Well, we had the opening and then I went on holiday for a fortnight - just two weeks of doing not a great deal in Northumberland, which was beautiful and full of sunshine and empty beaches.  We went to see our friends Val and Charles in North Berwick, which was also really nice.

Back to work now and I think I can say that The Art House is now truly in operational mode.  We have two tenants moving into the studios and then we will be fully occupied.  Now we need to concentrate on getting users for the flat and short-term studios.  We are attracting users to the meeting rooms but we need more to really get up to speed.

We are still trying to sort out the problems with the lift not being an evacuation standards lift and Building Control wanting us to fit partitions on the landings.  Still not agreed the final account with Ellmore's, still got lots of snags to sort out but we are definitely up and running!

So I think it is now time to call it a day with the blog.  The purpose of the blog was to document the building of the building and now this is done.  Thank you, all of you who have visited the blog and followed our progress.  If you haven't been to see The Art House yet, please come!  It really is a brilliant building and now we need to find lots of users and make it full of life!

Look forward to seeing you!

Liz

Where did the last month go?  I have done nothing but work and sleep.  Taking over a new building is a huge task, particularly when you have to work towards a formal opening four weeks later.  It wasn't helped by us having a full 3-day audit by Government Office on behalf of the European Regional Development Fund in the middle of it all!

So what's happening in The Art House now?  We have nine tenants already in their studios and a tenth about to move in, leaving only two studios yet to let.  The range of work is brilliant from photography and new media-based work to painters and textile artists.

We have had our first international artist using the short-term studios and accommodation: Amili Gelbman, from Israel, has been with us for two weeks and flew back home yesterday.  Our founder member Patricia Sutcliffe is also in residence in the flat supported by long-term member Rita Sheppard.  Pat is using the second short-term studio for a couple of weeks - and finding all the gliches and problems that face anyone taking over a new building.

Helen has been busy putting up 'Realise', our opening exhibition, which is looking good ready for Monday when we will have our official opening, with Andy Burnham, MP, the Secretary of State for Culture.

Watch out for media coverage of the opening.  If you live in Yorkshire we are hoping that there will be something on BBC TV regional news at breakfast time plus an interview with Pat and me on Radio Leeds at around 7.45 a.m.

Meanwhile, photos below of Amili and our reception area taken a couple of weeks after moving in - look at all the boxes in the background!

It may be chaos, but we're in!  Removal men came at 9 a.m on the dot on Wednesday and we were moved in by 3.

Today has been absolutely hectic, with telephone people, people to network the computers, burglar alarm technican and the photocopier arriving .... all while trying to unpack boxes.  Photos below.

Well, this is it ... the office is all packed up, the removal van is booked for 9 a.m. and - God willing - we move in tomorrow.

We hope that the Building Control Officer will visit us tomorrow with a letter setting out that we can occupy the building but we must complete a range of works to finally get our Occupation Certificate.

The rain has revealed more leaks - two from the northlights and both of the protruding windows, in the Quiet Room and the large meeting room.  These need sorting out as soon as possible as the water will affect the beautifully made window seats, but apparently this can't be done until it stops raining.

Let's hope the sun shines tomorrow!

Following frantic alterations to handrails, door closers and other items we were visited again today by the Building Control Officer.

I am pleased to say that most of our changes are acceptable and the Officer is willing to allow us to occupy the building subject to completion of a range of items: manifestations, balustrade heights and more work to handrails and fitting door openers to the two 24-hour access doors which are too heavy for disabled people to open.

Sadly, he confirmed that we need to fit lobbies on every landing to make the lifts into evacuation standard, so that is more work to be done after we have moved in.

Finally, the heavy rain has revealed a leak in the roof above staircase 2, creating an attractive waterfall down the stairs!

Sorry I haven't posted anything on the blog for over a week but there just aren't enough hours in the day at the moment.

Friday was not a good day.  On Wednesday the Building Control Officer declined to give the building an Occupation Certificate.  We need to make alterations to the handrails on the stairs that I have been telling the builders about for weeks.  The manifestations are still not on the full-length glass panels and the Building Officer walked straight into one, which did not help.  We are trying to find a half-way point between making the doors which have automatic closers 'light' enough for disabled people to use but with sufficient strength in the closer to make the door close (for fire safety reasons).  Sadly it seems we cannot have both and the fire safety over-rules any access issues.

Today we discovered that the evacuation standard lifts that have been a feature of the building since the architect's brief and for which we paid a premium are, in fact, not evacuation standard lifts.  Since Wakefield's planners made us remove the ramp from the front of the building we now have a building where disabled people staying in the flat or using the studios cannot evacuate the building in case of emergency.  They will have to go to the places of refuge on the stairs and wait.  This is something we always said we would not tolerate.  I am devastated.  It is possible that there may be a long-term solution (or maybe not) but if we want to occupy the building any time in the next few weeks or months then that is the situation we will have to work with.

Along with problems with the burlar alarm, fire alarm, missing induction loops in the meeting rooms not to mention the problems with the hinges on the large studio doors, etc., etc., I despair of ever getting this building completed.

I am so angry that the planners and seemingly the entire building industry has so little interest in making a building that works for disabled people.  What we ask for is slightly out of the ordinary run of things and nobody can be bothered to make sure it is right.  Now we will enter into a long argument about whose fault it is and it will doubtless turn out to be nobody's fault and we will be left with a building that does not fulfill our aspirations.  After 12 years of planning, fundraising and working for a brilliant building we get one that just doesn't make the grade.

However, we do have a working vending machine!  Chocolate bar, anyone?

So, now we have a moving date of 2 June and the removal men are booked.  We have Andy Burnham, Secretary of State for Culture, coming to officially open The Art House on 7 July and suddenly there is so much organising to do!  We have not been able to plan for so long, with all the uncertainty over the completion date of the building and now everything has to be done really fast!

Today we have had our auditor in to do the annual audit and Tim from Government Office in to do an audit for European Funding, so this has taken the best part of the day.  Rachael is working with Louise from the accountants so at least that's one thing I don't have to do.

I am now trying to get all the last bits and pieces of the equipment jigsaw ordered and delivered - the vending machine, the new photocopier, the phone system, and lots of final small purchases - waste paper bins and coat hangers for the meeting rooms, digital projectors and flipchart stands, hearing loops and sets of bedding ....

Alongside this we have a catalogue to write and design for the opening exhibition, invitations to send out, food and drink to organise .....

Kate is now taking bookings for the meeting rooms.  We have three full day meetings already booked for June, one for September and one for October.  This is really exciting as we need the meeting rooms to be used constantly if they are going to make a strong contribution to the running costs of the building.

An Israeli artist wants to come to stay in the flat and use a studio for two weeks around the beginning of July.  It's all beginning to shift up a gear and feels rather scary as we will need to organise it all ..... what have we let ourselves in for?

Our third air-tightness test today and we passed!  We needed 9.7 and we scored 9.3 on the scale.  Huge relief all round - builders, architects and not least all the Art House staff.

We now have a timetable for finishing off and moving in, with a potential moving in date of 2 June.  There is a lot of cleaning up to do, some snags still to resolve and the manifestations to apply to plate glass doors, partitions and balustrades.  Then - it's all ours!

It is really exciting and I'm still not sure if I dare to let myself believe that the end is in sight...

Down to earth tomorrow as our annual audit begins and on Thursday we are being visited by someone from Government Office (European Funds) to review our record-keeping.  There's always something ....

Very briefly -

We had out second air test yesterday.  The large door is sealed up and two big fans fixed in the space (see pic below).  The fans run and measurements are taken.  Last time we scored 15.9.  This time we scored 11.15 and we need to reach 9.7.  So - much improvement but still not there yet. 

Then the guy from the testing company goes around the building with a 'smoke stick' (which looks just like a stick of dynamite and smells of sulphur) trying to trace the little holes where the air can pass through (see other pic below).

We have done all the big stuff so getting down the last 1.5 is going to be really difficult.

At work the office is unbearable now the sun has come out.  The room faces south and the heat just builds up all afternoon.  I have ordered two new desks in order that everyone has at least somewhere to sit, but it all feels very overcrowded, particularly in the heat.

Too much to do and not enough time to do it in!

Today The Art House is shrouded in polythene sheeting, floors taped and covered in brown paper.  Hoses lead in through the windows while inside men in white overalls, goggles and facemasks pump foam into the space above the suspended ceilings in the corridors in an effort to seal every crack and crevice and make the building airtight.

The two studios sealed by Ellmore's staff last week have been completed very neatly and Ellmore's are confident that they will be airtight.  Now they will go ahead and seal the remaining 10 studios and fit ceilings into the staircases and landings.  On 7th May the air-tightness testers come back for a second time - just keep all your fingers and toes crossed that this time we succeed.

It is really strange to go from the plastic-shrouded corridors into the flat, which is essentially complete and virtually ready to hand over.  Last week the curtain fitters came and hung the curtains and with the sun shining in this afternoon I felt as if I could just move in. 

Pictures of both the foam sprayers and the twin bedroom in the flat below.