Keeps getting weirder.

"We'll put a stop to your worries one PENETRATION at a time."

That, folks is my electrician's biline. I don't think I need to tell you any more about how THAT is going.

Sneak Preview

Friday was absolutely crazy. We got a bit of a late start and then were stuck in traffic almost all the way to the kitchen, I realized we forgot a whole bag of tools and supplies in our other car. John dropped me off and went back home to pick it up, but on the way out of the parking lot, he scratched the tire on a big tractor that was doing some ditch digging and it popped. He grabbed our painter's truck and gave me the motor club card so I could call for a tow. Meanwhile, i tried to pick up the space, but kept getting interrupted by the electrician calling, followed by credit card companies and such. As soon as the tow truck driver arrived, and we were out looking for the special tool to get the spare tire from under our "fancy european but now trashed minivan", the gentle rain became a torrential downpour, and I ran back to the kitchen to grab another sweatshirt to try to stay somewhat dry. Puddles were forming all around us as I ran back and forth signing this and helping with this. I ran back into the bakery and took a deep breath, had a good laugh with our painter about all hell breaking loose. He's such a mellow guy he just continued to paint while I tried to clear the floor so we could lay some tile.

I tried sweeping, but that just kicked up the dust. The brush attachment from the vacuum that we brought to the kitchen especially to vacuum the floor was unfortunately in the car with the flat tire on its way to Les Schwab to get fixed. We had also forgot to buy a mop for the bakery the previous night, so I ran over to Bartell and grabbed two of their biggest mops, tried to mop with them, but they proved to be completely ineffective on the concrete covered with layers of glue and such. I decided to hose the place down, and try to sweep the water out, but quickly learned our floor had a slope in the wrong direction, and was fighting an uphill battle with the water. I pulled out the shop vac to suck up the rest of the puddles, but then noticed the paper and glue from the linoleum was peeling up. So then we were back on our hands and knees (with cheep kneepads no less) stripping the floor of any loose material to begin the sweeping all over again. Phew.

Time was ticking and if we wanted to get the tile dry by the time equipment started arriving on Tuesday, we'd have to get some sort of heater, so John rented one, and when he got back, we went to lunch and took a deep breath.

We started tiling late into the afternoon, and by the time we were done with 1/3 of the space, we were losing it, our cuts were coming out just completely wonky, we were losing tools left and right. It was time to quit for the day.

Suprisingly, the next day worked out fabulous, and once we got over our sore limbs, we were back in business and getting into a groove. The tile went into the bathroom in like 20 minutes flat! Today we do the grout, which will hopefully be dry by tuesday. We're definitely going to cover that floor up to protect it though!

Today is grout day, and once that's done we're down to a few last minute details on our part f the construction. We're still waiting on a permit for the hood, and plumbing needs to finish up and electrical needs to start, but it's coming together.

Our target date? We're going to stop predicting. We're opening as soon as we can. It's going to be worth the wait, I promise!

betty crocker

Allow me to introduce our dog Betty Crocker. She hasn't had a walk in almost a week, and although she tries to be patient with us, she is still moping around a bit, and letting out a big sigh when she plops back down on the couch when she realizes I'm leaving.

It's just lately, my schedule has been a bit irregular. This week is really packed with getting the concrete in so we can lay the tile so we can get our equipment delivered. Not to mention there's a huge sewer project going on in the alley adjacent to our space which is going to make delivery challenging to say the very least.

However through all this chaos, Betty has had the pleasure of taste-testing a peanut butter snickerdoodle. A couple of weeks back she snuck up to the kitchen counter and nabbed some energy bars I had been experimenting with. Without restraint, she ate the whole pan and needless to say was a bit sick for a day or so. These energy bars are really fabulous, and we're going to have to call them Betty Bars. They're good for breakfast on the go, or a healthy snack. Yum.

the walls are pink

When I said I picked up my APPROVED plans from the health department a few weeks back I think I spoke too soon. I forgot to give the City just one more chance to cause a delay. They decided to misplace the plans for about a week, telling me a different story every time I called, passing me off to bogus supervisors, until finally I called the Mayor's hotline and was put right through to the person who gave my plans to the right person. We could not call for an inspection until we had the approved plans so we were just sitting around in dirt.

So I quickly called for a plumbing inspection on the rough-in (that's the part that's underground). Because my new plumbers rock, we of course were approved and tomorrow we get to put the dirt back in the hole, fill it with concrete, and then lay our tile floor. We were originally going to paint, but then we suspected there might be asbestos leftover from the floor tiles we popped off so instead of getting into abatement and such which could cause further delays, we decided tile was a better option, plus we've done it before and it will be much more durable than any paint would be.

Meanwhile, I've been prepping the walls and painting. The plaster is really sketchy so in some areas I had to roll the paint very lightly so that the wall wouldn't flake off! I think the primer is holding it together. I'll do the other half (the dirt half) later and give my buns a rest from trapsing up and down the ladder to reach the high ceilings.

So the place is really quickly shaping up. When are we opening? Depending on the last remaining possible bottlenecks, the gas install and the ventilation hood install (waiting for permits of course ;) we're hoping for the first week in November. Hard to promise, but we're working out butts off to get open.