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Construction began December 5th, 2005 on the Garman
Opera House Inn and Garman Opera House II Theatre.
The Inn will be located above the auditorium of the existing
theatre. The second screening room, The Garman II will be located
on stage in what is now the "fly" gallery. The Garman
stage is not large enough to be a working stage so we will put the space to
good use with the screening room which will be accessed in Cherry
Lane. Construction on this first phase has begun and the steel
beams are now onstage. It is February and currently we are awaiting
delivery of the remaining steel beams which are in the process now of
being fabricated and made to size. When this steel arrives the
contractors can begin to build the floor of the screening room.
March 22nd, 2006 and we are still awaiting the steel. So, to keep
everyone busy the contractor is starting on the projection booth in the
main auditorium. The booth we have now is too small. By
enlarging in and actually raising the floor of the booth we will be able
to seat people in the balcony and all seats will be good. Right
now, we cannot seat anyone in the middle of the balcony because the booth
is too low and their heads show on the screen!!! In a few weeks, this
will no longer be a problem. Also, by that time the much
heralded steel should be here!!!
April 14th, 2006-Construction to correct the projection booth will
begin. The theatre will be closed for about 2 weeks.
April 17th 2006-Construction has begun on the projection booth
enlargement. However, we will be a week longer than originally
anticipated due to the coordination with the projector engineer for
re-installation of equipment. Projected re-opening now is (cinco de Mayo) Friday May 5th, 2006.
May 19th -Theatre re-opening 2 weeks later than anticipated!!! But we are
re-opening with Da Vinci Code. The only
noticeable difference to the public will be that we can now use the
balcony. No more heads on the screen!!!
May 30th-Projection booth done, however not all of the air-con has been
reconnected yet. Next big step, the concrete floor will be poured
and that will set the stage for the actual beginning construction of the
Garman Inn!!
July 7th-Concrete floor has been poured for the Garman II. It has been
slow going until now. Drawings were delayed which delayed the
ordering of more steel. In the interim, XXX Contractors worked on
some fine wiring that was not properly installed the first time, years
ago. They also worked on the plumbing for the screening room. They
have just broken through the plaster wall above the proscenium which will
be their entrance for the inn. The steel has been ordered and
should be here within two weeks. The contractors have also torn
open the center of the roof to cut away the top part of the "A"
of the old trusses. This is the trickiest part of the job.
This is where they will be working directly above the dome.
The dome is well protected in the attic but the actual plaster on the
inside of the dome is like an eggshell. If they can get through
this part and oh yeah. ....the 37ft. crane that will be lifting the
trusses over the front of the building from High St. (which we will have
shut down for about a week)...that part will also be a little
"hairy", they will be home free and from that point it will all
be new construction.
Upon opening the wall between the proscenium and the stage, the
contractors found old posters. There were about 20 of them all
rolled up. The posters were for a wild west show called
"Daniel Boone". Unfortunately, they were so brittle that
they crumbled upon touch. We have a managed to save parts of one
and for now they are in an acid-free box. We have also found a
pulley used onstage to raise and lower scenery etc,.
In two weeks, we should be able to report some real progress. In the
meantime, it is going to be dustier and dirtier in the theatre.
AUGUST 22, 2006-We should be ready for opening right now but due to the
slowness of the architects delivering the necessary drawings we are now 3
months behind and will miss the entire PSU football season. We
should however be able to make the holiday season booking parties, etc.
The roof had been peeled off the theatre and for the first time all
summer in rained much to the disbelief of the contractor. The interior
ceilings of the auditorium got wet, the lobby ceiling and the restroom
ceilings got wet. All in all there was quite a bit of damage.
So, now the entire auditorium will be painted and new ceiling tiles will
be placed in the lobby and restrooms. The plywood is now atop the
theatre. This is the floor base of the inn. As soon as all the
steel is welded and plywood nailed down and sidewalls constructed the
crane will be back to put the roof on the inn. If all goes according to
schedule (which up to now
nothing has) then the actual construction of rooms will begin. Of
course, we need more drawings and seals from the architects so that may
hold us up again. We are keeping our fingers crossed.
JULY 15 2007-Almost a year since the last entry and we
are still not completely finished.
The Inn is done and we have been renting rooms for about 6 weeks
now, only 11 months behind schedule.
The conference room is almost finished. We were unable to host any holiday
parties last year because it was nowhere near being finished. We have weddings booked for the
fall. The stage has not yet been
started and we need that too for fall weddings and holiday parties as we
will cater dinners, receptions etc. on stage. The pit has just been dug this week
for the elevator. That too will be
behind schedule as we had to hire a new contractor. It will be done quicker than if we had
retained the current contractor.
The elevator should be completed by the end of September. The water damage in the theatre has not
yet been addressed either so we are still working with peeling paint, dust and
dirty walls. We are hoping to see
action on this very soon.
September 2007-Elevator is in the middle stage and
should be completed in about 3 weeks.
We are told that building it is the easy part and getting it
certified is another story entirely.
The water damage from over a year ago still has not
been repaired. We filed a claim
with the contractor’s insurance company.
This is quite daunting a task, because the contractor will take no
responsibility for the damage (because we kept warning them that it was
going to rain and to please make sure the opened roof was tarped) and they paid no attention to us .
October 2007-water damage is being repaired. We had to close the theatre for a
couple of weeks while the auditorium was filled with scaffolding. As long
as the whole interior of the auditorium had to be repainted we decided to
change the colors to a suede-linen with the proscenium now entirely
gold. The ceiling is done but the
proscenium and the sides have to be finished. They also need to replace the ceiling
in the inner lobby which also was ruined.
There is still a leak the top of the stairs. The repair folks are unable to fix this
spot because it is still wet because it is still leaking.
November 2007- with my husband as superintendent of
this last phase we finally got certification for the elevator. Oh happy
day!! Now that we have physically carried every stick of furniture, every
sheet and towel up all those steps…..
Just in case you haven’t read the “inn” page…….it is
now open!!
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