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posted: 05.01.2006
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Renaissance Emerges...
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Greetings dear Reader! Thank you for visiting this virtual Renaissance.
Renovation construction has begun at 401 East Front Street and at our virtual presence on the web. Preparations are well underway for the services and classes that will be offered at Renaissance. The careful process of identifying just the right people to staff Renaissance is humming along, and the larders are filling with the organic coffees, teas, juices, and chocolates (yum!) that will be served, slowly, on the edge of the bluff we call home.
It's the opening of a business, at first glance. But it's more than that. (No doubt all business beginnings are more than that.) This is the realization of a vision, it's the time at which the vision has it's fine points defined and refined (sometimes, it seems, by fire). This, it turns out, is hard work.
It's where the rubber hits the road; the time at which the visionaries, I'm learning, are separated from the dreamers. Through the process, I keep committing (because it seems to take more than once) to move beyond dreaming and get on with the vision.
By the way, let me introduce myself: Lynn Keenan. Massage therapist. Doctor of Social Welfare--a degree which confers an expertise in what's good for people. And new small business owner with her own blog, for goodness sake.
Last weekend, I read this on the side of what seems to be the post- modern version of the fortune cookie, my Starbucks coffee cup:
"Risk taking, trust, and serendipity are key ingredients of joy. Without risk, nothing new ever happens. Without trust, fear creeps in. Without serendipity, there are no surprises." (Rita Golden Gelman)
Thank you for joining the journey toward Renaissance, a Center for Wellness Where Art and Science Meet. Over the coming weeks we'll follow the renovation and it's artists, learn the history of the building that is Renaissance, meet the staff, and, well....maybe even ponder some of those bigger questions about risk, trust, and serendipity.
Onward......
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posted: 07.01.2006
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Pilot Captain's Former Home Gets its Second Face Lift
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Renaissance, the building, has a noteable history as a place where people who love their work have done great work...
In 1945, the small building at 401 East Front Street was built as the home of Captain Loring F. "Cap" Hyde. Captain Hyde was the lead boatman for the local station of the Puget Sound Pilots Association. From his living room, literally a lookout perch for the entire Port Angeles harbor, north to Victoria and east to Mt. Baker, the distinguished mariner would be the first to see incoming ships in need of a pilot escort.
Cap died 6 years after his retirement in 1969. The house remained a residence until 1984 when it was purchased and converted to professional services offices, it's first major renovation. And I do mean MAJOR.
With the assistance of a carpenter, Bill and Carol Knebes refashioned the home into an idyllic setting in which they each performed the work they loved: Bill as an attorney, and Carol as a mental health counselor.
For the past 12 years, an international adoption agency has rented the building. When they outgrew 401 East Front Street and moved into their own building earlier this year a chance of a lifetime opened for me.
I was thrilled when I learned that the Knebes were interested in selling their building. Steps to determine the building's feasibility as a center for massage began in earnest.
I grew up on the coast of California, where homes on bluffs fall into the mighty Pacific every year when torrential rains fall. So, before purchasing the Captain's former home, I hired a geological engineer to assess the stability of the bluff and the building. After his site visit, we met at the property where he reported that the building was remarkably sound, the hillside well protected from dangerous erosion.
To be honest with you, what he really said was this: "What I'd like to do right now, Lynn, is push you off the bluff and buy the building for my own business".
Fortunately, just then there were hundreds of people arriving on the incoming Coho Ferry and I felt certain he wouldn't act on his passion for workspace-with-a-view just then.
The City of Port Angeles also conducted an environmental impact study prior to issuing a building permit, the outcome of which was the green light to begin renovating the Captain's home.,,
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posted: 10.01.2006
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CMU Construction Overachieves!
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 Do you believe that things are "just meant to be" or do you believe that we have the ability to determine our own good (or bad) fortune? Or do you believe in some combination of both, that the right things come into our lives, at the right time, toward the right ends IF we do our homework and are open to these things?
When choosing a contractor into whose hands we will put our dreams and our life savings, it sure would be nice to think there is a benevolent force guiding the process!
Choosing a contractor has got to be one of the most anxiety-producing experiences in a new business-owner's life. Even with lots of homework and good counsel from knowledgeable people, that's still your baby and your start-up capital on the line. It's risky. Yet, at the same time, one needs to have a trusting relationship with their contractor. Leaps of faith, dear readers, are not in my comfort zone.
Eeeeee gads, I could have used a massage everyday in this 10-week process of calling, interviewing. waiting for bids, reviewing bids, calling references, trying to read the minds and hearts of the contractors I met AND predict our possible futures together!
As it turns out, I need not have worried so. Chuck Ulbrich and CMU Construction are responsive, knowlegable, and faster than a speeding bullet. These men have pride of work, and appear to find satisfaction in the raw elegance of a job well done.
Am I lucky, or am I reaping the rewards of thoughtful (okay, over-the-top) vigilance? Or, am I just getting a close-up look into the building where people who love their work do great work?
In the world of construction, good people seem to surround other good people. Read on about the bionic plumbers and electricians in this town...
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posted: 11.01.2006
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Out with the Old...
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 In its most recent previous life, 401 E. Front St. was an office building, faithfully serving the work of legal secretaries, attorneys, adoption advocates, and therapists.
The decor was all business: dark wood, functional carpet, florescent ceiling panels, dividers, and desks, computers, and multiple phones in every room. The view, of course, was always there.
But for a center for massage and much more, the emphasis must change. The view must reign, light must rule...
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posted: 12.01.2006
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Back to the Old Old
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 Imagine my surprise to find a beautiful red and white oak floor waiting, well-protected under the wall-to-wall carpet glued down more than 20 years ago. The wood flooring expert (we'll meet him later) assured me it would be able to be restored, in every room in which it was found.
Then, with every wall that Chuck and Lance brought down (what was once four rooms became one), and with the French doors they installed, that stunning view grew and took the prominence I felt it commanded.
The window to the right of the doors is the same window seen in the picture below.
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posted: 16.01.2006
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Meanwhile, Chuck and Lance
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 create the space for an entirely new bathroom where there once was only a sump pump.
One bathroom is just not enough for our staff and clients, so a new bathroom was designed for the basement. Here, after they demolished the walls of a hallway and pump closet, Lance breaks away the world's hardest concrete to liberate the sump pump and make way for plumbing to accomodate two new toilets.
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posted: 18.01.2006
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The Plumbing Connection Creates
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 the underground infrastructure for a whole new bathroom. These guys are amazing! Neither ancient pipes nor lack of grade will stop them. Small spaces don't seem to phase them. Entire days kneeling or perching on concrete and clay don't seem to have the same impact it would on this 40-something year old woman!
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posted: 20.01.2006
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Is this
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 the same space?????
Yes! Here is the old sump pump closet: new floor, new wall, new plumbing for two new toilets and for a washing machine in the utility room next door.
This part of the basement is transformed into inhabitable, usable space!
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posted: 23.01.2006
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Bubble Women Revealed...
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Just as I was beginning to feel the drag of our record number of rainy days, Renaissance offered up a gift of serendipity and hope. We had our own archeological discovery right there on Front Street.
The removal of tile from the walls of the bathroom had revealed these lovely women dancing with multi-colored bath bubbles. Unphased by a mere rain marathon these gals were dancing in the face of discouragement. Could I do less?
In their persistance (like the beautiful oak floor, they too had been protected, in their case for over 50 years, by a more functional covering) they inspired me. Here at Renaissance, old things were falling away to reveal even older, long-lasting gifts.
The European Renaissance that we have come to know as "THE" Renaissance owes much of its energy to the rekindling of the liberating philosophies of democracy and humanism silenced throughout the Dark Ages. The Bubble Women were a good sign to me, harbingers of something much bigger than record rains.
I did a search on the web to see if I could find these vintage decals, but to no avail. Does anyone out there know anything about these dancing women? I believe they would have been affixed to the shower wall sometime in 1945 or 1946. Call us if you know the Bubble Women!
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posted: 24.01.2006
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The Electricians are Magicians...
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 Extra Mile Tech and Electrical turned the results of decades of electrical add-ons (imagine the electrical and technological changes that have occured since 1945) and upgrades into an electrical system that is seamless, smart, and most importantly, safe.
When Scott (that's him in the middle of the photo) came to gather information for his estimate, we both felt as if we'd met before. Indeed! Two years earlier we had met at Peninsula College in a class taught by Kathleen Purdy, a business development specialist from Washington State University, on starting a small business.
Here we were again: Scott successfully running the perfectly-named Extra Mile, the project he and his wife developed throughout the class, and me starting Renaissance, with him making it possible to do with peace of mind.
I love this town.
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posted: 27.01.2006
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From Chaos...
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 spun by 60 years of advancing electrical and technological needs...
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posted: 07.02.2006
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To An Electrical Highway
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 that keeps the wires where they belong and Renaissance staff and clients SAFE, warm, and enjoying the good life.
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posted: 09.02.2006
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oooo! Look what just arrived?
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 It's not too early to start dreaming about sunny days on the deck, overlooking Hollywood Beach...
Well, actually, howling winds and 30 degree temperatures make this something of a challenge. But when I saw the Hartnagel truck deliver the decking material I thought I felt a warm sensation rise up the back of my neck.
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posted: 13.02.2006
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A Deck is Born
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 Sitting above the water REQUIRES a deck, don't you think? Patios are nice, but a deck means that real lounging behavior is required. I'm certain that some of the world's greatest questions have been pondered, and answered of course, by people on decks. Decks seem grounding to me, even though they are usually slightly elevated about the ground. Hmmmmmmmmm....
Anyway, in the case of Renaissance, not only is this deck designed to support people who are committed to relaxing, it is situated to continue that beautiful gaze from the entry out north to Canada and beyond, to draw the eye out to the Straits, and the promise of geographical and metaphorical worlds beyond.
Here, Chuck, Lance, and Dan of CMU Construction work their precision craft on the deck. Trex materials are used to withstand the salty winds of the Strait and leave more time for staff to do massage rather than deck maintenance.
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posted: 17.02.2006
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The Finished Project...
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couldn't be better. The glass and aluminum railing, made by people across the Hood Canal in Everett at Crystalite, lets the view through. And deflects a bit of the Strait winds.
The world looks sweet from up here.
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posted: 20.02.2006
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Guess What's Next?
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 With 14 new walls to create and a plethora of old walls and ceilings to patch and match, drywalling will be a major chapter in the Renaissance renewal.
Greg Moon and Co. is the next team to blend the old and new...
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posted: 22.02.2006
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Drywall Goes Up
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 I hope these guys get paid well. At least well enough to get loads of massage. This looks like very HARD work.
I recently learned some interesting things about drywall. It's made of gypsum, a naturally occurring sulfate--one of the most common sulfate materials in the world. In fact, gypsum is one of the most widely-used materials on the planet! Some countries use it to build roads; here in the USA we use it so much that the average US home contains 7 metric tons of gypsum!
Uh oh, stop me before I go on.... I love statistics (it's a genetic propensity in our family), but I have come to learn--thanks to kind friends-- that everyone else is not so enamored!
Anyway, help me, dear reader! What looked like comfortably large rooms are getting alarmingly smaller. I tell myself this is what happens when you can't see through the walls anymore.
Still, I go in every evening after the drywall hangers finish just to measure the rooms (for what must be the 8th or 9th time now) to make sure a massage table and massage therapist can comfortably fit and move about in each. Fortunately, the size remains constant.
So, what we see, or what we think we see, and what is actually before our eyes are not always the same. I find this both humbling and reassuring.
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posted: 27.02.2006
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Don't Try This At Home, Friends
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 Have you ever gone on those Do-It-Yourself web sites and sought to learn how to finish drywall? Drywall finishing is one of those construction skills that even Home Depot suggests you consider hiring out to the real professionals. After watching Ralph Lopez finish the drywall at Renaissance, I understand why.
Ralph makes drywall finishing look easy, just like this winter's Olympic athletes made their sports look like exactly what their bodies were made for. After decades in the business, Ralph makes drywall finishing look like something choreographed, his taping and mudding tools like extensions of his nimble arms.
I know it bothers craftspeople to be watched while they do their work. But, maybe because I am a massage therapist and student of the anatomical body, I am mesmerized by the arm as lever, the wrist as catapult, the elbow as hinge, the shoulder as fulcrum.
I watch just until I imagine their professional graciousness begin to strain.
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posted: 03.03.2006
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Eeeeeee gads! This place is white!
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 Could painting be far behind?
I'm afraid not.
Why am I afraid?
I am the painter. And the fun part of painting (picking the colors) is behind me.
Dear Readers: I Will Massage for Painting Assistance. Call me.....
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posted: 09.03.2006
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The Wizards of Wood Bring Reprieve
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 The men from Everlasting Floors arrive to save me from the fate of paint. And wow! Are they ever skilled.
There are many places in the building that will require patching the oak floor and they get right on that with brand new oak that looks amazingly like the old oak--at least to this untrained eye.
In addition, sometime last century, a layer or two of tar paper was glued over a large area of fir flooring in the entryway. If you're like me, learning that a large portion of the floor had been tar-papered would be of some concern, yes?
But no, I told you these guys were wizards....
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posted: 09.03.2006
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Beneath the tar paper...
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 lies beautiful local fir, actually protected over the years by that tar paper.
This building continues to reveal elements of pure beauty and serendipity, protected over the decades by layers of material chosen by caretakers before me for reasons now unknown or no longer relevant.
If it weren't already called Renaissance, I'd have to change the name.
It's good to know these floors are in the hands of professionals. They've been waiting a long time for their return to the light of day and our appreciative gaze.
Now...alas, painting begins....
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posted: 10.03.2006
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Color Emerges
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Painting the interior of an entire building is....hmmmmmm, something you forget you said you would never do again, until you do it again.
But at least it's rewarding! Here the room-of-white begins its transformation to sage.
Thanks to all the painters who helped:
Nita, you win the award for service above and beyond the call of duty: painting in the dark, paint patience in the face of the owner's impatience, countless trips to the paint store, and much needed refreshments!
Colleen & Taylor, I still owe you!
Janet, you definitely are a master; and....
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posted: 14.03.2006
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Meggan Painterpalooza Uecker
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 who actually spent her 30th birthday painting at Renaissance.
Now THAT'S dedication.
As a matter of fact, Meggan put so many hours into the Massage-For-Painting Program I will be providing free massage to Meggan until her 40th birthday.
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posted: 17.03.2006
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Meanwhile, the Bathroom Emerges Anew
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 Jason, from Fairchilds Floors, begins the tiling at Renaissance here in the upstairs bathroom.
The tiles are chosen to evoke the rivers and the sea surrounding us out here on the Peninsula. Will it work???????
In the course of his time here Jason will transform two bathrooms and the kitchen, but his masterpiece is the glass block wall surrounding the opening to the basement. Keep watching...
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posted: 20.03.2006
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It works!
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 I'm in the bathroom, but I could swear I'm looking at the shoreline of the Elwha River where it flattens and meanders to the Strait.
And, I think the Bubble Women would be pleased that they return to their hidden dance beneath watery glass tile.
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posted: 21.03.2006
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Doors Ahoy
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posted: 22.03.2006
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Finish Carpentry Begins
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 The pieces are coming together; nothing makes it seem more so than finish carpentry. The birch doors have arrived and are being hung in place. The character of the wood on these doors is mesmerizing.
The windows and doors are being wrapped with beautiful hemlock.
The building, the whole project, comes closer and closer to one beautiful space--I can start to see it now--far greater than the sum of its parts--plumbing, electricity, drywall.
I'm starting to get nervous: there will be people here soon--I start to imagine them now, too--seeking out massage and other good things. 'guess I'd better start hiring some people!
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posted: 28.03.2006
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Wow!
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The Wizards of Wood return for one more pass on the wood floor with buffers and finish and the room is transformed.
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posted: 03.04.2006
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Speaking of Wood Floors....
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 Here a new wood floor is being installed in a large room in the basement by Dan, the Floor Man.
The wood is birch. It's got depth and character!
It will provide a smooth, soft place to practice yoga, stretching, strength-training, and more. The room will be great for providing two massages at once, too (mother/daughter, couples, friends--this is the massage growing the fastest in popularity right now).
Not only does Dan the Floor Man do wood, he also lays carpet. And he is GOOD at his craft!!!! Come see!
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posted: 18.04.2006
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The Final Stretch...
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 The walls are painted and finished, carpet's in, there is soft, warm radiant heat moving silently through the building.
And light!!! There's light in here--thanks to the return of Spring and to the return of Extra Mile Electric.
We have light flooding through the halls and soon, a series of pendants and spotlights that Eric is preparing.
Now this is what I call a luminous springtime!
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