Sisters and Friends
Chapter 28
Urban Homesteaders
(Note: this is linked to Mothers and Daughters, not Ah Hell. In this universe Lori and Alec haven't appeared and Daria has not become a musician as happened in A/H. Don't worry, I'm confusing myself too and won't ever, ever do this again. I hope. Maybe.)
-m1
Quinn looked up from the dinner table. "You guys are moving out?" Oh no! Where to? I've gotten so used to having Daria, Jane and Trent around-at least, just across the street…no more weekly dinners?
"Well, yeah. I graduate at the end of this term, remember? Trent and I are getting married after that. You promised to help with that." Daria considered the almost stricken expression on her sister's face. "Remember Grace Hanlon?"
"The CEO of the company you work at?"
"Yeah. She has an old friend that owns some property not all that far away from BFAC and Raft. It's in an industrial area that's kind of on the fringes of an area that's seeing a lot of residential loft conversions. It's an old building that was owned by a university, but since it doesn't have a lot of windows it's not a good candidate for the typical conversion project. There are offices on the top floor, and most of the building is windowless, with the south part of the structure bermed into a hillside. Much of the building's volume is really not suitable for subdividing, but it does have some spaces currently used as insert stages for video and still photography.
"There's a small fabrication shop that provides set and prop construction services, and the owner of that operation is retiring. Jane and Matt are interested in taking it over. They're talking about the possibility of expanding that into a Cooperative Art Space, although there is that issue of how difficult it is herding cats."
Quinn laughed. "Creative types can be difficult when it comes to getting them to agree in a group. Jane and Matt work well together, maybe because they sleep together." Herding cats. Kind of sounds like how well things worked when Mom and Dad lived in that commune with a bunch of flaky hippies. She relaxed noticeably and began portioning the salad into bowls. Thank GOD. I was afraid they were moving to somewhere like LA or something."Sounds like the owner of the property is into supporting the arts. It sounds really cool. Are you guys thinking of renting the office spaces and camping out there?"
"Yup. And Trent's been offered the chance to take over a small recording studio in the complex. The guy that runs that studio is the partner of the fabrication shop owner."
"Sounds perfect for you guys."
"The top floor has about four thousand square feet available. There's a semi-open freight elevator as well as a relatively new passenger only lift. It's kind of a rough space, but it has a lot of potential. The owner is okay with us remodeling in whatever way we want, as long as it's done neatly and with good materials."
"Four thousand feet? That's like, more than four times the space you guys have here!"
"And it's a little cheaper, if you work the cost out per square foot. The recording studio is located right below the flat, in the corner of the third floor. The video stage is used by a number of small studios, so there's an existing client base for audio mixdowns, narration, foley work and dialog replacement in addition to music recording."
"God, you can be so lucky sometimes." Quinn smiled, happy for her sister. Still, even if she's still in the same town, I've gotten used to being able to get her opinion on my ideas and stuff… wait, if they have to rent all that space, it's gonna cost them more than this cottage, unless they find other people to share the space with…
She glanced over at Daria, who sat there with an odd, expectant smile on her face.
"Wait a sec, are you asking me if Annie and I want in on this?"
"It would be nice if you guys were there too," murmured Daria. "I get where Jane and Matt are coming from; we need people to share costs and other artists at BFAC are an unknown factor. Like you guessed they tend to be fiercely independent and usually don't play well together.
"You and Annie are organized, take on and handle responsibility well, and have boyfriends that seem pretty together. I know Haroun is absolutely reliable, and might be open to a sublet. I don't know anything about the guy Annie seems to have found, but she's unlikely to be interested in an idiot."
Quinn blinked. Daria was actually being enthusiastic about this. She tended to be more reserved, and this was about as close as she got to babbling.
Daria went on. "You're my sister and it would be easier to keep you on a leash. Linda and I talked to Carol about this, and she's okay with it if you two want to move in with us. I have some students lined up for them that would be good renters."
Aww… just when it was starting to really feel like a home…
"That is, if you and Annie want to come with us."
Quinn put the salad bowl down, next to the platter that her sister and her fiancé had prepared for their shared dinner.
"Would Jane and Matt let us use the shop space?"
"Of course. It'd be a lot easier to do allnighters for prototypes and mockups. I'd say it's a better shop than the one in the Art and Design building. The Paramedics and Fire Department are right next door, so in case somebody cuts off a finger you're all set."
Quinn smiled. It would be great to share a big creative space with Daria and our friends. "Can Annie and I take a look?"
Haroun and Matt made room for the waitress to set down the pizzas on the table. "You know, that CNC router needs new controls," Haroun mused, unfolding a paper napkin and working out a system block diagram. "It was based on a really old CAM program. That's why it was still running Windows 95. The frame and servomotors look okay, and I think my old roommate might know where we could get another spindle. He was really into robotics."
Matt passed a plate over to Jane and Quinn. "Might be useful for fixturing and setups. What about that old machining center that was under the tarp?"
"Old Bridgeport TorqueCut. Same story. Needs new controls, maybe new linear bearings on the lower carriage. It's pretty dirty inside. I looked at the repair estimate that was in the folder; the main spindle was replaced and has only like sixty hours on it, and the toolchanger is operational. My bud could probably get it running. There was quite a bit of tooling in that auction lot. Looks like the old guy couldn't turn down a good deal."
Annie's boyfriend Walt spoke up. "I've got a lot of experience with servo and stepper motor controllers. I spent last summer working a factory floor, working with the robotics maintenance crew."
"Walt can fix anything," Annie grinned. "Even robotic rats."
"When I was a kid, my uncle had bought an old pizza place that had these dumb animatronic characters to entertain kids. They counted on parents getting dragged in by their children and shelling out good money for crappy pizzas."
"And here I thought Pizza Forest was stupid," smirked Daria.
"Anyway, most of the mechanisms were busted. I talked my uncle into letting me mess with them, and I got them working, mostly because nobody had bothered to clean and lubricate the moving parts for twenty years or so. I had stripped off the stupid costumes and fake fur coverings, and I thought they looked kinda cool like that, with all the motors and pneumatic cylinders and stuff exposed. So I added more fake parts, wire, lights and stuff, and kinda came up with a sci-fi look. We wound up redecorating the place like a space station. It's how I got interested in movie special effects and then animation."
"Well, if you guys can't fix these machines we have to have them hauled away," grumbled Jane. "The guy was a total packrat."
"Oh, I don't know," smirked Daria. "Everybody needs a few thirteen foot tall ears of corn." They were quite the surprise when the tarp over them was pulled off. Made of carved, painted Styrofoam, they had apparently been propped up along a highway somewhere to guide motorists to a produce stand.
"The giant corn stays," snickered Jane. "Those are great."
"How Freudian of you," laughed Quinn.
"Maybe there's some giant oranges or something hidden away here," Jane wondered out loud.
"So you two are sure you want to take over that prop shop?" Daria asked, pulling out her laptop. "I need a list of what you need done, repaired, or hauled to the landfill. Trent and I have already checked out the top floor, and we've worked out an estimate to get it cleaned up and sort of livable."
"This place is gonna be so cool," smiled Quinn.
"You know, I'm kind of surprised that you're not grossed out by the urban homesteading vibe," murmured Jane, wondering what else might pass as giant testicles. Maybe some weather balloons?
"I think it's exciting," said Quinn. "Annie's got some great ideas that won't cost a lot of money, and the place would look really cool. I want to take some of the money from Mosaic and invest in some rapid prototyping machines. Maybe some SLS or Stereolithography stuff. I want it for design work, but you and Matt could do some amazing stuff with it for prop and artwork."
"Jeez, Quinn, I forgot about the pile of money you made with that Mosaic project," said Jane. "You can pay for the pizza, then."
"It's not a pile," sniffed Quinn. "Dad's managing it. And don't forget that you got shares for helping me get started. I bet you don't even know how much you made."
Jane looked blankly at Daria. "I have shares in Mosaic?"
Daria was amused. "Yes, and it's actually worth something. Call my dad. Quinn told him to issue stock grants to everyone that helped. Didn't you read any of those letters that you got from Mosaic?"
"I have shares in Mosaic?"
"Yes, Jane, and you're welcome." Quinn rolled her eyes. Artists. "You know, you better figure this out before you file your taxes."
"Call. My. Dad." Daria and Quinn said in unison.
"Hey, is my girlfriend rich?" asked Matt. He turned to Jane with a grin. "And here I let you swipe my welding supplies."
"I wouldn't say rich, but definitely not broke," half-smiled Daria.
"I have shares in Mosaic?"
Quinn smiled. "At the current market valuation, worth about twenty-six thousand dollars, give or take a grand."
"WOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!" Jane grabbed Quinn in a bear hug.
"EEEWW! You FRENCHED me!" Quinn laughed.
"Hey, that's mine," smiled Matt.