sealed

The concrete floors are in the last stages of being prepared to welcome the thousands of people who will walk on them. Today Ken our floor guy put three coats of sealer on the floors. This filled the air with a chocking toxic scent, but also rendered the concrete so lovely. For the next 24 hours we are not able to walk on the floors, therefore the administrative offices are empty. We will return all calls when we are allowed back into the building. Ken is such a neat guy, he has guided us and informed us of all the stages of concrete beautification all while wearing coveralls that read "JIM" on the chest.

paint glorious paint

Again the excitement of progress is upon us. Not only are we getting our collection and our furniture moved it, but a large truck just pulled in and dropped off several huge buckets of paint. Henry our contractor from Fine Line Builders tells us that next week the painting will begin. The ceiling is sort of a faded teal right now so the new paint will really brighten the space! It is all very exciting as we await more changes.

moving memories

The good news is we are one step closer to being open. This week we have been moving the collection and the rest of our 25 years of amassed items from our storage in Dugald to our new home. With great foresight to this day, all of our items were carefully placed on wooden pallets and wrapped making moving a breeze with the aid to two burly guys and a pallet jack. They came to Dugald with a 51 foot semi-trailer truck. It did not seem possible that it would take 5 truck loads to move everything. Packing was daunting, unpacking will be worse.

smell of progress

The concrete beautification continues. A man named Ken is doing all the work. He drives around what looks to be a zamboni as mentioned previously that is stuffed with tiny ball bearings. The zamboni device also sucks up all the dust and debris produced. For the hard to reach areas, he uses a hand held sander. It is the sander that is filling the air with a thick dust and a potent odor. When posed with a safety question, Ken assured that he normally wears a mask but it was on back order. The next stage will be sealing the concrete and it will take a couple days to dry (and air out) the floor will them have a slight shine making the concrete even more beautiful. In the photo of this process, you can see the line that divides the concrete in the natural state and the grey paint that is being removed.

concrete beautification

There is a strange excitement when progress is being made. Today, much to our delight there is a cloud of dust throughout the costume museum. The dust is from the concrete floors being sanded and polished. This is no longer the intense process that it once was, now they take what looks like a zamboni across the floors lifting up any paint or markings. Formerly they used a chemical that lifted the paint and then it was scraped off making the process both labour intensive and expensive. The result is actually gorgeous. Not very many people would say that concrete is gorgeous, but it is. Especially in this building where we are trying to not mask the fact that it is an industrial gem, but rather embracing it for its unique qualities.

left in the dark

Our building owner, Bob Brown is doing us a great service by cleaning up all the electrical and combining it into one panel. This will make it much easier to install new lights and it is just generally more tidy. We thought this would take a day or two, but as we have learnt in this process of construction generally things take 10 times longer than expected. Needless to say our space has power in a few sections but not throughout. We are unable to print anything or use the phone. Of course this makes maintaining an administrative office difficult for us, but hopefully has not caused too much disruption for our supporters and members.

they will come

With the first stage of our redevelopment well under way we anxiously await the next part. Already the space is already starting to take shape (despite the pile of debris in the middle of what will be a gallery) Electricians are cleaning up the wires and taking down what is redundant, windows are being replaced and excitement builds. It has been very difficult to project the outcome of all this redevelopment. Will people come? Will thousands of people come often? We expect so. We are part of a very vibrant neighborhood, one that has some challenges but they will be overcome. As the snow melts and the pathway following the river emerges the potential becomes more and more visible. Winnipeg is a great city, one that has so much to offer. We boast some of the most amazing restaurants, world class theatre and ballet and soon a new costume museum! There will be so much to see and experience once we open the doors, visitors will always be needing to come back.

let there be light

Construction continues at a good rate. The bulkhead is now down and the light streaming into our office is perfect. The hammering and drilling are welcomed sounds as we move closer to our goal of being open by May. Some days it seems rather optimistic other days it seems very likely. The crew of guys we have here are very conscientious and delightful to have around. They always are cautious of debris on the stairs and the likeliness of a high heel being caught in conduit laying on the ground! Phone conversations are out the question and vibrations from the hammering make pencils roll to the floor often.

floor beams and electrical update

Exciting changes are abound here ay the costume museum. Today we are seeing electrical work being done and a huge hodge-podge of wires being condensed into one panel. The formerly serene office is now full of the sounds of drilling and pounding. In a previous post you saw the demolition of a bulkhead that extended down the stairs of our mezzanine level. Interestingly, they discovered when pulling off the drywall that the floor of the mezzanine was not being supported. Of course unexpected things happen in construction, so our designer went back to the drawing board and came up with an even better idea to open up the space. It will mean a slight sacrifice to our office space, but nothing too serious. The construction is really starting to come together. Surely we will see a great deal of progress over the next few weeks, so stay tuned.

demolition starts

After a few delays and some frustration in walks a small crew from FINE LINE BUILDERS to start the demolition process. Of course we are excited to see the commencement of this project. We are working closely with FINE LINE BUILDERS and they will oversee the entire process. This is under the direction of Henry Klassen.

There is not much in the way of demolition as we are planning to preserve the industrial charm of the building. What they started doing today is tearing down a stairwell encasement. The stairwell leads up to the second floor mezzanine which is our office space. The removal of this will open up yet another window for the beauty of natural light. Surely we will be seeing much progress now that our team is in place and the budget approved.