Step One, The Dreaming

For the last few years my wife and I have been tossing around various dreams: Our 5 year plan for setting up a fencing club, renovations for the house, becoming a fencing instructor, running WMA events and so on. Over the holidays this December, we had a revelation. Instead of adding new space, we need to make better use of the space we already have. There is no way that a small club can really make enough with member dues to be able to rent a usable space in this city.

So, if you can't rent Mohammed a mountain, then build him a mountain in the back yard. Thus began the Salle Project.

Initially I tried to come up with ways to do this as cheaply as possible and settling for what could be a fairly mediocre space. While this kind of dreaming has it's place, especially once I start to see how much this is likely to cost me, I may as well start out with a big dream as I can always scale it back.

There will be some unsurmountable limitations. The big one I'm currently aware of is that we have a limited space in which to build this, and there may be some city regulations on top of this which I have not been able to find out. Right now it looks like I have enough space to for something with a footprint of about 6m by 9m.

So, what does my dream space have?

1. at least 4m ceilings.
   
2. 2 walls of windows (or at least great big doors) to make for an airy, studio like space.
   
3. 2 walls (the other two) of mirrors, ideally seamless.
4. storage space for all of the equipment, possibly upstairs
5. an upstairs?
6. lights!
7. running water
8. a floor that won't hurt when you fall on it