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8:10 this morning, I said bye-bye to the construction crew. Their electrician is to be here tomorrow to set the electric box and they'll have some backfilling to do around the foundation but I don't expect that to happen til spring. Looks like I'll be moving my power tools in after my trip next week and working on wiring, walls and all that fun stuff. Lowe's here I come! (Man, do I wish we had a home depot).
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Now that's what I call a Christmas Present!
-------------------- aka:Cisco the "Traveling Millennium Sign Artist" http://www.franciscovargas.com Fresno, CA 93703 559 252-0935 "to live life, is to love life, a sign of no life, is a sign of no love"...Cisco 12'98 Posts: 3576 | From: Fresno, Ca, the great USA | Registered: Dec 1998
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Geez, Kissy! And here we are both of us married already! Oh, well.... VERY cool shop. I'm impressed.
-------------------- Pierre St.Marie Stmariegraphics Kalispell,Mt www.stmariegraphics.com ------------------ Plan on knowing everything before I die and time's running out! Posts: 4223 | From: Kalispell,Mt 59903 | Registered: Mar 2000
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NOW you get to have fun! Are there any walls upstairs yet or do you get big wide open space? I'm very excited for you! Merry Christmas!
-------------------- Jane Diaz Diaz Sign Art 628 W. Lincoln Ave. Pontiac, Il. 61764 815-844-7024 www.diazsignart.com Posts: 4102 | From: Pontiac, IL USA | Registered: Feb 1999
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-------------------- Harris Kohen K-Man Pinstriping and Graphix Trenton, NJ "Showing the world that even I can strategically place the pigment where its got to go." Posts: 1739 | From: Trenton, NJ, USA | Registered: Jun 2001
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Merry Christmas!Your shop looks great. I know you can't wait to get the inside finished so you can move in. Hey come on down to Albany..we have a Home Depot across the street from Lowe's. Judy
-------------------- Judy Pate Signs By Judy Albany, Georgia USA 229-435-6824
Live simply...Love generously...Care deeply...Speak kindly...Leave the rest to God. Posts: 2621 | From: Albany,GA,USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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i used to take care of horses that came from the HANOVER FARMS....over at MEADOWCROFT FARMS.....and wore HANOVER SHOES!!!!!
-------------------- joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-637-1519 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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Hanover is by Gettysburg, PA, down low and over East. What about Hanover Pretzels, OP? Chris lives in the upper middle portion of Western PA...sorta/kinda near Johnstown. Indiana, PA is the birthplace of Jimmy Stewart! Have yins all watched "It's a Wonderful Life" yet? Kissy is sure gonna have one working outta this shop! I second the motion about where to put the sign...looks like just the right spot! I can't wait to see this place in person. It is only about an hour from me (if Chris is driving!) Love- JILL
-------------------- That is like a Mr. Potato Head with all the pieces in the wrong place. -Russ McMullin Posts: 8834 | From: Butler, PA, USA | Registered: Jan 2001
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""Good judgment comes from experience; and a lot of that comes from bad judgment" - Will Rogers Posts: 3485 | From: Beautiful Newaygo, Michigan | Registered: Mar 2003
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You will wonder how you ever got along before this shop.
I made a few major mistakes with my building that I hope you can avoid. First, I let the ex husband and contractor make too many decisions that should have been mine alone.
Make sure the lights are set at a height and angle that will suite "your" needs. Mine were put on the ceiling (which is 14') and was great if all you did was letter air shields on semis. The light was great up there. But for anything else, they were too high. My dad and big brother made brackets and put a new set of lights 9' up on the side walls angling them down to hit the sides of trucks, trailers, etc. (high enough to still lean a 4'x8' against the wall, but low enough for good lighting) What a difference. Although now I have conduit all over the place from these new lights.
Also, the heat....I'm still battling with that. Once again, it was cozy warm about 6' from the ceiling, and noisy. Also, not fun to try to gold leaf or spray when that thing kicks on.
I had my little brother build a smaller garage last winter (24'x32' with 10' overhead doors). He put tubes in the floor for heat. I ran out of cash for the project, so it doesn't have electric yet, but it will be carefully planned out this time, where the lights go and what type of heat is hooked up to heat the tubes in the floor. (no windy furnace in that building).
Lighting was my big beef. I finished a trailer, grey, and when I got it outside, the colors looked awful. That was the last straw, so with a weekend's worth of work and money for new lights, we got the new ones set at an angle that works for signpainters.
Have fun and enjoy.
Pam Pam's Signs
-------------------- Pam Eddy Niles, MI ple@qtm.net Posts: 460 | From: Michigan | Registered: Dec 2000
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Thanks everyone. As for the sign on the roof idea, I ain't seen a roof yet that I'm scared of. I'm afeared of that one. Gonna do a nice sign for beside the french doors on the other end, which will be my main doors and sign for end of driveway. I'm 1/4 mile off the road, you can't see the shop from the road, so I think the sign at the end is more important.
The upstairs is totally open at this point. Friday or the first week in January, I'm gonna figure out my walls and hopefully have them up before Jill's meet. Bill will be home starting that weekend, so I'd like to prod him for wiring.
Jilly, I'm 53 or 55 miles from you, door to door. You can do that in an hour.
Rick, those taillights were beautiful.
Pam, we fought a lot of battles over the shop while it was in preliminary stage. Those that I lost initially, I won when I re-approached it with my explanation as to "why". If that didn't work, I just told him "build whatever you want, I don't need a f*(^ing shop. Don't even bother putting a 2nd story on it."
Bill will be doing all the wiring, with me there telling him EXACTLY where I want outlets, switches & light. I've figured it he has a fit over what I want, I'll wait til he goes back to work & call my electrician friend.
We discussed the heat issue today. With the shop being upstairs, the heating ducts will be at the floor. Still some issues to work out there.
-------------------- Chris Welker Wildfire Signs Indiana, Pa Posts: 4254 | From: Indiana, PA | Registered: Mar 2001
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Very Impressive shop Kissy! Looks like you'll have some real fun working outta that space. I'm going to send you an e-mail with a cracker-jack electrical crew to help you get that place wired..
-------------------- Ken Henry Henry & Henry Signs London, Ontario Canada (519) 439-1881 e-mail: kjmlhenry@rogers.com
Why do I get all those on-line offers to sell me Viagara, when the only thing hardening is my arteries ? Posts: 2684 | From: London,Ontario, Canada | Registered: Feb 1999
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When you do the wiring, put receptacles wherever you think they should be...then put one or two in between those! That was my only regret when building the addition on to my shop, not enough outlets. Have fun and enjoy! HAPPY HOLIDAYS
-------------------- Frisby Signs, Inc. El Dorado, Arkansas Posts: 902 | From: El Dorado, Arkansas, USA | Registered: Apr 1999
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You can have Home Depot we are waiting for a Lowe's around here. Home Depot just plain su**s!! Service is terrible, help, well, that's not there, that is if you want somebody with an ounce of brains! I support my local home centers! You can get a straight 2 by 4 in 10 seconds compared to having to dig thru a whole stack @ Home Depot and not finding one straight enough to do anything with.
-------------------- Mike Berry New England Posts: 534 | From: New England | Registered: Jan 2002
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Michael, for lumber, I prefer the local lumber yards too. Our good lumber place has very short winter hours, so a few years ago when I had to order some Z-brick, I ordered from Lowe's. Not only did I waste 45 minutes standing there while they tried to find it after it came in, 1/2 were already broke when I got them home. Took them an hour to find the huge window we ordered. It was 6' wide, not an easy thing to misplace.
Service isn't a word Lowe's understands either. Nor do they require employees to know how to read a tape measure. I had some glass cut there for a project, they took over 1/8" off each edge.
When our Lowes has 1/2" drywall, it means that at least 1 edge is 1/2" thick but not all 4. When it first opened, it wasn't too bad but it's really turned to ****. 3M sandpaper was replaced with some sort of Gator **** brand that just touching it will wear a hole in it. Their foam brushes disintegrate as soon as they hit the paint or varnish.
Everytime I have to go to one of the areas that has a Home Depot, I stock up on real 3M tape, real 3M sanding paper, the good Minwax varnishes, dremel bits Lowe's has never carried and small-face safety glasses. Then I look around for whatever else I could use that Lowe's will never have.
-------------------- Chris Welker Wildfire Signs Indiana, Pa Posts: 4254 | From: Indiana, PA | Registered: Mar 2001
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Some more unsolicited advice about electric. As I am looking to buy another computer, it reminds me. Make sure you have enough receptacles in your office in easily accessible places. And if the electrician knows of any surge surpressing obtions that can be connected to the office area would be great. Something as well as the usual UPS or surge suppressors we normally use for power spikes and power outages. My office is short on outlets and it seems we "plug-in" a lot of equipment along with out computers.
The tall building here, as well as the transformer on the hill seems to encourage lightning strikes in every storm. Probably should have paid more to have the pole/transformer set 300' further east where it wouldn't have been on the highest part of the property, but who thinks of that with so many other decisions to be made.
Have a personal note to email you, just as another idea.
Pam
-------------------- Pam Eddy Niles, MI ple@qtm.net Posts: 460 | From: Michigan | Registered: Dec 2000
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You're gonna love it...One suggestion...if you haven't already installed the heating (a/c) be sure to mount it in the highest place you can...we installed ours atop the 10 foot cieling over the restroom...the filter doesn't need changing near as much as the old shop...all the saw dust and "sign dirt" (overspray and such) settles before it reaches the filter system and the ducted heat works perfectly...talk to your heat and air guy he'll know the best place.
If you can put it upstairs (where it will always be clean) and duct the heat down!
-------------------- "Werks fer me...it'll werk fer you"
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As for the wiring, I grew up in an old farmhouse. I had 1 outlet in my bedroom. There will be outlets everywhere! Every outlet will have a surge protector (replaced regularly) and the phone lines will be on protectors too. Bought the furnace this morning. It was decided it was going downstairs, in my bay (middle one) and ducted upstairs. My bay will be primarily for installs and will probably be the cleanest place for it, no sawdust floating around, no overspray. I also plan to put filters on the vents, mostly to keep dust from going into the ductwork while I'm cutting or sanding then flying back out while I'm painting. Thanks for all the advice, comments & emails. It's given me some things to think about and reminded me of some things I forgot about.
-------------------- Chris Welker Wildfire Signs Indiana, Pa Posts: 4254 | From: Indiana, PA | Registered: Mar 2001
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Looks like I'll be moving my power tools in after my trip next week and working on wiring, walls and all that fun stuff. Lowe's here I come! (Man, do I wish we had a home depot). 
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Oh, well.... VERY cool shop. I'm impressed.
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Gonna do a nice sign for beside the french doors on the other end, which will be my main doors and sign for end of driveway. I'm 1/4 mile off the road, you can't see the shop from the road, so I think the sign at the end is more important.![[Mad]](mad.gif)
we are waiting for a Lowe's around here. Home Depot just plain su**s!! Service is terrible, help, well, that's not there, that is if you want somebody with an ounce of brains! I support my local home centers! You can get a straight 2 by 4 in 10 seconds compared to having to dig thru a whole stack @ Home Depot and not finding one straight enough to do anything with.
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