“You don’t have to go far to be somewhere else” – Sherman the concrete guy

The garage was in need of repair. The wood/pottery shop was in need of repair. Dick (my husband the MVP) had graciously made room for me in the wood shop about ten years ago. We’d shared the space ever since. It was primitive and rustic – a cool place to work.

Dick had built this wood shop in the 1980s. It was a great space to work in the summer. With those big windows wide open I could drink in the sunshine and fresh air while working on the wheel. I’d clean up my tools with a garden hose in the back yard and glaze bisqueware inside in my painting studio upstairs. And so passed the summer days. And when summer became fall with temperatures too cold to fire pottery in the kiln, it was time to put away the clay and focus my artwork on painting indoors. This was my routine for over ten years.

Then one day not long after my retirement from teaching in 2021, we began to take stock in our surroundings and property. Since he bought the property in the 1980s, Dick had built all of the barns and sheds around the property, each with its own story and reason for being, “Well, I was getting a couple of pigs…emus…prairie dogs…and they needed a separate pen” and so on. As Dick celebrated his 80th birthday it was time to decide if we would stay or sell. We gathered information and visited 55+ communities. We looked at small single story homes and condos. We considered what we would need to do to our property to make it work. In the end, for Dick, there truly is “no place like home” and we decided to stay right where we are, to “age in place”.

With this commitment to staying put, I needed a remedy to what felt like a circuitous route including six times up and down stairs and through the yard and house to make, fire, glaze, fire, store, in that order – I would make and fire my pottery in the old shop and haul it all inside and up the stairs to the inside painting studio to glaze it. Once glazed, I would box it up and bring it downstairs then upstairs to the old shop to be fired again. Once fired, I would bring it downstairs from the shop into the mud room on the first floor of the house for storage.

The old shop had so many great qualities, including the fresh air and sunshine, as well as its rustic aesthetic. With that in mind, I first consulted with a barn renovator to see if we could renovate it into a warm and dry workspace. He pretty much said there wasn’t much to work with in the forty-plus year old shop when he visited. I already knew the stairs presented a challenge for carrying pottery up and down. We took a look at the old garage trying to visualize its potential as a pottery studio and talked with a couple of local builders about it. It didn’t take long before we realized its demolition and new construction were the way to go.

In September of 2022 we met with a few contractors to feel them out and get approximate pricing. In retrospect, it was kind of a Goldilocks thing. One company felt too big for the job and another seemed too small. The one that felt just right was JEP Contracting out of Millbury, MA. We met with owner, Patrick Perkins, remotely at first. He then came out to assess the site and by November 18 he had drawn up plans that captured our ideal and we signed the contract.

I wish I could add “the rest, as they say, is history” here and move on. However if you’ve ever had anything built, you know there is a lot more to it. Between building permits, zoning board, sorting out funding, assessments of physical conditions, revisions to meet the budget, it was May before the project was underway. Before the demolition started, we emptied the old garage into either a dumpster or to temporary storage in the barns, and moved the plants from the garden beside the driveway. We transplanted most of them around the yard, to family plots at the cemetery, or to my son’s house twenty minutes away. Dick took down the existing fence. Patrick marked up the building and added signs to set up the work site.

And with the dumpster and “porta-potty” in place, demolition commenced.

They left only the cinder block framing of the old garage. Of course I had to park in it one more time before the excavator arrived to take it down.

With the garage demolished, next up was to take down a few trees to open up the space for construction:

Bartlett Tree Experts did the tree work very quickly and efficiently.

The tree work and excavation were fascinating to watch. I just kept thinking about the literary conflict between “human vs. nature ” and couldn’t help applying it to the physical challenges within the site including trees and especially rocks, hence the name Rocky Pine Farm. Throughout the process I witnessed how with talent, technology, and appropriate tools, humans appear to crush nature in every challenge. Amazing!

It took a couple of weeks for the excavation to be done and even then there were a few big rocks we knew would have to be dealt with later on.

July was occupied with excavation and pouring footings.

And then the foundation was poured and the structure became visible.

Once it started to take shape it went relatively quickly. It was exciting to watch it grow and become a 3D structure taking on a life of its own beyond the paper drawings.

We would go out every day after the workers had left and check out the new construction. I have a whole new respect for tradesmen after witnessing them come in the morning, work hard all day, and when they left at night, the efforts of the day were clearing visible.

Since this was summertime, some of the workers brought their teenagers to work for the day. How lucky they are to be exposed to the processes and skills of construction and to work beside their fathers to learn firsthand about work ethic. I would bring out cold sodas or treats here and there and one day I was delighted to deliver cold cokes to the framing crew sitting around a makeshift table having lunch. They did a beautiful job.

Once the framing was nearly done, the windows were added, the floors were poured…:

And I couldn’t help memorializing the project with an engraving in the concrete floor just outside the garage door:

And the wallboard and plastering done. It was now September.

Young man on stilts to plaster the ceiling. Google Translate helped me tell him I was impressed with both his ability to put up wallboard and plaster and especially to do so on stilts.

Once the walls and ceiling had been plastered, it was time to get the floor in . I had chosen resin epoxy for its ability to be cleaned easily because clay dust collects quickly and is not healthy to breathe in. I knew I would be washing it frequently to get the dust up.

While these separate components were accomplished by the different sub contractors, woven throughout were intermittent visits by the plumber, electrician, and the building inspector. Clear communication was key and Patrick did a good job facilitating that. In July, he had created a Buildbook online project site, which was helpful in keeping up with the scheduling. There was a chat feature which included the option to upload photos – an excellent way to document progress.

You may have noticed the hanging lamp in a previous photo. It’s pretty special. As a wedding thank you gift, my late husband and I gave this pierced tin hanging lamp to my parents. It hung in their dining room from 1982 until 2010 when the family home was sold and my mom moved into senior living. Since then it has been stored in one of the barns here collecting rust and slowly falling apart. I decided to refinish it for the new studio. It was pretty far gone, but rust remover, spray lacquer, and some E6000 glue renewed its finish and form almost like new. And the electricians were able to rewire it and hang it smack dab in the middle of the new studio for me. I love it and the memories it brings of my big family around the table in the family home.

Another unique element the electricians installed in the studio is the kiln. It is the same kiln I have been working with for ten years. I saw it advertised on a local yard sale page and it was located just a few miles away. It has been working fine, so I had it installed in the new studio. I also asked for another 220 outlet in case I want to install a second kiln down the line.

By the end of the first week of October, all of the inside construction was finished! There was still work to do outside, primarily preparing the walkway and pouring the sidewalk, but we could paint. Dick and I chose to paint the space ourselves because it was essentially the one thing we could contribute. We were not skilled in any of the other areas, but we knew we could paint.

We set aside the weekend of October 7/8 to paint with plans to paint the walls with primer tinted to match the top coat on Saturday followed by a single top coat on Sunday. Saturday went well and we were finished by 12:00, in time to meet up for a family gathering.

We were making great time on Sunday morning, slated to be finished by early afternoon when Dick had a terrible accident that would put him in the hospital for an entire week. He was just halfway up the ladder, which was positioned parallel to and a couple of feet from the back wall, when in order to get better leverage on painting the back corner ceiling, he put his right foot on the raised footing while keeping his left foot on the ladder. Except he accidentally kicked the ladder out from under. His right side hit hard against the concrete footing. Initially, he felt okay and was adamant he wasn’t going to the hospital. After an hour or so, the pain hit and Dick went into shock. I called for an ambulance and they took him to the local hospital, where within an hour, he was life-flighted to Boston to the trauma unit at Brigham and Women’s hospital where he remained for the whole week.

Extensive imaging showed Dick had broken four ribs and was bleeding in his brain, lung, and kidney. The doctors worked fast to stop the bleeding and treat the pain. In my eyes, the doctors and staff at the hospital are miracle workers. They anticipated every potential complication and took steps for prevention at every turn. Over the course of the week at least a hundred images were taken including CT scans, MRIs and X-rays. The week of days I spent there are a complete blur yet the overall feelings I’m left with are awe and respect for the trauma team, who in just five days, brought my husband from the precipice of death to recovery.

On the sixth day, he was moved to a step down floor. On the seventh day, shortly after I arrived expecting to spend the day into the evening with him as usual, the doctor came in for a check in, left, and then came back a half hour later to tell us Dick could go home! 

The clothes Dick was wearing at the time of the accident were given to me by the local hospital to take home a week ago. Because his release was a surprise, Dick had no clothes or shoes to come home in. In the photo below you can see the borrowed outfit he wore. We still laugh about it because we both know they had said he could go home and we weren’t going to let wardrobe malfunctions keep him in there!

During the week Dick was in the hospital, the concrete crew poured the sidewalk between the house and the new studio and the apron between the studio and the driveway. These finishing touches made the project look complete.

Because we left the painting just over halfway done, and we were obviously not up to finishing it ourselves, Patrick brought in a painter to finish the job.

Dick was so happy to be home and I was so happy he was home! He recuperated by resting, eating well, and slowly building up his tolerance for exercise. The pain from the broken ribs was especially challenging at night, so Dick took a lot of naps during the day. Gradually he healed. By the first of November he was up for doing small tasks that didn’t require heavy lifting.

With all of the construction complete and the final inspections done, Patrick sent me the Certificate of Completion on October 19. I could move in!!

With my MVP out of commission, I hired a local moving company, Varsity Movers, to move the studio furnishings from the barns they were stored in to the back lawn so I could clean and paint them. I scheduled them to come back a week later to move everything into the studio.

As the leaves fell around us in late October, we were ready to move in.

The moving crew returned and moved the furniture from the back lawn into the studio. They also moved the boxes of glazes and materials from the upstairs indoor studio and equipment from the old shop to the new studio.

By November 1st, with all the furniture in place, I was able to visualize the details for storage and display. The MVP was up to doing some woodworking so with him as the skilled worker and me as the grunt, we made display shelves and pegboard panels, which I stained and/or painted. They came out great! Good to have the MVP back!

One night around this time, some of my brothers and their wives came over for dinner and I gave them a tour of the new studio. One of my brothers saw the existing butcher block table and the one beside it that we had cobbled together with sawhorses and a very heavy table top. He offered me a butcher block table top he had been storing in his basement. We took a ride down to his house and picked it up the next week. Turns out it had belonged to the mother in law of another of my five brothers twenty or so years ago. I ordered a restaurant food prep table from Home Depot to use as a base. We put it together and dropped the butcher block on top and it is working out beautifully. I’m especially glad to have the sawhorses gone as they took up a lot of space.

At this time I was splitting my studio time between settling in and making pottery. My work as a part time adjunct professor took me away a couple of days a week and twice weekly visits to my mother in her assisted living residence also called me away. Once the studio was set up and functioning, I was excited to bring my mother over to see it. When I was planning the studio it was important to me that it be accessible to those who use walkers or are in wheelchairs. My mom was the litmus test and I’m happy to say she was able to comfortably visit and explore the new studio with her walker.

The finishing touch for the studio project was to make a sign to hang outside. I had designed the Rocky Pine Potters studio a few years ago using a rock in the front yard that I had painted for the farm many years ago for inspiration.

In designing the studio, I knew I wanted to incorporate space for painting and for a pop-up gallery as well. I also hope Dick will want to showcase some woodworking projects, too, so I changed the name to Rocky Pine Studios to accommodate the different media. The new logo:

I traced the new logo on a piece of plywood and Dick used a jigsaw to cut around the shape of the rock. I painted it with exterior paints and did the outlining with a black Montana marker. It was fun and I was pleased with the outcome. We hung it up outside the studio and it made the whole project feel finished!

I am beyond thrilled to finally have a studio, a dedicated work space, within which I can create art. I absolutely love it! I am grateful to Patrick Perkins of JEP Contracting for making my dream come true!

Along with recognizing Patrick and JEP Contracting, I’d like to thank the sub-contractors whose fantastic work and extensive skills truly made the studio. Here is a list with links to their contact information:

• Mike Bernard Excavating                                    
• Bartlett Tree Experts
• JD Foundations
• Maki Corp: windows, lumber
• C&S Lumber: lumber, doors, and trim
• Just Exteriors: framing
• Zeglen Exteriors Inc: siding, gutters, and roofing
• JCP Plumbing & Heating Inc
• D’Alio Electric LLC/Core Electrical Services
• Doucet Plastering
• Sterling Concrete
• Kings of Pressure Concrete Coatings: Epoxy resin floor                  
• A&G Gutters: Gutter guards
• Varsity Movers