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.
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).
It has been a frustrating year end for us at TerraPlana. The construction work was targeted to end in November, and although we could see for a while that that date as not going to be met, we did not expect work to stop for nearly 2 months! It was all due to some serious issues with our contractor's main supplier.
Although our contractor has done a good job of keeping us in the loop, it's still been a very frustrating time. Our dream of having TerraPlana open for New Years is clearly passed (unless we are talking about Jan 1, 2016).
The good news is that the New Year has gotten off to a fresh start, and the work is underway again. The roof is FINALLY sealed to the elements with the final two exterior wall segments added.
With these walls added (and the elements sealed out), the pace should pick up nicely. I was on site today, and they had already framed most of the interior walls.
So, while we greatly regret the delay, we can at least report that TerraPlana is back on track towards a mid 2015 opening.
We haven't even opened, but we are already on the music scene. Last month, this bill showed up:
For those who don't know, Dead Combo is a very good contemporary Portuguese band from Lisbon. We went to the show last night, and they were awesome. The band consists of two fantastically talented guitarists. They play in a style ranging from folk to rock.
Their music is right in line with the feeling we want to create in TerraPlana, so it was strangely appropriate to host their poster for a few weeks.
First, sorry about the long delay getting a post up. I've been busy, and even out of town since the last update. Work on the house has continued, and the pace is actually increasing now that the roof is on:
There was a little delay getting the roof tiled because we have started to have a lot of rainy weather, which is normal this time of year. There are still a few walls to add upstairs and that will require some dry days, but in general the weather's effect on our schedule should be limited now.
Inside the house, there's been a lot of work on the ground floor and walls.
The water pipes and electric conduit for the ground floor are all done. Gas is next, but it looks like that may be a little more complicated then we had originally planned for. Next week we will have some meetings with the technical engineers regarding the gas connection. It turns out that our new oven will require some special work, and we are hoping it doesn't set us back too much time (or money).
Choosing an oven was a big deal for us. Where do you start? We investigated more then 5 different manufactures. Most of the ovens we saw were very large, and we have limited space, so that was one deciding factor. Naturally, we wanted an oven that would make a great pizza, and although different pizzarolis have different opinions, for us, the traditional stone baked hearth style oven seemed the best choice. Even narrowing it down that much still left us with a hard decision, but ultimately, we settled on Ambrogi, an Italian company with a long heritage.
The oven is a massive thing (about 1.5 meters diameter) and weighs about 1,000kg. The only option for getting it into the house was through the roof because there is no way to break it down, and our doors are not wide enough. That created a bit of a mad rush to get it here because the crane is not being used anymore and will probably be taken away in the next few days/weeks. Also, the contractor has lots of work to do inside, and is very keen to close the roof as soon as possible.
They tried to deliver the oven last Friday, but we weren't able to get it off the truck. This morning we went with a flat bed truck to pick it up. In spite of a little rain, we were able to get it here without too much trouble, but then the nervous moment came... hoisting a 1,000 kg oven!
I know that cranes hoisting heavy things is not really unusual (it is, in fact, their 'raison d'être'). However, the thought of something going wrong was ever present. Not only is the oven very expensive, but if it were to fall onto the house, it would become a very effective wrecking ball, and possibly killing machine too.
It's safe inside now, although it will have to be moved into final position. At the moment it is on the first floor (yes, our engineer gave the OK that the floor can hold it). We will have to lower it (without the crane) into it's final position which is only now being prepared. Which reminds me... The oven wasn't the only excitement today, we also got the ground floor poured:
The roof has been in the works for a few weeks now. Our plan calls for a traditional wood beam structure clad in red tile. The tiles are in fact required by the historical society. The structure could have been done in other materials, but we wanted wood so that we could leave the cross beams exposed.
Our engineer developed a plan using metal brackets to hold the beams together, but the roofer suggested to do the entire structure in a more traditional tongue in grove technique. The change had a few ramifications, but we were able to work out the details, and I'm really glad we did because the structure looks great!
We had a few rainy days over the past few weeks, and it slowed down the delivery a bit. Next month the rain will become more frequent and continue that way through to late February, so it's good news that they are putting the roof in now. At least they would be putting it in now, but we have to leave part of it open because we have a massive pizza oven on order and only way to get it into the building will be to lower it through the roof. It should be here on Friday, and I'll be sure to get some pictures of the delivery. Until then, here are a few more pictures of the roof structure in place, and a video of the beams coming in.
