June 4th, 2020
It's been a very, very long time since I've posted any pictures of the building on Haight St. I'll try to do some catchup over the next few months but, here are the really big deal images.
Sheetrock Work Mostly Complete
 |
| Immediately after the previous tenant left and the place was empty. |
 |
| After we completed the initial demolition work. |
 |
| Rear wall closed but bathroom not built. |
 |
| Last week. |
Front Tile Completed
 |
| Simon Firth of Canterbury Tile did an extraordinary job with the front tile work. The tile in the vestibule (which is behind the "don't mess up the entry" plywood, is not totally complete but you can get a sense of it in the pictures of the mural below. |
Mural
Thanks to artist Eli The Man and the folks at Paint The Void, we got a mural, free of charge for the front of the place. It's a really cool piece of work and I especially love how the design changes depending on whether the outer doors are open or closed.
January 14th, 2018
Welcome to the first posted album of Borderlands West pictures. I know that blogger isn't the best place for posting high detail pictures like these but . . . I'm awful short on time and this was super easy. Getting a better system in place is on the (seemingly endless) list but I didn't want to wait any longer to show you what is going to be our pride and joy.
"Going to be" is the operative term here. As you'll see, the old lady needs a little bit of a make-over.
The Bookstore
 |
| Close to the end of Recycled Records' tenure. The boxes lined up are full of records on their way to the Internet Archive. Please note the drooping ceiling tiles, the lovely lighting, and the single door in the rear wall. I think that the stuffed animal hanging from the ceiling is a nice touch. Gives a homey feel . . . if you're Ted Bundy. |
 |
| Here you see the place empty once all the records and fixtures are gone. Who knew that there was another door back there? And a window too? As far as we can tell the carpet is two-tone because the previous owner decided to replace the old orange carpet but didn't want to bother with moving the fixtures. So they just cut around them. |
 |
| One of the happiest days. Tearing down the nasty drop ceiling. The full ceiling height is 13 feet (two feet taller than the current store). Jude and Salem are in the foreground. As you can see, Jude's having a great time. We're starting to see the bones of the place and they're pretty good. This was shot facing the front wall with the back yard behind me. |
 |
| And here's how the upstairs looks now. That torn open wall on the left is the inside of the light well. Since we're going to be removing it for sure, it made sense to open it up. That also allowed the structural engineer to take a good look at the framing. Also on the left, see how much more open it is without the wall separating the basement stair from the rest of the place. We're going to keep it that way and put counter in front of it. Sorry that this shot is so dark; I'll put up a better one soon. |
The Backyard
 |
| This was shot from the back door before we started work. I figured that the ivy was rooted all over the yard and that it was going to be a monster job to get it out. We had a big crew of hard workers but I still figured it would be a multi-day process. |
 |
| Here's Melinda, the owner of Botanika Gardens, tearing out the Ivy along the west retaining wall. Melinda is a sponsor and has kindly offered to do our garden design. Her help and planning this day was absolutely invaluable. |
 |
| Now working along the east retaining wall. The ivy came off the walls really well but we were still worried about what the ground would be like. Atop the wall is Eloise. Her day-job is as a theater tech and she's like a mountain goat. She spent the whole day working along the 2 foot wide top of the wall, ten feet up in the air. She said it was very comfortable. |
 |
| Once they'd finished getting the ivy down I thought I'd give it a try. I've a good head for heights but I wouldn't call it "comfortable". My friend and sometimes Borderlands staffer, Claud, seemed to think it was very amusing. |
 |
| And here's most of the crew who did the job. You'll notice that they're standing on concrete. When we started pulling up the ivy on the ground we discovered that it was only rooted in about six inches of soil and compost that had overlain the (probably) original concrete. It was heavy as hell but it came up pretty easy. |
 |
| A panoramic view of the whole yard as taken from the back doors. It's a pretty good size space and I'm confident that Melinda is going to make it into something extraordinary. |
The Basement
 |
| Here's the back of the basement, filled with stuff from the days of Recycled Records. Note the 45 rpm record on the post in top center of the picture. It's that thing that looks like a bulls- eye. |
 |
| See the record? This is the same spot after it was all cleared out. This is where we'll be putting the woodshop. |
 |
| Another "before" shot. This is the middle of the basement, facing south. |
 |
| And here's the same spot but shot facing north and after all the crap had been removed. See all those posts? Quite a forest. I counted -- this building is smaller that the one we're in, but it has 33 posts in the basement as compared to the 10 in our current place. A little bit of overkill, by any standard. |
The Plans
Below you'll find the current set of existing condition plans as drawn up by our architect. The top of the drawing is roughly north and faces Haight Street. The lightwell that we're going to remove is the rectangle on the middle of the right wall. The existing bathroom is just up from there. That bathroom will get a bit wider and about twice as long to accommodate ADA accessibility standards. The counter will be to the left of the stairs going down to the basement (which are just up from the bathroom).
