Celebration Time...Come On!

On 6 July 2012, the Forbes Building became ours. In the middle of winter, we had a BBQ in Shop 4 with our friends. They thought we were mad. I thought Michael was mad.

The building was a disaster. It leaked like a sieve. It stank to high heaven. The power was a joke. Plumbing was restricted to the old commercial kitchen, which had been gutted. The colour scheme was the stuff of nightmares and the walls had cracks we could see daylight through. Fretting brickwork and rising damp just added to the fun.

Slowly, we renovated. Think "Grand Designs" without any money. Michael tackled the majority of the restoration himself, with help from second-in-command Gary. When we could afford to pay him.The rewiring was completed shop by shop by Dave the Brave, our electrician. Plumbing was undertaken by local contractors. We couldn't afford to re-roof, so Michael used silicone and bitumen paint, repaired valleys and cleared the gutters of rubbish. This may sound relatively minor, but the building was 390 square metres under the main roof.

The workshop renovation took 4 months. restoring the "residence" (two rooms and a wet area) from a hovel to semi-respectable took another 4 months non-stop. By Easter 2015, we only had the rear of Shop 4 to finish.

Michael was ill with a lingering chest infection over winter 2015. He spat the dummy about rebuilding the fireplace in Shop 4. For about 2 weeks. The fireplace took a month to restore. Then the walls had to be filled, sanded and painted, insulated on the eastern side, and the ceiling fixed and painted. Finally, the separating tin wall came down 2 weeks ago and clad the eastern wall.

We cleaned, dusted, split the Gallery into 2 - the Gallery Giftshop and the East End Gallery - and transported artworks from one side to the other, according to the value of each item. Yesterday I finished the 2 catalogues. Today, I printed the corresponding numbers.

Finally, the building is only awaiting a few cosmetic touches. The glass panels need "boxing in" on the eastern wall. As does the back alcove and the door into the workshop. That is it. End of story.

I left the Gallery this afternoon with a thrill of satisfaction. After 3 years, 6 months and 27 days, we are at the end of an extraordinary journey.

Now we are embarking on a new quest. We are selling our house by the river, the House that Rocks, in order to pay off debt and build a house, Station Cottage, on the block behind the Forbes Building. And we doubt if the building has finished with us quite yet. I expect there will be a few more repairs that we haven't even imagined.

So we are toasting our achievement. I am so proud of Michael's vision, perseverance and grit. True grit.

Onward and upward! Come and visit the East End Gallery and the Gallery Giftshop.

The Gallery Giftshop and the East End Gallery.