Time travel

Sooo...It's been quite some time since my last post and quite a lot has happened since. After the last post in November '08, I simply got busy - both in the studio and on tour - and didn't have the mind to keep up with posts. I did, however, casually document various projects and progress in and around the studio. Beginning with this post, I ask you to join me on a little time travel mission to visit some of these past highlights.

This post will introduce the beautiful Cable Nelson upright grand piano that I acquired in January '09 and refurbished. This belonged to my neighbors here in the building, good friends and great musicians Scott Seiver and Jeremy Ruzumna, who were on their way out. I had a couple ADC patchbays that were not in use, so made an even trade.

It needed a fair amount of love. Sustain pedal was inoperable, action was uneven, a few ivory key tops were missing, a wheel was missing, bridal straps were deteriorated, etc. I disassembled the pedal systems, removed the entire action and removed all the keys. Cleaned the entire shell - which yielded teacher's/student's pencils from decades of lessons - and refreshed the beautiful quarter-sawn oak veneer. I outsourced the action adjustments and bridal strap replacement to paino tech Mark Greisen, who also had a book that dated this beauty to 1911. With the action was off location, I cleaned and polished the ivory keys and finished the pedal systems, wheel and other tweaks. Once Mark returned with the action, he adjusted the manual and gave her a nice tune. Since it's official introduction to The Tin Room, she's been used on a number of projects, most recently playing an important role on The Stripminers new album I am producing, due out soon.

Delayed Gratification

    
    

Aahhh! Completion! Sooooo Good!

Studio Landing

    

I found a really great rug in the Fashion District in downtown LA. It was a bit out of my price range, but after a little negotiation, I walked with it and it's a perfect addition. Here we see the rug laid and centered with the first of the studio furniture and gear falling into place.

The Negligent Blogger!

  

I admit it! Je suis culpable! I simply have not kept this here blog up to date in any fashion...But, dammit, I'm a busy man. I gave my camera to my father and just failed to focus on documenting the remaining building processes. I've been in and out of town and when in town long enough to get into a rhythm in the space, I just didn't have it in me to stand back and shoot shyte photos from my phone.

So what we see in the photos here are three shots of the first of two similarly designed and constructed bi-level storage areas. These are poor quality shots taken with my Nokia E61i camera phone - and some of the only shots taken until what is now pretty much an finished and operable studio. We have steel studs spanning the entire 12' floor to ceiling height with a loft storage level built at 7'. This framing has since been sheathed with OSB and painted, along with the second gear storage and CPU/studio machine room.

The Bike is DONE!!!

    

Cool! Finished the bike and had my first ride this last Monday...and have since been riding every chance I get. What gratification. What liberation. I love this little bike!

Slowly, but Scheherazade

    
    

Well, it won't be quite one thousand and one adventurous nights, but I'm learning from her nonetheless. I picked up the wheels a week ago and really felt that tectonic shift from a thousand pieces of metal to a realistic view of an overhauled vintage motorcycle. I had the wheels and hubs that I shined up threaded and trued and the tubes and tires popped on and balanced at the premier spot in Azusa, CA, called Buchanan Wheel and Spoke. Amazing place - all they do is make wheels and spokes - I was taken on a tour tour by one of the elders and witnessed spokes being made on cylindrical presses from the turn of the Century...yes the other Century! Very cool insight. Wheel truing is an art form. Mine are now shiny and beautiful...and on my bike! The photos show the wheels flanking the frame, and then on the bike. The engine block is up on the bench. I've sent the the barrels, heads and reed cages, along with new .25 first over-bore pistons and rings, off to a two stroke specialist in Tennessee. This guy is passionate about these bikes. He is going to do a glass bead pressure cleaning of the parts and then carefully bore and fine tune these parts. The compression will be considerably higher and therefore the bike will offer much higher performance. These other shot is of a pair of old Yamaha shocks that I disassembled and cleaned up. They are now on the bike and looking sharp.

Like you need another project, Brett...

    

Those are the words, verbatim, voiced by many of my friends upon learning that I'd bought a '70's street bike and had decided to completely rebuild it. It's true, with my loft only half done and a number of musical endeavours crossing my path it's seems a bit overwhelming to take on such a project, but truth be told, I'm loving every obsessive minute of it! And the unfinished half of my space is the best bike repair shop in the world!

Seemingly from out of nowhere, I've become fascinated with 70's Japanese street bikes. I first had a Honda CB750 Four in mind (which I'd still like to have at some point), but then after meeting people who had different smaller bikes was introduced to the Yamaha RD series. After looking up all things RD on Craigslist, a day later I found this RD200 2-stroke bike that ran, but needed some love. It was an impulse buy and after having some major issues during my first ride on it, I thought I'd really made a mistake. But with some encouragement from local bike shop personnel, I had it towed to the loft. One thing led to another and by the end of the week it was in pieces!

The shots above are of the bike the day I bought it and about three weeks later completely disassembled, with the frame and peripheral parts de-greased and repainted, wheels unthreaded waiting for new chrome spokes, and all chrome and cast aluminum parts rigorously cleaned and polished. Whew! that's a run-on sentence...and that's kind of what the process has resembled to this point; one continuous line of research, reading and hard work.

Vanity Shots!

    
    

Mornin'! So, getting back into the swing of things here after returning from Japan. While I don't have any new updates, I have a few shots that I took while documenting the stairs that were just for self-gratification - to kinda get an overview of how the place is developing. I thought this would be a practical way to bridge the next official entry...Official, whatever! Along with these I've included a close-up of the lamp that I built to illuminate the kitchen bar/dinning table - I absolutely love this thing - and a second work in progress that will be a ceiling assembly comprised of a trio of industrial fixtures that will illuminate the studio area...Um, I guess that makes this an official entry.

And he's building....the Stairway...

    

Ahhh! The joy of calculating and cutting stair stringers...Here we have shots of the finished corridor, the cut stringers and the 1"x8" planks that would become the runs, or steps, and finally the job (almost) done. There are a few finishing touches that I was not able to finish before leaving - as I write this I'm 39,000 feet in the air en route to Tokyo for 10 days of shows in Japan. I still need to put a clear coat and run a string of rope lights throught the middle of the two stringers. I had a vision of underlit stairs from the moment I visualized the stairs to the boudoir. My inspiration was very linear steel framed stairs with wood planks. With custom steel stringers out of my budget, I was commited to creating the same aesthetic with wood - the end result is basically two 2"x10"x10' planks separated with a 2"x4"x10' and bolted together. The runs were made with the three planks of 2"x8"x10' you see in the rough photo.

Lofty

    

    

The loft is in! The pictures above were taken this past Sunday. Shortly thereafter, various comforts were put in their rightful place. I've even started to pull some books out of storage and begin filling the glass bookshelves that I designed in the loft 'nook' - truly the first real move toward comfort since signing the lease on this bloody space last July. Gratifying to say the least.

With each new completed task I become more fulfilled as my designs take shape. I'm really happy with the outcome of the translucent paneled walls framed with steel studs and internally lit with rope light snaking through the bottom track. I ended up using three types of material for the translucent walls: I began the design with corrugated fiberglas for both inside and outside, but quickly decided to seek an alternative for the inside that was flat - mainly for a flush surface on which to mount shelving. I started this with standard acrylic florescent light panels - very difficult to work with - and finished with what are actually polyurethane plastic floor mats (i.e. typically found under a wheeled chair at a computer desk). I doubt that I would have considered this material, had it not been for a visit to the Ikea damaged/seconds area and literally stepped on a stack of them. Got eleven of 'em for $3 a sheet and thought they would at least make good work mats. Alas, they served a much higher purpose, being relatively easy to cut and offering a really desirable diffused light. Like in the kitchen, I've balanced the translucence and steel with the warmth of sanded fir panels on the back wall and shelving nook.

The Showroom...

    

    

I'm back...finally...As I mentioned in my last post, it's really getting harder to pull away to make posts and after giving my ol Nikon point and shoot to my pops for Christmas, I've been shooting less. I'm in the market for a digital SLR and haven't decided on one yet. For the record, the photos in this post are from mid January. After having some work out of town since then, I've been making insane progress on the loft and storage area above the kitchen and bathroom, respectively (the areas are best viewed in the top two shots on this post). I intend to show the progress in a new post by early next week - that's a promise.

I recently befriended and old Hungarian wholesaler who, after conducting business out of this building for more than 28 years, is finally calling it quits. A. Lebovitz is his name, coolest cat; wears a three piece tweed suit and hat daily - his trusty pipe hanging from his mouth. He needed some help moving a few things when I learned he was leaving and offered me to browse his decades worth of accumulation. Wow, what a pack rat's dream - boxes, carts and bolts of fabric - unopened mail postmarked from '72. Crazy! I found a few useful item: wheeled carts i'll use for side tables, misc. light fixtures. But the coolest thing was an old cast iron knitting machine that Lebovitz allowed me to grab. I'll be using the iron stand/legs as the base for a bar height dining table that out of the kitchen area. Cool beans!

Outer Shell

    

So...I have the basic shell of the kitchen and bath to show in this post. Honestly, I've had such a productive past week that I'd like to post the progress to date. However, in keeping with even a remote concept of a step by step blog, I'm posting these shots from a week and a half ago. I've found in this stage in the project, it's getting harder to pull myself away to take photos when I'm in a hyper-productive flow, particularly when finally having the opportunity to realize my vision for the bath and kitchen.

In the kitchen, I've decided to go with sanded Douglas Fir panels. I saw this used for the walls in a cafe and really thought it would bring a bit more warmth in combination with the galvanized steel back wall. In the bath, rather than using corrugated steel panels, I have instead used a solid color floor and deck stain in a cobalt blue color. I've covered the stained OSB with translucent fiberglas panels (which you'll see in the next post) and am very, very happy with how it's turned out.

Framed!!!

   

            

The basics for pretty much all the amenities are now framed in and ready to be built upon - this includes all plumbing (with a brilliantly designed tankless water heater) and in-wall electrical. I'm really proud of how compact I was able to keep the network of water, gas, drain and vent lines - all tucked neatly into the back corner of the bathroom with an access door that will likely be covered by a mirror. I've now begun to install the shower pan and Wonderboard concrete panels; I intend to simply put translucent corrugated fiberglas panels over the concrete panels for the shower walls. All walls framed with steel stud will also be sheathed with corrugated fiberglas panels. This wall covering is great in a situation like this as it allows light in and out while offering privacy. The halogen and rope light in the kitchen has gone up recently - the string of rope light will be tucked into the rafter to illuminate over the sink/stove area. Rope light will also be snaked through the rafters of the bathroom (including over the shower area) and also be covered in fiberglas panels, illuminating the entire ceiling.

Hiatus

It's been a long time since I Rock-n-Rolled...Well, sort-of. Actually, it's 'Le Rock' that has kept me away from my loft, and consequently this blog, since shortly after my last post in late August. I was invited to go on tour in early Sept. and landed in late Nov. After settling back in and acclimating from post-tour stress disorder over the Thanksgiving weekend, I've been hard at work and will have a number of additions to exhibit on my next post. Until then, hold tight!

Build that...um, those walls.

    

O.K., so it's been a bit since my last post. This is due in no small part to the fact that I finally moved out of my former flat. The move took a bit longer than normal because, as it turns out, my previous landlord allowed me to salvage nearly every amenity and fixture in the entire apartment. This includes the Kohler bathroom fixtures, the fridge and stove and kitchen cabinetry, among other items. Big help, indeed! The sizing of all these appliances works perfectly in my design that, as you can witness by the photos, is beginning to take shape. The framed areas will be the kitchen (left), the bathroom (right) and the loft area (above kitchen). In the walls exists all of the finish plumbing, gas lines and drain pipes that I completed this past week. It's really beginning to take shape, but working alone can be taxing at times, so today I took a break and accepted an invitation to lay low with a friend at the pool of the Hotel Figueroa in Downtown L.A. Tomorrow? ... exactly, back to work.

Whoa!!!

    

Wow! From out of nowhere the major plumbing is done. A friend recommended his long time plumber Alex Lopez, and though he 's rarely in downtown Los Angeles, he happened to be in the area yesterday and offered to come have a look. He was extremely gracious and offered to move another obligation and come back downtown today and now, voila!, it's done. We core drilled three holes in the 9-1/2" concrete slab floor and installed plumbing for the toilet, shower drain and kitchen sink - which doubles as a bona-fide vent for all three fixtures. Smooth sailing for all that waste...what joy! Needles to say, my freshly minted floors took a beating, but that's only because I'm a knucklhead and decided to make ev'rything look purty before the rough work was done. A few touch-ups and we'll be back to exalting in no time. I've yet to place a large materials order, and now with this rough plumbing done, which has been the most ambigous cornerstone in this project, there is nothing holding me back from fervently moving forward.

Shiny Happy

    

A nice, clean, shiny concrete floor to be trampled upon. What bliss.

The Spray Booth

    
Ahh. Almost there. I finished spraying a second coat of acrylic hi-gloss sealer on the entire concrete floor. It's really gratifying to see all of the texture and color variations that were hidden for so many years come to life with this clear finish. I used an airless sprayer in conjunction with a 3/8" nap roller to even out the finish. The sealer was particularly powerful on the exposed red brick, which was endlessly dry, rough and crumbling. The acrylic clear coat was soaked up by the thirsty brick and grout and the walls are now sealed and water-proof. Now I'm on to sort the pluming drainage system. I expect to core two or three holes in the concrete floor and tie into the vertical sewer drain through the floor below. While doing this I am also finalizing the order for building materials, which I plan to have delivered all at one time.