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"My right arm was numb when I woke up." -Me
"Oh so it matches your head." -Kat

Saturday, 10-31-20: Awesome the Chamberlain St closing went well.
I have a copious amount of money in my bank account right now. Awesome! However, on Monday most of that will disappear much like the beautiful lake in the north in The Neverending Story. I have property taxes to pay, and I have a restaurant/bar to help build. So far we've spent tens of thousands on the bar, but the budget is well in excess of that. We have to spend big chunks of precious... precious money in the coming weeks on important things like a working kitchen, a badass beer tap system, insurance premiums, audio/video, and HEAT. The heat is a big once since it was about 35 degrees for a high temp yesterday and 23 last night. What a bunch of crap! Metal building, concrete floor = cold in there.

Thankfully we do "steal" a little heat from Paradis next door on the dining (formerly Jester's) side of the place so I worked there for a while this morning installing shelves in our utility closet. We actually built a closet where the back-bar sink once sat in the far rear corner so we have room to store some dry goods and other supplies. Right now that closet is great for storing paint and other misc items that have accumulated all over the place in the restaurant/bar.

^More shelves can fit in there later, but for now that is good enough. Having a place to put stuff that is not all over the floor and scattered about = Oh Jesus Hell ya!

I'm about to go use my bootleg gym, do an hour or so of sheetrock work for Gavin, and lose at rball before we have a Halloween party here tonight. No boozing last night, we bivouaced early and I feel like I slept well, but tonight it's game on. Booze o'clock is a mere few hours away! My awesome wife has the house all decked out for the occasion, it's a full blue moon, and it's Halloween. I doubt we will get many if any trick-or-treaters since Covid-19 is on the rise again. A second wave of the pandemic is actually threatening to close down the country again. What a bunch of crap! Is it politically movitated since the election is in 3 days? Part of me thinks it is, but we won't know for sure until either Biden or Trump wins the presidency. Polls do show Biden with a slight lead, but they also showed Hillary Clinton with a slight lead 4 years ago and Trump won.

^Debbie and my awesome wife setting up for what will hopefully be a really fun Halloween party later. Kat has put a lot of time into the decorating today, and it looks fantastic.

It's opening day of deer season for rifle hunting today, but I usually don't rifle hunt on opening Saturday. I'll go down to the ol' homestead midweek next week to hunt. I have not gone bowhunting at all yet this year. What a bunch of crap and epic fail all rolled up into one! This might be the first October in over a decade, possibly in 15 years, where I didn't deer hunt at least a little in October. This new bar just takes up too much precious... precious time. Every day we have so much to do...

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Thursday, 10-29-20: The highs and lows of this endeavor.
Opening up this restaurant and bar is hard. We leased 8437 square feet of bootleg space. The existing space is over 50 years old, built in 1968, and it has been many different businesses over the years including a coffee shop and a department store. You can still see the giant HARDWARE sign on the upper wall in the catacombs from when it was Millers store 50 or so years ago.

Unfortunately all the different businesses that have come and gone have cobbled things together and made a mess of wiring and different setups. Cleaning all that up and making the modifications that we need is a lot of work. A LOT. Plus the four of us don't always agree on everything so that can cause stress. We've come a long way, but we still have a long way to go before we can open up to the general public. Our very first dollar of actual restaurant revenue might not enter the till until 2021. I still want to be open by New Year's Eve, but that will be a tall order to fill considering all we have left to do.

This week I've put in really long days so this morning I am NOT at the bar at 0655. I have some bills to pay and some paperwork to do, and I need a minute to catch up mentally. Yesterday and Tuesday Jason and his guys came up to rough in our TV, Internet, speaker, and camera wiring. Jason hired a newer guy aka The Terminator, and I also helped run some of the wires. They were long days for all of us, and yesterday I was physically at that bar for close to 12 hours. OMG! I didn't even leave for lunch; Kat brought us all chow. On Monday I also had a long day because in the evening I drove out to Kenduskeag to buy our first piece of kitchen equipment. We now own a pizza oven! However, we still have no way to cook pizza since our nat gas lines aren't hooked up yet. What a bunch of crap!

At the end of yesterday I was feeling a little overwhelmed and beat. I actually have thought a couple times this week that this whole thing is just too much. Working too many long days = what a bunch of crap! Especially in what is going to be the prime of deer hunting season. We do have Neil and Angela in with us on this thing, but at times I still feel like it's too much for all of us. Not only do I have to deal with the construction but I also have to pay some bills, manage money, get money, etc. The first big chunk of funds came last Friday when we finally closed on the Gilmore house, the second wave of funds comes tomorrow when I close on Chamberlain Street, and the final wave comes next month (or into December thanks Covid19.) Each of those transactions takes up precious... precious time so this morning I need to ask for more help from Neil and Ang. Maybe we hire a person. It's just feeling like too much for me so I need more help. Not financially but as far as everything. Coordinating with contractors, cleaning, work needing done down there, etc.

On the bright side of things Sara from Z107.3 radio called me Tuesday for an interview, and I invited her to come down to take a couple photos for the article she wanted to write about us. I was busy coordinating wire installs with Jason so Kat gave Sara most of the tour, and we ended up with a really great article thanks to her efforts. It's gotten a lot of shares on Failbook and a lot of reads, and I think she did a fantastic job with her writeup:

^Jason's new hire aka The Terminator installing clamps for a main wire chase.

^Stage uplights preview. There will be lights on trusses above and a badass disco-style light in the ceiling above not in the photo.

We don't have heat yet, and it is getting cold. What a bunch of crap! The extended forecast is a piece of shit. Today 45, tonight we narrowly miss accumulating snow and southern Maine gets 1-3". Tomorrow cold, Saturday cold, Sunday back up to 52, and then early next week much more cold. I blew it on the heat because I didn't push hard enough for it so now we have to run a propane heater in there. It's not enough to heat all 8437 square feet, but it helps in some areas. It's not terribly cold in there because recently we had a run of mild-ish weather, but after these next few days it will be too cold in there to do much painting and sheetrock work. Gods damn it!

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Saturday, 10-24-20: A couple more photos of the bar.
We are hoping to be ready to open our new restaurant/bar in December, but with each passing day the odds of that happening seem to dwindle ever so slightly. What a bunch of crap! Not getting money until yesterday didn't help us at all because I held off on some bigger items like getting the heating guys in there. I've tried to schedule them, but they are so busy they are hard to pin down. Thankfully Neil knows a guy who came today and who seems like he can get it done for us sooner rather than later.

We don't have any heat in our 8437 square foot space because we converted from propane to natural gas. A couple of the three furnaces there are older than me (maybe a slight exaggeration hehehe) and in hard shape, but one is newer and is set up for propane. We could get a propane system going there and get heat on immediately, but that is dumb since natural gas is a better long-term option. We can't exactly hook up a home-use little propane tank suitable for a backyard bbq onto the system because it does not work that way and it would be empty in a day.

Not having heat there so far is not a big deal since it's still warm enough to mud and paint, but starting next week we'll have a run of 40-45 degree days with nights into the 20s so that restaurant/bar is going to get cold fast. Metal walls, concrete floors = brrrrrrr. I should go back down there and work some more tonight before it gets cold, but F that I am on my third drink and I want to get boozed up tonight. I won't sleep if I don't drink. Too much on my mind and too frustrating of a day today. What a bunch of crap! I'm drinking alone right now; does that mean I am a piece of shit or is a tribute to a George Thoroughgood song? Both?

Today Bruce and his very good helper, Kevin, did all the plumbing in the bar area needed to secure the floor and build most of the bar cabinets. I helped Neil some with the bar here and there since its inception a couple weeks ago, but it's mostly his baby and his vision. Here is what it looks like:

^We framed the back-bar with a 2x4 wall, 24" on center since it's not load-bearing or subject to people walking against it. We wanted that there so wiring and plumbing, soda lines, beer lines, etc can run in behind and so we don't have to mess around too much with that cinderblock wall there. That pole behind the bar sucks a bit, but we can't remove it or else the entire roof might cave in!

Kat has been a huge part of making this stage area come to fruition:

I did the sheetrock work, Neil and Angela painted, but Kat is the reason why that stage is going to surpass any other in town. It will have uplights in the stage and plenty of lighting from above on those trusses. Kat did a demonstration of all the lights a couple days ago and it was really fantastic. I personally don't give a crap about dance lights since I don't dance unless I'm shitfaced (and even then it is not really dancing what a bunch of crap!), but a lot of customers will appreciate it.

Once the ceiling is up and the floor is preped/painted that back area will be about done. Just doing the concrete floor epoxy is going to be a lot of work, and the floor needs to be 50+ degrees so we need to get on it fast. The epoxy won't adhere will to a really cold concrete floor. No problem right now, but will be a huge problem very soon. We almost started the floor prep yesterday, but I decided against it since we'll have contractors coming and going over the next few days. We hope to do the kitchen floor first as a sort-of test to see how it turns out. If it fails it sucks to be us, but if it succeeds then we will have the confidence needed to do the rest of the bar and restaurant areas in the coming couple weeks.

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Friday, 10-23-20: Finally sold Gilmore.
What a shit-show the sale of my Gilmore Street house turned out to be. The closing was going to be three weeks ago, but the bank and other people (RD?) did not do things on time so the closing got pushed back again and again. What a bunch of crap! Things seemed to be on track until yesterday when the bank made more mistakes so there was a last-minute push to fix it up. I still did not 100% know if we were doing this closing this morning. It was seriously an hour before the scheduled closing time downtown Bangor, and I was expecting a call or text saying things were not happening. Thankfully it did happen, I got precious... precious money, and even better the check is in the bank and already cleared for us to spend. Oh Jesus, hell ya!

I'm happy for Dillon and Debbie to have their own house. They moved into the place a month ago so they have already been making it their own with fresh paint, a new bathroom floor, etc. I gave them a below-market price that worked well for Kat and I, and I feel good knowing the house is a great place for Dillon and Debbie to start out. I don't feel badly at all about selling the house and downsizing. It's actually a relief having one less rental property to oversee, and next week when Chamberlain Street sells I will feel an even greater sense of relief. Maybe? Hopefully!

I didn't actually work down at the bar very much today; I spray painted some of the kitchen ceiling grid and did a little more sanding and mudding before I went to the closing. After the closing I did some financial planning, ate lunch, sent a $10k quote to a rep, and then worked over at my Allen Rd building. I finished the peak on the north side yesterday, and that was a great feeling. The last bit of siding was difficult. Today Neil helped me shingle a little porch overhang and do shutters on the windows. The entire building looks great right now:

^Tenants there = voting for Trump?! Hehehehe.

I can't call it 100% done, but it is 99% and pretty well closed up and presentable. I gave it a good push this week because the long-range forecast = big temperature drop. This week we stayed in the 50s and low 60s, and next week we're looking at a lot of raw days in the mid 40s. What a bunch of crap! I don't want to be doing outside work of any significant duration in those conditions. Now I can focus more on Gavin's sheetrock. Maybe? Hopefully!

That siding job was the most difficult carpentry job that I have ever done. It wasn't the largest, not even close to that, but it was fuckin' hard. Lots of weird angles, lots of "making it work" adapting to the existing cobbled-together building, lots of up and down the ladder. Working in 40 degrees, working in 100 degrees, baking in the sun, getting rained on, the job had it all. I don't even want to add up all the cost, but including Neil's labor I'd guess $13-14k spent. It was an incredible amount of work in total, but it looks awesome and will be worth it in the end. Hiring that job out would have been at least double the cost, and I would not have gotten the attention to detail and the quality that I got doing it myself with a lot of help from Neil.

I was going to rent a concrete floor-prep machine for the bar today, but I decided against it so I could finish Allen Rd instead. Plus we aren't ready to do the floors yet. We still need to do more cleaning in the empty kitchen:

^Does not look bad, but is filthy. We have plenty of de-greaser and a power-washer. We also do have enough floor epoxy and nonskid powder to do that kitchen floor, but waiting is the right thing to do. Bruce comes tomorrow to do plumbing so he'll need to walk through the kitchen. We expect John and Jake for electrical Sunday and they will need to access the kitchen. I don't expect any contractors Monday, but starting Tuesday Jason plans to come with two helpers to start rough-in (Phase 1) for TVs, security cameras, etc. Jason and his guys will need access to everywhere so we should wait to start the kitchen floor until we can close the entire room off for at least a couple days.

We'll be going to bed early tonight so we can work on the bar early tomorrow. No boozing tonight! We're watching some funny show called Schitt's Creek and doing some online shopping. A used Baker's Pride pizza oven available for sale not far from here, $1000. Is that a good deal? I dunno, but a new one is $7366 so maybe it is...

We got a quote to have a 12-line beer tap system installed from a local guy who is known for being the best around. We have to run lines 105 feet, and we need a glycol system to keep all the draft beers ice cold and properly flowing. The price for this install is NOT cheap, it's over $10k. What a bunch of crap! One of the reps from a local distributor said his company can help with some of the install costs so we wait to get his offer. This restaurant/bar is such a huge project. It's hard and at times stressful, but when we bite off smaller chunks at a time each day it is easier to see the big picture and the success we hope to have with the place in the end. It's not as hard as that gods damned Allen Rd siding hehehe!

Alright turds, all two of you who read this bootleg site, I'm out of here. Goonies never say die!

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Wednesday, 10-21-20: Siding still not done.
So far this week I have worked down at the bar in the mornings and over at Allen Rd after lunch. It is an informal schedule that has worked well for me, and if I do the same thing tomorrow then I should have the siding at my old apartment building 100% done. Maybe? Hopefully! I actually need to buy more siding before I can do any more install since all I have over there are a few smaller pieces. I think 8 more full pieces along with the partials I already have there on hand will be enough to get it all done.

I've worked about 3 hours on the siding for each of the past two days, and on Monday I finished installing the final window along with all the interior window trim, caulking, etc. Each window has taken 2-3 hours total not only with the removal of the old window but also with the prep of the rough opening, insulating, and boxing in/painting the interior portion. I dunno how many windows we did this year on the building, but I could do some quick math and figure it out. Guy thinks... guy thinks some more. Guy uses other hand to keep counting... guy runs out of fingers but guy does not resort to using toes to count with... 12 windows. Wow!

Before I could start siding install today I had to deal with another portion of the building that was missing sheathing:

^What a bunch of crap! Putting siding over that as-is = poor life decision. I almost did just cover it with siding, but I did the right thing and covered that insulated hole with plywood first. Epic failer prior "carpenter" just leaving that and siding over it.

I did about another square of installs (roughly 12 full pieces worth), and the new siding is done all the way up to that final peak. For the second consecutive day the weather was poor with some light showers/drizzle, but I didn't get drenched and I never felt unsafe on ladders so I kept at it. Today was almost cold, 50 degrees or so, but there was no wind so that is a major win. 50 is not bad for working outside when it's not windy. Good weather days for working outside before winter are coming to an end soon so I gotta get this done.

That peak is probably only 75 square feet, give or take, but it will take 3 hours to finish because I have to install J-channel, and it is a lot of trips up and down the ladder. A lot. What a bunch of crap! After the siding is done I still have to shingle a porch roof overhang, do some caulking around all the wires, and do the shutters on that entire side. I probably won't finish all that this week because Friday we plan to work on the bar all day. Maybe Saturday...

Things are happening so fast at the bar I can barely keep up. Every day we take big leaps forward and meet with various reps and contractors. Coke will be our soda provider, and they roughed in two soda lines yesterday while we met with a guy who does taps and beer lines. We also met with another beer supplier yesterday. In between meetings I've been doing more sheetrock work and framing down there. A little bit of everything. Lots of shopping online for things like a good floor epoxy and other materials. Insurance quotes to review, receipts to log, etc. We wake up early, and Kat gets to that place before sunrise. We were even there early both days this weekend no boozing no partying.

I worked at the bar for a couple hours Sunday morning before I went down to Warren to visit Mom and Dad. Dad and I went out to the range to do some shooting, and that was a really good time. I got my 30.06 sighted in and shot my .22 for some target practice. Even though we are crazy busy doing this bar I still want to take some time to deer hunt with my rifle in a couple weeks. Dad is not 100%, but he is doing much better since his heart attack and heart surgery this summer. He has been doing a little duck hunting, and I think he can deer hunt from his blind out back of their house next month. I'd like to be down there when he gets a deer so I can help him get it out of the woods since I don't think he can do that himself anymore. Jason can help, but he is very busy and we need him up here for our bar next week. It's almost time for "Phase 1" of his audio/video rough-in for us.

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Wednesday, 10-14-20: I had to do it my damn self.
Thirteen days ago the chick from our lawyer's office called to say we had officially been accepted (or recognized, filed, whatever) by the state as an S-Corporation for our new restaurant/bar. Awesome! It took something like 7 friggin' weeks due to the pandemic, but at least it was done. Getting an EIN for our business, essentially a commercial version of a social security number, was at the top of the list so I asked her about that. She said she'd take care of it for us so she went to the IRS website to start it. She had to call me a bit later in the PM with some questions, and when we were done talking she said we should have the EIN in my e-mail by the end of the day. Awesome!

Unfortunately later that day when I checked email there was nothing. No worries, maybe tomorrow, right? End of the day next day, nothing. No update, no nuthin. Nothing again Monday or Tuesday the following week so I called the law office and talked to the receptionist who told me our person is a law student paralegal who only works there two days a week. OMG NOT GOOD. The receptionist did contact the chick, and the chick e-mailed me this two days later:

Chris and I will be working on your matter today. Thank you for your patience.

^That was sent last Friday the 9th. Great! Sadly no updates no nuthin' again...

I reached out yesterday, and I got this in my email:

Since you have elected to file your LLC under S-Corp status, we will need you to fill out and send back a completed IRS 2553 form before we can finalize the EIN filing.

I printed the 2553 form, and the second thing that form needs is an EIN. OMG CHICK ARE YOU FUCKIN' SERIOUS RIGHT NOW?!

THE CHICK THERE DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO DO HER GODS DAMNED JOB AND THAT IS A BUNCH OF CRAP!

Today I decided to go to the IRS website and see for myself how things could go. I shovelled in my usual lunch of a sandwich, a banana, and some trail mix as I navigated the IRS webpages. It took me about 10 minutes to get through it all and I kept thinking I'd hit some kind of a digital "road block" that would stop me from finishing but as soon as I thought that I was at the end with a new EIN for our business. Awesome! Maybe awesome? Hopefully awesome. I hope I didn't just sign us up for a duplicate EIN! I e-mailed the paralegal incompetent employee:

I just went to the IRS website and did it myself since you either did not know how to do it or had other things more important to work on than our new business. I attached what I did in case I messed it up or in case we have two EINs now. The form 2553 requires an EIN so we do not file that first as you suggested yesterday.

My business partners and I are not happy with the service we have received from you so far. Please reach out and let me know if the EIN I just got will work for us. Our holding costs for the space we leased are about $250 a day, and that number will rise once we have to heat the place on a regular basis. We need the EIN for our liquor license to process, and we can't open without a liquor license. We also need the EIN to file other required licenses, to hire employees, etc.

If I had known I could have done the EIN myself I would have done it two weeks ago. I wish you had just told me to to go the IRS website and do it myself on the day you called, I believe that was Thursday October 1. I know we will have other things that need doing in the weeks and months, perhaps years to come, so we want to have a good working relationship with the people who will be our business lawyers. I hope we can get this all squared away as soon as possible and move forward with a better working relationship. Thanks for your time.

All I wanna know is why? Why can't people do their gods damned jobs anymore? There is no excuse for that level of incompetence, and if this laywer or receptionist or someone doesn't make this right by giving us a refund or some other free services they will be getting flamed not only on this bootleg site that only two people will ever read but also on sites that people will read like BBB and Failbook.

DO YOUR FUCKIN' JOB AND DO NOT BLAME COVID-19 YOU MUDDA FUCKAS!

Speaking of not doing a job, we still don't know if the closing on my Gilmore house will happen Friday or not. It could happen in 1.5 days or maybe it won't. That all depends on if RD, whatever that is, can get its shit turned in by 1400 tomorrow. It would be nice to actually sell the fucking house that I put under contract two fucking months ago. What a bunch of crap!

So we might have our business EIN, and we might get a large chunk of money within the next two days. Or maybe we won't. It sucks being stuck in this holding pattern of sorts. Even though there is still lots of work we can do down at the bar we need to start getting our licenses going and lining up kitchen equipment, etc. If we have any chance of opening in December before Christmas we really need that EIN and we really need more money! I know both will come in time, but sooner is MUCH better than later so we can open and start actually making a return on what will be a very substantial investment.

I used my bootleg gym for a half hour yesterday for the first time in 4 weeks, and I weighed myself also for the first time in many weeks. When the scale showed 138 in wasn't totally shocked because I am always working and on the move. Still 138?! That's lower than ever in my adult life. I've gotten more exercise this year than I ever have, but it is coming at a cost now I have to use CBD oil on my friggin' right arm once or twice a day and I am pretty sore today. Oh well it beats sitting at a desk all the damn time. I'll have plenty of time to sit at a desk this winter when the tax business gets rolling again.

Speaking of the tax business, I had three clients file extensions this year and I got two of them done this week. The third ones will probably blow it off because they don't care hahaha. Oct 15 is the deadline to file taxes after you do an extension. I've had 98 paid clients so far and my goal is 100 so maybe I can get two more. If not no big deal a 98 out of 100 ain't too shabby at all!

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Sunday, 10-11-20: Into the woods.
I dragged my hunting stuff from the closet earlier this morning, and I put a lot of it outside to air out. Musty-smelling camo = DO NOT WANT. I'll throw some apples into my camo bag along with the clothes tomorrow PM before we get rain Tuesday. Before supper today I took the dogs into the woods with me on a crisp and comfortable fall afternoon. I made my way back to Supertree to tidy up my favorite ground blind and to put out a trail camera. Every year when I go to those woods for the first time I wonder if I'll find new "No Trespassing" signs that would keep me out, but nothing was posted this year. Even better I didn't see a parade of stands and blinds from other hunters. The dogs had a blast out there; it was nice to get them some serious exercise. They've been cooped up a little too much lately since we've been working so hard on the soon-to-be bar.

I probably won't do a lot of deer hunting this fall, but I need to devote some precious... precious time to it. I enjoyed being in the woods today, and I shot my bow after we got home. Last year I shot a doe down in Warren in October so I couldn't rifle hunt. This year I won't bow hunt down there because I want to rifle hunt. I can bowhunt up here in the expanded archery zone and get the best of both worlds.

I probably won't go for my first bowhunt up here for at least a week. I plan to go down to the ol' homestead next weekend, most likely Sunday, so I can drag out my 30.06 and prep for rifle season. Visit the parents and Jason and his family. Make the rounds, come home, work on the bar some more. Truthfully I'd rather work on the bar than do anything, but I know I can't be at that bar every day all day.

I also need to make time to finish this:

^There is not that much left to do, but it will take many precious... precious hours working around those gods damned wires and replacing that last window up top, left side. Every other window is done. I also need to shingle that porch roof over what once was my apartment many years ago.

I made a list of things to do this week down at the bar, but I know I won't get it all done. First and foremost we need to get our friggin' EIN. We officially got recognized as an S-Corporation by the state Sep 30, but I think the lawyer's pralegal fucked something up because we should have had an EIN by now and we do not have one. What a bunch of crap! When I chase the chick for answers I don't get any useful updates so I might have to haul on this lawyer and find a new one. Getting an EIN should be damn near instant on the IRS website so there is no excuse. We can't do our liquor license without it. I don't know how long the liquor license will take to get, but my guess is several weeks or more. Relying on other people sucks. A lot.

Today I worked down at the bar for several hours finishing up some areas in what once was Jester's and what will now be a dining are for us. We are adding a storage closet and replacing some old, bootleg wall panels. I wanted to do some more mud and tape down there today, but I intentionally did not do so because my tennis elbow is pretty bad. Yesterday I actually spent $67 on a thing of CBD-lotion from the new shop next to our bar so I can try to manage this shit-show that is my elbow.

I have never used CBD oil before, and my initial impression is favorable. I put some on yesterday before I helped my awesome wife DJ her lat wedding of the season down in Blue Hill and it seemed to help. I used some again before bed last night and did sleep about 5.5 or 6 hours before my hand went numb and it woke me up. I'll try some again tonight, and we'll see...

If I can get that damn siding done soon I can focus even more on our bar. If all goes well a good chunk of money is coming Friday when we close on the Gilmore house. Once that money arrives I want to start spending on the bigger things we will need. I have the closing scheduled for the 30th so that money will really put us over the top. I also got approved for another loan, but I don't think that money will arrive until November. Maybe? Hopefully!

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Saturday, 10-10-20: CRAP ALL OVER MY GODS DAMNED CELLAR FLOOR.
Yesterday morning I had my day all planned out, but sometimes when life hands you lemons you can't make lemonade no matter what you do. All I got yesterday was one giant shit-sandwich, and it was terrible.

I did my yoga and was getting ready to go to the bar to work for a little while before going to Gavin's to install some more of his sheetrock when Kat went down to the cellar to get something she needed. It is fortuitous she went down there, but in the same vein it was awful. She yelled up to me something about the toilet down there exploding so I thought we had a water leak and maybe a flood. We had a flood, but it definitely was NOT water...

WARNING THE PHOTO I AM ABOUT TO POST ON THIS BOOTLEG SITE TRULY IS A BUNCH OF CRAP, AND IT IS REALLY FUCKIN' GROSS. YOU SHOULD HAVE ALREADY LEFT BECAUSE THIS SITE SUCKS ASS, BUT IF YOU STAY BE FOREWARNED THE IMAGE BELOW IS REALLY BAD...

LAST CHANCE TO LEAVE...

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OK HERE IT IS:

^WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! I sized the photo down, way down, because it does not need to be shown in its full-pixel quality. Kat actually took the pic and e-mailed it to me; I didn't even take pictures with my own camera because I just wanted to focus on the cleanup. As soon as I saw that shit-show I knew we were pwned and needed to call professionals. Thankfully Nichols Plumbing is local and they have the technology to handle such things so I was able to get right through to them and have someone come over later that morning.

We don't have a floor drain in the cellar so there was no easy way to clean that up. The sewage had run into the other part of the cellar as well so it was a HUGE mess. The toilet itself was almost 100% full, and it had hardened into a thick paste so I had to fucking scoop it out with a garden trowel into old drywall buckets. A trip to Lowe's for lime (to soak up the moisture and absorb some stench) and bleach was tops on the list behind calling Nichols. The cleanup itself took hours, fuckin' hours, and it still is not 100% done. I need to do a final bleach of the floor outside of that bathroom now that everything has 100% dried.

I threw my shoes away. Bye bye shoes. They were old anyway. It's good to save old shitty shoes for when things like blueberry raking, lawn mowing, and SHIT CLEANUP arise hehehe.

When I saw that shit-mess I knew immediately the cause was a plugged main sewer drain line out to the street. My guess is that plugged a week ago, give or take, and we just never noticed. I know it didn't happen more than two weeks ago because Daniel was staying down in the spare room and using that bathroom for about 3 weeks until he was able to move over to North Main. When he was with us that bathroom worked fine and he definitely would have told us if he saw something like that. Once I saw the mess I knew my day was screwed, and I only hoped our main sewer line hadn't totally collapsed and could be cleared.

Nichols has the jets and high-powered tools needed to unplug major clogs, and they have helped me out of a few jams in the past. I don't get any paid endorsement revenue for promoting them on this bootleg site that about two people will ever read. They ain't cheap at $125/hr during normal business hours (even more emergency rate!) but they are well worth it when things go terribly wrong. Thankfully they were able to clear the line and put a camera down the pipe; unfortunately the camera showed a pretty unhealthy-looking sewer line leading from our house out to the main city line at the street...

I learned something new yesterday, and the knowledge is not good for us. We have what is called Orangeburg pipe under our lawn, and it is awful stuff made on the cheap after WWII. I just looked it up online and found this article:

https://www.expresssewer.com/blog/exp_what-is-orangeburg-pipe-everything-you-need-to-know

Orangeburg pipe is a type of home sewer pipe used in many properties built from 1945 to 1972. Also known as “no-corrode” pipe, Orangeburg is a type of bituminized fiber pipe made from a mixture of hot pitch and wood pulp. It gets its name from Orangeburg, New York, where it was originally mass-produced by the Fiber Conduit Company (which later changed its name to the Orangeburg Manufacturing Company).

Although various forms of bituminized fiber pipe have been used since the 1800s, Orangeburg owes its origins to World War II, when the iron and steel commonly used for sewer pipes were critical to the war effort. Because of these shortages, Orangeburg pipe was invented so more iron and steel could go toward producing war materials. Following the war, Orangeburg continued to proliferate because it was cheap.

Once installed, standard Orangeburg sewer pipes were expected to last 50 years’ time. Unfortunately, many systems began to falter after a mere 30 years of use. Most of these structural complications resulted from the material used to manufacture the pipe. Essentially, Orangeburg pipe is little more than asphalt-soaked paper and pulp. It may seem obvious in retrospect, but if you soak paper (even tar paper) with water for long enough, it will eventually deform. Combined with the pressure from the soil above the pipe, it's not surprising these pipes began to fail so quickly.

In contrast to piping made from cast iron or clay, Orangeburg pipes absorb moisture and become distorted, oftentimes in an ovular shape, under pressure. Layers of this material are also subject to bubbling up and closing the pipe off. Often described by plumbing professionals as nothing more than a “coal tar-impregnated toilet paper tube,” it’s something of a miracle that many Orangeburg pipes have lasted as long as they have.

OMG OUR PIPE LOOKS OVAL. It also has a spot that seems to rise up a bit, and obviously that is where solids can catch and cause a jam. This house was built in the 1950s so the timeline fits. That camera Nichols uses really is awesome. How long until we get a plugged line again? No telling it could be weeks, months, or years. Thankfully the line has not totally collapsed. Unfortunately it is near the end of its useful life so we gotta spend thousnds of precious... precious dollars getting our friggin' sewer line replaced.

Oh, we also need a new roof. What a bunch of crap!

The roof I plan to do next year. The sewer line needs to be done before the ground freezes. I don't want this happening again, ever. Cleaning all that shit up was really terrible. Not having a floor drain down there made it way worse because I had to bring shit up in buckets. What a bunch of crap! It took the majority of my work day yesterday so losing all that time was the worst part of it. The cost of $218 was nothing in the big picture.

Orange-fucking-berg piping. What dumbass thought that was a good idea to use as a drain line?! What a bunch of crap!

It is 0309 and I should go back to bed soon. Mt tennis elbow woke me up at 0145 after about 4 hours of sleep. This fuckin' tennis elbow of mine will need a solution in the long-run. There is a new CBD shop in the plaza next to our soon-to-be restaurant/bar and we've met the owner and talked with him a few different times so maybe today I'll pop in and buy some ointment from him. I can't stop using my right arm so I need something to help so I can fuckin' sleep. What a bunch of crap!

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Wednesday, 10-07-20: Sheetrock, siding, toilets.
Revielle for my loser-ass today was about 0250; I already ate breakfast, paid some bills, did some budgeting, and just finished DDP Yoga. Now it's 0515 and I have a little free time before my awesome wife wakes up and we clean the house. Then it's off to work for what should be another pretty long yet productive day. I did not plan to get up so early, but I woke up and felt awake and ready to go. Didn't help that my right arm was numb due to tennis elbow. What a bunch of crap! Gods damned tennis elbow. Unfortunately almost everything I do lately aggrivates it, but I have been wearing my elbow brace so that helps some. Maybe? Hopefully!

Yesterday Kat and I teamed up to install over 50 linear feet of sheetrock on this wall:

She did the screwing (hehehe) while I planned the pieces around doors. I also had to prep the walls by scraping them down, removing ceiling grid edges, taking trim off doors, etc. We got about as far as we could get until the bar electrical, soda hoses, beer lines, and plumbing is finished. Hopefully we can finish the area behind the bar later this month. We worked on the bar for about 3.5 hours yesterday morning early before I went here to work on this siding:

Those fucking wires. What a bunch of crap! It sucks ass working around them, but I think I got around the worst of it. Maybe? Hopefully! This morning we'll go to Home Depot to use a coupon that expires today, and I need to order four back-discharge toilets. The toilets are $400 each (what a bunch of crap!) and drain out the back instead of down into a floor drain. They are called "pressure assisted" or something like that, and they cost three times as much as a "regular" toilet. The back-discharge toilets there now seem to have worked okay enough, but they are very old and probably use tons of water per flush.

We don't want to jackhammer up a huge section of the concrete floor so we'll replace what's already there and use back-drain toilets again. Sucks they are 3 times the cost of a floor-drain crapper, but oh well that's how it goes. We also need more 2x4s and plywood today. A basic 2x4 is 6 bucks now, and 3/4" plywood is about $45 a sheet. WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! I dunno why building materials got so expensive, but it seems Covid-19 is the reason. I have heard supplies can't cross from Canada, but I can't say for sure how true that is. I could research it, but it doesn't matter it won't change the price. Gods damned 6 bucks for a 2x4. Epic failer!

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Sunday, 10-04-20: Bar photos and the 'rona.
President Trump caught the coronavirus, and a day later the Patriots announced their new quarterback, Cam Newton, also has the 'rona. What a bunch of crap! No Patriots game tonight due to the virus, and no Tom Brady for the Pats anymore he shipped off to Tampa Bay where today he crushed it and his team won. Cam Newton was a pretty good QB for the Panthers for years so hopefully he has a good season or two for us here in New England. The Pats are 2-1 and Cam has done well, but he isn't playing for a while until he recovers from the virus. Gods damned Covid!

Over the past week I've been able to spend more precious... precious time working down at the soon-to-be awesome restaurant and bar, and things look a lot different down there now. Kat and Neil have also put in some serious hours down there lately. Oh Jesus, hell ya! Tomorrow we need to submit our liquor license to the town for their review, and eventually it will go to the state for what we hope will be a speedy processing time. However, it will probably take a long time because of the 'rona.

We spend a lot of hours stripping the floors down to the concrete with this badass but hard-to-use machine:

^The machine is great, but it is physically taxing. Some floor tiles came up very easily, but many others did not come up so easily. Eventually we will buff out the concrete floor and then do a nice floor paint and epoxy. We rented the floor-stripper for a day on Tuesday morning, but after three days I just called and got the weekly rate. We used Kennebec Rental in Bangor, and they were very good to me (cheap plug for no kickbacks since two people will ever read this bootleg site hehehe.) Hopefully I can bring the machine back tomorrow morning because we're 98% done with it.

I put in a full work day at that bar both days this weekend. We stayed up boozing Friday night and had a lot of fun so I thought I'd be hungover yesterday. Thankfully I was not hungover, just tired. Slept great last night and was up at 0515 and working down at the bar early again. Bruce and Kevin did plumbing yesterday, and we had John and Jake doing electrical there today. When I wasn't coordinating with the contractors I was working on a few other things including this wall:

^Today I started sheetrock on the wall to the left, and I got the "employee only" door installed. The door hole in the photo to the left is new; we decided to put a door there and use it for easier access to the back area where the central rack for our gear will be located as well as a small employee-only bathroom. The employee door is the old Jester's men's room door hahahaha! We are reusing everything we possibly can so we don't go flat broke before we can open. Some of the doors we have are actually nice, solid wood.

Kat got this shit-show taken care of while I worked on sheetrock a couple days ago:

^What a bunch of crap! We are expanding the ladies bathroom, and tonight we spent time watching some football in the background as we reserched back-discharge toilets and double sinks. The main bathrooms for the restaurant were one-at-a-time and small so we found a way to expand both to handle two "users" at the same time. What do you call someone who is going to the head to purge out? A user is not really correct, but I already stopped caring.

Bigger restrooms, more restarant space, a stage, a bigger bar, it's all coming together nicely for what I think will be a fantastic customer experience. I wish we could open for business this month! Best-case scenario for us opening is probably two months away, and I really think it will be around the very end of the year or maybe even early 2021 before we can open to the general public. We still need a kitchen! Every day we make good forward progress lately, and things will happen for us. Between working on the renovations we've been meeting reps and setting up things like insurance and other needed punch-list items.

This coming week I'll work on the bar for 3-4 hours a day and then work on finishing Allen Rd siding and Gavin's sheetrock for the other 3-4 hours. Paperwork, e-mails, calls, research, etc will take up the other precious... precious hours of my day. The days fly by lately because we have so much do to. We get up very early and get right to work!