We Can Rebuild It. We Have the Technology

We recently wrote about the blank slate that was the taproom and our trip to Asheville to get some ideas building the taproom of our dreams. With that, we spent the last few weeks in rebuilding mode. The pace has been extraordinarily fast, primarily because we've been very fortunate in the capability, quality and responsiveness of the contractors and companies we've partnered with during our rebuild. Folks at the Town of Angier and Harnett County have been awesome, as well. As a result, we haven't had a moment's rest or time to post the last few weeks, so this may be a long one. I hope you'll read on...

Our rebuild started with the addition of new drains to support the new taproom. George Llanes' team from Professional Hardscapes NC knocked out the old concrete and Scott Zimmerman Plumbing performed the rough-in for the new drains.

Within a couple of days, inspections were complete and George's team poured new concrete.

While the taproom floor concrete dried, we dry fit the sinks and dishwasher to the bar frame, just because we couldn't wait to see how it all might look.

We moved the frame where it would eventually go and created cardboard cutouts of the appliances to eyeball their placement and help the contractors to know where electrical and plumbing should go.

We got up on a ladder to get another perspective and it looked a little tight. What worked on paper from an ergonomics perspective didn't seem sufficient when we could see it in person. We wanted to make sure multiple bartenders could work together on busy days.

Sooo.... we took the opportunity to adjust the bar by adding 14 inches of depth and it felt better.

After that, the Scott's plumbing team and Jeff Jones, our electrician, ran their rough-in.

We then clad the bar in plywood in prep for framing out for the concrete countertop we intended to pour.

We took a brief moment to try Alex' lemon-ginger sour. This was from the same original brew that won awards from the Carolina Quarterly Brew Off and Carboy Club Shamrock Open

Before moving forward with the countertops, Alex' wife Trish and I needed to make sure it was sufficiently sturdy in case anyone was ever compelled to dance on the bar.

We had an idea of adding a rollup garage door in place of the double doors that run from the taproom to the brewery, which had some rippling implications. With the bar well underway, we needed to adjust the routing of the HVAC duct that ran to the restrooms. We needed to run it closer to the ceiling in order to not get in the way of the garage door as it rolls up. We also liked the idea of having the HVAC out of eyesight.

Creating a new length of hard duct to replace the soft duct that previously ran to the restrooms.

Using the scissor lift to connect to the HVAC trunk 12' off the ground

It was kind of scary from this perch working mostly in the dark, with the aid of a spotlight.

We had many late nights getting things done while continuing with our day jobs...

Lights showed up the end of the first week of March

Drywall started closing in the open walls and the ceiling got a first coat of paint. We could really get a sense of how it might feel when finished.

At this point we needed to start making decisions about some finish details. We wanted to clad the entry way wall with some sort of decorative wood, but couldn't decide whether to use pallet wood, engineered wood or reclaimed barnwood. The easiest way to decide was to put samples of each on the wall.

Seeing them all in place made the decision a no-brainer.