As Time Goes On...and on...and on...

Well, it's been a bit since I've updated you on anything.  Not that I haven't had anything to say or show, but I've just been soooo busy.  I try to be at work early and am at work all day long.  Then, since March starts up High School Softball, I've been umping games in the afternoon/evening.  Once I get home, I'm working out various details for my restaurant...changes in floor plans, changes in my bathrooms to meet occupancy and ADA requirements, looking at various bids for my equipment, working on funding and financing...time has just marched right on by without my permission.

So, I signed my lease at the end of Feb (Feb 28) - THAT WAS A GREAT DAY!!!  I mean, I was really going to do this - no backing out now.  I wasn't thinking about backing out at all - I wanted to keep moving forward!!  I ordered a 'coming soon' sign - it took me a week or so to do that...I was initially thinking that I would go through my Coca Cola rep to get a banner (I could have gotten one for free through them) but decided that I wanted to use the banner just for me and not to take part of it up with a Coke logo.

So banner ordered...we were so excited and couldn't wait to put it up!!!  Well, it still isn't up...I know I know.  Actually, we do have a fairly good reason, and a strange one at that.  In order to put the banner up, we'll need to actually attach it to the building...screw it into the stucco on the front of the building.  Well, with the Zion's Bank Building being a Brand New multi-million dollar building, I don't want to be the one that just screwed up their building so I started the process of getting bids for my logo.  So here's the strange part of the issue - I put out three different bids and not one of them responded in over 1 1/2 weeks.  I would have thought that with the economy, any potential lead for a sale would be welcomed! - I had no responses.  Anyway, I finally contacted someone else and they had a bid back to me the next day - way to go!!  So now, I know where I will be putting my outdoor signage so I can finally put my banner up...pending all this crazy weather we are having.

I've also had to go through my plans again and again...and I think we finally have it nailed down:

Pretty exciting stuff - huh?...well, I think it is.  However, we still don't have everything needed to submit all the plans to the city.  We still need Mechanical (Heating and Air) plans, Electrical plans, Plumbing plans, and Hood plans.  So really, the phase that I've been in during this last month has been one of 'hurry up and wait'. 

So, not much has 'visibly' gone on over this past month, but plenty 'behind-the-scenes' work has been taking place.  To me, all of this stuff is new - I'm not a builder or planner.  My specialty is running the restaurant and cooking and meeting my customers and such.  That's the part I can really sink my teeth into.  I understand all this other stuff (to a point) and realize why it needs to be done - in fact, I had fun doing the actual floor plan as the plan above really is my design (with varying input and mandates like ADA requirements).  But in the end, let's just get my doors open so I can do what I wanted to for some time...let me get into that kitchen and start cooking!

The good news? - I think we'll see some good movement on a lot of things this month of April.  In fact, I'll go as far to say that by the end of this month, things will be looking good and I'll be well on my way to opening my doors...and I'm still hopeful for the end of May.  I have more pictures to post so I'll try and keep this more current from this point on.

Empty Space...needs filling!!

Well, it's been some time since I've written - my bad.  It seems that for the moment, I'm working three different jobs...and I thought working two was bad enough.  I'm still working my normal full-time job - I work for a software company and do, well, a little bit of everything and it keeps my busy throughout the day...and then some.  My second job - umping High School Fastpitch Softball.  It's fun and I enjoy it but it does take up some time.  My third job? - that's getting my restaurant going.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, there's a lot to do - more than what I had initially thought.  It's not anything too overwhelming, but there is a lot to be done.  In fact, I just met today with an interior designer about color scheme and such.  Floor plan, colors, decor, equipment, menu...the list goes on and on and on.  Right now, the most pressing item is finalizing the floor plans and getting them to the city for approval. 

Now, it would seem that finalizing plans wouldn't be too big of a problem...only it's more than 'just' a floor plan.  If that's all it was, I'd have had that turned into the city for approval and we'd have started building already.  However, since my square footage is over 3,000 SF, I have to have the floor plans done up by an architect along with mechanical plans, plumbing, electrical, and hoods.  I'm hoping that we'll get that completed sometime this week and turned into the city.

As for the space? - that's all it is at the moment - just empty space.

I'm hoping that we'll start filling this space as soon as possible - I'll take pictures along the way so you can see the progression.

This is the front of my location.  If you take the first set of windows directly in front of the parked van on the right, my space is from that set of windows and over four more sets (to the left) for a total of five sets of windows.  Though the doors are shown in the 2nd and 3rd set (going from right to left), we're moving the doors to the 4th and 5th set (with the 4th being the main entrance to the restaurant itself and the 5th being the entrance to the bakery).

Anyway, it's taking a bit to get all the plans ready to submit to the city, but as I've always told my kids..."patience is a virtue".