Since Livejournal has crashed and lost my last two attempts at blogging, I'm moving to Wordpress - come and find me here.

Well, we didn't quite make it in by Christmas, but over the last couple of months I finished the interior boards, Alex primed and painted the walls white, and I fitted guttering (and moved the water collection tank from its old position). Next was to construct a rack for storing paintings: I've done this a few times before and it's pretty simple, ( Read more... )

I'm proud to be a cheapskate. Inspired by my dad (who once had to go outside Hamleys, the famous London toyshop, for fresh air after feeling faint at the thought of people spending so much money) I've always looked for bargains, tried to repair things if they still have some use in them, been happy with second-hand and watched what I spend (apart ( Read more... )

Now the building is watertight I have been working sporadically over the last few months, work and family commitments permitting, to insulate and finish the inside. First was to cut phenolic foil-faced insulation boards to fit between the floor bearers, using special plastic 'Celotex clips' to hold the boards in place. The seams are sealed with ( Read more... )

I'm standing in a large marquee in a field somewhere in Oxfordshire, chatting to an enormous Brummie punk about the current fashion for burlesque, and whether it is a good or bad thing for professional circus performers. To my left a young mother asks a friend to watch her 3 year old daughter as she picks up three juggling clubs and throws them a ( Read more... )

I've used tar paper on a few of our sheds and it's not particularly pleasant stuff to work with: it's very heavy and needs to be glued down with some awful black gunk that will ruin whatever gloves you're using and indeed anything else it touches. It doesn't last very long either: less than 4-5 years in some cases, and will tear if the wind gets ( Read more... )

It seems every time I have something large and heavy delivered it rains all day, and this was certainly the case when the insulation and boards arrived: all had to be shifted by hand down the narrow path and kept dry, which took a day or two. Here's it all stacked up in the cabin:


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Back in early 2006 I was the Administrator for Cambridge Community Circus, where I also ran most of the Sunday workshops. We were based in a converted church hall in central Cambridge, the Drama Centre, where we had a small storage cupboard that also held the gas meter and enough room to hang some very low trapeze bars. It was a great venue as it ( Read more... )

By mid June I'd got as far as putting down the battens that form the base - and had two friends booked to help me put the cabin together:


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Unfortunately my plans of constructing the studio on the May Bank Holiday were stymied by Dunster House, who messed me about several times on the delivery date - it eventually arrived the week after in the pouring rain. It took over two hours for three of us just to unload the lorry into four large piles in front of our neighbours' garages. Over ( Read more... )