The Beginnings of a New Space, Again

     Mountain swallows the moon
     slowly
     warm glow on a cool night

We start this time with two drawings of the neighborhood we have lived for the past three years in Daejeon. We will move out from here soon, at the end of the year. Not so far. Just a ten minute bike ride toward the other end of the hillside, closer to the mountain.

As is usual with artists living in economic systems where we generally can not afford to own much of anything, the moving was not our choice. It was a push. We don’t lament that. We accept it, as we do. That push is always a chance to push ourselves to do the next thing, and to do it better than we did last time.

We have also always wanted to be closer to the mountain, and so here we move in that direction. Perhaps I will miss most the moonset from our old place. But I gather that the embrace of the mountain will supplant that. For me it feels that our work is best done in that embrace, rather than watching it from afar.

There is yet a lot of work ahead, but by Spring we intend to open our new space. We found a long shopfront in an old neighborhood with a small park across the street. At the moment the shopfront is full of pallets. Big, long, domestic shipping pallets that were previously used to ship long slabs of faux marble.

A warehouse had a bunch of them sitting outside that they wanted to get rid of. They were happy to give them all to us for free.

If you have been following us, you might guess what kinds of things we intend to do with these pallets. Floors, counters, planter boxes, maybe some wainscoting? Not quite sure yet.

What I am sure of, is that this is a lot of wood. After we got all the pallets into the shop space, I realized there was no room for anything else! Going through the lot, I counted mostly pine pallets, a few made of junky plywood, and one of hinoki cypress that smells totally amazing.

In total there are about 134 good boards in this bunch, each about 3.7 meters in length — maybe there are bigger pallets out there somewhere, but these are the longest I’ve seen! It seems enough wood to cover 40 sq/m (430 sq/ft) as flooring. We can’t use that much softwood floor, so I’ll spread around the use a bit.

Suhee and I talked a lot over the past few years, about what we would do if we had such a space again as we did in Osaka. As a result, when we saw this empty shopfront, I drew up some general design ideas for a herb tea bar and studio space. But that general idea is going to stay on paper for now, because next week my job is to pull these pallets apart, smooth them out, and take stock of what exactly we got.

Is it going to be fun? So long as I have some good music and a heater in the place. Sure. A lot of meditative work, but good fun.

I am thinking again, to put regular updates here during the process of building this interior on a budget, with up-cycled wood and whatever else we find. Perhaps it is both helpful and inspiring? Maybe you all have some tips for me along the way?

These entries might supplant the normal stories for a time then. Less talk, more doing as they say. I hope you all are happy — excited? — with that arrangement.

Be well, friends.