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I am finally posting interior pictures....
This is standing with my back to the street-side windows. The utility lights are the only lighting at this time (we really did completely strip the whole thing).
The double doors that will be cut into the wall are on the left, behind the blue scaffolding buck.
See the red snow shovel leaning against the wall on the right? Use that as a reference point and I'll show you around...
Here's the snow shovel again. The slats along the wall were used for hanging the wood paneling that was here for the dentist's office. We will be insulating and using some of them for hanging drywall. They'll be extended all the way to the real ceiling; these only go 8 feet up because of the drop ceiling (that we ripped out, too). The real ceiling is 12 feet.
Red shovel is in this one, too, but the camera just moved over a bit and PC stepped up to the window. Or what was a window. It's still a window, I suppose, complete with coal dust encrusted single pane glass and the pig-iron counter weights and pulleys. However the only thing to see is a block wall. The building on the east side was built well after The 123. Ironically, on the west side (where the main door will be) there are no windows because when The 123 was built in 1890, there was a building on that side. Now, it's the parking lot which will be used for building a sheltered entryway and outdoor seating.
We are incorporating this window space into the design (behind the counter shelving).
Moving on down the wall (camera is continuing in the same clockwise direction), this is the southeast corner. On the east wall, some of the paneling remains (it will be covered with drywall) and behind it is the original brick. The south wall is cinder block. This front face was redone in 1969 when the dentist office was originally constructed.
Here's a clear shot of the cinder block wall. This is the south end (street facing) wall. The cinder blocks stop at 8 feet and above it is a basic stud wall that was above ceiling tile level. The cinder block wall was behind 12" of blown insulation and another stud wall that was paneled. This front portion was the waiting room. It was partitioned to be very small, complete with closet and magazine rack. Even the door was separated with it's own sheltered entry. The entire first floor was dark and cramped; a very good dental set-up, but not so good for the open inviting Coffee House that we're constructing. The windows come down to back-of-the-chair height so you would have had to stand to see outside while reading a magazine and waiting for your turn in the destist chair. We plan to open that up more with windows extending down to table-top height. Perfect for sitting and sipping.
This 'step' here at the bottom of the wall is actually the top of the original cut-stone foundation. The floor in here was the typical wooden floor with a teeny-tiny crawl space that is seen in many of the other buildings in Grafton. Fascinating, but the wood tends to rot after 60-80 years or so. As near as we can figure, part of the necessary renovations in 1969 included pulling out all that old flooring -leaving plenty of room for the major plumbing & electrical installations that were necessary for the dental equipment-- and then pouring the concrete slab over it all.
And back around to the street-side door. That's the fire extinguisher I posted about here.
Just out of the picture to the left, is the door that opens on the stairs that go up to the second floor. We will still have this entrance, and of course the stairs will stay, but we plan to rearrange the floor design here before tiling. Stay tuned for more on that - tiling immediately follows drywall (which is next).
Next up will be construction pictures - drywall preparation.
