Here we go!!

This is our first week of actual work. I got the change of use permit Monday and the work started before I could get it taped to the door. There have been a couple of minor glitches along the way

"Cara, we had to reroute a bunch of wires and take out part of the ceiling to do so, just in case you come by and wondering where it went."

"Cara, your neighbors wires are jumbled in with yours, could you ask them for a check for $1500 to cover it, today?"

"The hot water heater is shot."

but all in all, things are moving right along.

I found a man in Mississippi who builds beautiful furniture and is building my chairs and tabletops. Here are the chairs, but I'm not having the armrests. I went to Ornamental ironworks in Treme and picked out beautiful cast iron table bases (top pic). So my tables and chairs will be totally original.

Now since I blew my furniture budget on the inside, my table and chairs outside will be coming from Sam's.

The inside is going to be awesome. Where do I begin?? The walls will be finished in Italian plaster. The bottoms will be painted different shades of yellows, oranges, and reds. A chair rail painted in stone will separate the colorful bottom from the butter-cream top. When you walk in the building there is a partition wall to your left that is framed. We are going to paint the frame gold and have a cool European picture blown up to fit. There will be stand-up bars on each side of the restaurant made out of thick, old wood, sanded and coated. I am still back and forth on the fireplace.

Option 1. Put up a mantle and do Italian plaster. Paint to match.

Option 2. Cover it in stone, my original idea.

The kitchen will have a full wall on the left (if you are looking at it) across from the bathroom. It will have a column where it meets the counter-top and Tony is building a slate roof coming from the ceiling at an angle over the counter. So, when you walk up to it, it feels like your walking up to a separate bakery. I LOOOOVE it! We picked out Equator Marble for the prep tables and counters.

Evan and I spent the whole day together yesterday getting stuff done. We picked out the awning and it should be up by the end of next week or the beginning of the next. We priced out toilets, sinks, and hot water heaters. We looked for wine coolers to hang our curing meats. We looked at window treatments but everything I liked was $500+ a window. We looked at grills/smokers and found one we really liked. The smoker part is a huge box and has rods at the tops for smoking our house-made sausages. It also cold smokes. The we started talking about all the shit we could smoke and what we could do with it. Spicy smoked almond chocolate bark. All the while running back and forth to the shop solving minor problems.

Well, my neighbors ended up writing the check. I stood there waiting for it thinking they are going to hate me now. She came out and handed it to me and then went on and on about how excited they were and how they are going to eat there every day. Whew!

Now not to forget about the man. Teller is doing great. He is still sleeping through the night and eating everything in sight. He loves Mary's red beans and cornbread! The beans make him a bit gassy so I put the juice over the rice and cornbread. He is crawling around and anxious to stand. He pushes up on his hands and bottoms of his feet with his butt in the air, but can't figure out where to go from there. I am trying to wean him but he wants none of it. He just pushes the bottle away and pulls at my shirt. I have cut it down to two feedings a day and am getting ready to cut out another one. He gets soooo excited when he sees us now. It's so cute.