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the
long and whining road
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here for a slideshow
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April
5 2003: Can't stand waiting around for this deal to close.  I
went ahead and stripped the ugly black paint off the sculpted glass windows
(see photo, pre-scrape). Now they're shiny and gorgeous.
(photo by Dave Wycoff)
April 12 2003: Tore out the 30-ft bar. 50-year-old moldy
bar dust does not taste as good as you'd think. Under one board I found
a big pile of wadded up papers that looked a lot like old, yellowed money.
Woo-hoo...never mind. They were cigarette wrappers, wet since 1950. Marco,rag
in hand, climbs a ladder and makes a discovery: the amber ceiling (see
photo) was originally white. That's nicotine. Eeew.
April 22 2003: Liquor license approved by City Council!
Skoal!
April 29 2003: Closed on the building, finally! It's
mine now. Two hours later, I meet with a roofer who says the whole roof
needs to be redone. (Naturally.) On the good side, the roofer's assistant
was prying up change that was skank-glued to the floor under where the
bar once was, and claims many of the coins are quite valuable. Maybe they'll
pay for the roof.
May 8, 2003: Front half gutted. I've never taken more
showers in
my life.
May 15 2003: While pulling down the false ceiling in
the bathroom, a pair of panties and nylons fell on my head. I screamed
like a girl. These were not dainty. I considered using them as a dropcloth,
but couldn't bring myself to touch them. I do not want to know how they
got up there.
June 5 2003: Pulled up the black, gummy, filthy tile
floor to reveal a wood floor underneath, which was black, gummy and filthy.
June 14 2003: Nail pulling party (subtitled "What
Would Jesus Do?"): ten friends showed up to help pull nails out of
the floor to prepare it for refinishing. It's the most fun I've had while
on my knees. (I heard that.) Saved me a week of drudgery. Yay, friends!
June 19 2003: Pulled out all the old wiring. I was worried
that if anything went wrong, no one would see me on the black floor.
June 25 2003: Sort of a privacy problem with the bathroom:
the wall's gone. Now I'm not quite as charmed by those big  picture
windows on the street. (photo by Angie Ankenbauer)
July 1 2003: The stage is built! It's really the only
thing I understood how to do, 
 so
I took on that challenge first. It's so much fun to stand on it, put on
my best overbite, and pretend there's a show.
Air conditioner ordered today. They say it'll be installed
in "two weeks." Hooray!
July 11 2003: Jimmy Hoffa found.
July 28 2003: Upstairs toilet tank explodes. Water everywhere.
The new stage curls like a potato chip. I've been painting all day with
blood red paint (technically, "Tahiti Red"), so I don't even
have to imagine what it would look like to shoot myself.
August 15, 2003: Air conditioning guys show up, and only
install the blower. If I could plug it in, I could at least blow the hot
air around the room in a circle.
August 25, 2003: Call the air conditioning guys. "Um,
y'all gonna finish before the first snow?" They explain that they're
waiting to ask the original salesman a question, but can't reach him because—I'm
not kidding—he's golfing.
Aug 26, 2003: Air conditioning guy says they'll continue
installing the air conditioner on Friday. It's been over 95 degrees for
two weeks. Friday's forecast: 72 degrees. That'd be hilariously ironic,
except they don't show up Friday either.
September 15 , 2003: It's like a barn-raising, only it's
a bar. A dozen friends turn up to hoist the antique bar, salvaged from
"Don't Drink the Water," up from the basement. RevKev starts
picking at the peeling varnish, trying to get bigger and bigger pieces.
You'd think it was his own sunburned skin or something. See
his championship trophy.
October 3, 2003: Mark David Floors comes to grind fifty
years of  stink
off the oak floors. It turns out great. Thanks, Nail Pulling Party!
October 10, 2003: I start repairing the walk-in cooler
in the basement (hopefully not ever used by the original tenant, a mortuary).
The ceiling collapses, and the insulation, which has soaked up bar-drippings
since 1959, falls on my face. Nothing like a taste of history.
October 22 , 2003: The air conditioner's in! We test
it out, and let's just say they were over-acheivers. It sounds like an
airport, and blows enough wind to fly a kite. They promise to do something
about it "next week." [sigh.]
December 23, 2003: They fixed the
noisy air conditioner two days ago. I drove to Lincoln to pick up my liquor
license, and immediately beg all venders to send me stuff. I have no clue
where to put it. Five family members visit for Christmas. And I decide,
let's try to open for New Year's Eve. I age five years in five days.
December 31, 2003:
Mick's opens. It ain't pretty, but we pulled it off!
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