Since purchasing our building on June 1st 2018, beginning the process of renovating to double our cafe square footage has been quite a learning process. The first step has been to bring down part of the wall between the cafe and adjacent vacant garage. This will provide a much needed storage space, which will also house a second customer bathroom, shipping/receiving, a dish pit, and bakery. We will be posting updates with pictures, videos, and drawings throughout the subsequent steps of the process. We hope you enjoy this video featuring our first renovation adventure bringing down the 12 1/2 inch steel reinforced concrete wall to kick off the whole process!
For anyone interested in the equipment used, I started off with a rented diamond wet saw ($120 per day), which made a huge mess with all of the concrete mud splattering… better than the dust I suppose. Things really kicked in to high gear when I found a jackhammer on Amazon for $450 delivered. While it made relatively quick work of the remaining wall, it ended up breaking in three different ways, so I returned it for a refund, lol. The final step was cutting all the rebar, which was easily done with a $40 grinder from Canadian Tire. Now that the framing and wallpaper is up, I’ve got some waterproof laminate flooring to install, which has a 5 year commercial warranty… thanks to Shaun at Happy Harry’s! The next step is building permits to frame in the hallway leading to the second bathroom, along with the dish pit, smaller garage door, and the addition of a barrier free/man door/employee entrance with ramp.
The rest of the space, which was the former offices of our old developer landlords, is a whole other can of worms. The municipality has a stop work order on it, after they tore out the walls without a permit, so we’ll be getting engineered stamped drawings for ventilation and a host of other upgrades in the coming months/years. Some of the upgrades include, walk in refrigeration/freezer with glass doors for grab & go, display fridge, additional seating, and a grab & go/catering/keto production kitchen, separated from the cafe dining room by a 12ft fish tank! The cafe dining room will be 5 or 6ft wider for better flow, and the other side will be a much needed upgrade to offer grab & go separately, also eventually allowing for a liquor license and evening service on the cafe side 🙂
Here is a sneak peek of our before and after drawings:
The cafe as it is now
Our vision at completion
Renovation Update! October 1st 2018 – Flooring complete, and drawings posted for viewing 🙂
