Today (January 18th) is my first official day of work on the Haish House restoration. I've done a few months of prework already, where I evaluated exactly how much work this project would be. I also paid a visit to the Art Institute for research and met with the wonderful conservator of the Thorne Miniature Rooms, Lindsey Mican Morgan. I learned a lot there, and while I do not think I'll ever be truly prepared to start this project, I decided that it was time.
When I first encountered the Haish model, it was in dozens of pieces, and everytime someone moved it the house fell apart a little bit more. The model was completed in 1981 and displayed in the DeKalb Public Library for years, but it is now in the collections of the Regional History Center. There is a laundry list of repairs and stabilizations (seriously, my list is 44 items long!) and I hope that I will actually be able to finish this project during the semester!
Today, in addition to getting acquainted with my workspace and new tools, I was able to begin preliminary cleaning. I forgot to buy a product to remove excess glue, so I was only able to remove dirt today--next week I hope to begin to clean the glue lines off so I can cleanly replace the pieces that have fallen off. All in all, over about three hours I was able to lightly clean the dirt from the still-attached portions of the roof, side and front porches, and the gazebo.
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| The first page of my monster to do list |
Hours Today: 2:45
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