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.

Two Weeks

Two Weeks-ish.
The 'ish' gives me some breathing room.

Progress in Pictures

"Random Pictures" would be an appropriate title, too, but "Progress..." sounds much better, huh?

Up until last weekend, the toilet sat in the middle of the bathroom floor:


And then I snapped this glamorous shot of PC setting the toilet (yes, I said setting and not sitting; he's sitting on a bucket):

If you look closely, you'll see that he's eating an ice cream bar. Eating ice cream over a brand new toilet is just one of the many fun things we've been able to do in preparation for opening.
It's a very nice toilet, too; it's one of those 'whooshy' fast-flushers (that's the scientific term).

Here's the view from down the street:

The ubiquitous mess in the parking lot is fast approaching its final days; parking lot clean-up is scheduled at the end of the 'To-do to Open' List.

The sawhorses in the entryway are nearing an end, too. There's some final trim work to do that requires sawing and that's about it (finally).


However, we still have the occasional pile of miscellaneous tools/parts. Fortunately, these jumbles are mostly growing in the closets:


That's it for now.
More soon.

The Espresso Machine is Here!

This is a picture I snapped when the installers first unpacked it and set it on the counter last week:


Now that it smells like coffee inside, I know we're getting close!

Countertops

The cabinet bases were built and ready for counter tops:


Here's the first piece:


Second piece:


It really made a difference in the feel of the building to have finished counter tops.


They look good, too:


There's still a bit of painting left to do (the section around the front door inside and touch-ups), wood staining and sealing, and trim finishing and caulking.

It's coming together.
Yesterday the espresso machine was installed. And, as usual, I don't have the pictures ready to put up yet.
Next time.

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.

Menu Board - Opening Special

I have a ton of random pictures, but I figured you were probably sick of them by now.
Instead of randomness, here's something that speaks for itself:


Progress!
I have a ton of pictures of cabinet building, equipment, menu board installation, random jumbled messes, pizza crust, and the bathroom, but the "Opening Special" is the closest I have to proof of "very close to opening."

The countertops will be installed today! I'll take a ton of pictures (and try to post them before they get old).

More Random Picture

Here's a quick post in the spirit of trying to keep up with the blog even if it means posting old pictures:



These next ones are a little bit newer; the saws are a good representation of what is happening inside (I will post new inside pictures soon):






Here's where the wood scraps go:





The countertop comes next week and the espresso machine will be here the week of the 8th!

I've had an incredible response to the tiny 'Now Taking Applications' ad in the Mountain Stateman (Thank you!).

I also have a new sign that will go up this weekend with others soon to follow....

Random Pictures

As usual, these pictures are old.
I do have newer ones, but I haven't uploaded them yet.

Blogging is sporadic and will continue to be sparse until sometime after opening.

Front door:



Kids in box:



Feet:



Dragonfly (?):



Here's a really old one - the hole in the wall before the front door was installed:

6-8 Weeks from Opening

Thank you to all of you regular blog readers who come over here to check and see if I've posted anything new.
There is a whole lot of new stuff going on, but I can't seem to find the time to blog.
However, looking on the bright side of things, if I'm busy not blogging, you can be assured that I am busy getting ready to open.

Ceiling Fans

Concrete (hopefully this is the last post about concrete for quite a while), back door view, and fire

It has been 3-4 weeks since we poured this back patio:


This is at the rear of the building, a level up from the parking lot.
The concrete truck parked up in the alley and we carried the cement down in 5 gallon buckets. There were four of us (we could have used another person or two) and it was hard, sweaty work. This is, again, water control. And it's a nice shady resting spot, too, that will be the beginning of the hillside seating area.

See the small concrete pad here?


That's for the air conditioner:

It sure feel nice inside!

Walking over to the other corner of the building, still standing on the concrete, this is the view:


The roof is actually red now, and I'll get those pictures up soon, but here it's still tar paper.
You can see the door in the back of PC's truck. In the previous post there was a picture of the door after it was unloaded, so I'm chronologically upside down. Soon I'll post a picture of the door where it's supposed to be...


Just a few minutes later, the fire trucks screamed through town to put out this fire:


It must have been a huge fire because I could see flames from here!


But the fire department(s) had it under control pretty quickly, because it didn't last long.

Thank goodness.

Front Door, Bathroom Sink, Ceiling Fans, Water Heater, & More Kid Entertainment

Things are starting to come together!
As always, I have tons of pictures that need to be posted (yes, I'm back to snapping) and if you've driven down Main Street recently, you'll know that I'm far behind with posting (as usual).

Before I get to the miscellaneous pictures, I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to stop by and see, or simply comment on, our progress. All comments about the new roof and door have been positive -except for one and I think it's safe to assume the guy who thought a green or purple front door would compliment the red roof was joking.

If you haven't driven by lately, the front door is where it's supposed to be now.
And I don't have a picture of it.
I do, however, have this picture of it when it was inside -before installation:



The bathroom sink is actually in the kitchen right now (until the plumbing is finished in the bathroom):



The ceiling fans are on the floor. Or at least in this next picture they are. We've made progress since this picture, too, and they are on the ceiling and functioning (and they look great)!



I hauled the water heater in my kid-mobile. It had to wear a seat belt just like everyone else:



And the kids are building a whole new family (complete with dog and gorilla, though the gorilla didn't make it into this picture):



We are still on track to open in September.
We feel the same anticipation as the person who, while driving past this morning, hollered out the window, "Where's my Coffee?"
We're getting very, very close!

Sidewalk Warning

This is old news, but it's funny enough to revisit...

I love digital cameras for many reasons, but automatically dated photo files have to be one of the major advantages.
I'm one of those people, before digital photography, who developed a roll of film, looked at the pictures, and then dumped them into a box with the intention of putting them into a photo album at some future, unspecified time. That future, unspecified time never seemed to arrive, and I added to my intentions with thoughts of flawless chronology and scrap-booking artistry, which, of course, only pushed that elusive unspecified time further into the future.
Ha!
And then enter the digital camera. Pictures are automatically developed as soon as I upload them so I can look and dump even more quickly. Only instead of into a box, I dump them into a virtual file folder, so I'm not collecting dust and taking up space (or not much) and I feel much more organized because of it. AND the picture automatically tells me when it was taken so that my dreams of flawless chronology have finally come true!
So, for that reason alone, I am able to say that this picture was taken in April, almost exactly three months ago:

It's Dozer's finger pointing at a crack in the sidewalk.
Why?
Well, before I get to that, I should point out the white crud on the fingernail and knuckle.
It's drywall mud.
Prior to automatic picture dating, I would have looked at the drywall mud on the little hand in this picture and then tried to figure out the approximate time period of drywall mudding and at which stage I would have welcomed help from the kids and then used that information to figure out when this picture was taken.
Not very efficient, huh? (I hope I'm not the only one who does stupid stuff like that).

He's pointing at an ant house.
It doesn't qualify as an ant hill, because it's not big enough, so the kids named it the ant house.
Actually, there are two entrances (or an entrance and an exit?) and they did a good job of drawing attention to the two holes with sidewalk chalk:

"Watch out for Ant homes."
This message was intended to deter pedestrians from unknowingly stepping on the ants.

With arrows added for clarity:


And then they decided that the little ants needed some help with their food supply:


Potato chips and sandwich crusts.



The care, feeding, and observation of these ants kept both Dozer and Screech occupied for most of the day.
Of course, I got to watch for a while, too, and I have to say that it is very satisfying and fascinating to sit on the sidewalk and watch those tiny little critters team up and tear up hunks of food into pieces that will fit into their ant home.

So, don't forget, "Please be nice to ants:"


Update:
Now that summer is here and the sun is hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk, the ants are nowhere to be found and the kids have been forced to find other forms of entertainment....