Distillery part 7: ceiling, priming, cleaning

It has been so long since I've done a post, I almost forgot how!  Between working at Fancifuls in the mornings and then working on the building interior in the afternoons and weekends, I'm just too tired to blog!
Vince is currently recovering from his second carpal tunnel surgery, so I have a few free minutes to give some updates.
We have been very busy working on the inside, this post is showing what we got done prior to Vince's first carpal tunnel surgery on March 16th. We were trying to get as much as we could done because he would only have the use of one hand for awhile. We didn't really know what to expect from the surgery, but all went well with his left hand, he had minimal pain and was able to do some minor tasks after a few days. The worst part about the whole thing was having to tape a plastic bag over his hand for 12 days while he showered.

sooo, anyhoo, here is what we got accomplished in February and early March....

 After the drywall was finished and we got the heat going, it was time to put up the ceiling in the tasting room so the insulation guys could come back and do the attic area.

This is the lumber for the ceiling in the tasting room, there are 8' and 10' lengths of wood in these piles. We bought all this last year and had it delivered the same time as the lumber and drywall.

I started staining these before Christmas. I wanted to get them all done so they would be ready when we needed them. I worked on them evenings and weekends. I put one coat of stain and 2 coats of polyurethane on them.

 

We loaded the back of the truck up and backed it into the building to unload it because it was really cold that weekend, it was below zero with the wind chill, and it is really windy up on that hill!

We set up the chop saw and got to work!

We had stapled plastic sheeting up to help keep the heat in since we had the radiant heating system finally going. We pulled it down as we went along with the ceiling boards. Vince is cutting out a hole so the boards will fit around the recessed lighting fixtures.

Vince is cutting the last few boards to finish off the end. The portable scaffold we bought at Harbor Freight is one of the best purchases we have ever made!!

Yea! The last piece! We got it done that weekend.

It looks great! Now what can I make out of those scraps?

Insulating the attic area. That should help keep things warmer!

That foam oozes through every tiny crack and hole. But is really easy to scrape off and it didn't take long to clean it up. Yes, I saved some of it because it looked cool! It is pretty fragile though and if you squish it it will compact.

Now that it is all insulated, it is time to get ready for paint. I had to wipe down all the walls and the ceiling in the distillery side with a damp rag ( well, many damp rags!). That dust was everywhere and on everything. That took me half a day. Vince pushed me around on the scaffold to do the ceiling, so that saved a lot of time.

Wiring in a smoke alarm.

Music! I have Josh Groban, Cold Play, Perry Como, Neil Diamond, Billy Idol, Queen, John Denver, the B-52's, the Lumineers and a bunch of other stuff on there. I like to listen to music when I'm working. I love my little green guy, he is the portable speaker for my i-pod.

We bought this paint sprayer at Harbor Freight (we love that place!), it was kind of messy but made up for it by being able to paint that whole room in a few hours. We put a coat of primer and 2 topcoats on.

Grand Central Mess

trying to decide what colors to use

We had to wash the floor before we could paint it, and we still didn't have any water, so we ran the hose up from the house. We lucked out with the weather, it was nice out when we wanted to do the floor, so we were able to have the doors open to help dry it out after washing it.

All clean and ready to paint!!! What a horrible job that was, spraying the floor and scrubbing it with a broom and rinsing, rinsing, rinsing. Then we had to use an etching compound and rinse that off. But it was wonderful to get all that plaster dust and paint overspray out of there.

Distillery part 6: Utilities and progress!

A lot has been accomplished the last few weeks. 

This is the transformer where the huge wire comes from the pole, then the secondary wire runs up to the building. They did this part first.

Then they connected it to the pole.

 Hooray, no more generator!

Next, it is the spray foam insulation guys!

It was cool to watch, it goes on wet and immediately puffs up, it dries right away. Then they scrape it down so that it is flush with the 2x4's. He was using a round metal curry comb! ( a comb to groom horses, usually).

 A glove we found on the floor the next day. This stuff sticks to everything except plastic! They wanted to do the walls before we put up the ceilings because we were putting a wooden ceiling in the tasting room. So they are going to come back and do the attic floor at a later date.

We decided to hire someone to hang and finish the drywall. It was the best decision we have made so far! We really suck at it. Well worth every penny. Jeff and his crew did a fabulous job, and they are fast! The drywall was hung in 2 days by 3 guys. The taping, mud, and sanding was done by 2 people in 4 days. It was done in less than a week. I don't know why his phone number is not on the van, but he is out of Cortland and you can google "the rock company" to get his contact info.

These guys had the distillery side almost complete on the first day. We were really impressed with the way they could measure and cut the hole for an outlet, and then put the drywall panel up and the hole was in the right spot (in a matter of minutes). Vince and I had done some drywall work in our old house in Killawog and in this house, and we would always screw this up somehow!

The ceiling is done!

 The tasting room.

Taping the seams.

They were walking around on these stilts!

While the drywallers were working, Vince was busy putting the finishing touches on the boiler for the radiant heat system. The propane tanks were delivered and the floor was warm that evening! I call that crazy looking pipe and hose thing "the pantookler", it looks like something from Dr. Suess! It does hum a little!

We had to get a working phone number so that we could put it on our TTB permit application. We didn't really want that expense right now, but what could we do? So, here is Frontier, putting the phone cable in. They have this cool little machine that digs a trench and puts the cable down in the ground at the same time.

They dragged the cable up to the building...

and worked their way down to the road...they left the cable on top of the ground where the creek is, they said they'll come back in the spring and bury it under the creek then.

The ground was really soft that day, they got it stuck a few times and had to pull it out with the truck.

"Hello, you have reached Dragonfyre Distillery! Call back in a year and maybe we'll have some moonshine to sell you!"

We now have electricity, heat and a phone! Yea! 

We now have an electric bill, a propane bill, and a phone bill! Blech!