Walnut Creek Gallery will eventually open in this building located on Walnut Creek, two miles outside of Marshall, North Carolina. The building was built in 1937 and originally housed a grocery store and the family that owned it. In the early sixties the family built a small brick house nearby and the store was converted into an apartment. I purchased the property from the daughter of the original owners.

The removal of the apartment was a long, arduous task, especially while I was commuting from Waynesville. Jody, standing between piles of rubble in the picture to the left, wasn't much help, but she was great for morale.

As I pulled down the ceiling in one bedroom I found two large snake skins and a hibernating bat amongst the insulation.

The image below is of the kitchen and bathroom , a space that will be the workshop. Beyond that through the broken wall was a bedroom that will be the finishing room.

The image at the bottom right pictures the remains of the living room and two bedrooms. This space will be the gallery.

March 21   I've been living in the brick house for a week now and the demolition phase of the project has come to an end. The building is gutted, a term we like to use in the demolition business. Now I am converting the store into a gallery and workshop.

The building will be rewired next week and the dry walling will begin.

One fun aspect of this project is that directly across Walnut Creek Road from the store lives Ned Ramsey, one of two brothers who built the store. Ned's brother ran the grocery store and Ned went to Michigan to work. In 1945, Ned bought the house he now lives in. He is a good neighbor and a delightful source of information.

April 4   The walls are insulated and electricity is finally going to be turned on next week. The image below shows the current state of the gallery. The light blue insulation gave the walls a uniform color

making it easier to visualize the space.

I acquired nearly 150 old two by fours in dismantling the apartment and used some of them to box out, widen, and square the center posts and beam. I also widened the upper portion of the walls to mimic the center beam. All of this will be covered with drywall.

I have ordered nine skylights; six for the gallery and three for the work area and when they arrive, the reroofing will begin.

The image to the left is a view from the gallery into the workshop. The workbench is positioned where the bathtub was in an earlier picture. I plan to replace the small window above the bench with a large window. The view is out the back at Walnut Creek. Beyond that is a steep, wooded bank.

May 1st   I'm behind schedule, but the project is moving along well now. I have electricity. Installing the skylights was more challenging and time consuming then I had allowed for, but they're well worth the effort. The interior has been transformed into a bright and inspiring space. I did My first bit of carving at the bench this morning and no electric lights were necessary.

I Redid the roof after the skylights were installed and placed the tracks for the track lighting. Yesterday, I began hanging drywall. The picture to the top right is of the front of the gallery showing two skylights with track lighting running in between.

The building is surrounded by a number of large trees so that from most angles through the skylights there is a view of branches.

After the drywalling, the floor gets refinished. Other than a few small bad areas, the original oak floor is in good shape. Lastly the exterior will be painted.

July 1st   I'm hopelessly behind schedule now, but the project is still moving along. Jody and I held a board of directors meeting and voted to forget about the schedule. I've put most of my

work out on consignment so that I can slow down and complete this project to my satisfaction. The studio is taking much longer than I had expected, but it is turning out to be much nicer than I had expected.

The image to the top left shows the current state of the gallery. I had trouble with leaking skylights until two days ago. Fortunately, we seem to have a torrential downpour every two or three days, so I was able to test them regularly.

I had two small windows in the back wall replaced with large ones, so that I have a better view of Walnut Creek from the work area. The front windows appeared old and dingy when the dry wall surrounded them. After some deliberation, I decided to replace them with block glass. What a good move! Everybody likes them. Ned commented on how nice they look at night when the lights are on.

I'm relocating the old boxwood bushes from

the front of the building, where they have resided since the early sixties. They are grand old bushes and I think they look better in their new locations.

The building will eventually be painted forest green with tan trim. The large wooden door that is lying on the floor in some of the images will be the front door. It came with me from Waynesville.

The signboard that hung outside Hardwood Gallery in Waynesville will hang outside above the door. It simply depicts a crossed mallet and gouge on each side. That is all the signage that I have planned. I don't want too much business - just for people to be able to find me.

Had to throw in a picture of my garden. It's one reason I'm behind schedule. A man reaps what he sows. Sorry, didn't mean to get biblical on you.

August 30   Where did summer go? Three weeks ago, I decided to halt work on the gallery and focus on carving. The two shops that carry my work, Burr Studio and Gallery in Waynesville and Woolworth Walk in Asheville, are selling well now and I need to keep them supplied.

A month ago, I began working on the floor. After sanding a few areas, I realized that the old floor would never do. So I began installing a new red oak floor. It's work that I enjoy, but it takes time.

My rough plan is to make a carving run now and in mid September push on the gallery again with an eye to the fall foliage season. Walnut Creek Gallery will open someday.

I had an interesting visitor the other day; a large black snake. I saw it first on a window sill and, fortunately, it waited there patiently while I went to the house to get my camera. The snake wasn't at all bothered by me and proceeded to show me how snakes climb walls. This explains the snake skins I found this spring when I pulled down the ceiling of the apartment. The snake eventually got atop a door that was leaning against the wall and tried to go higher. It could find no more holds and returned to the window frame. I went to lunch and the snake was gone when I returned.

Until next time,
Dennis