Interior Picture

This is a relatively new picture (2 days ago?):


The sign in the window is the sign that will hang over the sidewalk. It will go up soon; I'll take pictures. There's still a little bit of construction clutter, but it's focused around the front door now and PC is finishing up with all the interior trim. The finish work is time consuming, but the effect is worth it.

Menu Board Installation

I posted the opening special last time. Now I want to post the pictures of the chalkboard installation.
Here's the first one:


The board on the bottom is notched so that the bottom of the blackboard can sit right down inside it.

A little to the right:


Keep in mind that these things are at least a half inch thick and weigh well over 100 pounds each!



These are all old slate boards out of the old high school!



The very nice woman who now owns the old building gave them to us! I haven't asked for her permission to use her name, but I don't think she'd mind if I thanked her here, publicly. It was a very kind gesture on her part and it just seems right: A piece of old Grafton in our new coffee house.



Yes, we do have counter tops.
Yes, they look great.
No, I don't have pictures uploaded yet.
Yes, I will get to it soon.

Granny Sue & The 123

I posted this same picture last fall, only the trees were bright red. I thought I'd capture the same scene this spring. The white blooms are just beginning to be replaced by young leaves.

I see this everyday when I'm down there working, but imagine my surprise when I saw this caboose over at Granny Sue's blog! And not only the caboose, but Granny Sue stopped by and took pictures of The 123! (Go to Granny Sue's post "Tale of a Tired Storyteller: Grafton")

I wasn't even there to meet her. She was on her way to Rowlesburg and it looks like, from the ladders against the side of the building in her picture, that PC had run off to the hardware store for something. I was at the high school for a baseball game. I hope to catch her in June when she visits again for a telling at Tygart Lake State Park.

The ladders were there for this:

Our temporary sign, just to let people know they can surf over here and see what all the activity is about; with all the outside work, it's obvious that something is going on.

Phase II

PC has been scraping out the last remnants of the demolition.

We are now entering phase two of the Coffee House project!

What that really means is:

1. I have quite a few pictures that I want to share. Some are just shots of miscellaneous stuff that we've found in and around The 123 that I've never posted on here before and
2. PC is doing prep work for the drywall. However, we don't expect to even think about hanging drywall until (hopefully early) February.
3. We've spent some time laying out the floor plan! This part is fun (mostly) because all the hard work that's gone into gutting out and cleaning up has (finally!) paid off. The work is not over, not by a long shot, but the reality of creating a great new Coffee House for downtown Grafton is beginning to cause a bit of excitement for PC and I. Construction is so much better than deconstruction! (Remind me I said that when we get a few months in.)
4. We're going to be -sometime before the end of January- hanging a very simple sign on the outside of the Coffee House. The sign will serve as the Official Announcement (yay!). A few folks already know what all the activity at The 123 has been about, but for those who don't, we'll simply be pointing them towards this website.
5. AND, because we'll be pointing Grafton folks towards this website, I am going to be moving this blog and replacing our home page with a basic summary page rather than this rambling-bloggity-blog. But don't worry; I'm not going anywhere. I will still be updating and adding to this Blog, but it'll just be linked off of the main site. I will try to keep the navigation easy by making links simple and prominent. Notice I said I will try. That means I need your help with feedback to let me know I'm not screwing anything up too bad. If it's easy to find, I'm happy. If you get lost and can't figure out where anything went, then I'm screwing it up. Please let me know both ways, but be sure to tell me if you find a problem that I've overlooked. I will keep my email linked, too. However, if I screw that up, too, my email is mk@grafton123.com or mk@mkstover.com.

Stay tuned for pictures...