The Final Chapter.

Sam has moved home for good so now it is up to us to repair this shanty and turn it into a dream home....well at least in our eyes. Now that our pipes are back to normal the house is ready for the finishing touches. Everything is in disarray right now moving and throwing away excess but here are the remainder of the projects we have left. 

Living Room: Finish the shelving and entertainment center to hold records, movies, cd's, and anything you could want to store. 

Basement: Divide the two downstairs work areas into a Darkroom and a Studio for painting drawing and any artistic creation that we plan. 

Backyard: Mini ramp, fire pit, and perhaps even a hot tub but this section won't be under construction until spring. 

All of these thing are slowing starting to unfold but hopefully we can repaint the exterior of the house and get a new roof and this house will have double in value over the price it was bought. It may even be worth more than that if we can finish everything as plan! 

Plumbing....What Next.

Now that we have heat I think it was inevitable that something else would break. After a few weeks of slow moving drains on all of the houses water it seemed something was up with our plumbing. So after getting a specialist out it looks like Houston, we have another problem. All of the plumbing in the house was routed wrong and everything was off so nothing has been draining.

So for the past bit we have been without really water. With the sink piling up with dishes and Thanksgiving in our sights it is a final relief to get the pipes fixed and everything back to how it once was. Here is a photo of the reworked masterpiece pipe system our house just got.

Pretty Sweet Right?

It is also crazy that so much snow has also been falling lately so I thought I would include one! 

Sam's Front Yard.

The Heat is On*

There are two major improvements that have happened within the last week the first is that we finally have heat! After a long period without heat and just in the nick of time it is now snowing outside! So heat is definitely number one but the second is being able to develop my latest black and white rolls of film at home at the Shantytown and scanning them. These rolls of film are shot both on Kodak TMax 400 film all shot on a Fuji GA645 camera all the way from Los Angeles and out to the Salt Lake desert area. Below are a few of my favorites from the rolls of film.

Click on any of these to Enlarge.

Even after the heat got turned back on and traveling to LA Brett finally finished his room! Currently masterminding new painting ideas and being fully moved in to his room, Brett still plans on building a custom desk for his room to fit and please his need for a large workspace as a painting and drawing graduate. Below are a couple of snapshots of his room and our new eco friendly furnace!

New Furnace

Brett's Room Finished 

Brett's Room Finished 2

Fire! This is Not a Drill.

Halloween is always an interesting time of year for the last four years I have spent Halloween in Salt Lake City but this weekend the entire house decided that we were going to road trip to LA and see one of the best Halloween Electronic music festivals in the world. We began our journey south late after all of us finished up work on Friday the 29th. We weren't able to get out of town until 10 PM which put us in California around 930 AM. After a long night of driving and nothing to do until the concert started at 6.

Old Roommate Jon

One of our old roommates from a few years past recently moved to California so we stopped in and said hello then we continued on to LA. Here is the poster for the concert so you can see for your self who all was playing at the show. After the first night of mayhem we were off to the beach for some relaxation then back to another night of fun. Before we were able to get to the show our Hotel lit on fire. The 2nd time that has happened in 2 weeks at the hotel as we sat in our room fire alarms only made us laugh and think who pulled the alarm but when we opened our door smoke rolled in. Here are some photos of the fire dept. of LA doing there jobs.

I will post a few videos after I return back and can use a little bit faster internet. For now here are some photos that I shot on my iPhone, I have 4 rolls of film to develop once I return home!

Transition to Fall / Winter.

Recently with this cold spell, work on the house has slowed down. The furnace has not been turned on we remain kept warm only by a single space heater. I know this sounds sad but we are waiting for them to install a new furnace and get our eco friendly carbon foot print on. With that being said no heat is awful I woke up today with icicles on my nose or so I thought. Here is the storm that started all of this viewed from our porches view.

Click To Enlarge

As for the rest of the week our time was spent doing one of two things working or going to two amazing shows both of which played at Urban Lounge. Friday night we saw Sleigh Bells who is a harder duo with a hard metal pop sound the next night, Saturday we enjoyed The Morning Benders who has a wonderful indie rock melodic sound. Luckily I did have a camera like most times in my life and got some decent video. So the first video is a few clips of Sleigh Bells of their set.

Sleigh Bells from FatKidsGottaEat on Vimeo.

Another video below is from the next night of The Morning Benders truly an awesome vocalist and musicians.

The Morning Benders from FatKidsGottaEat on Vimeo.

Enjoy.

Sam's Dungeon + Rooms

Recently Sam, the owner of the house left to return back to his native land. North Carolina. He will not be gone for long but while he is away we can take a brief look into his cave that he has recently built out. Upon purchasing the house it was a four bedroom and two bathroom with only one bathroom working and one livable room. Now we have five bedrooms including Sam's dungeon. This is a few photos to show you how humble the owner of the home is. Sam didn't mind taking the smallest room in the house to allow more renters to decrease the total rent paid every month!

Sam's Room Take I

Sam's Room Take II

Since I have posted photos of every room in the house except two here are the other two rooms that were fully working previous to starting remodeling portions of the home. Below is a photo of Joey's room followed by the very clean (sarcasm) room that Alex lives in. One of my favorite things in Joey's room is Brett's large painting! But after all of this looking into rooms I think I have came to a conclusion...we have a lot of shit.

Joey's Room w/ Brett's Painting

Alex's Shantytown Room

Evaluating Your Workspace

Being an active working photographer means you really do need a office or somewhere you can escape to and really conduct your 9-5. The space that you need really depends on what kind of working space you need, do you shoot a lot of studio portraits, do you shoot everything on location and just need a editing station? Well for me I do shoot a lot of both studio and on location photographs. Upon moving into Sam's house I needed 2 upgrades a bigger desk and more workable space with room for art projects, film processing, and a much needed editing setup. Below is a few photographs of old workspaces from over the years and the most recent space.

2008

2009

2010

After evaluating what I truly needed in my office / studio I still shoot a lot of film so a must have is space for a negative scanner and obviously the darkroom you saw the start of in a earlier post. All these things work out to make this one of the best desks I have had plenty of room to work, a light table, scanner, and a portable mobile computer set up. The last photo is an exact 180 degree turn from the photograph of my desk. A simple room with plenty of space for room to grow if more office is needed! To see some of my recent photography you can visit http://www.ianmatteson.tumblr.com.

Definition of a Shantytown

           So many of you probably are wondering, well maybe some of you aren't, why I named this blog Sam's Shantytown. Well the photo below give you a clear indication of why it has been crowned a Shanty.

The Backyard Shanty

           As you can see there is not one, but two BBQ's, and not a single matching chair in sight for our "matching" patio set. Miscellaneous parts for a motorbike with tons of construction wood and salvaged wood just to give it a little bit of extra flare. Our neighbors are thoroughly impressed with how much junk we can accumulate, luckily they are young and a eye sore is not something they fuss about. This photo was taken a few weeks ago since then we picked up the backyard to make it a little bit more livable. This backyard just like life is a ongoing project. Oh and for all of you that don't think that this is that messy over the summer we converted a non - working pickup into this.......

Click to Enlarge!

Brett's New Dungeon

As the days roll on the work continues at Sam's humble abode. Upon moving into this house my roommate Brett wanted a bigger room but was stuck with the smallest one in the house. So we came to the conclusion who needs a wall closing you off from the pitch of the roof. Before I knew it the wall was down and the construction began. From framing to drywall to mud to flooring it has all been constructed by Brett or Sam. So here are a few photographs you can see it moving right along into a larger more creative space to accommodate the arrival of Brett Allen and his world of painting and drawing.

Early Stages

Late Stages

Early Stages

Late Stages

Building the Darkest of Rooms (Pt. 1)

          After moving in one of the first things that is a must have is a Darkroom. This is obviously not something everyone will use but I personally love printing and being able to do it just down the stairs is much more appealing than going to the U or going to an art center and paying to use their Darkroom. So we plotted out a space downstairs that will be perfect for a darkroom, easy to wall off to make it dark and ideally easy to make a built in integrated countertop with shelving. Now all of this is all fine when we put it on pen and paper but actually making something happen is another story entirely.

Empty Room for the Start

        The first step was getting a working enlarger, check, found one on KSL in great shape with two lenses, extra bulbs, trays, enlarger (color and black and white), timer, and all the film carriers from medium format to 35mm. SCORE! For now this is what the set up looks like but soon enough a great darkroom fully integrated into the house with a light table and sink!

Temporary Setup

Introduction to "The Family"

            My great friend Sam recently purchased a house while the market prices were rock bottom. He found a 4 bedroom 2 bathroom fixer upper in between downtown and sugarhouse, the house was in rough shape to say the least. Immediately after the sale was complete he began painting, sanding, and completely renovating his new home. After a few weeks the house was ready to live in, roommates have come and gone now I find myself along with four of my best friends all living in this very same house! Although it has undergone drastic changes the five of us still find things to paint fix or build to make the house better than ever. The house consists of a painter (Brett), a photographer (Myself), a carpenter (Sam), a soon to be meteorologist (Alex), and soon to be lawyer (Joey).

Sam and Graham @ the Infamous House