Problem Solved

The plan was to have a balcony outside the studio. I planned the stonework around it. I made plants for it. I made it’s upstairs neighbor and glued it in place. Everything was going according to plan. That is until I realized that it will be in the way of the removable wall.

Doh!

Trying to come up with a solution has been bouncing around my brain for weeks. Originally I thought I could either glue it in place or connect it to the removable wall. If I glued it in place I’d have a really hard time getting the wall out. However, if I attached it to the removable wall there would be a bald spot where the balcony was in the brickwork.

Then inspiration hit. Magnets!

I carved out small holes in the balcony and used super glue to imbed strong magnets.

Then I carved holes into the wall so I could imbed magnets there.

You’ll notice the brown paint. I used it as a way to mark where the holes were so the magnets would line up properly.

The magnets are strong enough to hold the balcony, and all the plants on it, in place. All of the plants will probably be glued in place to make moving the balcony easier.

Problem solved. The balcony can be removed when the wall needs to come out and put back in place after.

Here’s a slow motion video of the magnets doing their job. It made me laugh when it snapped in place like this for the first time. I wasn’t expecting it to do this, so I had to take a video.

The next problem to solve will be how to imbed magnets to hold the wall in place. The magnets I have might be too big. I’ll focus on it more when the removable wall is done. I glued the doors in place today and plan on working on more stone work tomorrow. Then time to paint some more. I’m dying to install the plexiglass into the windows and doors. Since I don’t want to scrape paint off all of those panes I’m making myself wait until the facade painting is done.