Where To Even Begin...

Where to even begin? Now that the repair work on the building has started, it's wild how quickly things are happening. It seems like every day there's a new surprise to be discovered. Here are a few of the latest...

Coming in at Surprise #21: there was waaaaay more rotten wood on the main level than anyone anticipated. Initially, the plan was to replace the wood around the entryway and front section of the store (i.e., the flooring over the well and cistern). However, upon removal of more flooring, it became apparent that the joists extending to the back were in dire need of repair, too. Disappointing? Yes, but not unexpected in a building this old.

However, we hadn't realized this surprise would affect the walk-in cooler along the back (north) wall. Surprise #22: since the floor had to go, the walk-in cooler had to go, too. It seems this cooler was at least 60 years old, not energy efficient, and didn't have a built-in floor. While this surprise does change the original plan, the fantastic team at Cockrum Heating & Cooling is working on a solution that will be a better fit for this space.

As you can probably imagine, removing all of the old flooring created a lot of waste and that waste had to go somewhere. For a while, that somewhere was right outside on the ground thanks to Surprise #23: there is a dumpster shortage. Because, of course there is. Things were finally starting to move, and the lack of a dumpster almost caused work to come to a standstill.

Thankfully, after chasing dumpsters, Jessica finally secured one with T-MAC. Whew! Crisis averted. And, Surprise #24: who knew the arrival of a large dumpster could make a person shed a tear of joy?

In more good news, when the construction crew was finally able to access the southeast corner (you know, the sinking corner...the corner that was the catalyst for the initial floor removal), they discovered it was exactly as they'd expected. Surprise #25: something goes according to the plan! And there was great rejoicing in the land!! That's right - our latest surprise was that there wasn't a surprise (I'm not sure that's a thing, but we're just going to go with it at this point).

So, YAY! No more rotten floors, the corner is repairable, and we'll probably never look at a dumpster the same way ever again. Good times.