Rehabilitation

I think that my absolute favorite thing to hear when someone walks into Nail Creek for the first time is…  “WOW, how old is this bar?”  This is the story about how this old, tired, 3-family house came to be Nail Creek Pub…

The whole project of renovating the building took about 5 years.  The very first project that was accomplished was to put a new roof on the building.  The one that existed was in terrible shape.  The hole in the roof and the water damage it caused was extensive.  At the time of purchase, you could stand in the basement and look up through the 1^st floor, second floor, attic floor, and roof and get a good look at the sky.  Once we had the roof on, we painted a bedroom while plumbers got the bathroom toilet and bathtub (not shower) to run.  Then we moved in!  My wife cooked out of a hot pot on the bathtub wall.  I can recall thinking how nice it would have been to have a sink…

We lived in these conditions for some time as neither of us made much money.  We slowly would purchase things and install them little by little and every month a few more things got completed.  By the end the third year, 95% of everything was completed and that is where it stayed.  I believe that there is still one kitchen countertop that was never attached, a few thresholds that have yet to be completed and a door knob or two that is missing.  It was however, very livable and time to move onto getting the bar ready.   I then took about a year or so off from renovation to write a business plan and drink heavily.

Like the upstairs, the downstairs was a complete gut rehab.  I recall my friend Keith DeStefanis and I doing some serious demolition one day while Bach played at full volume.  Bach as it turns out is great to demo with.   Very inspirational!  After most of the demo was completed was about the time I finally found funding for the rest of the project.  Then I was able to bring in some contractors and really get things moving.

The property consisted of the house and a garage in the back that had a barn attached to it.  The first order of business was to attach the house to the barn.  This was shortly followed up by cutting up the concrete in the barn and garage to allow for new drainage to be installed in support of the proposed kitchen and brewery.  It was a tense day for one contractor when a crackhead walked into the construction site (during construction) and somehow managed to abscond with a giant concrete saw by wheeling it behind his bike.  The saw was found the following day pawned at a shop around the corner.  With everything demolished, it was time to install the electric, plumbing, heating and all that other crap that is so damn expensive.  With the bulk of the money there, the contractors did a great job…minus one idiot.  I did learn some lessons though and that is what life is all about.

With the utilities in it was time to make the place look nice.  The first floor, which was originally two apartments, had a structural support wall right down the middle of the building; that had to go.  When you sit at the bar you are actually sitting at what was once that structural wall.  I was able to integrate the wall into the bar design.  The columns that seem to hold up the sophit above the bar actually hold up the entire building.  They do, I feel, add a nice design element and I was happy to be able to incorporate that into the bar.

“Code compliance”… How I have come to hate phrase!  I know that it’s for safety reasons and all but it’s just a pain.  The extra expenses that come along with fitting codes almost make projects prohibitive.   I remember one instance when we had to put in two layers of 3/4” drywall on the ceiling with some kind of fire block in the middle.  The thought that goes into converting a residential space to commercial is quite exhausting and not to be taken lightly.

The brick that was exposed during demolition was really starting to look like a good choice as the space was developing.  Once we put the tile floor in for the bathrooms, kitchen and bar, we put the wood floor in.  The contrast of the wood with the brick was beautiful.  We were really moving along now and getting things done.  While all those little details of finish work were starting to come into play, my mind was really having fun projecting ideas onto the space.  I would like to note that when thinking about flooring that a great option is “C” grade flooring.  I purchased ¾” cherry flooring for less than $1 a foot.  The wood comes with many holes, knots, scuffs, scrapes and general defects but with time and care the end product looks better than normal flooring ever could.

Sometimes you just get lucky and I happen to with my neighbor Peanut.  Peanut was instrumental with the woodwork in the pub.  I designed the bar itself in some old version of AutoCAD I found and gave it to him to build.  He had the bar completed in no time and started on the trim work.  I learned much during this phase of the project about finish work.  For those who don’t know much about it, just have to confidence to try it and you will find it’s not that hard, just intimidating as all hell.  With my new found skills I was able to re-trim the windows, cover up water pipes and the like with wainscot, and build a new mantel.   For a bar top I used “C” grade oak and covered it with boat poly.  You might notice some imperfections on the bar top.  That came as a result of the poly flowing through the flooring like a sieve.  I tried to fill the holes with clear craft glue but the poly ended up reacting with the glue and getting milky.  It looked fine though, I’m not bothered by it and no one ever notices it anyway.

The exterior work I did mostly myself during a cold week in spring with a boom I rented.  My helpful neighbor, Peanut, redid the wood shakes and patched up the sophist and fascia.  With the new shakes up, I painted the exterior.  My head always felt funny after spending about 10-12 hours in the air.  There is a gentle rocking and when you get back to solid ground your mind has a slight feeling that you’re still going back and forth.   Peanut rebuilt the porch which was in absolute terrible shape.  I should note that I changed the deck a year or so later and added an awning.  This is great in the summertime and it even seems to visually fit the building naturally.

About the last thing I did was one of the worst.  My side door opening was 4 inches to small so I had to cut it larger.  I rented a stone saw and began the fun…  I built what I thought was an elaborate floor to ceiling dust containment structure.  Understanding how much dust is put up in the air when cutting red brick cannot be explained, it can only be experienced.  When I completed the cutting my entire body was red, minus the spot where my goggles were.  My dust containment unit did not come close to living up to its intended use.  There was dust everywhere…  My wife had just cleaned everything the day before so she was not too happy about finding a light covering of dust on every single exposed surface the following day.  Once she saw how pathetic I looked covered entirely in dust, she took pity and cleaned it up.

I think, around a day later, I had the inspectors come and our liquor license arrived that same day.  It had hinged on a certificate of occupancy.   At this point I could only afford 4 kegs and a few bottles of liquor, but we were open for business none the less.