Outside

Structurally speaking, The 123 building is in pretty darn good shape, even without considering it's advanced years. A part of that is due to it's size - it's rather small and definitely narrow, making timber sagging a non-issue. Another, probably larger, part is due to the attention and care that it's received over the years. There have apparently been periods of neglect, but the periods of maintenance have counterbalanced and even outweighed the intermittent disregard.

One area that PC has been concerned with is this stone portion of the wall (west -the broadside that faces the parking lot):



You can see in the above picture the steel rebar that PC is tying into a grid. This is the beginning stages of pouring a concrete wall that will tie into the old stone work.




Here's a closer look:






Up close, against the building, PC dug down beneath the asphalt to provide a foundation for the new wall. The rebar is also tied into the wall at the rear of the parking lot, which is in much better shape (though it will eventually need cleaned and tuck-pointed again).






PC tying steel:



Next will come the wooden forms to 'form' the wet concrete into a wall. (They're already there, I just haven't been able to keep up with the posting).
And remember those square holes in the asphalt of the parking lot? I'll show you more of those, too.

Over at my blog -MKStover.com- I got to talking about drywalling and rototilling.
Over at the Taylor County Blog, I complimented the sidewalks (and Holy Cow! those new sidewalks deserve compliments! It looks great!).
I'll be back here before the end of the week to catch up on PC's weekend work.

What's Up?

These are pics from last weekend, so things have changed already, but here's what's growing behind The 123....


I love the blue-purple of violets - the leaves are crisp and the blue bloom is soft and comforting:








This Creeping Charlie is still looking a little rough. Although some people get rid of it because it's a 'weed,' I like it because it's an easy, pretty, fluffy ground cover:








Dandelions, of course:








The buds won't be far behind, but right now there are Red Clover leaves:

Moose In the Parking Lot

I'm not kidding.


I didn't even realize there was a moose in the parking lot until I was busy sorting and compressing pictures, but sure enough, a moose showed up in the same picture as a wheelbarrow load of asphalt!

Here, look:

See?

Alright, so it's not a real moose, but I didn't intend to snap the picture this way. I was, however, fascinated with the idea of sand dunes in Canada. That's what the side of this U-Haul was telling me.

To look at the critter's antlers, I almost called it an elk. Its face is definitely moose-ish, but the antlers are questionable. Maybe it's just because I cut off the rest of this guy and all of his moose buddies when I took this picture.

We've had some interesting things in the parking lot and now that work has started outside, I imagine there'll be more.

I have a few more posts coming up about what's going on outside. Keep checking in.

Pitching In - Part 2

The 123 is the perfect size -and shape- for a small Coffee House. The layout is just about perfect. The main thing we weren't happy with was the front entrance. While the narrow Main Street face of the building with the single window and slight door were perfect for a small dentist's office, we felt we needed to open things up and create a welcoming entrance. If you've been following along you'll know that we intend to move the main entrance around to the west side facing the parking lot (see this post about brick cutting). And now that we have the inside well under way, it's time to start outside and get ready to open up the building.

One of the main things that needs to be done outside is to construct the gabled overhang that will protect the front entrance from the weather. There are several steps involved in this, but since we're talking about everyone pitching in to help, this post is about Screech and her contribution this past weekend.

See the squares that have been removed from the surface of the parking lot? These had to be removed to enable us to dig down until we hit bedrock. These will be the foundation points for the posts that will support the roof.

Here's Screech prying the last of the asphalt up:

See the yellow handled chisel right behind her? She used that and the hammer to chip a small corner out to give her a place to start to get in under the asphalt. . Then she used that pry bar (a pipe with a flattened end) in her hand to get in underneath and pry it up. When the whole square popped up, she stuffed one of those 2x4 pieces under it and then used a sledgehammer to whack until it cracked into pieces. She then pried up the pieces and set them into the wheelbarrow.

In this picture you can see the squares in relation to the building:

I'll get to what PC is doing in a later post. I do have a couple more pics I want to post that relate to the squares, but I have run to the end of my patience with formatting pics and text. I will have to start another post to add them....

Pitching In - Part 1

I spent most of the afternoon at The 123. I decided I needed to put in a couple of hours of drywall *mudding, so I loaded up Screech and Dozer and headed down there to meet PC.

This Coffee House construction has really become a family project - everyone pitches in according to their ability. I figured that was good fodder for blog food so I went through some pictures....

Here are a couple of shots of one of the scrap recycled wood sculptures that Dozer built:

And here he is pounding away (note the safety glasses - required):

This particular piece, I believe, was random. Once he finished with this, he went on to build a spaceship, at least one boat, and a race car.

*'Mudding' is not a word, at least not according to blogger or my word processing program. I know I'm not the only one who knows 'mud' can be a verb; drywall mudding is not the only type of mud activity for which it should be used as a verb, either.

Tools

Tygart Lake State Park Foundation

I mentioned the Tygart Lake State Park Foundation in an earlier post.
Here's their website: www.tlspf.org

*cross posted at TaylorCountyWestVirginia.blogpot.com

Main Street - looking East

This is the view from in front of the post office, what you're looking at when you come through the light there. Looking East up Main Street, the side of The 123 is highly visible - The brick face is smack-dab in the middle of the picture. The main entrance to the Coffee House will be on this side (go here to see the post about the brick cutting). A classy, eye-catching overhang is planned to go along with the sidewalk cafe style outside seating and this construction is included in the upcoming outside work mentioned in this post.


And wouldn't this wall look great with a mural?


I have a few ideas and there are a few other ideas (and samples) coming in from local visionaries (thank you!). Anyone with artistic leanings is encouraged to put in their two cents (mk@grafton123.com).

Oh! When I uploaded the picture, I realized (for the millionth time) how GREAT the other end of Main Street is looking! With the new sidewalks, streetlights, and park benches, downtown Grafton is reclaiming its beauty. I need to walk down that way and snap some pictures to post so you can see -if you haven't already- what I'm talking about.

Colors - one more time (for now; we'll resume later)

I'm learning. I finally figured out if I upload the pictures first, then it's easier to format the words around the picture frames. Also, if I upload them in reverse order from the way I want them to be viewed, then I don't have to click and drag to rearrange. It only took me about 8 months to figure this out. That gives me hope; I'm teachable.

It's Sunday morning (barely - it's almost noon) and I'm not at The 123. PC is though. He got up early -again- and went down there to get started. He has a few more things he's got to finish up inside and then he's going outside to get started out there. He's looking forward to moving outside. I'm looking forward to him moving outside, too. It'll be good to get some of that outside stuff started (more about this stuff later) and that gets him out of the way so I can take over inside. (I'll tell you more about that, too. Later.)

For right now:
Here's a picture of the bathroom with primer on the walls:




Here's a dusty-camera-lens picture looking in at the green bathroom walls:




One wall, the one you can't see in the above picture, is the darker green (if you've been following along, this is the bullfrog as opposed to the lighter green of the spring peepers).
Here's a tri-color corner shot:




The ceilings are (and the rest of them will be, too) the traditional white. Trim will be the creamy white. The deep red will be accent, at least in the bathroom. Outside of the bathroom, two of the larger walls will be painted this deep red to create a cozy corner where you can relax with your coffee and read or open up your laptop and check your email.

Enough for now; I've got to go. We're meeting PC over at the lodge at Tygart Lake for the buffet lunch (and live music!). This is opening weekend. The Foundation sponsored the Spring Hop and had all kinds of activities going for the past few days and I've been wanting to get over there. Yum.

[I think the Tygart Lake State Park Foundation has a website, too, but I seem to have misplaced the address. Will someone shoot me an email with that information, please?]

Colors - yet again

There's no going back now; the colors have been chosen and purchased.
Since I've been such a ninny about choosing the colors and I've changed my mind about two gazillion times, I decided enough was enough. I bought paint today. As a matter of fact, I painted the bathroom today, but for this post I'll stick with pictures of the color samples.

My monitor is really bad about showing colors. I didn't realize how bad until I saw the color samples on another computer. These pictures don't show the lighter green very well on my computer; I hope you can see it better on yours. As a matter of fact, the lighter green looks like another white to me. It's not. It's called 'rejuvenation' and it's a refreshing sage-ish green. PC says it puts him in mind of frogs. I can live with that; I like frogs, especially the spring peepers.

I hope you can see the colors. If not, you'll have to come on in and have yourself a cappuccino and check it out. We're still shooting for a September opening. Or, before that, if you're driving, walking, or biking past and see us working, you can stop in and say 'hi.'

I'll post pictures of the bathroom (with the paint still wet) later. I also have a picture of an alligator attack that occurred during the paint purchase. I'm going to post that one over at my other blog, so click over. I'll have it up later this evening.

Maisie Dog

Here's Maisie in the bathroom:




Here's Maisie at home later in the evening. If you look closely, you can see a white streak on the side of her muzzle. I hope I don't find a big trenched-in face print in the bathroom wall mud tomorrow.

MUD

I mentioned earlier that I am not a very fast drywall mudder ('mudder' is probably not a word, but you know what I mean). Well, I have to also add that I am messy.
This first picture shows a new bucket of drywall mud with my mixer in it. I've never added water to a new bucket before, but figured I'd give it a try. I added about a quart and the end result was very smooth. A bit droopy, but it worked rather well to keep the mud coats thin - which will mean less sanding.
See my feet? One has a running shoe on it and the other one is furry. Oh, wait, no, that's not mine - I had two shoes on - that's Maisie. She came to hang out with me. I think I have a picture of her in the bathroom; I'll post it later.
You can see the drill at the top left of the picture and the water is splattered all over the floor (see? I said I was messy).





Just a random shot of two coats of mud in the back corner of the bathroom ceiling (it looks as if this was after a light sanding after the second coat - see the smeary looking dust around the edges of the white?):





My clothes look like this, too:



At least this stuff washes off. I'm going to have to dig out some crappy old painting clothes soon, though.

Bathroom Wall Framing

Before we get back to the question of color (and my indecisiveness), I'm going to post miscellaneous pictures. I cleaned off the memory card in my camera and I'm trying to organize them on my computer; I've found a few that will be good to post here, but they're random...

The beginning of the bathroom wall framing:

Color debate

I purchased the paint primer last night, but put off buying anything with color because I'm indecisive!

For the past few days I've been mudding the inside of the bathroom (I'm not very fast) with the intention of getting it ready to paint the first part of next week. I hope to use a couple of the lighter shades -for the smaller room- to get an idea of what some of these colors are going to look like; I never think the finished product is exactly the same as the color sample (I think it's just me).

Colors - Try Again

After I put up that last post, I realized that some of these other pics are probably better (with less flash), so I came back to post a few more:

Colors

Here are a few color samples. The background is a floor tile.
What do you think?

The next topic will be drywall mud and bathroom walls.