There was one Back 40 mowing session where the riding mower gave up and resigned its duty as General of Head Infantry; fed up with the never-ending on-going battle with the grass. Rather than putting the mower in neutral and pushing it to the Tavern, we decided to tie the mower to the back of the truck and tow it to the Tavern. Anvil climbed aboard the Rider and prepared to direct the mower backwards along the way. The following is a short clip of the antics that followed.
Mid July saw Anvil parting ways with the Faire for actual employment and I was to finish the remainder of July at the fair alone. For me, July ended with a week long vacation that I spent attending the full second week of Pennsic War at Coopers Lake. I greatly enjoy the SCA, and love challenge fighting heavy brings to my life.
When
I returned from my midsummer break, after catching back up on the lawn
battle, I decided it was time to finish setting the center stage. With
the Royal Wedding scheduled for early September, I would now make it a
priority to finish remodeling the rest of the public and private areas
of the Tavern. These areas would include, the Tavern Kitchen, both
the Women's and Men's bathrooms, the Tavern Sitting area, as well as
repainting the Tavern exterior brown to distract from the white primer
that was all over.
Kitchen Galley
Upon arrival the Kitchen was painted a lightly tinted pinkish beige. If Band-Aids and Vomit has an illegitimate paint color made from the blending of their pigments, this would have been the color. There were also areas where the original drywall white remained exposed near the ceiling or the splatter of color was on the ceiling itself. Therefore, I would also go on to repaint the ceiling white with the extra ceiling paint that I brought down from my old apartment remodel.
A look at the natural lighting the room gets. I try to function without electricity as much as possible when I was out there by myself. Low light vision defiantly comes in handy. Ideally, there should be a window put in above the sink to let in more natural light. However, the window would be located under the stairs if that were the case, but maybe a small one.
Continuing the rotation about the room, the door way opens to behind the tavern bar top. My pull up bar remains resident over the threshold to encourage a pull-up tax every time you go between the two areas. I travel with the bar to almost every place of residence I have been since its purchase. At every location I pick a doorway to put it up in, and every time I see it I feel compelled to do a pull up. A simple way to encourage more on the fly training.
The green on three walls was created by the combination of the left over green from my apartment bedroom mixed with the left over yellow from my apartment's spare room. while the light green absorbs more light from the door way, making the room darker, the color gave the room more of a woodland feeling, complementing the land, accenting both the wooden cabinets and potassium feldspar colored counter-tops. That last is the color of a mineral deposit. Couldn't help but to through in a geology reference. Its been awhile.
I've talked about it before but: Paige/Page Duties (Spelling varies depending on where you get your history lessons from)
This photo captures how many dishes on average are left in the BF sink after an event is hosted. I equate washing dishes, serving individuals, offering aid to others as a Page’s Duties.
Y’all ever watch Disney’s Sword and the Stone, with animated boy Arthur, Old Hippy-Long-Beard Merlin, and Archimedes the Educated Owl?? Wart/Arthur gets chastised with demerits and has to perform page duties; running the “wooden jousting horse”, fetching armor, washing ALL of the dishes, minus the ones enchanted by Merlin’s wand.
Lets face it, not many people like to use their personal time to do the dishes. I however personally use Page Duties to balance out the work done when people offer me food or meals in their home, and I also pay couch tolls (when couch surfing). This enables me to feel like I am not a moocher or a burden for the people that offer me these two out of three survival essentials (Food and Shelter) and it reminds me to be humble as dishes are not below me. In addition the physical act of washing dishes keeps my dirt laded working hands moist and clean by the end of task.
Given that all the paint that was used on this project was salvaged from my old apartment, I actually ran out of the light green mixture. To finish off the last wall, I would go on to paint the wall two lighter colors in hopes to reflect some of the light from this wall about the room. The top of the wall is painted the color of my old apartments spare bedroom: a golden yellow sand, while the bottom half is painted the color of my old living room: a warm brown. To cover the middle line between the colors, I would rummage through the Back 40 wood piles for some rough strips of wood. In addition, I added a chalkboard to the walls, using chalkboard paint, as a place to display the to-do lists. This particular list was the to do before Masque Ball 2014.
Last spring, having not properly aired out the water system, the sink sprung a few leaks. One evening when cleaning the kitchen, I noticed that the shelf under the sink had begun to mold over and rot.
Therefore, I would go on to rip out the shelf and the associated wooded supports, clean up all the items that had collected underneath, spray the area with bleach to kill any remaining mold and put together an impromptu shelf composed of two cinder blocks and pieces of an old shelf. It worked well enough for the purpose of keeping the chemicals off the ground out of the potential wet.
I would also go on to cover up this hole in the counter tops. Its original intent was to scrape the food off plates into the garbage below before washing them. However, it came at the expense of counter space. With no cabinet to cover the garbage anyway, I never used this feature. Rather I would just pull out the bin from under the counter and do the scrape directly, to be sure I did not miss. It wasn't until Spring of 2014 that I personally was done with lost counter space.
So I cut a piece of wood to fit under the hole, and secured it from the bottom with 8 screws. I realize that this is not a proper solution to this problem, as there will be food and water that will more than likely get trapped in the grooves. Therefore when that time comes, it can easily be removed with no additional damage to the counter.
Both the following cabinets and and counter tops on both sides of this room (only one side pictured) I acquired from garbage picking in Woodsfield, Ohio. I went to the Post Office one day, and noticed that the building next to me was having its insides gutted. I asked a member of the demolition crew if the pieces about were up for grabs. He informed me they were headed for the trash, therefore I would single-handedly load three cabinets, two countertops, (they were full sized, I had to cut them down), in addition to three massive rolls of carpeting that will appear later in this post.
The
bed of the truck was packed full of completely useable scavenged
resources. Gave them a good cleaning, cut them to size and boom, usable
spare room. I would use this room to keep all my personal cooking and
food items separate from the Faires during events. After all, I was
living here full time, so I brought the best pieces of my kitchen and
spices down with me for some better quality cooking.
The Bathroom's Head
Starting off the Ladies Bathroom remodel with the entry perspective. The ceiling is exposed insulation and has a single light that illuminates the area. This mirror is no longer located upon this wall, actually I don’t think it survived the take down to be honest, (insert 7 years bad luck “joke” here) but rest assured Anvil won’t be peeping in the ladies restroom, this was only a photo bomb.
Glancing
inward to the right we see the before state of the wash station. The
Floors are bare cement which deals with water inflow from the lack of
gutter drainage in front of the bathroom door. This constant exposure to
the water element has begun to damage and rot the bottom of the exposed
ply board that composes the wall barrier for the first set of toilets.
My mind wanted to eventually include a communal tooth brushing materials station, i.e. paste, floss, and mouthwash, because teeth should be taken care of even when on vacation. And seeing communal materials will hopefully encourage people to take better care of their bodies regardless of where they are located.
After an extensive spackle job (co-completed by Timmourne Darkwater) the women’s bathroom was repainted a deep purple. I hope this reminds women that they possess an inner strength that enables them capable of handling and looking after themselves. I want to encourage them to see that inside each one of them is a capable Amazon/ Rosy the Riveter depending on the time era association and task list.
Traveling
into the room, there are two toilets backed with blank drywall and
exposed ply that continue to provide structural walls for stalls. Currently
the stalls are fronted in floor length fabric, but the occasional gust
of wind will blow the curtain open when you least expect it. I had
the idea, but not the materials to add strips of Velcro to the center
sides of the fabric and walls to provide a more “securely occupied”
feel for those that wish for more privacy.
Looking immediately behind the two stalls, (and this brings me laughter) the previous drywall job.
(*Still laughing*)
At the end of this room stands a water closet. There is really nothing glorious about the shower here… except to point out, when Genny is turned on, the water is hot! It’s just that naturally cold valley air that makes that breeze so (un)cool.
I only have one picture of the sorta-after job in the Left-Side-Ladies bathroom. The final finished product photos dissapeared somewhere and I have not come across them, so please try to imagine my words.
The drywall job was patched and rehabbed as best as could be done given the time frame and the provided materials we had to work with. New cuts were made out of existing donated 8*10 sheets of drywall to cover the wall behind the interior of the door. What was to follow this gypsum (what most drywall is made out of) Cutting Massacre, was a Spackle job that would barely suffice to my standards. Frankly, I could use some more skill leveling in this part of the carpenter process… But let’s not focus on the fact that this whole bathroom needs to be completely overhauled; rather this was a patch job.
No pictures were taken of the middle spackle phase in this room. For those of you that don’t know what the spackle phase is, stay tuned it will be defined a few photos ahead in the Men’s room
After the spackle dried, the room received its two coats of purple. Ideally there should be a third, but I ran out of paint. To cover up the bad spackle job and to draw attention away from the fact that the drywall sheets were installed horizontally rather than vertically, I added a strip of Back 40 wood across the center seem. I also added the picture that used to hang over my couch in my old apartment: It is of a walkway-bridge of sorts that lays above still water meandering through a forest captured in a sepia toned finish. The Maroon shower curtain in the background also used to reside in my apartment bathroom. It ties in the maroon and cherry blossoms from front to the back, keeping the water room flowing.
For those of you that do not know what spackling is, this is the explanatory shot. Spackle is the white plaster paste that gets smeared in-between the seams or patch the holes of drywall. Once applied you have to wait patiently for the stuff to dry, then sand it flat as to make the seams, bumps, holes, and ridges disappear. This is of the men’s bathroom far wall before the paint job.
No “Ground Zero” photos were taken of the Men’s Room. Its state was similar to that of the Ladies Room: exposed insulation ceiling, unfinished drywall, open framing and wiring. There is only one of these magical flushing devices located in this room, as there is a urinal located further to the left to make up for that. The room also has its own working warm water closet at the far end of the lane, though most found the women's shower more often than not.
The drywall was cut to fit the light, electrical outlets, and space confinements where it was then spackled and painted a deep slate-y blue. The white PVC piping under the sink and accompanying water hole were painted that same color to blend in more to the background.
The unphotographed wall next to the urinal used to be exposed ply. I stapled a black sheet to cover up the unfinished wood look and to provide some color differential to the surrounding blue. The silver staples received a brushing over with a black Sharpie to blend them into the background. In addition the room received a chalkboard centered average eye level above the urinal for message or potential game plots communication and a classy painting on the far wall to break up the blue wall. Sadly, my after photos of this project are lost in the same void as my Ladies Room picks.
While this picture does not focus on the wall color, you can see it peeking in the shot from the right side. This is actually a photo attempting to document the Men's Room tile job, that was completed spring 2014.
After finding a box of spare tiles in the Back 40 tool shed, Red convinced a volunteer who has asked to remain nameless, tile the space in front of the shower and around the Men's toilet. This tile job would fix the wobbling issue the toilet once had.
For all of the 2013 season there used to be slats of wood in front of both the Men and Women's room. The lack of a gutter system allowed for the boards to deteriorate rapidly while grass would grow up between the boards, pushing them further apart. It wasn't until Masque 2014 that this entrance way was constructed through volunteer efforts.
The Tavern Exterior
From afar, the Tavern's white exterior accompanied by the white PVC tube extruding from the side, is so out of place for a Tavern setting. It was never the intent for the Tavern to remain white as long as it did. In fact that white was actually a primer put in place by Drakus Summer of 2012.
At this point the holes plugged only by floating instillation remain open to the night air and the exploitative bat. (Recall from Vol. 3: A Character's Living Space) I started the exterior paint job off by painting the accent wood the same dark brown as the kitchen in my old apartment.
Not wanting to color the walls too dark and running out of brown paint anyway, I ran across a mostly filled gallon of tan paint. I used the remainder of the brown paint to tint the tan to a darker finish.
I also went on to spray paint the white PVC tube black, then covered the black with a textured green paint as to look like a growing moss.
To cover up the seems in the plywood and to break up the dirty-tan exterior color that resulted (ideally I would have seen it a few shades darker) I found some spar cuts of wood in the Back 40 and hung them over the seams.
All four sides of the Tavern that were once covered in primer white, would now be covered in this light brown color.
Two thing to talk about in the picture above.
One: the area above the tavern bar used to be white as well. To the upper left one can now see that it's white is now repainted brown to better accent the exposed wood.
Two: This is the ladder that would lead up to the loft area. This ladder was subject to use all the time during events. A problem with this was the droppings from peoples feet and shoes used to fall between the rungs and land on the bar top. It wasn't until early Fall that I thought to cut the rungs flush to the back of the ladder and cover it with cloth. This cloth used to be a spare curtain in my old apartment.
When
everything was said and done, the above is a display of the color
pallet used to make the Tavern pop. Coincidentally, the display matches
the color of my old apartment, minus the dark brown of my Kitchen.
The Tavern Sitting Area
Taken on day one of living at Bitannia Faire, before I moved everything out of the way to make room for my car, this is how things were left after the May-Faire event. The benches were made during the summer of the previous year. They were great for feasts and enabled the Faire to sit multiple people at once, but they were a constant tripping hazard and drunk trap.
One day I got fed up with smacking my big toe, by cutting the corner too close to the side of the bench and took my hacksaw to the legs.
Not
wanting compromise the structural integrity of the benches, using the
law of congruent triangles, I would go on to screw the section of the
leg I removed to the inside angle to keep the same amount of surface
area in which to spread the weight of the individuals using the bench. I
banged my toes so much less after this project was complete.
In attempt to make the exterior of the bar more people friendly, I removed all unnecessary objects from the area, put down the rug from the upstairs, and set up my grandmother's green reclining chair in the corner as far away from the rain as I could muster. It was here I would sit with a small fire late into the evening, listening to the sounds of the night, planning what the next day should entail. It was here that I would sit and regain my constitution while eating lunch listening to the birds sing their pleasant song, looking out over the valley. It was here that I would recall sharing the chair with my grandmother as a child, climbed up on her lap. It was here that I would occasionally day dream of my current girlfriend wrapped up in my arms. It was here I would allow myself to relax.
As aforementioned prior in this post, this is the pattern of the carpet I scavenged from the demolition site. IT IS WOODEN PLANKS!!!!!!! Could not ask for anything better to cover up the dirt floor and give this covered structure more of a formal feel.
Jumping ahead to the start of Masque 2014, the Sitting and Tavern area evolved to look like the following. And in true Theowynd fashion, again it would seem that right as I had remodeled the area to better fit into the surroundings, as I expressed with my apartment in Buffalo, once I was satisfied, fate would have me leave. But backtracking, technically the story is only in September of 2013. There is still plenty more to share should you choose to follow me into the next chapters and put up with the long in-betweens.
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