Getting the gallery ready
Work has been going steady for five weeks to get Ellen’s Creek set for a reopening
The cleanup continues at Ellen’s Creek Gallery and Framing as the business gets set to reopen after a fire about five weeks ago.
The fire, which broke out Jan. 31 in the apartment above the gallery, flooded the business with smoke, causing lots of damage.
“It’s been a whirlwind of construction every day,’’ gallery owner Doug Cranford said on March 4, amid construction activity and First Onsite Property Restoration work.
“We took all the carpets out, added new ceiling tiles, we’ve disinfected the entire shop in order to get the smoke smell out in the upstairs. They’re putting it back together, and it’s starting to look good.’’
Each day there have been electricians, carpenters or plumbers at work. All the drywall and old insulation have been ripped out. It also took days of sponging and disinfecting each part of the gallery to remove the smell of smoke.
“You wouldn’t even know there was a fire here before now. There has been cleaning crews here for days, and they used bags and bags of sponges to get the smoky smell out of the gallery.’’
As for the hundreds of paintings that the firefighters saved that night, they've never left Doug Cranford's sight. He has them all stored in a basement location.
"I'll be going through them individually to make sure than none of them is damaged in any way,'' he said.
CLASSES RETURN
The gallery is ramping up to be able to host classes again. Henry Purdy is scheduled to give a class on March 11, so things need to be ready to go.
“We’re hoping to have classes starting next week and have tables set up for everybody to walk into the back,’’ said Gloria Cranford, Doug’s wife. “It’s going to be a really tough job to get everything going this week and to get our shop open. Hopefully (we’ll be open) on the weekend or the first of next week – that is what we’re aiming for.’’
The business had one person employed part-time that it is hoping to get back in time for the reopening.
“In all honesty, I thought we would be open a week later,’’ Doug said. “I was just kind of naïve about it all. I figured we’d clean everything up and then replace the ceiling tiles and get back to working again, but it was worse than I thought, and it has been an eye-opener for sure. It’s been a good experience in some ways.’’
Doug said there has been an economic impact to the fire.
“Oh, definitely,’’ he said. “We’ve had no sales at all five weeks. There was residual sales from work we did before (the fire). We do have insurance, but insurance just covers the bare bones. In the end, I think we're going to be fine but there was lots of uncertainty, and it was that uncertainty that caused all the stress.’’
SUPPORT
Neither of the Cranfords was expecting the outpouring of community and artistic support that followed the fire, from dropping off food, gift certificates and people simply checking in.
“One customer came in and gave us gift certificates just because she wanted to support the business, and that really has reinvigorated and made us want to carry on even more,’’ Doug said.
Every Saturday there has been something dropped off from muffins to lasagna.
“The first week after (the fire) happened and the lights were out we were starting to rethink things a little bit but when you have such support from the community and the arts community and the customers it makes you want to go back and do even better.’’
Louise Mould, an artist who dropped by March 4 to see how the Cranfords were doing, hadn’t seen them since the fire.
“I thought I would drop in and say, ‘hi.’ They are smiling, so that is good,’’ said the artist who has been showing art at the gallery since 2011.