WEEK 1 Closing and Demolition

       

We closed the deal on June 15th 2009. The building is three stories with a full basement and 13 foot ceilings, located on the old main drag in downtown Lewiston, Maine. The building is quite an undertaking, coming in at just under 10,000 square feet total. That's 29 feet wide and 90 feet long, adding up to a whopping 7,630 square feet not including the cellar. For all of our European friends that's 710 square meters. After a champagne post closing toast on the roof, the three of us started work immediately on the morning of the 16th.

The plan for the project is to end up with a mixed used building made up of a combination of residential and commercial space. The main floor will eventually be a cafe, the second floor artists studios and the existing apartment will remain as is on the top floor. 

Initially we wanted to start at the top floor and work our way down, seeing that the apartment is the most finished space we assumed it wouldn't need much work and would be the easiest to deal with. Unfortunately, excitement got the best of us and we each ended up starting in a random corner. So instead of having a serious plan we thought we would give ourselves a week to do some exploratory demolition just to see what we could find.

Here are a few snapshots of the process so far. The first one is a what we found under a wall of fake wood paneling on the main floor. Who doesn't like flocked wall paper?

The second is the pile of  bricks Barry made by sledge hammering out the faux fireplace in the apartment. You can also see the nice afternoon light that we get on the top floor.

Third, is the view looking back into the cafe space from the front windows. There were two offices and some lofted storage areas that had to go because we were trying to excavate the windows that had been blocked out some years back.

Finally, removing the old wall board from the second floor revealed a variety of colors and textures.