Digging deeper

My crack team of architects and engineers have submitted plans to Tempe (almost a month late) and even more impressively delivered a set to me! For a while now we have had a permit for demolition but soon we can actually start building. But only after demolishing more than we expected however. Last week we had a visit from City of Tempe water department. Everyone I've met at the city so far has been extremely courteous and has gone out of their way to be helpful…. until the visit by the water department. Bottom line, without the gory details, is that we have to dig up about 25% of our kitchen floor to re route drain lines that are buried up to five feet deep. We have a giant jacuzzi-sized grease trap buried behind the building and certain pipes need to be routed to it to collect excess grease so it doesn't end up in the city sewer system. Unfortunately for us the code has changed as to which drains need to go there. Some of the work is reasonable and logical, but when it was pointed out to me that I have to spend thousands of dollars to plow up a perfectly tiled kitchen floor to install drains to collect the greasy residue from an ice machine and a lettuce washing sink, well its mindless bureaucracy at its worst.

That set me up for an unexpected inspection visit from the Tempe fire department. My jaw tightened when I drove up and saw the truck in the parking lot, but his demeanor was the polar opposite and he was nothing but helpful and constructive in helping me understand exactly what needed to be done. A smile and a handshake later I felt good about Tempe again. Now that I have plans I am scrambling to line up subs for concrete, wrought iron, a good technical guy to help with the electronics of the building (surveillance, phone, pos and sound systems) an upholsterer, and a welder (for stainless work) If anyone knows someone who fits the bill have them email me at AZjobpost@aol.com.

From the ground up

Let me tell you about the beautiful wood floors in our dining rooms. Well, actually they used to be beautiful many years ago. They are the genuine thing; thick natural strips of oak laid plank by plank, sanded smooth and finished in place. Its almost impossible to find a floor like this anymore outside of a private home so we were shocked when we peeled up the carpets and discovered them. Now to refinish them. I've complained about money before so it won't surprise you to know we had no money in the budget to bring in a professional to restore them. It takes peeling off the carpet, scraping off layers of glue, endless hours of sanding through the old varnish and stain, and finally restaining and varnishing. JVG convinced me that he and our crew could do the work ourselves. Looking back I realize it was the tightness of our budget talking to me and not his prowess as a finish craftsman. JVG has an unbelievable range of skills but fine finish work is not one of them. (He also has almost zero technical savvy so I can feel free trash talking him here where he will never know it) Anyway, after a week of dousing the floor with random solvents, scraping and mostly gouging the wood I put a halt to the action and placed an emergency ad on Craig's list and begin weeding my way through the 20 or so craftsmen who applied for the job within 24 hours of placing the ad. We settled on Earl from Winslow. More about the unusual nature of Earl in later posts, but after all was said and done he did an amazing job at an amazing price. He is finished with 75% of the floors in only a week and is coming back this weekend to finish the job (fingers firmly crossed) Pictures don't do it justice but the floors are gorgeous, maybe too gorgeous for humble old RigaTony's - but we'll let you be the judge.