Although we have had a few slow spots, our gut rehab project is moving along at a good clip these days. After focusing on basement concrete, underground plumbing and building structure this winter, the interior walls are finally starting to go up. In a couple weeks, we should be finished pouring the brewery and kitchen floors and will start to put our equipment in place. We lowered the brewery steam boiler into its final resting place last week and within minutes it was surrounded by metal studs with no chance of ever moving out in one piece.
The City of Chicago has been installing a 'green alley' in the back for the last three weeks, which is both good and bad. The old alley just dumped all of the rainwater into the city sewer system, increasing chances of a backflow problems when it rains hard like it did today. For the new green alley, they've dug an eight foot deep by four foot wide trench in the center the whole length of the alley. It was lined with landscape fabric and filled with large gravel to serve as a big pool to hold rainwater. They are in the midst of covering that all up with concrete and what look like 'fake' sewer grates which will just send water into the trench. If the trench fills all the way up, there are underground concrete cisterns at the end of the alley to send excess to the sewer.
Sounds like a neat way to build commercial alleys. We'll see how it performs soon enough, but for now the main downside is that we haven't had alley access for weeks. That's made it hard to get deliveries and to do our own concrete work. Today our concrete crew were a bit too creative in solving that problem. If we can't get it in the back, let's just cut a hole in the hardwood floor and drop it down to the basement from the front!
Earlier this week, the plumbers started laying pipe for the kitchen and bathrooms on the first floor as well as making future connections for the second floor space. Although we aren't opening the second floor right away, we are trying to minimize future disturbance required to get it open. Later this week, the masonry crew will return to finish tuckpointing all the places where the brickwork will be exposed including upstairs. Back in the middle of last century when it was home to a newspaper, our building was connected with the buildings on either side with passageways. Some were closed up over time, but in one spot only a piece of plywood lies between us and neighboring resale shop Threads Etc.. While I'm sure the family that owns Threads would prefer for us to install a special tap just for them, the hole is finally getting filled.
On the creative side of the project, I've been working away on our new sign. Along with our name, there will be a big stainless steel fist clenching a shaft of barley that will go above the front door. Still got to make a nice rusty star to go behind it. We've also hired someone to build our fancy new parallelogram-shaped bar. Thought about doing that myself and then thought better of that idea.