It's been an on-going process of cleaning since we got the place last month. We've been putting in between 10-12 hours daily for 3 weeks straight now. Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. All the equipment was caked with a blend of grease, old oil and dust which makes for lots of scrubbing. Couple friends of mine have volunteered to help clean and paint! What a godsend! They've put in over 80 hours helping out.
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| This is the hallway "before" pic. |
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| I also wanted a mop/ broom closet. I had 3 storage closets side by side - 3 separate doors but all connected. My friend Wendy, built me a wall so my cleaning chemicals won't be stored with the paper/ plastic products. I think she did a fantastic job! Without knowing it was an open space prior, you would never guess it was just built. And she painted the inside so every thing matches and is a very clean looking white color. |
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| Wendy in the process of building a wall. |
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| Wall installed and in the process of being painted white. |
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| Sushi bar and far wall - painting complete. |
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| Sushi bar wall painting complete. |
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| Dining side wall - painting complete. |
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| Hallway doors for office, restrooms and storage - my friends Stacy and Wendy did all the restaurant painting and did a great job! |
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| Wendy painting the ceiling and back wall. |
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| Painting complete. |
The restaurant colors before were green, yellow and white walls. I liked the colors and thought it contemporary but wanted my restaurant to be more cozy and a bit on the dark side. The colors I chose were brown. Two different tones - a dark cocoa and a lighter tan to offset the darkness. All the green and white walls were replaced with dark. The yellow walls were replaced with the lighter tan. Dad wasn't much of a fan of my color choices but I was quite insistent so of course, I won. And to be truthful, I think it looks even better than I imagined.
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| We left the ceiling the same color. That task would have been very difficult and luckily, there was a wood border to help separate the colors. We kept the original light fixtures which helps with the contemporary/ modern look I'm trying to maintain. |
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| The photos will be changed out by the end of the month. We also kept all seating and tables. |
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| One of the "before" photos but the yellow wall portion has already been painted the light tan. |
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| The hallway "after" photo. I wanted to keep the colors but invert them making the larger portion tan. Since it is a small enclosed space I thought the lighter color would help not make it so cave-like. I don't want to scare the customers from utilizing the restroom! The storage doors, I kept the tan color to help blend in. I was thinking 9 doors in one hallway can be alittle intimidating and I didn't want customers getting frustrated by not being able to locate the restroom facilities. |
In the hallway, my plans are to have a community bulletin board. Here, people can post their charity fundraisers, business cards, etc. That board will be between the 1st and 2nd door in the photo above. Then the larger wall between the 2nd and 3rd door will be my "Wall of Honor" and "Wall of Humiliation" where it will also be a bulletin board but with photos of customers in their success or failure in the sushi eating contest. Yes, I will be having a sushi roll contest so for all you local fans, bring your empty belly and prepare to be stuffed!
So finally the painting is complete. Dad and I patched up all the holes in the walls and painted the kitchen. It's now a very bright and clean looking white color. The refrigerators and freezer is clean - although we are having some difficulty in maintaining the temperatures so we're monitoring them and hoping it will be an easy fix. Most of the pots and pans are clean as with the storage racks. There's only a few more things to clean before we can start shopping for our dishware, then onto our food products. The place is really shaping up!
