There Shall Be Light ...

What can I say, Mike was here today, and boy, things are getting exciting. We now have light in the kitchen, dish station, wait station, and beer hall, and the exhaust fan of the kitchen hood works.

While Mike was illuminating the place, we continued installing decorative beam cover ...


... and ceiling cover.


Dirk

Sleep Over ...

More beer hall work today, installing drywall, and covering up the center beam. The place is starting to look like something.


We are having a guest stay over right now, our neighbors' dog, a terrier-and-then-some mix (I don't know much about dogs, they have four legs, two ears, a snout). Our daughter (a dachshund-terrier mix) isn't completely down with the idea of another dog in our house yet, but she is slowly adjusting.

Here is a shot of doggy goodness:


Dirk

What's Happening? ...

No post yesterday! What's going on? Well, believe it or not, sometimes there isn't much going on, or at least nothing I consider noteworthy, and on some days nothing happens at all, like in case of yesterday, when I did several shopping trips, all of them frustrating, and that drags down my mood, and I shut down.

Today we actually did some work, but I am not going to tell what we did, because you can figure it out yourself. Yes, another puzzler. So, look at the two pictures below, and find older post pictures to see what changed.



Er, E!, you are disqualified from participation, because you did the work ... xoxoxo.

Dirk

Electrifying ...

What an exciting day, did you feel it, too? This morning Central Hudson showed up again, and connected our new service (six guys in total, one guy working, five guys looking on, but who am I to judge).

Mike (our electrician) was here as well and ready to move some of our existing wiring from the old service panel to the new one, and connect the new wiring. We also disconnected a lot of old wiring, some of which must have been from the great depression era, but definitely not long after that (there is a good reason, why we are getting the whole house rewired).

Pictures say more than a 1000 words, so here you have a picture (now go write 1000 words on what you see). To the right is our old service panel, in the center the main 3-phase panel, and on the left is the sub-panel for the first floor (do you see all the wires going there, amazing).


Mike will be back tomorrow to fire up some outlets, and lights, and a few other things.

Dirk

Selected Shorts ...

More drywall work. We have most of the kitchen ceiling covered. I still keep a small section open so I can run some duct work for the A/C.

Central Hudson was back today, finishing the installation on the pole. Unfortunately they didn't inform Mike (our electrician), otherwise he could have come by today and get our new service hooked up. Tomorrow, maybe, hopefully ...

Dirk

Dish It Up ...

We are moving along on the dish station. E! was doing some drywall taping ...


... while I installed the radiator.


By the way, that purple bucket in the first picture felt like a random and odd gift, when we received it, but it has come soooo in handy. Thank you Amy and Ted.

Dirk

Power Rangers ...

Central Hudson was back again, starting to move the electric wires from the original pole to the new pole. Here you can see them install a second transformer:


Unfortunately they didn't manage to finish the work, so they'll return early next week. And then it's showtime for our new service.

Dirk

Discounts For All ...

It was one of those days that just feel like Christmas, aside from Christmas of course. When E! went Lowe's this morning, the friendly cashier told her that Lowe's website offers rebate coupons right now. I had to check that right away.

It was the usual deal, get $10 off on your next purchase of $50 or more, except this time you didn't get that as part of your receipt, but you could simply print it at home, and go shopping. Great!!! So, I went and printed one, which took forever, because the site was really slow, but it didn't as for anything from you in return. Wow!!!

Well, I went shopping right away, because I needed something anyway. Just for the kicks I tried to print another coupon, and it worked, again! And I printed another one, but it always took forever.

When I checked again this afternoon, the site was shutdown, no idea why. Oh well, maybe it will be back sometime.

On the work front, we are moving forward on the dish station, which may turn out to be the first room we'll finish.

Dirk

My Pole Is Bigger Than Yours ...

We are getting closer to getting our new electric service. Central Hudson stopped by today to install a new pole, because the current one doesn't have enough space for the new transformers. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show:

Here is what we have today:


The new pole, still on the truck:


Here is how it's done. Dig a hole ...



... raise the pole ...



... pole in the hole!!!



Compress the loose soil around the pole:


Sooooo big!!!


Dirk

Murphy's Law ...

It could have been a fun-filled day, putting up drywall, getting the dish station ready for operation. But it wasn't supposed to be.

Around 11am E! noticed a sound she couldn't quite place, but quickly realized that it came from the basement. To make it short, a PVC T-piece in the water distribution manifold had ruptured, spraying water all over.

Now this isn't a biggy, and I fixed it (I don't sweat these things anymore), but it never happens at a convenient time.

Tomorrow we'll be back at normal work, maybe, hopefully.

Dirk

The Show Must Go On ...

E! was down today with stomach problems, so she got a day of rest. Let's face it, we are under a lot of stress, this is a big project, and on occasion it catches up with us.

No despair, we'll get there.

I continued work on the dish station, framing out the lights, and installing drywall on the ceiling, which was tough all by myself, but I was determined (I can be very stubborn). With the grease trap all wrapped up, and water running to the dish station, I want to make it functional as soon as possible. Stay tuned.

Dirk

Happy Valentine's Day ...

I am a cruel husband. I managed to chase my wife out of bed this morning, before 8 o'clock, with two short words:

Sweet Sue's

It is the best place around for brunch, and it was yummy again today (I highly recommend the pancake sundae).

And while we were out, Sweet Sue's is a good 45 minute drive away, we ran a few errands on the way back, but we also managed to get a little bit of work done today.

We started cutting the cover for the beer hall center wall. Once the wood is cut, it can be stained. So wait for some more exciting pictures.


Dirk

Going, Going, Gone ...

Now you see it ...


Now you don't ...


Now it's gone ...


Dirk

Beam Me Up, Scotty ...

At long last we installed the cover for the LVL beams in the beer hall, and it looks awesome. But judge for yourself.

In the front of the picture you see the LVL beam, which supports the post that supports the roof, in the back is an already covered LVL beam.


E! hard at work, she is a trooper.


All done, at least for the LVL beams. There is still more covering to be done, but we'll leave that to another day.


Dirk

Private Dirk ...

Oh what joy it is crawling around Gunk Haus' underbelly, also known as the crawl space (reminds me a little bit of my military time). I had pulled the cold water line to the dish station yesterday, but still needed to connect it to the faucet stub outs. Fortunately the crawl space is dry, but in the end I still looked and felt like Pig-Pen.

Now that I have all the pipes running to the dish station, I will close the ditch with the grease trap, put some sheet rock on the wall, hook up the sink, et violà we have a doggy wash station. Kidding, although our dog really needs a bath.

E! finished staining the cover for the LVL beams in the beer hall. As soon as they have dried we will install them, and I promise, I will post pictures again.

Dirk

The Song Remains The Same ...

We got a visit from fellow future restauranteurs today, who had bought a property which we also had looked at, but found too expensive for our taste. They have been at it for two years already, which made us feel better for being slightly behind schedule.

We shared our experiences with various authorities, like health department and liquor authority, but neither of us heard anything new. This is somewhat comforting in that we are not the only ones going through pains while trying to open a business, creating jobs, and doing something for the community.

It was a frustrating day otherwise. I had tried to put more memory into E!'s laptop, and kinda ruined it along the way. Thanks to Jerry I got it working again. Aside from messing with computers I did a little plumbing for the dish station, while E! was busy staining the wood cover for the LVL beams in the beer hall.

Dirk

Spring Is Here ...

Yes it is, mark my words. Enough with the snow and single digit temperatures. It would be perfect to open a restaurant right now, put some beer benches outside, and serve beer and yummy food. Oh, wait, that's what we're doing ... ;-)

Well, we're still a little away from that. Still lots of work, little stuff, bigger stuff. Today was filled with little stuff, some framing, prepping wood for staining, getting started on the water supply for the dish station, nothing exciting, everyday little stuff.

Dirk

Harvest Time ...

After having raised the landing to the second floor, I actually razed it today. I removed the old wood flooring, some nice, thick planks, which we will reuse to fix the floor in the bar and stube. I like to reuse things, it's in my genes, ask my mom, I'm like my dad in that regard.

Now you can move from the bar to the beer hall without hitting your head:


We still have some work in the beer hall, so today we started working on covering the LVL beams (in its original in the front, and covered in the back; we still need to stain the wood though):


Dirk

Ten Little Burners ...

I told you we'd have an exciting day, and we did. We picked up a ten burner range at a deli in Marlboro today, along with some shelving, and a salad spinner, not the kind your Mom would have in her kitchen, but a five gallon one.

The whole operation went surprisingly smooth, although it took almost two hours to move the range 20 feet from its installed place to the trailer. That is largely because we partly disassembled the range so it would fit through the door, but also to strip it off heavy items (have you lifted the oven door of a commercial range lately, they're heavy).


Today's thanks goes to Jerry and Donny, for lending us their truck and trailer, respectively, Tom for another 10% Lowe's coupon, and as always Butch for plowing the snow in front of our building.

By the time we open we will have to give out so many free meals to people who did us favors since we started this project, that we will be bankrupt within a month ... kidding.

Dirk

The Day Of Wreckoning ...

I came, I saw the stair, I conquered it. As I promised yesterday (which usually doesn't mean anything), I was going to raise, not to say raze, the landing of the stairs to the second floor. For before pictures, go to yesterday's post.

Let's dive right in. The two top steps up from the landing are gone already, and I am working hard on removing the braces:


It was a day of wreckoning, so I got the saws-all (reciprocating saw) out. I will never admit it, but I'm glad we got it. I am usually a hand tool kinda guy, but power tools can make your life much easier.


At the end of the day, I had framed out the floor (as can be seen below), and thrown a sheet of plywood on top. Eventually, I'll reinstall nice wood flooring, but that has to wait.


Tomorrow will be another exciting day, we'll finally get ... nah, I'm not going to tell you today, you'll have to wait until tomorrow ... ;-)

Dirk

Stairway To Heaven ...

After having spent a lot of time in the beer hall lately, I shifted gears and moved over to the bar, which still requires a lot of work. The first project is raising the stairwell, as can be seen in the following picture:


It has a clearance of about five feet five inches. Thing is, underneath is the main entrance to the beer hall, therefore the building department is making us raise it.

Here is a shot of the same staircase from above:


Basically the three steps down and the three steps up will be eliminated and leveled. Today I was just poking around, removing plaster and such, but tomorrow you'll see some action.

Dirk