New York NYC Journal

Here is my pocket sized darkroom.
between the sink, table top, and another rolling table i have under the sink, i should be good doing 16x20 prints. Shall see, so far i did 11x14 comfortably..



Fidel,

I am scouting out my basement. How high are your ceilings? My basement ceiling is only 82 inches floor to joist which is under 7 feet, then there is a mess of plumbing all over the place, except in one location by the oil tank. Even that clear spot has a gas pipe.

My second basement is under my front porch and that has even lower ceilings.

Anyways I have a huge mess. LOL.

I like your SS sink. I’m thinking of moving the washer and drier upstairs into the “Powder Room” off the kitchen to make space. Pretty much the idea is to have my sink outside my dark space because the present laundry area has the drain and plumbing already. Pretty much hook up the washing machine feed hoses to a sink.

Like you I don’t have mucho space.

Cal
 
This mowing stuff sounds like my parents. My dad got his little sit on tractor mower rebuilt by Honda last year. In the mean time my mom got a hand push mower that she used to make paths in the high grass. It looks pretty cool. My dad though is sitting on his hands waiting for permission to fire up the Honda, and trim it all down. When I was young they never had this problem because they had a goat who kept the grass short and ****ty.

Note: **** = merde

Christian,

I love your mom’s style.

I wonder if my ground hog would like the taller grass? Seems Peekskill has mucho Ground Hogs. Also two days ago I saw a raccoon during the day. Mucho raccoon road kill all around Peekskill.

Kinda funny how women like to control men.

Also know that I have this 4x8 cedar shed kit to build that I will erect over a gravel bed in the back backyard close the the area I call “the table.”

Then I talked with my neighbor who is also an architect about the building codes because I stumbled into a loophole where I can evade any building permit requirement, or any tax assessment.

As I say, “No one ever got rich by paying fees or taxes.”

So pretty much as long as the “footprint” is under 100 square feet and is free standing and not on a concrete slab basically it is a “shed.”

16x6 is only 96 square feet, but would make a nice long desk along a row of windows. Even a 10 foot long desk along with double doors would make a nice detached kinda outdoor office space, and then you would also have the wonderful view of the cliff, the marsh, and the forested hillside.

So now it looks like no pre-fab kit, and that I have another project to build out. This 16x6 would nest next to the garage wall centered along its 21 foot length, facing the marsh.

The view from our dining room is of our front-backyard so you see framed in the window the pergola, a patio, a garden backed by the garage.

It is very nice to have separate spaces, and the concept is very sculptural where there is a blend of indoors and outdoors, interior and exterior. The beauty is that the space is not so vast, but that the space is so well utilized and exploited.

Cal
 
Seems Peekskill has mucho Ground Hogs. Also two days ago I saw a raccoon during the day. Mucho raccoon road kill all around Peekskill.

Green Acres is the place to be
Farm livin' is the life for me
Land spreadin' out so far and wide
Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside...
 
Thanks guys.
The ceiling was 8 ft at the joists before I closed it up. It's small but very workable. Tight space between the sink and wall, but.im skinny enough to be fine. Lol it's a corner of my garage, maybe 55 sq ft.
The sink is great, fits 3 8*10 trays, then has a side counter fits in more tray, all stainless. Bargain craigslist find.
 
Then I talked with my neighbor who is also an architect about the building codes because I stumbled into a loophole where I can evade any building permit requirement, or any tax assessment.

As I say, “No one ever got rich by paying fees or taxes.”

So pretty much as long as the “footprint” is under 100 square feet and is free standing and not on a concrete slab basically it is a “shed.”

16x6 is only 96 square feet, but would make a nice long desk along a row of windows. Even a 10 foot long desk along with double doors would make a nice detached kinda outdoor office space, and then you would also have the wonderful view of the cliff, the marsh, and the forested hillside.

Cal

A lot of shed kits are just under 100sf because that is a common rule in a lot of municipalities.
 
Thanks guys.
The ceiling was 8 ft at the joists before I closed it up. It's small but very workable. Tight space between the sink and wall, but.im skinny enough to be fine. Lol it's a corner of my garage, maybe 55 sq ft.
The sink is great, fits 3 8*10 trays, then has a side counter fits in more tray, all stainless. Bargain craigslist find.

Fidel,

I second it pays to be a skinny bitch. LOL.

How wide is your aisle?

Anyways your darkroom is mighty nice. “You suck,” BTW. LOL

My present laundry area has the gas meter and my 200 Amp service. It would be kinda dumb to enclose this area and build out.

So now I’m thinking of long and skinny, and there is a way to extend the plumbing to hook into the existing drain and water supplies along the wall and corner. Then the current laundry area could be made into a bit of a workshop.

Cal
 
A lot of shed kits are just under 100sf because that is a common rule in a lot of municipalities.

I was not so sure where the line is drawn between shed and garage, but I intend to create a very grey area.

So the current plan is to have half the two car garage as a “clean room.” And then this 96 square foot adjoining space a detached and separate office space that is close to nature and perhaps is almost greenhouse like. The other half of the garage will be for the car and as a raw workspace. Each half of the garage about 200 square feet.

Any wood working equipment would have to be stored in the basement. My Bilco door allows for easy basement access. My basement seems like it mostly will be a warehouse for storage.

Anyways I like the small footprint, no building permit, no tax increase, and especially exploiting our panoramic view.

It’s nice that my garage has an extra foot of height over a standard garage so that the new lean to roof tucks under the garage eves and just becomes an extension following the roofline of the garage. EZ-PZ.

Cal
 
The sink side is about 4x8, sink and table takes about 2 ft of the width, So its a 2 ft hallway behind it. The dry side is like 4x6. the whole space is an L shape.
Only downside, I dont have plumbing!! well sort of dont.
I have a hose connection on the outside under the sink plumbed, so connect my garden hose to that input, have a filter under the sink. Souse vide thing to warm water if needed .So far has worked. The Drain goes outside the garage to dirt area behind it. Chemicals get poured into jugs and carried out.
 
WOW. Seems like the markets rebound strongly because they think the FED will make a pivot and slow down interest rate hikes.

The “Calzone” view is that the FED has a few choices: either kill the economy with rate hikes; or kill inflation with rate hikes.

Oh there is a third choice and that is kill the economy and kill inflation, in the third scenario one happens before or leads the other, but then it really is just semantics.

It seems like reports from analysts are looking to the third scenario, with a pretty bleak ending.

The markets are hoping for a Fed pivot today thinking that there will be a “Powell Put” that follows the model of the “Greenspan Put” that prevented markets from falling and crashing.

Pretty much at this point not killing the economy and inflation as the primary objective would be mucho bad: the FED would loose credibility; and then inflation would get more entrenched.

I figure what would be worse: a knockout punch; or to tortured over a long period of time.

“Pick your punishment,” I say.

To me killing inflation is the knockout punch; and a FED pivot perhaps extends pain over a prolonged period of time, but in the end either way the economy has to be destroyed so it can normalize and reset.

Basically the can has been kicked down the road for so long after 2000, 2007-2008, Covid… that pretty much a very hard reset needs to happen.

Interesting to note the psychology involved. Because of the extensive usage of the Greenspan Put in the past people expect the behavior to continue.

”Wishful thinking,” I say.

Actually I think actually crazy thinking.

Powell has a job to do…

Cal
 
The sink side is about 4x8, sink and table takes about 2 ft of the width, So its a 2 ft hallway behind it. The dry side is like 4x6. the whole space is an L shape.
Only downside, I dont have plumbing!! well sort of dont.
I have a hose connection on the outside under the sink plumbed, so connect my garden hose to that input, have a filter under the sink. Souse vide thing to warm water if needed .So far has worked. The Drain goes outside the garage to dirt area behind it. Chemicals get poured into jugs and carried out.

Fidel,

A bit hill-billy. I’m surprised you don’t have problems with reticulate on when developing film. Chemistry is temperature sensitive. I guess you can make adjustments.

One of our RFF friends actually had his darkroom in a shed.

Cal
 
Deving film deff temp control it. Warm up water with the souse vide cooker thing and dev at 68.
​​​paper haven't noticed any differences. I tend to the warmer side, too cold and I won't get full blacks.
 
I was not gonna spend the time and money to bring water/sewer I to the house. Too big a project for me. So this was the next best thing to get the room going.
 
The cooker thing I did not follow, but now I understand your work around.

Good blacks are a sign of full development.

Here is one of my “Calzone-Secretes,” don’t tell anyone.

Take a full 8x10 sheet of paper, put in your development tray, and expose the paper.

Now in the tray you have the darkest black as a referance that you can actually use under safelight that will help you gauge your exposure and development.

In art school I kinda first did this by mistake/accident, but it became a standard procedure that helped me check my blacks.

”Don’t tell anyone.”

Cal
 
I was not gonna spend the time and money to bring water/sewer I to the house. Too big a project for me. So this was the next best thing to get the room going.

Fidel,

Understood.

I looked into this and it got involved and expensive mighty quick.

Cal
 
https://anovaculinary.com/what-is-sous-vide/

Souse vide cooker. Meant to cook meats In water quickly vacuum sealed
will get water hot pretty quick, and it's maintains the temp. Has a thermostat in it.

Fidel,

Thanks for sharing your secret.

I won’t tell anyone. LOL.

BTW would you consider yourself a good cook?

I have a theory that darkroom skills have a spillover into other areas.


Cal
 
So I started the procedure to start collecting the pension from my hospital where I worked for 22 years. First check will be in January, and I figure that this really is retirement, and the past year or so has been just playing around.

Perhaps I am delusional, but know I am happy. My stress level is so low that sending an official e-mail was stressful.

Now all I have to do is kill a day and go down to the Social Security office and file for Medicare.

So no more playing around, I’ll be officially retiring, whatever that means. Somehow I feel kinda grown up. Pretty silly how I feel.

Know that with more time there is kind of a regression back to a time of childhood where daydreams get extended, but because I’m not a helpless kid they can become real. The new Santa Cruz guitar is an example. Buying a new one was not a possibility, and now it happened.

I wondered about the Green C10 even before it became available and a for sale sign went up…

Know that suddenly the bass is getting more pronounced and boomy on the new guitar. What a voice…

Cal
 
Kinda funny that this off-topic thread has so much about photography in the posts.

That was not my intent. LOL.

Cal
 
WOW. A crazy thought was in a headline that over 50% of CEO’s are thinking about layoffs in the next 6-months and the likely targeted are the work-from-home.

How evil is that?

Also know that historically a rising value in the U.S. dollar usually coincides with a currency crisis in some other part of the world. I’m just waiting for that to happen. Well it kinda did happen in England.

Then there is the war in the Ukraine… 200K new Russian conscripts, and 200K men leaving Russia to evade getting drafted, killed and maimed.

So what about nuclear fallout? How do you respond? One suggested response would be take out all Russian military capabilities in the region in a conventional manner, but is this like bringing a knife to a gun fight?

Technically not a war, just a response.

I’m trying to make sense of all this non-sense.

Cal
 
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