In the beginning ...

Here's the shell we started with. Around 100 feet long and 30 feet wide, with a nine foot ceiling and a landlord who'd never heard of kiln-formed glass.

Another view...

This shot is taken from the middle of the shell, standing where the gallery will be. That's the future bathroom on the left. If you close your eyes you can see kilns in the back and a wall dividing the studio from the sales area.

Looking back the other way...

This view is from the middle of the shop, looking toward the front entrance and across where the gallery will be. We decided that the front part of the shop should have a wooden floor. A local contractor offered to do the job, but his price was too high, so I told him that our daughter Samantha (pronounced "Sam") would do the job. He said it was too hard for a woman to do, which of course was all it took for Sam to take on the job.

Too hard for a woman to do?

The first four rows are the hardest. It's Sam's first attempt at laying a floor, and the instructions are written in Chinese.

At the end of the day...

Sam peeks out from behind a pillar, surveying a hard day's work.

The work continues...

Here you can see the nearly complete wooden floor, with the shop's dividing wall under construction in the rear of the photo. The wall splits the area into two parts, with sales and gallery space in the front and classroom and studio space in the rear half of the building.

Job well done...

Sam celebrates finishing the floor. Only the trim around the edge remains. If the business fails, Brad plans to put Sam to work installing wooden floors. After all, it's probably too complicated for a man to do.

A few hours (and more than one tender muscle) later....

Here's what a group of unloaded glass crates looks like, with racks of frit in the rear.

Lonely...

These poor glass racks, they're just sitting there feeling sad and empty. Fortunately, we have about a dozen cases of glass on the way from Bullseye. Somehow they're going to magically make their way from the truck to the racks, putting a smile on everyone's face.

Magic happens...

We know this looks like some fat guy with his talented daughter pushing a crate of glass into the shop, but it's really a couple of magicians trying to remember how to levitate a 900 pound crate of glass up a ramp, over the door sill, and into the studio.

Half the first truckload...

Fortunately, Bullseye was kind enough to tell us which way was up on the crates of glass. Otherwise, I'm sure we would have stored them upside down.

And the unloading begins...

Sam and Brad unloading glass sheets from one of the ten (or was it eleven) crates we ordered. After a few quick cuts and some labeling, they'll make their way to brighten up those lonely racks.