South Side ...

I assume you know, but let me recap why Gunk Haus is called Gunk Haus. It is named after the Shawangunk Ridge, locally known as The Gunks. The name Gunks Haus didn't really sound so good, and it has a hokey ring to it, where Gunk Haus is just wicked.

The longer I work on Gunk Haus, the more I get the feeling it should be called Fudge Haus. While renovating an old house you can mostly throw your best practice books out the window. Walls are never even, due to sagging window and door frames become crooked, and the hand hewn (and even the milled) timber is wavy or twisted, or both. To compensate for that, there is a lot of shimming in order. With modern material like sheetrock, there is even more shimming necessary, because of its rigidity (in comparison to the old lath and plaster, which would follow a wall's curvature more easily). My approach to shimming is to grab whatever lies around on the floor and stuff it behind the drywall. I am all about getting things done. Getting things done the right way is for people who have all the time and money and resources, I am not those people.

Anyhow, we finally got the south wall of the bar closed off (alright, there is a little piece missing, but who's counting).


More of the same tomorrow, and most likely the day after tomorrow, and possibly for the rest of the week ... ;-)

Dirk