Here we go....
Before we started doing any work, we wanted to do some "before" stuff. I had planned to do a live walk-through on Facebook Friday evening, but I didn't get a chance to wander through much during the day to get prepared, including figuring out the lights. I believed they were on a breaker, but all the breakers seemed to be fine so I wanted to get some new bulbs to try. However, by the time I discovered this, all the stores in town were closed. So, I pushed the live event back to Saturday evening.
By Saturday evening, I was more prepared, but still hadn't figured out the lights for the two large rooms - the new bulbs didn't fix the problem. So I adjusted the spot lights that were working to provide the best lighting I could and went for it anyway. I was planning on starting to move stuff in on Sunday.
(Bare with me, I need to get a better at videos!)
I also went through the entire building and took "before" photos - nearly 200 in total. You'll get to see many of those throughout the build-out process, I'm sure!
Sunday came and it was time to get several things I had in storage units moved in to the store. I'm not ready to use them yet, but why pay storage fees when I have a lot of extra room I'm not using anyway. This included several large (and very heavy) display cases, a refrigerator, freezer, gas stove, prep table cooler, and dishwasher.
There are a few big Thank You's I want to send out.
Thank you to Rachel Witt for working with me and being so patient. We've been working to get this building for around 10 months now! She has also gone above and beyond expectations to help me get the building, has included many items with the building that will help me along, and is/has cleaned up beyond what is necessary for someone to do after the building has already been sold.
Thank you to Jones Air Conditioning for cutting us some pipes to roll the display cases on.
Thank you to Randy Gilsdorf for securing a trailer as well as helping move and Derek Olberding, my mom, Vernell Schutte, and my sister, Danielle Schutte, for also helping to move all of this equipment.
Through the week, I explored the building a lot to see what all was where, hidden rooms, what controlled what, etc. I also started my first, simple project that I believe I will have to do to get a food license. There now has to be an air gap in the drain of whatever sinks you're going to use as a prep sink. There currently was not one.
I originally planned on putting the air gap on the right sink drain since, to me, it seemed like the logical side to put it looking at the drain pipes, especially considering the dishwasher drains in to the left side.
I forgot to take a before - the right side was originally attached
I ran in to problem after problem. These drain pipes aren't the same standard size as the PVC pipes that have the reducer (the cup to catch the water). So when the drain pipe said right on it that it was 1 1/2" and I got the 3" to 1 1/2" reducer, it slid right through the hole. Drain pipe under a sink is measured "inside dimension", whereas the regular PVC drain pipe is measure "outside diameter."
I finally figured out I could use a rubber reducer to go from the 1 1/2" outside diameter to the 1 1/2" insider diameter. First problem solved.
I am sitting at my store looking at the parts I have thinking that I figured it out, only to realize that the reducer itself is nearly the full height of the pipe I had taken off and was going to cut for the drain. I still had to have 1" air gap AND the height of the rubber reducer AND the height of the pipe going between the two reducers. This wasn't going to work - now what?
I finally came up with the brilliant idea to put the air gap on the left drain instead of the right one and add in a second trap to get the pipe starting at a lower position. Once I came up with this idea, went to the stores for the 4th or 5th time, and tried my idea, it worked!!
I figured out how to get an air gap!
Another round of Thank You's are due. Thank You to
True Value and
Ace Hardware Farm & City Supply for putting up with me coming in, bugging you and picking your brains trying to figure out how to do this, as well as the parts to do it. And a extra Thank You to
Brett Keller at Farm & City Supply for not making me buy a full stick of 1 1/2" PVC for the 4 inches that I needed! :)
And finally, the last newsworthy, and slightly disappointing tidbit from this first week.
In the large back rooms on the main floor, the north side will be the kitchen, the south side will be comfortable seating, I was hoping to take the pegboard down to expose the brick walls on the outside walls. I thought this would be a neat look and you could see the brick above the peg board.
Turns out, once I removed the peg board, the brick was only just above it. Behind the peg board, there is a concrete type mixture on the wall. So much for the brick look! I was also hoping that when I took the peg board off the inside walls here, I would be greeted with a nice white wall like above the peg board there. Disappointment again. It's plain, unpainted drywall on the upper half, and what looks like glue from possibly carpet from when it was a theatre on the bottom half. But, these are easy enough to work with, just not what I had been hoping for.
When I took the first panel of peg board down, I found this. Does anyone know for sure who's name that is? I think I can read it, but not sure.
Our first week is down.... we have a long, looong way to go. But we're extremely excited to be doing this. Be sure to like our Facebook page so you know when we publish new blog posts and all the other great things we share on there.
And Thank YOU for taking the time to read through, follow us on our journey and support as in anyway you can. That is the best gift we could ask for!
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