Well, last night was a blast. We let the kids in on the 6 month secret finally and they were ectastic! Primarily it was the idea of a gymnasium all to themselves that they were the most jazzed about. Our oldest daughter (12) was repeating "I don't believe you..." for the first 15 minutes until I had pointed out our plans in so much detail to here that I couldn't have made it all up. We had several family and friends there for the unveiling. It was a lot of fun... I was as nervous before telling the kids about it as I was just before getting married! the worst part of the whole evening was later that night when our 3yr old was having nightmares we think because of all the running around the huge building and the dark corners that they were playing in. We were woke up 4 times by her screaming and crying. My wife is not a pleasnt person when she gets woke up early.
The school itself is a great find. Nothing spectacular about the architecture, but nothing dating about it either. When I get done with it, I hope to make it look more like a school than it did as a school. I even want to add a bell tower that has an auto ringer every day at noon for the harbor just down the hill. We got the whole thing for the value of just the land that it sits on. I did a complete inspection before we bought it, crawling into every nook and cranny above and below it to look for problems and found nothing. It was very well cared for until 2 years ago when the school closed. There is a lot of work to do, mostly cosmetic. No structural work is needed. The layout of the 6 classrooms that are being made into apartments was perfect for converting. Each will be a 1000sqft studio apartment. Because we had to go through the planning department and have the whole thing changed to a "planned community", I can't call them "apartments". Instead, when you rent a "unit" they will be designated as "classrooms" and instead of numbers, they will be actual subjects... Math, art, science, history, english, and my favorate: Music! I will have a little fun doing a theme on each door. remember, I am a woodshop teacher!
In our half of the main building, we have 6 1000sqft classrooms that will be broken down this way: 1 as the master bedroom, 1 as the kitchen/dining/sitting, 1 divided into 3 bedrooms, 1 divided 1/3 as aonther bedroom and theother 2/3 as a playroom with pool table, foosball, etc; 1 as a general cr@p room (no longer thrown into my work area), and 1 as my long awaited woodshop. Then there is the old staffroom that will become our theater room, the principals office as the guest bedroom, the nurses office as my wife's craft room (only fair as I get a huge woodshop!) and the old office as a library.
The library will probably become a 7th apartment in the future, and the gym will be for play other than when it is rented out for public events, weddings, dances, etc... same with the cafeteria.
First things first though, we need to install a shower in the old boys room before we can more out there. We hope to have that done late next week. Until then, we get to listen to the kids asking "when are we moving?????" every hour, on the hour, 24 hours a day.....
If someone could host a few pictures for me for a little while, I would love to share some of the pictures with everyone.
Thanks for all the support everyone... this project has me scared as all hell, but excited like I can't really convey by words alone. I hope that at some point in the future I really can host a great head-fi meet here.
