We're In. Now What?

Two days later, Kate & I went out to Funner, California to celebrate.  

We had a discounted room at Harrah's Casino from the previous summer when we came back to a hotel room with a ceiling leak in the bathroom.  We splashed around the lazy river, soaked in the hot tubs & made our own cocktails up in the room.  It was wonderful day in the heat of the summer.

When we got back, we started to access our new space.  Eli had given us free rent through the end of July, but it was a daunting project to build out an approved kitchen, equipped with a exhaust hood, underground plumbing for a bathroom & many sinks, a grease trap & all of the necessary electrical upgrades.  

It was a blank canvas, but we couldn't be more excited to call it the future headquarters of Mad Munch Grilled Cheezer Co.

Our friend, Brad who was co-owner of Nomad Donuts in North Park gave us a few recommendations.  He had done a complete build-out similar to what we were looking at, a few years before.  He put us in touch with John, who would come up with plans for the Health Department & with Chris, who was an architect, who would draft up blueprints for the build out.

"They're real good people, who aren't too expensive & did a great job on our build-out," Brad said.  "We even came in under budget."

The first week in there, Kate & I went to work clearing out the shelving & taking apart the dressing room walls.  We put the shelves on Craigslist along with the chandelier.  

"Might as well make some money off the stuff they left behind," I said.

We started sketching out some ideas for what our new setup would look like.  Here's one of the first drafts that we came up with:

It was a very early sketch but after John came out to take measurements, he'd come back with some definite & accurate schematics to build on.