A New Project

  I have been anxious to blog about this new project, but the wheels were turning a little slowly and I didn't want to start posting and then have huge lapses because we were at a standstill.
However, it's looking like full steam ahead now, and I feel more comfortable talking about this place without jinxing it.

A friend purchased this building with the intention of turning it into a restaurant.  The building housed varied businesses since it was built in 1927.  But the most recent was a hair salon on the first floor with two efficiency apartments on the second.  Those apartments were being used as office space when my friend, Victor, purchased the building.  Notice to vacate had to be given to the upstairs tenants.  Then time allowed for them to relocate before demolition could begin.  But that waiting time was well spent hiring an architect, a kitchen planner, and a contractor and working out the plans with all three.

 Finally the tear out  began. That included removing three kitchens and three bathrooms as well as all the dividing walls and closet areas.

Turns out more demolition was required than originally planned.  Because of the need for a sprinkler system, the entire ceiling on the second floor needed to be removed.  (a rather long and boring story that I'll skip over here)

Insulation from the attic space.

No one needs to see thirty pictures of debris to know this was a messy and time consuming job.  Once the walls were removed on the second floor, it changed how we visualized the space.  So a few of the plans went back to the drawing board.

The stairway to the second floor starts a few feet inside the front of the building and cuts the building in half until it reaches the top.  That is roughly dead center of the entire space.

This is the view from the top looking down to the front door.  Until demo began that was was the access for the second floor business/apartments.  There was no way to get from floor to floor from the inside of the building.

The access door to the second floor was through the arched opening.  The turquoise doors lead into each side of the first floor.  Although once you get far enough inside to be past the staircase the first floor opens up with access to both sides.  The plan is to keep the middle door but make it non- functional.  Because it is glass it lets in light and provides interest at the base of the stairs.  From the outside the niche could be used as a wait station for servicing patrons who are dining outside.

Not a great photo but you can see the depth of the entry here.  The door may have to be move about 14" closer to the front of the building to make a wider area for patrons to access the stairs.

This is a shot of the left side of the first floor looking towards the back of the building.

This is the same space looking from the back of the building to the front.

This shows the back of the first floor.  The stairs end right at that sharp inside corner on the right side of the photo.  This is also where the entrance to the basement stairs is located.  The area behind the orange line on the floor will be kitchen.  There will also be prep and storage areas in the basement.

This photo shows the two bathrooms outlined in orange just to the left of the kitchen

This is the first floor taken from the space that will be the kitchen.  Behind the support pole in the center you can see the door to the basement.

A closeup shot of the corner windows on the west side of the first floor.

This photo taken on the second floor and looking towards the front of the building shows the area that will become the bar.  So basically the area behind those uprights will be bar area.  It will be accessible from the area by the windows as well as the area to the left of the stairs.

Hugging the same wall but closer to the middle/back of the building will be a satellite kitchen and behind that a bathroom.  The kitchen is mostly for receiving food via the dumb waiter from the kitchen below.

This view is from the bathroom looking towards the bar area.

Second floor, looking towards the back. (bar area on the right)

Second floor, looking towards the front.

I think that covers the space.  I just want to point out one more feature.

The first floor has a tin ceiling in the area to the right of the stairs. 

The next phase is to install the sprinkler system.  Not the most exciting material for a post so  hopefully there will be some decor decisions to talk about.

Just as I was about to publish this post, we had more significant delays.  Menu ideas were debated and many changes were made to the kitchen plans.  I'll talk about those changes and show the updates in the next post.