Construction Boredom and Blog Neglect

I've been neglecting this blog while I'm busy building the Grafton123.com site.

I just wanted to stop in with a quick update: Drywall hanging continues.

Not a very exciting update, huh?
No apologies; sometimes construction is boring and right now we are in a boring, plodding lull.

After the drywall and the painting comes tile. I get to lay the tile myself. While I'm at it, PC will be outside working on the entryway. I'll keep you up to date, but be sure to check out the main site often, as information is added everyday. If there's something you'd like to see over there, please let me know (mk@grafton123.com). You can put the information together yourself, or you can tell me what you'd like to see and I'll try and pull something together.

Also, I was thinking about it today as I was digging through my picture files: I know there are quite a few impressive photographers in town. If you have pictures from around the area, I'd appreciate it (a lot!) if you'd share. It might make the web site building a bit quicker (and certainly prettier).

Drywall

Here's the view of the wall as the insulation board goes up:




Here's the same view (or close) with drywall going up:




Drywall moves the project from dark to light; it's the first drastic step up from the deconstruction zone.


Color is a big topic of discussion right now.
We're thinking bright and clean and warm.
When we get further along with the choosing, I'll post some color samples.

Drywall Delivery

A normal sheet of drywall is 4'x8', like plywood or paneling; it's standard. Other sizes are available, though sometimes they are hard to find. PC finally found the sizes he was looking for with these guys:




While we did get some standard sized sheets, mostly we got a bigger size (4.5'x12') that is much heavier. This is PC & our neighbor who was kind enough (and strong enough) to help unload (not just one delivery, but two):



I stood around and took pictures.

Construction!

I'm always 2-3 weeks behind when it comes to posting pictures; these two pictures are from January 9th. I will take more pictures this weekend and again on Monday when the drywall is scheduled for delivery (yay!).

This first picture is just a shot of the saw horses and 2x4s.




This picture shows the beginning framing for the ceiling soffit. In the interest of keeping the high ceilings, we compromised with a soffit that will cover the duct work for the second floor and some of the other utility stuff. Some things will still be exposed, but we can make those things look good.

Stripped Interior Pictures

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.

Judge My Book for Publication!

This has very little to do with construction at The 123, but it DOES have to do with my writing:

I am a semi-finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest and I need your help!
Please click over to my other blog for details on how you can help!
Thank you!

Old bottles

PC found this bottle outside. It's very thick glass and it's very small which is probably why it survived intact.

In the pictures below, I added two old bottle stoppers and a glass bottle cap. These PC found outside, too.

It's too bad the stoppers and bottle don't go together.

There's more cool stuff we've found outside, but most of it is broken. I'll keep taking pictures.

And speaking of pictures:

The next few blog posts will be pictures of the progress on the INSIDE!

Yay! Progress!

And, remember: I'm working on the website. If you come here and this blog is not here, just look for the link. And PLEASE give me some feedback as you see updates published.

Thanks:)!

More Dentist Stuff

X-rays:

Tooth shade guide:

Disposable tooth-grabbing cloths:

Other than the jar full of extracted teeth in various states of rot, I think this completes the collection of dental items found during deconstruction.

Dental Consultation

It looks as if school will be back in session today. I have enough time to post a picture or two before I start waking the kids....

Here's one side of an index card that we found in the deconstruction debris:

Can you see that? It's dated August 1971. The consultation fee, which is marked 'Paid,' is $4.00. Yes, I have my decimal placed correctly: it's $4.00.

$4.00! I haven't been in for a dental consultation in a while, but I'm pretty sure it's AT LEAST 10 times more than that now, probably more like 15-20 times more! I don't think inflation alone can be blamed for that mighty jump.

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...

(Lack of) Christmas Lights

The City of Grafton didn't do a whole lot of decorating this year because of all the sidewalk construction, but the other folks downtown sure did a good job. The storefronts are Christmas gorgeous and there are plenty of beautiful Christmas trees with high visibility. For instance, the Taylor County Historical Society Museum has a Christmas tree lit up in each of the three lower stories of their turret. Talk about eye-catching! And coming across the bridge (on 119North) into town, Taylor County Supply has their tree where it can't be missed.

We had good intentions. Really, we did.

We wanted to put up at least a simple strand of lights to signify progress and activity at The 123. When we pulled our Christmas decorations out at home, we went through each string of lights and fixed the ones that didn't work. We put up our tree and saved out one string of lights to take to The 123 to hang around the Main St. windows. The lights made it into PC's truck and a few days later, when he stopped down at The 123 to do some more clean-up work, he hung them around the windows. Before he left, he plugged them in.
And they didn't work.
Ugh!
He tried replacing and wiggling light bulbs, but nothing worked.
Another few days went by and he stopped at the dollar store and picked up a small box of mini-lights.
Another day or two and the box made it's way into my car.
Several more days (and several trips to The 123 when I totally forgot about them) went by and I finally got them out of the car and took them into The 123 and promptly forgot about them (duh).
Finally, on Christmas Eve, I unboxed them and hung them around the windows on the same small nails that PC had used for the first strand. The string of lights that I hung up was not hung with the greatest of care -considering the height of the windows, the shortness of myself, and the pile of bagged quickrete that sits on the floor too close to the wall to get a chair in to stand on and too far away to stand on and reach all the way around both windows. What I mean is, they were very far from perfect, but they hung evenly in both windows and I was satisfied and pleased to actually have some sort of decoration up.
When I left, I forgot to turn them on.
So, I went back and plugged them in.
I left, again, pleased with myself for finally turning on the lights.
As I drove away -again- I glanced at the windows and to my dismay only half the light bulbs were lit!
Argh!
I did not stop.
Instead I hope that half a strand of Christmas lights is better than nothing.
And considering the stripped-down state of the soon-to-be-constructed coffee shop, half seemed appropriate.

Rain

Last week we had enough rain that there was some serious -though thankfully short-lived- flooding.
No problems with all the rain at The 123, but click here for a picture of the driveway at our home.

Snow

Remember the volunteer sunflower from this September post? It's still there and PC sent me a picture:

It's looking kinda' drab.

Here's a shot of the west side:

Next winter this will be a warm, welcoming place to come in and wrap your hands around a warm mug of coffee and shake the winter chill. I can't wait!

Heat!

I know you can't feel it, but you can imagine it:

And the cold air return:

Fall Colors

This is the view from the the front door - looking west down Main Street:

Or, more accurately, this was the view on November 18th. Now it's snowing and has been for a couple of days.

Here's another one from the same day standing on the side walk in front of the B&O Caboose: