day at the lodge and a feeling of accomplishment with the Majestic bar room. Today we started on the 3rd floor hallway outside the bar area leading to the stairs and was covered in white plaster from the sanding and spackling that was done.

Drew

First Problem...

Elevator was working fine (naturally) when the elev repair guy was here and it worked for over a week without a hitch. In fact, it was super fast getting up and down. Well, just yesterday it started acting up. It would bypass the 2nd floor and when it would arrive at its floor the inner door would only partially open. This is a problem as the door does not open enough to signal the exterior door that that car has arrived. As such, you can not open the exterior door. Kind of a problem. Fortunately, in the interim we have the elev. key and it can be opened this way.

Elevator man chris came by today and assessed and thinks has something to do with the CAM but he can not fix alone (of course) and needs two people. So, Dave & Chris coming back tomorrow (allegedly) to troubleshoot and test everything out. Okay, so how does the elevator inspector inspect and pass the elevator and it now does not work???? Hmmm....

Anyway, moving inside Myra is finishing the final coat of the 3rd floor "Majestic Bar" (not Bar Majestic for those of you who are familiar with that JC landmark. I will upload pics once the room is finalized. I think we have enough of the "work in progress" pics. this room REALLY is going to be VERY NICE. The color is perfect and very warm and inviting. That gal is pretty darn good!!

I myself was back in the dustbowl continuing to sort through Miscellany and am ready for my 3rd garbage truck to be sent over tomorrow for loading. Found a set of some very cool baby bottles made of glass...Obviously they are not new. Can you imagine baby bottles made of glass?? Must be circa 1950s when that's all they had. They have etches of animals on the side as well as a measuring stick. These will make brilliant Pimms Cup glasses for the summer!!! (not the original use but a much better one in my opinion.

Thats all for today. Back tomorrow
Drew