Saturday, February 28, 2015

Some Progress, and an Oven Move

The utilities and walls are now mostly finished. Almost all the walls have been framed except for one because the pizza oven needed to be moved first.  When when we originally brought the oven on site, we used the crane, but the crane could only get it to the first floor. Moving the oven from the first floor to the ground floor was left for another time.

The oven is REALLY heavy (1,000 kg), and cannot be disassembled. It is so large that it wouldn't fit though the door which is why we used the crane to put it inside before the roof was finished.  Having it inside was an important step, but we still had to move it to the ground floor (about 4 meters down). We discussed several possible solutions, but ultimately decided on a simple chain hoist, and 5 people to push and steady it with ropes.





I know in the world of engineering, 1,000 kilos is not really a lot, but it was enough for me...  I wouldn't want it to fall on my head!

We had to attach the chain hoist to a second position to get the oven down to the ground. There were some nervous moments, but ultimately, we got it down without even a scratch.





Thursday, February 5, 2015

Getting Busy, Inside and Outside

Construction continues on the house.  The have been framing walls and putting in utilities in the apartment above the bar. Some pictures below:


Outside the house, we have started to get very busy preparing to open the bar. Meetings with the accountant, lawyer, and distributors - also shopping for furniture, equipment, decoration etc.  It's a lot of work, and it's not always easy, but every step we take brings us a little closer to opening the doors. As we nail down more and more details, the look and feel of TerraPlana is starting to become more clear to us, and that is exciting. Although there is still some uncertainty about when we will open, we are moving, and as long as we do not run into a major unforeseen issue (or tragedy) we should definitely be serving drinks by the end of summer (maybe at the beginning).