Wednesday, October 25, 2006 

October 25th at McDyer's Publick House


We've started to lay the tiles for the kitchen floor. I purchased the quarry tiles at Home Depot for a very good price. Unfortunately, I think that the price is low because the tiles are not uniform. Some edges are concave, some are straight and some are crooked. Some tiles are about 1/18" larger than most. I'm doing a pretty good job in laying the tiles, but some gaps are uneven due to the variations in the tiles.

Dominion Power told me that they should be out the week of November 10th to provide us with the power that we need. That will push back our opening date until December 1st.

I've placed ads in the Washington Post and in the Northern Virginia Daily News for all positions. The response has been limited but I can live with that. Most applicants want to be a bartender or chef.





The plumber has started on installing the gas lines. Most of the basic plumbing work is complete until we install the toilets, sinks and such.


The flooring is being installed in the dining room. It looks like it will come out really well. Originally I wanted the flooring stained a dark color, such as mahogany. After the installation began I decided that I liked the character of the wood and wanted the worm holds, knots and such to be visible. We're just going to polyurethane the flooring after it is sanded.

Sunday, October 22, 2006 

Update with Pictures

Decided to hire drywall contractors to finish up the sheetrock work. Also need to hire contractors for siding and gutters.
No news from Dominion Power yet. I need to call them tomorrow.


Restrooms - ladies to the left, gents to the right.


View of dining area from the front door.


Today's view of the front. The papers in the windows are permits.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006 

Update - first post in 2 weeks

Sorry that I haven't posted for a while. I've been very busy.
First of all, the electric situation:
We received the paperwork from Dominion Power for the service upgrade to 400 amps on Monday last week. On Friday last week we turned in the notarized right of ways required for the upgrade. My next door neighbor also submitted a right of way since they need to move her power line when mine is moved. When we dropped off the paperwork the engineer said that they might be able to get the upgrade completed by the new year. What?!?!?! Yes, by the beginning of the new year. When I got home I called my electrician so he could use his professional powers of pursuasion to convince Dominion that I needed the electricity so I could actually have heat in the apartment and business. No heat in November and December means broken water lines. Yesterday, the engineer was out marking my driveway to indicate where the lines need to be placed. I asked him if that meant that I would have the power upgrade in the near future. He said that he turned it over to the construction people at Dominion with the statement that the upgrade is needed for heat and because my business is supposed to open in 3 weeks.
Other electricity: The HVAC and electricians have been busy. They've run most of the inside wiring and have all of the HVAC ducts in place. They should wrap up the wiring by Friday.
Plumbing issued: The plumber has us scheduled for tomorrow and Friday to wrap up the plumbing and gas issues.
Kitchen hood: The fire supression guy is supposed to be out next week to install the fire suppression equipment in the hood.
Flooring: Our hardwood floors will be installed next week.
Sheetrock: Still in progress.
Walk in refrigerator: A major set back. The eBay ad said that the walk in was to be 7 feet tall and 8 feet square. The vendor sent me production drawings to look at and I checked the wall dimensions since they were the most crucial. Everything looked fine. I overlooked the fact that the drawings showed the walls at 7 feet 7 inches. We started to assemble the walk in today and realized that our walls are 1 inch too short. After a quick disassembly of the walk in floor we tore down the sheetrock ceiling, cut 2 inches off of the 6 inch ceiling joists. Now we just have to reinsulate the ceiling and rehang the drywall. This sets us back 2 days.
Inspections: The building inspector showed up yesterday for a mechanical inspection. Neither the HVAC contractor nor I asked for the inspection we we made the assumption that the inspection was requested by the hood people. While the inspector was at our site I asked him to check the framing in the men's room since I was a little leary about the clear space for the wash basin. Good thing that I asked. We had to move the wall 1 1/2 inches in order to have a 30" clearance. We actually moved id 2 inches to give us a little cushion. He also thought that the bathroom didn't have enough clearance for wheelchair access but he took a measurement and found that we just made the limits.
New business cards came yesterday. They look pretty good.
We've moved a lot of large items into temporary storage in order to have room to work.
I was very lucky on eBay and purchased a used Robot Coupe food processor for only $350. Most on eBay have been going for $500 or more. This one has all of the attachments and says that it is in good working condition.
I purchased a Hoshizaki freezer on eBay to match the refrigerator that I purchased earlier. The seller just sent me a message that they are replacing the compressor because they tested it again just before shipment and found it to be faulty.
That's it for now. Pictures to come tomorrow.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006 

The pace is picking up

On Monday our wood flooring arrived! I've hired a local company to install the flooring. They're going to use 2", 3" and 5" red oak for the flooring. We're going for the rustic look. Installation will start on October 23, unless we can finish the dining area walls and duct work sooner.

Wood flooring and lots of it.


The walk in refrigerator also arrived on Monday. I've got to store it until we can finish the are where it will be located. We hope to have it set up by Friday.

Just a few of the 14 packages which will become my walk in refrigerator (8ft x 8 ft)


The walls to the kitchen and storage areas are now in place, complete with drywall.


The plumber is back on the job and has roughed out the plumbing for the new restrooms.


The electrican/HVAC group has been working everyday and is making a lot of progress with the duct work.



So far we've had 5 visits by the building inspectors and each one has been successful!