Delays for Castle's Kettle and Pub

After the devastating day the Virginia Tech community went through yesterday, the Hokies reunited in remembrance of our lost officer..  Today we will have a vigil for Officer Crouse and we will give his family the Hokie love and support they deserve.

It was not just the Virginia Tech students that felt the significance of yesterday but Joe, At Castle's Kettle and Pub was feeling the same emotions.  I spoke to Joe, an Virginia Tech alumni, today and he cancelled his inspections and deliveries for the day, because Joe cancelled inspections he has to wait until Monday.  This means Joe looses 2 days of work.  Without the neccessary inspection he can not proceed with the insulation and drywall.  Joe has all the materials for the drywall just laying on the main floor. The images below shows what the main floor looks like.

The only person doing work on the site was Andrew, the executive chef.  Andrew was outside doing the stone work to the front of the building. See Figure 1.

Figure 1 

I did see a few things though.  In Figure 2 you will see the insulation that they sprayed in the roof.  The insulation is like a foam.  It is prayed just like paint but once it is sprayed it takes a few seconds to expand a 100 times bigger.  In Figure 3 you will see the insulation that was placed in the walls downstairs.  The significance of insulation is that it keeps heat from escaping the building and since heat does not ecsape your heating bill will decrease significantly.  

                  Figure 2.                                            Figure 3

 

Joe and I also talked about what he was doing on the side of the Pub (Shown in images below)

   

                                Figure 4                                                   Figure 5

As you can see in Figure 4 and 5 Joe has installed posts next to the Pub.  These posts are there because in between the post and the building the HVAC units will be installed.  The posts will be cut to the height of the door because of building requirements (only a certain percantage of the side of the house can be covered before it is considered a indoor room).  The posts will be constructed into a fence.  The fense will be there to hide the HVAC unit. 

The other thing Joe and I talked about was the deck that was installed.  He said that the deck was not well designed because of two reasons.  One, there was one post that is almost in the doorway. Two, the stairs had to be relocated to avoid the traffic of people going through the outside seating area.  He did not seem very happy about it but he said that in construction you need to be flexible to make changes as you go. 

In Figure 6 you see Joe's first problem.

Figure 6

Joe explained that if the deck was designed right then the furthest post would be alligned with the post of the house (which is blocked by the 2de post) to make the seating area sqaure.

The last thing I observed before I left was a delivery.  Earlier while I was talking to Joe he said that he was expecting a delivery and it hasn't come yet. As I left at 3:00pm the lumber delivery arrived. The employee parked the truck in the turn lane, and then used a loader to lift and move the lumber on site.  Below are images of the scene.

Once again I enjoyed talking to Joe.  Joe and his crew has been very helpful in answering any questions that I have had.

I hope you enjoyed my reports.

All the best,

Mic.