Things have gone more smoothly this week. Grant, a man of many artistic and construction talents, has been helping me move the structure from my house to the new space. Perhaps more accurately said, I am helping him. He is a pro. He’s designed and built some of the amazing bikes at the Austin Bike Zoo.
Memorial Day Weekend
This weekend I was open 3 days and had 3 showings of 6 people each day. Far more than ever before. And I booked it all out without any paid advertising.
The universe was telling me that I need to get it out of my house.
On Saturday, there was a power outage in the neighborhood in the middle of the first showing. The group decided to leave and reschedule. The power came back on about 10 minutes later. Then, while the last group was in the room, the curtains in the living room yanked out of the wall and left a huge hole. Since all my tools were down at the new space, I had to improvise with some rope before the group came out and saw the mess. Then, on the last day, the turkey got a hole in it and I had to inflate it again before each round of Turkey Volcano.
The first day I had someone walk out. I didn’t catch him to ask what happened but he looked a little upset when he came in so I suspect it didn’t have much to do with the program. Everyone else seemed to continue to enjoy it.
The last group of the “home version” was fantastic. Three groups of two who didn’t know each other but all enjoyed it a lot together. Helping strangers have fun together is a big reason this whole thing exists, so it was a great way to end this chapter.
The next day was the move
Tuesday, May 31st, 2022
The walls with the LEDs on them have been the trickiest. They are heavy, fragile and awkward to carry. Tuesday we pulled them off the structure, along with the acrylic and got them to the space via a last-minute U-Haul truck I rented. I got the last one. It’s the end of the school year so most of them are rented by the UT students around my neighborhood.
Dismantling the LED boards ws tricky. Mickey and my assessment a couple weeks ago was that not much would have to be disconnected, but upon closer inspection Tuesday it was clear that much more would need to be. If for no other reason than safe transport. Having all those cables dangling was a danger of snagging and pinching. Getting the wires disconnected probably took us a couple hours of squatting in a 15″ wide space. It’s Friday and I’m still sore. This was a long day.
Wednesday, June 1st, 2022
On Wednesday, we moved the frame over. Grant also installed a deadbolt in the back door and I hooked of some additional security cameras. I also called the plastics company. I thought they would have all the acrylic in but turns out there was some kind of miscommunication and the additional 2 panels I needed were not ordered. The price had gone up. I’m not sure where the miscommunication happened but they agreed to eat most of it. I feel bad about it but I swear it was clear on the phone that I wanted 2 more panels ordered a month ago.
My house looks very empty now. Most of the remaining items in here will be going to the new space. With the curtains down it doesn’t feel like my house anymore. It’s as if I have moved somewhere else unexpectedly. I had only been thinking that I was finally going to get my house back. I didn’t ask myself if I would enjoy going back. I’ll get used to it and likely start some other crazy thing before you know it. Not a big deal but that melancholy of moving caught me off guard.
In the evening of Wednesday I was finally able to get back to a lot of emails I had been ignoring this week. I also coordinated with Wendy to help cut and resew a moving blanket so that we can place it under the structure. That will protect the floor and also (hopefully) make it a it easier to nudge around as we need to.
Thursday June 2nd, 2022
I got up early to run some errands so that I could be at the place before Grant got there from his Home Depot trip. Wendy was nice enough to cut and sew a moving blanket that I got at Home Depot. We’ll use that for under the structure to help protect the floors.
The front door weather stripping was terrible so I worked on that while Grant worked on the framing. I also brought some other parts down and bought some big garbage bags to clean up the mess that was left by the previous tenant. I could have stuck the landlord with that job but since they let me move in early, I said I’d just take care of it.
The acrylic arrived in the afternoon.
The plastic strips that keep the panels flush with each other showed up today. I hope they fit. I discovered last week that the ones I ordered were the wrong ones. Then I discovered that the vendor didn’t have the ones I needed. I searched all over and only found one vendor that had them. Their website was terrible and the price was cheap so I’m worried they won’t work for us. We’ll see.