The Work Begins!
what is now The Print Shop's lobby & offices
As it was after St. Vini moved out... much stuff was left behind (some even dated back to Kukkonen's and JCPenny!) and some is still in storage, even though we spent many weeks cleaning and hauling away stuff. Click on smaller images below, to enlarge as well as see possible captions.
Right after we bought the building I commented to Tom "I wonder whats above that drop ceiling?" ~ he left The Print Shop (that was at 120 Shelden at the time, where the jewelry store is now) and went down the street to take a peek... upon returning to the shop he gave me a really dirty, crabby look! "What did I do???!!" was my reaction ~ "it's not what you've done, it's what you're going to make me do..." as he had moved a few ceiling tiles and discovered a hidden gem, albeit in terrible condition after the people who installed the drop ceiling had bashed holes in it to hang suspension wires, he knew (as did I) that we simply had to restore it.
First step was taking down all the modern ceiling tile in order to assess if it was even possible to restore the old original ceiling, but as much of the newer ceiling tile was dry and crumbly, we ended up rather committed to having to do it (or recover it with brand new tile, but of course, we didn't have the heart to cover that up again). We later found out that many of the previous owners of the building had no idea what was above that drop ceiling, hard for me to imagine not being curious enough to at least peek!
still assessing... (click on smaller images below, to enlarge as well as see possible captions)
haven't completely figured out what to do about ceiling yet...
finally decided first step was getting the lights and drop ceiling rails out of the way, then pull down the coffered ceiling pieces that won't be seen once we are all done building in new offices
more photos and info on ceiling restoration to come, plus other major work we had to do to make the building safe and useable... stay tuned!!