Buzzing Out

We played with our new espresso machine tonight and got all buzzed out, which makes us even more anxious for our last step to fall into place.

We're waiting for Puget Sound Energy to install our gas meter, which we put in our application on October 3rd. Not sure why anything should take this long, but we're trying to be patient. We don't know what to expect with inspections, but we're crossing our fingers for the best.

So instead of baking pies for Sugar this Thanksgiving, I'll be hosting Thanksgiving at our house. I'm really happy about this because last year's Thanksgiving was really tough...my husband was on his third cycle of Chemotherapy and he was really nauseous. We finished his treatment mid-day, and then came home and tried to have a semblance of celebration. His dad insisted on bringing by some of their leftovers, but it just wasn't the same as sitting at the table with people you like and just "giving thanks" to have them as friends and family. I suppose Thanksgiving is the one holiday I honestly like, because the concept is so simple, just appreciate living, have good food, and smile that you made it this far. It's a lot better than Christmas, which gets all mixed up in the whole "what did you get?" thing.

So I'm Thankful I suppose that some day the bakery will open, but still, still, we can't really say when. We're paying rent and losing money, but a little creative energy will help us surmount that obstacle. Instead of concentrating on the holiday season we've missed out on with the bakery, I'm putting my thoughts to the future, and all the great things Sugar will do when we open.

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.

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

Today I walked down to the Department of Health and walked my APPROVED plans back to the Department of Planning and Development. Turns out walking your plans from place to place really speeds things along. Another thing that works with the city is not to talk too much, and if you do talk, definitely throw some names, saying things like "John Doe wanted me to do it this way". And you have to say it with conviction like if you don't do it John Doe's way, you're going to get in trouble, not the other way where you sound all defensive.

Anyway, my brother came up last weekend and we started building cabinets and getting the space all prepped for paint. Luckily, those are two things you CAN do without a permit, so we jumped at the chance. However, our string of lights is probably not up to code. Shhh! He has been doing a phenomenal job, and the space is looking really really great. He's back with a friend this weekend and they're going to finish the work. Monday, plumbing resumes. Finally, I will have a bathroom again!

Moving Mountains

Funny thing after going through such a major ordeal like cancer is after your body recovers, your mind takes a while to catch up. Sure I didn't actually go through chemo myself, but being so close to my husband while he was only able to lie on the couch barely able to make it to the toilet was sort of like feeling that nausea myself. Thankfully, that chapter is over and we're supposed to be healing, starting over, cherishing every moment and such but what's happening instead is we have this strange desire to ask for special treatment every time something doesn't go our way. I guess you call that being a victim. I can tell you that after doing it for almost the last year it doesn't really pay off. Of course other people care about you to some extent, but they aren't going to waive late charges just because we're too disorganized to pay our bills on time, and they certainly aren't going to give us special treatment at the city to push our permits through faster. I know, I know the city is slow and they do have their own issues that are fair game to rail on. But nobody is going to have pity on us, because it's not THEIR life, it's our life.

It's been about a year since my husband went in for emergency surgery starting the whole cascade of events leading to the discovery that his cancer had spread. It's been a very long year, but now it's a new year, time to change. Time to move mountains.

I made a list of everything I can do WITHOUT my permit from the city and we got to work. We finished our demo of the space and cleared out most of the rubble. We got some crazies from Craig's list lined up to take the scrap metal and I'm thinking about paint colors. My brother's flying up from non other than Cool, California (yes, it's an actual place!) to help build our case. I'm still working on the new banker, but I think I have only a few details to send her way, and we'll finally have funding to be able to finance this puppy.

I feel much more comfortable breaking up such a big undertaking into small manageable jobs. It took me, my husband, his dad and stepmom a grand total of 27 minutes to move a huge pile of concrete rubble in small buckets. I think that's a sign of things to come.