Hammers swinging in Sisters

Hammers and saws can be heard daily on construction sites in the various industrial parks north of the downtown commercial district.

One project currently under construction is a live/work building in the Sun Ranch Business Park next to the new ministorage facility on Barclay Drive. When completed, there will be two separate two-story buildings with a parking lot in between, with an entrance off Sun Ranch Drive.

On the ground floor of building one, slated for completion in June, there will be three 2,000-square-foot business spaces with three apartments above.

The owner of the buildings, Art Blumencron of Sisters, will occupy one of the business spaces with inventory from his Goby Walnut Products urban salvage sawmill in Portland. He will have live-edge slabs of maple, walnut and other woods, as well as 4-foot by 4-foot boxes of "hobby wood" which he sells by the pound for people looking for small wood pieces for crafts and small home projects.

The second space will be the location of local fine furniture craftsman Adam Bronstein, who owns Spring Creek Woodworking. Bronstein creates primarily commission pieces, working one-on-one with a client to design and craft the exact piece they are seeking. He builds desks, dining tables, beds, dressers, and blanket chests, as well as installing slab wood counters.

He studied and worked in forest conservation, and his love of trees brought him to woodworking. His work is reflective of the classic furniture styles of Stickley, Arts and Crafts, and Shaker, while incorporating contemporary details such as live-edge finishes. He uses traditional mortise-and-tenon joinery with select hardwoods.

On his Spring Creek website, Bronstein writes, "What I like most about making furniture is the honesty of the work and having the ability to see a project through - from an abstract concept to a fine, tangible piece of furniture."

Fike (fee-ka) Coffee will occupy the third space next to the two wood shops, planning to service all the businesses in the light-industrial area as well as residents and tourists.

Fika comes from the Swedish culture and basically means "to have coffee," often with baked sweets, fruit, or open-faced sandwiches. The owner has a cart in Bend that she has brought to Sisters for events and will now have a permanent location here.

In Sweden, fika is not about grabbing a 16-ounce triple caff, hold-the-foam, in a paper cup to go. It is about enjoying others' company as you take a break from work or school. A part of everyday life in Sweden, fika is when everything else stops so the moment can be savored. Fika is used both as a noun and a verb but the main point is, people slow down and appreciate the good things in life and the people they are with.

Blumencron moved to Sisters three years ago and left his son running the business in Portland. Originally from Laguna Beach, California, he came to Portland to attend Reed College and stayed. After settling in Cascade Meadow Ranch west of Sisters, and wanting to only be semi-retired, he looked around for shop space and couldn't find any, so he decided to build.

The windows and doors are in place in building one and the plumbing, electrical, HVAC and insulation will start this week. Construction of the second building should start in June, and Blumencron hopes it will be ready for occupancy in early fall.

The buildings are being constructed by Oregon Pole Structures and will be corten steel with an antique rustic finish on the bottom and salvaged redwood on the top. On the second floor there will be three apartments, 1,000 square feet each, with two bedrooms, one bathroom, nine-foot ceilings and big views of the mountains. The monthly rent will be $1,200.

To eliminate any noise from the shops below, the floor joists are 21 inches deep, with an air space and one-and-a-half inches of soundproofing concrete on the floor of the apartments. The extra weight required strengthening of the framing.

The second building will be similar to the first, with business spaces below and apartments above.

The Goby sawmill in Portland deals strictly with salvaged or hazard wood that has to be removed from its location. They purchased all the wood from the walnut trees that were located at the Oregon State Hospital in Salem, which were slated to be burned. They source their timber mainly from the Pacific Northwest but go as far afield as Idaho to the east, Sacramento to the south, and mid-Washington to the north. Goby's milled lumber is shipped worldwide, from Vietnam to Russia to England.

The Portland sawmill will be moving to Aurora, where land was recently purchased, but their retail operation will remain in northwest Portland as well as in the new Sisters location.