Getting Set Up
Here’s a shot of the gates of our new digs in downtown Tacoma, WA. After you come through the gates there is a big courtyard parking area which will be very useful to have for future events. Our facility is located in the old Waterhouse Motors building which used to rebuild engines. Ed Davis, our landlord and former owner of Waterhouse Motors is glad to see a new business in his place. It’s a big building, 17,000 square feet but we are only renting 4800 ft of it so there is lots of room to grow.We are actually hoping to expand into the area behind us for extra mold storage but that will have to wait for the time being since there is so much to do to get set up!
There is our landlord Ed! He’s a great guy and likes to help out when he can, and boy can he drive a forklift! It’s a tight turn on that ramp by our doorway. To the right is two large bay doors and a loading dock. Our patina room will be behind those bay doors.
We have been busy painting our entryway. This room has a stainless steel counter top -a big selling point for us when we decided to rent the building. Clients can bring their pieces in and also have a place to wait with a view into the patina room.
This is where the mold making magic happens or where Ed Kroupa checks his email, probably busy figuring out bids. Mike Haney is wax chasing and giving his opinion on estimates.
Here is the slurry room and plaster area. It looks much better than it originally did. The walls and the floors were covered with grease from being the tear down area. Ed spend a lot of time power washing the floors and painting the walls white again.
This big room is the home of the metal shop and sand blasting booth. The furnace and the kiln will go here too. We are lucky there was a hood and a big vent in place, almost as if we were meant to be here!
This is going to be our future gallery area. It will also serve as the staff room where we are planning on building a free standing bar for events which can also double as a lunch table. We are looking forward to having art shows and workshops here too.
