This was the year that The Shop became The Annex.
John moved his shop from here at the house in October 2006. Not only did that create a super new workspace for him, but our goal was to restore the old shop space and turn it into a multi-purpose space: gym, media room, library, music room, and a spot for him to store finished goods. If that sounds like quite a bit for one building, consider this: the old shop space is over 1200 square feet, in two rooms. The old side of the shop was the original garage. The new side is much larger - almost a great room - with skylights and picture windows overlooking the vegetable garden.
I started doing some cleanup work around there early in the year, but John got cranking on the place in August. By then he’d done his two shows and we’d gotten back from our annual trip to see my family in North Carolina. So right around the time things started getting hot and sticky, John finishes the cleanup phase and plows into painting. After watching a special on the Golden Gate Bridge one evening he had the idea to paint the exposed beams and roof struts brilliant orange. Sounds weird? It really works! Around the same time we brought in electricians to rewire the joint, and we had our heating contractor install central air conditioning.
The tough stuff was redoing the floor. He completely resurfaced the concrete slab. We ordered tile made of recycled rubber - perfect for athletic use. He had a devil of a time getting the stuff down: the tile weren’t precisely square and they’d flex as he laid them.
I can’t tell you how happy I am with the result. We brought our treadmill up from the basement, set up free weights, and had gobs of space left. John installed a small shelf so we could put a TV and DVD player near the treadmill. I’m probably out there at least once each day. I’ve been pretty regular on the treadmill, and the extra space means I have a place to practice taijiquan. I learned the Yang short form years ago, but I’ve not had a great place to practice. Now I’m learning it again and loving it.
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