The painters finished the front of 113 today, with the exception of the "bulkhead" at the bottom, which has already deteriorated from exposure in just the few weeks it's been up (never leave raw wood exposed without putting at least some primer on it - I knew better than that!). That has to be redone tomorrow, and it'll be the same dark forest green as the rest of the storefront, but until then the white primer provides a nice Cinco de Mayo vibe. Personally, I think the black cast iron and front door looks pretty cool. Don't forget the front gets a big striped awning that'll cover the entire upper windows - we're not there just yet.
Inside, the walls in 113 have been completely textured, and are ready for paint (my office is done, but rest is waiting for trimwork to be completed), while the computer tech guys are putting together the wiring closet so the fiber optic cable that bring in our Internet and phone (did I mention we've got fiber?) can be accessed from multiple locations in each room starting tomorrow evening when the server gets installed. Kitchen cabinets are ordered (I waited too late to do that, so they'll be a while, unfortunately), ceramic tile for kitchen & bath floors is picked out, and the first bathroom fixtures go in tomorrow.
And the trim crew spent the day cutting and sanding the crown and base board moldings from old shelving for installation tomorrow. The "crown" molding is a strict copy of the 1928 side's crown shown here on top of the shoe shelves
, which consists of a 1" x 5" with a strip added to the top and bottom.
We know the 1928 side had this trim all the way around the store at the top of the shelves (including at the tops of the mezzanine shelves) so we are copying that for all the 8' walls that enclose the new offices. I can't be sure, but I think it is likely that that molding also topped the original 1897 store's 12' shelves, and was simply transferred to the 1928 side, since we now know that the full-height shelves in back had it. So we're installing it as a uniform decorative band all the way around the building. I just realized today why it looks familiar - when I was at Baylor Law School over at the "old" law school there was a similar three-piece band of decorative walnut running throughout the building at waist level.
As much as got done yesterday, today was amazing. Can't wait to see what happens tomorrow.
