Open a BBQ restaurant, they said. It will be fun, they said

Just BS said:

How's things coming along?

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I was going to post an update later this week when hopefully a few things get done, but overall things are moving frustratingly slowly.

Finding builders, contractors, or anyone willing to do work has been a huge roadblock. It's taken over three weeks to even get somebody to return my calls. I don't know if people are just too busy or what, but it's driving me crazy. A ventilation guy should be coming by in the morning to give me a quote on relocating the exhaust for the smoker, so that's a start.

Otherwise I've just been doing any work on the place myself that I can. I ended up and completely gutted the bathroom and am redoing that myself. Should be primed and ready to paint tomorrow or Tuesday. And we just got back from Lowe's and dropped off the new vanity, toilet, and a few other things to complete that job.

We also unloaded a pallet of flooring tonight that will be going in the dining room, but that is going to have to wait to go in because of the pending construction on that one interior wall.

The new sign outside should be installed early this week, which I'm excited about because when people drive by and see the new sign, that will get people talking. There is already a lot of talk and rumors floating around about the place, so I'm looking forward to the buzz it will generate.

So, hopefully later this week I'll have some pictures of the progress with the new sign, finished bathroom, etc. And hopefully have somebody committed to the construction and a better time table for completion.

As I've come to expect, the HVAC guy never showed up this morning like he said. So now I get to play phone tag and listen to excuses and try to set up another time.

And another surprise this morning, I pulled in and noticed my dumpster is gone. The trash company apparently removed the wrong one. There's another dumpster out back by the barn that the previous owners had brought in to clean out the barn and it's still there.

It's always something. But the good news is the new floor is going to look great in the dining room, especially with all the natural light the building has.

Slamdunkpro said:

You may have already discovered this but you can't get yellow carpet adhesive up with a grinder, the mastic just gets soft and gums up the stones. This is what we used when I did my office space. It turned a 5 day job into a half day job.

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Thanks for the tip on this product. I don't think I'm going to need to go that route, but it's nice to know there's something out there. I was able to use the scraper to even out any major imperfections. And now with the floating floor and pad, hopefully I'll be good to go.

And in other news, just another day of unpleasant surprises. Ventilation guy finally showed up today, but didn't have much good news for me. The smoker simply cannot go where I had planned on thanks to all of the immovable, or incredibly expensive to move duct work directly above my proposed location.

There's only one other place to put it and that's on the opposite wall. And of course, that was all laid out for all the fountain machine equipment, CO2 tanks, etc. In fact, all the lines were already plumbed and ready to go from the last place, so reconfiguring that should be a fun project.

And the electrician is still MIA. Called the general contractor today and even he can't seem to track him down.

And of course, still no sign installed.

Overall, it's just been one of those weeks so far. But oh well, we're having a party here at the house this weekend and I'll get to cook a lot of BBQ, so that will help ease the pain.

Just a quick update since it's been a while. Frustration levels are high, though subsiding a bit after some progress this week. I am just amazed at the lack of customer service these builders/contractors/skilled trades people exhibit. How hard is it to return a phone call? How hard is it to spend 30 seconds firing off an email to explain why you missed your deadline/appointment? Drives me crazy.

Anyway, it's weeks late, but the replacement sign is up:



About as good as we could do given the size and dimensions of the panels. I still want to put a big sign right on the side of the building, but that will probably need to wait. But at least now the old restaurant sign is gone and people can now see that something new is coming into the space.

And since all these contractors keep dropping the ball, I was put in touch with an actual restaurant designer and consultant who's been doing this for nearly 40 years. He came out walked through everything and said he's going to bring one of his guys out hopefully tomorrow or this weekend to finalize some measurements and equipment needs. He said he could have the work done in about three weeks, so that's promising news at least.

He also blew my mind when he found a space that we could put a SP unit through the wall. That will save a ton in terms of having to relocate the existing exhaust, and save even more space in the kitchen by having the unit mostly housed outside, so I'm excited about that.

Oh, and I've pretty much finished the bathroom remodel and it looks a hundred times better. I'll try to snag some pics the next time I'm there.