Finally some real progress!

It has been a really frustrating winter for us. The project was moving along pretty nicely until October, but then the contractors got into a dispute and work almost stopped. The general contractor decided to switch one of the main subcontractors, and the switch gave us a big delay. Nothing got done in December and January, and it has taken a long time for the new team to get up to speed.

The good news is that things are moving again. This week the interior walls are almost complete, the utilities are in, the mezzanine has been constructed. Next week the windows and exterior doors should be here, giving the building some security.

Every time I go to the house, the addition of the new walls makes the space feel a little less open. We always knew we were working with a small space, but now we can feel it. The decision to remove part of the first floor and open the overhead space above the bar area was genius. Without that choice the bar would have felt like a cave. As it is, it will be a long and thin space, but there will be multiple environments focused around the double high ceiling and looking onto the bar. Now that we can walk around the space and see how it feels we can start on some of the details of decoration.

Outside of the house, we have been hard at work designing the physical bar furniture and equipment layout. We have some restaurant experience, but none of us have worked in a bar, so we are doing our homework to make sure the space is set up right.

And now, some pictures: