Weekend Update

Opening day is three weeks and one day away and we've gotten everything done this weekend we were planning to get done! (Well, we had to adjust a few things because the schedule for yesterday was a little ambitious.)

Coming up next is finishing the stucco work and putting the siding up on the south end of the building and getting set up with vendors.  We'll also continue planning our grand opening.

Giant Silver Octopus

The bar was recently attacked by a giant silver octopus missing half of its legs.

HELP! We're being attacked!

Opening Day Fallout

Thank you all for the positive response to our opening date announcement(s) yesterday!  For the first time in a while, I became excited about the bar.

It's really been a struggle at times to make this work out.  On top of that, it's taken far longer than I had anticipated it would back in October when the discussions turned toward purchasing the building.  It seems amazingly naive now but I first thought we'd be open by February!  And we know how that worked out.

And, as it turns out, we'll be opening about three months after we got our building permit.  Had things moved a little faster with engineering and The City, and we got the permit in November like I thought we might have (and we were told) we would have opened in February.

Which brings up another positive thing.  As we get bids from contractors and the like, I've learned that my out-of-the-blue guesses on how much they'll be have been pretty darn close.  That means we've been "Under Budget" since the beginning.  (I'd still like to have a little more breathing room in that budget but what can ya do?  Especially at this point...)

We're a tad behind on our contractor schedule right now (but by only about two or three days) but I still think we're on track.  (We wouldn't have broadcast to the Interwebz the June 20 and 25 dates if we thought otherwise.)  We came up with this schedule about two weeks ago when we were trying to find an opening day so there's bound to be a few little hiccups.

Regardless, Karl's at the bar today again with (I think) the electrician and (definitely) the AC dudes.  I envy him that; one of the AC guys is kinda cute.  He even seems alright with gay folks, too.  He mentioned yesterday he saw our news story on ABC30 about the graffiti and laughed when I told him what it said and spelled it for him (F-A-G-E-T) he laughed.  So, he's cool.  Hopefully, we'll see him at the bar; regardless of whether or not he's straight.  The world needs more Cool-With-The-Gay folks.

Opening Day

We are planning on opening our doors on Monday, June 20 at 4:00pm.

That Saturday, June 25, we are planning a grand opening party complete with food, prizes, and other stuff!  We'll post details as we get closer to the dates.

The next four weeks will be frantic, I'm sure.  We got to get all the bridesmaids dresses made...

We'll see you on June 20 and the party on June 25!!!

A Roof With a View

Remarkably exciting picture of the parking lot and dumpster from the roof.  This is the first time this view has been posted on the internet and has previously only been seen by taggers and various tradesmen.

Enjoy!

Evolution of Karl

Just a silly picture of Karl at the bar while we were getting our roof installed.

Weekly Theme Nights

A new survey to find out when you would likely come to a weekly theme night is up on our website. The URL is http://fresnophoenix.com/survey/index.php?sid=55435&lang=en

The survey expires on June 10 (the Newslink advertising deadline) so please hurry if you want your voice heard!

Tell your friends!

Theme Night Survey Results!

Remember our survey from almost two months ago?  We asked for your opinion on which theme nights and events sound like fun to you.  We've finally gone through the results and this is what we got.

63.33% of you either love theme nights or will attend if it sounds fun.  (One of you hates them and 10% just don't give a rat's ass one way or the other.)

43.33% can't be counted on to show up but will occasionally.  Fully one third of you will show up whenever the theme night you like is happening.

By far, the most popular was "underwear night" at 80% responding either that they'd be there or thought it sounded like fun.  Next was Pizza and Beer night at 70% saying that they'd be there or that it sounded like fun.  (Only one person said he or she would vomit at the thought of pizza).

Other popular themes were Open Mic, Stripper and/or porn star shows (all in the once-a-month category), Uniform , the new Five-minute happy hour, drink special nights.  The only unpopular ones were Trivia Night, the Pool Tournament and Amateur Proctologist night.  So those won't be showing up on the schedule on a regular basis. (Ok, so Amateur Protologist night was never really a serious question; though 10% of you said "Dude!  I'm totally there!"  Y'all worry me....)

The Secret Discount night came in at 50/50.  So, it may not be a weekly theme but I still like the idea so it may stay as an special thing.

Thank you all who participated!

"What a Dump!"

This morning, I'm updating our Building Status page with updated info.  (Why would I update it with outdated info??)  I do it somewhat irregularly but mostly consistantly after certain items are completed.  I made the list months ago when I still had this nice rosy idea of what the process would be like.  Step 1 would be followed neatly by Step 2 and then closely by Step 3 and so on.

And, well, that's not quite the way it worked out and the previously nicely ordered list is now a jumbled mess.  Kinda like the bar in this picture:

It almost looks like a bar!

If I thought the Status Page would be used much beyond June XX (Oops!  Almost accidently announced our expected open date!) I'd go back and reorganize it to make more sense now that opening day is only about X weeks away (Oops!  Almost did it again; it's a number less than 6 but more than 1).  After that time, the list becomes obsolete for evey purpose other than academics.

(Yes, I'm a tease....)

Power UP!

Another tiny bit of progress.  Karl tells me we now have electricity supplied by PG & E and no longer have to rely on generators at the bar to do work!

The new electrician is also at the bar working and we should have the roof and insulation inspected later today!

After so many delays and so much time in the past just watching nothing getting done this is starting to move quickly.

The Way It Should Be

We have a roof.

We spent all day yesterday at the bar with the roofers.  And, despite having to provide our own generator for them (for which we nicknamed the roofer "Blanche DuBois") the work was done and completed exactly as we expected to be.  THIS is how hiring a contractor should be.  Why couldn't Demo Guy have done the same?

Finally, aside from paint, the outside of the bar won't change very much from here on out.  (Well, that you can see from the street anyway.)

Here are several progress pictures taken throughout the day.

Blogger Out

We apologize for not having our regular frequency of updates over the past couple of days.  But the problem wasn't really our doing.  Blogger, the site that hosts the blog was having, well, I guess "Fits" is the best way to describe it.  Posts being lost, and that sort of thing.

But, all seems working well now so the updates continue.

Pulling Teeth

On Friday, we contacted our roofing contractor.  He was to start today putting our roof on. Materials for the roof were delivered yesterday to the roof in preparation of installing said roof today.

This morning, just before Karl headed out the door to drive to the bar to basically supervise the roofing, we called the roofer to make sure he was going to be there today.  Turns out, no, he wasn't going to be there today.  (When was he going to tell us this?)  Oh, and he dropped the bombshell that he'd need electricity.  (Why doesn't he have his own?  Is he Blanche DuBois relying on the kindness of strangers?)

So, here were are in more rainy weather without a proper roof on the bar.  We impressed on this roofer that, yes, we know you may have other customers who might have a leak in their roof today because of the rain.  But, he said he'd start on Tuesday and -- although I know our own problems are almost always more important to us than the problems of others -- my roof has a lot of leaks in it.  You can't go more than four feet across our roof before you come to a leak.  So, if Roofer is concerned with leaky roofs, why does my leaky roof (which probably has among the most leaks) not get at least temporarily fixed?

This is getting ridiculous.  Why is it like pulling teeth to get some people to do the work I want to give them money for?

Lessons Learned (So Far)

Now that the roof framing has finally passed inspection and we're done with Demo Guy for ever (unless something awful happens in the next ten years) here's a few valuable (and the occasional expensive) lessons we learned the hard way when hiring contractors:

Check the contractor's license three different times:  When you get the bid, when the contractor is hired and again before work is started.

Lots of things can happen between the time you get the bid and the time work actually starts.  For example, the contractor might come onto hard times and have his contractor's bond cancelled and therefore have his license suspended.

Demo Guy's license was valid when we hired him but by the time work started the state's website for checking licenses said it was "under Contractors Bond Suspension".  That means it was illegal for him to be doing contracting work valued at more than $500.  (It also provides information to help determine if the license is no longer suspended.)  And, to be fair, we don't know what happened with Demo Guy's bond and, frankly, it's none of our business what happened to cause the bond to be cancelled.

In construction (at least this project) there is not much worse than having problems with a contractor and then seeing "SUSPENDED" next to his license on the official site to check licenses.  Your jaw drops, your heart falls into your butt and you stop breathing for a few seconds.  (At least that's what happened to me.)

We're somewhat embarrassed by this.  We really should have checked before he started work.  It could have been one of our biggest mistakes.  (In our defense, it seems the incidence of this kind of thing happening is fairly rare.)

As of today, the contractor's board website shows Demo Guy's license back in the "Active" category with a bond effective May 6, 2011.  So that's good.  Despite the problems we had with him and despite never recommending him to anybody ever for even so much as hammering in a nail I'm glad he got that SNAFU sorted out.


Take high quality pictures of the areas your contractor is going to work on.

Having documentation of what things were like when the contractor begins helps avoid the contractor saying "It was like that when I started."  Here's the story.

Demo Guy claimed that some of the damage caused to the building was actually caused by the fire fighters who worked on the fire back in September, 2010.  Specifically, the weather head that connects the electrical service box to the utility pole in the alley.

During the days the bar was without a roof, the weather head was left unsupported for four full days(contrary to what was agreed to) and was pulled away from the wall by the weight of the line to the utility pole.  Being pulled away from the building cracked the electrical box which then had to be replaced at a cost of over $1,000 including materials and labor. 

We didn't have to take Demo Guy to court to recover these costs but we were prepared to.  Despite having what we believe would have been a solid case, we weren't really looking forward to small claims court.  Part of that solid case is the pictures we had taken of the bar.  Of special note in this case is a picture of the bar we took in February that just happened to show the weather head still attached to the roof; it was not removed by the firefighters as Demo Guy said could be a reason why the weather head was broken.


Keep a Blog

I suppose it doesn't have to be a blog, per se.  A journal (which is like a blog) would work just as well.

This blog proved to be a valuable source of information in making the time line of what happened.  For example, the "Vandals?  Shocking!" post pin-pointed a time that we had PG & E out to fix some damage.  (They never mentioned anything about a broken weather head.)  Without that post, that part of the time line was "On or around February 2011".  Changed it down to "Week ending February 18, 2011".)  The more documentation you have in court, the more likely you are to win.


Don't pay the contractor until the job is finished.

Seems straight forward but it isn't necessarily so.  By "Finished" I mean "Passed inspection".

We paid Demo Guy what he asked before the final roof framing inspection had been done since we thought it would pass easily the second inspection but it did not.  (The first inspection brought up issues that seemed to be easily and relatively quickly corrected.)

What we should have done was pay him half of what he asked for at that time.  And then paid him the other half when the roof framing passed its final inspection.  In this case, this weakened our bargaining power with Demo Guy to eat the cost of his negligence with the weather head and delayed getting the final truss installed correctly (you know, like he should have done in the first place.)


Take clear pictures of the work.

This is especially true of any abandoned or incorrectly completed work; it'll help your small claims case should you have to resort to that.

Remember this: your camera's macro setting (the little flower; see my crappy example to the right) is your best friend in these cases.  If you don't have good photo editing skills, make sure the lighting is clear in what you're photographing.  And, if you're photographing small items, include something to show scale.  If you've watched CSI, you've probably seen those little white "corner" things with rulers on them.  That's what I'm talking about.  It doesn't have to be a forensic-quality thing; lots of other things would work just as well for these pictures: a quarter, your finger, library card, your keys, etc.

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I really don't mind learning new things but I hope these are the only lessons we learn from this project. They weren't massively expensive lessons (aside from delaying our opening date and the weather head problem) but they added far too much tension and anxiety to an already anxious process.

Framing Inspection: Passed

Just got word from Karl:  The roof framing has passed the inspection.  We can move on.

Babysitting

Yesterday, both Karl and I went babysitting. We spent the entire day at the bar babysitting Demo Guy's apparently mildly inept crew.  We were there to make sure the final truss (that should have been installed an entire month ago today) was finally installed correctly and according to the engineered plans.

At first, I was very happy to see Demo Guy on the roof working with his crew to make sure the sign at the front of the bar was re-attached correctly to the roof (like it should have been done a month ago) to help ensure it doesn't fall off the building.  (Karl had sort of secured it earlier; they just came back to fix their screw up in how the sign was handled during demolition.)  I thought, "Yay!  He's actually going to supervise his crew!"

There was a brief disagreement on how the strapping should be done to the final truss. (Demo Guy was still insisting he was doing and had done it correctly; I believe based on a much earlier conversation with the engineer and not at all on what was approved.  For some strange reason, Karl and I believe that the installation should be done according to the approved plans  I know!  CRAZY!)  Then Demo Guy said he had to go visit his dad in the hospital and left.  I was a bit annoyed at him for leaving but, in the end, I'm glad he did.

His crew, which would have been unsupervised had we not been there, didn't quite know how to do some things and we were there to correct them and answer questions.  As best we could, anyway.  They didn't speak too much English and we don't speak good enough Spanish.  Which is one of the problems I believe Demo Guy has; he can't communicate well enough with his employees to make sure the jobs get done right the first time.  And I don't think it helps that these two who came by seem to me to be little more than two stooges with hammers; I just don't think they care all that much.

I also learned why you should both watch and not watch your contractor work.  It's much like watching your food being prepared in a restaurant.  These guys were using nail guns to nail in the strapping.  I believe that the manufacturer of the straps may specifically forbid the use of nail guns for installation but I'm not certain; I do know that I read it somewhere, though.  Nail guns can make things go faster but they can also cause problems.  Like, perhaps, splitting a vertical truss member in a truss you're trying to install and then having to make a new one to replace the one you broke; it's likely that hand nailing the strapping would not split the two-by-four.

At about 2:30pm yesterday, Demo Guy's crew was done with this job.  We think forever.  We believe the installation will pass inspection which is scheduled for today and we can finally move on to other things.  Like insulation and getting a damn roof on the place.

Sprucing Up

There are a number of small changes we're making to the interior.  (And a few large ones; like the peaked ceiling.)  One of them is replacing the bathroom doors.  They worked fine but, after the fire, they just didn't look, well, spiffy enough.

Last week, we went ahead and replaced the doors.  We don't yet have pictures of the replacement doors or what the old ones looked like.  But here's a picture of Karl looking at me sternly while we were there replacing the doors.

"Stop taking pictures and start working!"

(As you can see, we still do not have the drywall up over the insulation as the insulation needs to be inspected before we can do that and we don't really want to waste the inspector's time coming out for something so small.  You can also see a portion of the electrical work in the ceiling.)

Spinning Wheels

I'm not sure what to say today.

This week we should be (finally) getting the work finished by Demo Guy.   You know, the work that should have been completed a whole month ago.  If it goes well, I suspect we can have a finished roof within a week or so.  Demo Guy has caused us nearly two weeks (if not more) in delays.

We should also be able to get the electrical work finished.  We've a meeting tomorrow with Electrical Contractor's former employee to see if working with Employee can work for us.

This was also supposed to have been the week we were going to announce an opening date.  But I don't think we're quite ready to do that.  First, we wanted to be open for the Rapture on May 21 and have a Post-rapture hang-over party on May 22; that's not happening.  Then it was Memorial Day and that's looking increasingly unlikely.  And finally, Fresno Pride on June 4; and that's not looking promising as an open date either.

Our Trump Impersonation

After a particularly serious lapse of judgement on the part of our electrical contractor which caused an unconscionable security problem and combined with a near complete lack of the ability to communicate with each each other (we have a very hard time understanding him; English is not his native language) we had to fire him yesterday.

Karl had been doing most of the talking with this guy until yesterday so I didn't fully understand the language barrier.  His employee was able to understand him just fine (employee's native language is English) and we were dealing with him most of the time.  We learned yesterday that Contractor had fired Employee the day before.  Employee had been working with Contractor for about three years and the firing apparently came from out of the blue.

We would really have rather kept working with the same guy.  But, after a conversation that lasted at least 5 minutes (if not longer) and I still was unsure whether or not PG & E even knew we existed--much less was coming out to hook up our power to the pole--and apparently talking in circles Karl and I decided we didn't want to continue with Contractor without Employee.

What's Behind Curtain Number 1?

Turns out, more curtains...

The soda shop style bar stools at the bar are quaint but difficult to work on and are slowly deteriorating.  I've called them a "Law Suit Waiting to Happen".  (I don't drink that much and even I've had, shall we say, "trouble" with the bar stools.)  So, they have to go.

First step: Get rid of them!

Second step is...  Uh, I guess there is no second step.

We started getting rid of them on Monday.  First, we had to remove the carpet and reveal some of the structure to see what the heck was going on under there.  And it turns out it'll be fairly easy to remove.  Under the carpet is some delightful vinyl flooring.  I'm sure it matched beautifully with the pink and turquoise the building used to be painted.

My!  What lovely vinyl floor covering!

We have some nice ideas for what to do with the area down there below the bar on the customer side and, for the most part, you'll have to wait to know what that is until later.

From this point in removing the bar stools, we decided it'd be easiest with electricity. There's some wood that'll need to be removed and that'll be easiest with a circular saw.  Electricity should be available in about a week.  Until then, here are some pictures to entertain yourself with.

Don't touch that!  You don't know where it's been!

Bryan getting ripped.

In Too Deep

Well, well, well....

What a difference a day makes.  Demo Guy called us a little before Noon today with a proposal.

He wants to fix the problems we brought up yesterday and one other major problem that we didn't notice until he had left.  I told him I'd have to call him back after talking to Karl about the proposal Demo Guy offered.  And, after a long discussion between Karl and I, we agreed with the proposal.

We will be watching pretty much every move this guy and his crew makes.  I'm 100% certain that we all want to be done with this project and done with dealing with each other.  And, frankly, Karl and I want to move on.  (But that's not to say we won't take appropriate action later on.

On the Plus Side....

It looks like we may have temporary electrical service sometime this week; it depends on how quickly PG & E can make it out to connect things up.  And that will make construction work go a lot easier for everybody.

And, Jeff of Club Legends stopped by with a small entourage to take a look at the place.  (I assume he was driving by and saw Karl's car.)  He had some excellent advice that might save us a bunch of money.  (Which may go a good distance to making up for the costs of completing Demo Guy's work.)

"Is There a Lawyer in the House?"

Turns out, it wasn't all resolved on Monday.

As I mentioned very briefly yesterday (it was a mobile blog posting) we met with Demo Guy yesterday afternoon.  And it turns out we're going to have to take him to small claims court to recover the costs of repairing the damage we firmly believe beyond any shadow of doubt to have been caused by his construction crew and his own negligence.

Rolled into that claim is going to be money to finish the job correctly.  We discovered yesterday that the two guys Demo Guy sent on Saturday did not install the truss correctly at all.  Even after Karl had shown the crew the plans which clearly show the proper way to install the connectors they were not done correctly.  At all.

We're considering naming names here with this contractor.  We don't want to get caught up in a libel or slander lawsuit for defamation of character so we have to tread carefully.  That's not too difficult; we just have to make sure that our opinions are clearly stated as opinions.  There can be no defamation of character or libel or slander if what is said is true; the problem becomes being able to prove in court that what we present as fact is, indeed, factual.

Meeting With Demo Guy Completed

The meeting went pretty much as I expected.  But we're gonna have to see this guy in court.  Whee.