Clean up!

Infinite thanks to everyone who came to help with the clean up. We probably had 12-15 people there helping out at some point during the day. 10 of them were there for almost the whole time. It was perfect.


I got the dumpster from Mr. Dumpster. It costs 110 per load and 35 bucks per ton, so our focus was keeping the loads to a minimum. That in mind, I wanted to make sure we put all the bigger chunks of drywall in first so we could fit more. I was out there for a while, packing things in as good as I could and when I came back in, the place looked soooo much different. It went really fast with so many people working.

The coke machine (you may have noticed it in almost every single picture -- apparently they're our biggest sponsor) actually works and so we had some ice cream sandwiches and cold water for everyone. Yes.


After most of the bigger chunks were gone, we started shoveling the rubble into wheelbarrows and other big containers and hauling it out. Meanwhile, others were cleaning up the 2x4's and 2x6's and putting them downstairs. We're going to make our stage with them.

It's going well. We just secured our kitchen equipment from an old Italian restaurant that went out of business a few years ago. We're getting almost everything we need for pretty cheap. I'll go into more details on that once it happens.

The next step is to clear out the rest of the plaster and junk and take out all of the carpets. Pictures will be coming soon.

It's Down

It's pretty much all down now. There's still a bit we need to do by the stairs, but it's just a matter of time. And muscle flexing.


The place is pretty friggin' huge. The owner keeps coming by because he's doing some work in the back and he always has a big smile (he's not a smiler, mind you) and he can't help but make a comment about how good the place looks. He's my biggest fan, apparently.

About the roof. It's worrying me. It's in bad shape, so we'll probably have to put up so furring, or whatever they call it. Then, I have my sights set on putting up some stamped metal ceilings, only I don't know how I'm going to do it. The cheapest I've found online are 9 bucks for 2 sq ft. That equals a heckuvalot of money for 2000 sq ft of ceiling. Geez. Then I'd have to put them up, or get someone to put them up.


I'm trying to come up with a way to make my own design and then stamp the panels myself. If you or anyone like you knows of a way to do that, do tell.

The next step is to clean up all the stuff. I'm separating out the wood so I can use it to build a stage in the basement. The metal is all going in a pile in the back. Oh yes, I forgot. There were about 40 big metal shelves that we took to the recycling place and made almost 7o bucks. Awesome.

Days 3-5

I'm no good at blogs. I'm writing this from a week or two after the fact, but not a ton happened during these days. We just brought down more walls and ceilings. Oh yeah, I almost died. That was eventful. I had all the circuit breakers off but one, and by some sheer stroke of genius by the previous inhabitants of the place, there was a rogue wire that was run from the very back of the basement to the floor in the front of the cafe. I cut through it with some wire cutters and it sparked all over the place. I didn't get shocked or anything, but the cutters got melted in a dime size spot. Fuhreaky.


Check out the pictures.

Day One

I woke up at 6:30 this morning. An anomaly in my regular routine of 9 ish to whenever. I was wide awake, thinking about all the stuff that we're going to do with the place. I went to work (I gotta make some money somehow till the cafe takes off) at 8, that never happens. Demolition began with me and Annali (one of the other owners/investors) at around 2. We bashed in walls, tore down ceilings, ripped through drywall and made the place look like it had just went through a 9.5 earthquake.

Day 1 results: took out fake ceiling. Exposed all brick on South wall up to "Mediterranean Room" so named because of the once ugly arch that stood at the front of it. Speaking of which, that room is no longer a room: it has no ceiling and no walls. We exposed all of the brick on the North wall except for what is covered by the stair case.


A look ahead. We need to take down the crappy brown planks that make up the front facade of the building. As luck would have it, it's one huuuge piece of wood that will take some extreme effort from a lot of people to bring down. Underneath the wood? Beautiful paned-glass windows the likes of which you've never seen. Why was it covered? Another question: what makes stupid people stupid? Brainbusters, indeed.


We need to rent an industrial dumpster. We probably already have a ton (literally here, folks) of drywall, acoustic tiles and metal lying around. And we're not even close to finished knocking down walls and ceilings. We also need to rip out the carpets everywhere. 2000 sq ft of carpet is a lot.

Prologue

The Pennyroyal Cafe has begun construction. No. Demolition. At 155 N University Ave in Provo, UT, you'll find a once obscure, purple looking atrocity that was oh so recently known as "The Hookah Connection." Nothing against our peace-loving hookah vendors, but the place was a dive and I have the pictures to prove it.


4600 square feet of potential. That's all we have so far. That and not nearly enough money. Also, an army of willing volunteers, correspondents, designers, artists, musicians. . . in short, the most brilliant people in the Utah valley.


The point of this blog is to prove the old adage: Where there's a will there's a way. We're in over our heads, unexperienced, unmoneywielding and unbusiness-savy but we make up for it with. . . something or other. Or maybe I'm downplaying it all (except the not being filthy rich part) and we actually are the most brilliant business people this side of Donald Trump. Apprentice this!

I guess that's what we're going to find out.


You will either learn all the ways to fail miserably at opening a small business while in college or you will learn how to start a thriving business on pennies and turn it into one of the greatest things your small college town has seen.

I guess this is where I should mention that it's going to be a soup, salad, sandwich joint. It's focus is to catch the green wave and go healthy and organic. There will be lots of vegetarian and vegan options along with the average, run-of-the-mills meaty stuff. Also available will be a full cereal bar and soda bar. It will feature a revolving gallery on it's abundant wall space and maybe even a used book/movie/cd shop. Now that's class! The basement (the apple of my eye, mind you) will be a sort of VIP lounge with a small stage for jazz acts, movie nights, poetry readings, etc. Anything to bring more people in, am I right?

It's a stay-as-long-as-you-want, open-to-the-wee-hours-of-the-night joint. Need a place to study? Come to the Pennyroyal. Need to get away from 10 crying babies? Come to the Pennyroyal. Need to sleep on a couch after reading 400 pages of Crime and Punishment for a report that's due the next day or else you'll fail your Russian Literature class? Come to the Pennyroyal.