Two weeks have gone by...

Wow, two weeks really fly by when you are working 18-24 hours per day, seven days a week...

Tracy and I have both really been busy. Here is an update:
Construction - we passed our final building inspection today! Not all is done, though. We have to obtain a longer ADA grab bar for the men's bathroom. The required length does not fit. Our plumbers ran the bathroom vent line and the mopsink vent line up the bathroom wall, and placed the vents right where the ADA bar goes. I have to buy an extra long bar to span across the vent pipes. I still have to mill solid oak rough lumber into transition strips where the tile meets wood, and at the front door entry ways. I still have to make the counter height seating for the front windows, as well as finish one table and build a third from start to finish. I think that is it, though...

As for operations, we still have a few things to finish up. I just finished installing our DSL modem and setting up a secure network between our office computer and our POS computer. I still need to hang the menu boards (three of them, and they weigh 70 pounds each). The wall we are hanging them on is 5/8" drywall that was liquid nailed to the exterior CMU wall. The cinder blocks were not filled with concrete and are hollow, so nothing wants to hold, especially heavy things. We have to drill through the sheetrock and cinder block, then set a lead expansion sleeve and wedge it very tightly with shims, then secure the menu boards with 1/2" lag screws. This is what we found works well, but it is a pain...

Our plumbers set our floor sink for the espresso machine right where the right front wheel of our 60" undercounter fridge sits. The refrigerator weighs 325 lbs empty! Ryan welded a really cool 1 1/2" unistrut frame for it to sit on (instead of on it's wheels, which we removed). The frame Ryan built is on heavy duty casters and offsets the wheels to clear the floor sink. We did laminate countertops for now since we didn't have the time to complete concrete countertops. The guy who built them for us used a single layer of 3/4" particleboard, which makes them really weak. Our espresso machine weighs around 300 lbs without water in it, and sits over the 61.5" span above the refrigerator. We told the countertop guy about the weight that will sit on this span, and he was supposed to make them strong enough. After he finished his install, you could flex the countertop up and down about 1.5" at the center of the span with just light hand pressure. The espresso machine would have caused it to collapse. Ryan welded a steel support for the countertop span from 1 1/2" unistrut, and made the cart/frame for the fridge to fit underneath. All was perfect, until we read the instructions for the fridge. It said the unit would fail within two weeks of operation if the air curtain and filter were not installed properly. I checked, and they were not installed at all. The vendor came and installed them, which added 1/2" to the underside of the fridge frame (for the filter brackets). After putting it back on Ryan's cart, it would no longer fit under the counter, and was binding on the metal support we added for the countertops. Ryan is welding up a new support tonight out of two sticks of 1" stock and we will swap it out tomorrow. That should fix that problem.

Our electrical engineer listed our espresso machine as a 20amp circuit, instead of 30 like we told him, and like the cutsheets for the equipment called for. They also called for the brewer to be three phase, four wire instead of single phase, four wire. The espresso machine was an easy fix, as the electricians pulled conductors rated for 30 amps through the wall. It was just a simple swap of the outlet and plug for the espresso machine. The electricians installed the male plug on the brewer, and plugged it in! (Electricians NEVER plug in equipment, EVER, EVER, EVER...). The three phase power blew up our twin brewer. Bummer... Maric Beverage Systems troubleshot it and found the main CPU board to be fried, as well as a heating element control solenoid. They obtained the new parts and installed them, and sent a repair bill to our electricians. I feel bad for them, because they got us up an running and did a great job with the new electrical service. But, Electricians NEVER, EVER plug in equipment, or they wind up paying for repairs if it is damaged.

We hired five partners to start with. They are Michelle, Nichole, Pam, Dion, and Artie. I'll post some quick bios and photos later once they have worked some shifts and I have some photos of them in action.

We have our Health Dept inspection tomorrow at 1:00pm.
Things I have to do before then...
1-finish milling the floor transition strips
2-install baseboard trim in a few last places (about 60 linear feet)
3-caulk some baseboard trim I installed yesterday, and the stuff I am installing tomorrow
4-get paper towel dispensers installed in the bathrooms, the back room, and in the bar area
5-epoxy coat the back room floor, and the floor in the storage room
6-linseed oil finish on several wood components in the store.

Well, it is 10:00 pm...
I need to clean the espresso machine, straighten up the POS station (Tracy is training our partners from 6:00am to 8:00am tomorrow).

Gotta go...
Take care,
JD