Kitchen Update

It seems that every day there is something major happening in the kitchen.  Our cafeteria manager is eagerly awaiting the completion of the kitchen. We now have two integral parts of the kitchen installed. 



This is the cafeteria manager's office.  It is on the opposite side of the kitchen than before.  The dry storage room is to the immediate right. 



Workers have begun painting primer on the walls.  One person sprays it and the other goes over it with the roller.  

This is one of the air filters that will be over the cooking area. 

The copper piping is for water. 

This vent is in the dish room.  It will go over the dishwasheer. 

They have put primer on all of the brick walls.  This is the view of the doorway that the students enter to get to the serving line. 

This is the new refrigerator.  The white is just the protective plastic to keep the stainless from being scratched. 

This is the new sub-zero freezer. 

Roofers have been busy completing the roof above the kitchen and new hallway area.  The item that looks like a sledgehammer is actually for putting nails down on the roof. 

A New Freezer

As work continues in the kitchen, the workers are preparing the area that will be home to our new freezer.  To install a commercial grade below-zero freezer doesn't mean that you can just pour a concrete floor and then plop down the freezer.  Since the unit gets down to -20 degrees it would draw moisture from the ground and create a heap of problems.  In order to prevent this the workers prepare the flooring area.  

First, a 12" slab of concrete is poured and topped with a waterproof liner.  Then 6"of vertical containment barrier (the blue foam) is laid on top of the concrete.  To top it off, another 4" layer of concrete goes on the barrier.  When this has dried and set, they will be ready to place the bottom of the freezer on the entire area.  The freezer floor has its own layers of insulation. 



While the freezer area is being worked on, workers Justin and James prep the area around the new steel post for a concrete support. 



Kitchen Beams

Despite the week of rainy weather, work continues on our renovation.  The kitchen is having concrete poles replaced with steel beams. 



This gentleman is operating a very large crane.



It's a very tall piece of equipment that is being used to help install the 480 lb steel beams into the kitchen. 

The beam was loaded through a hole in the roof.  It's held by a steel cable as the other workmen attach it to the ceiling. 

You can see them at the top.  There were a total of 6 installed. 

The steel beam in the middle will allow the concrete poles to be removed. 

Kitchen Work

Kitchen update:  there are two new concrete pads inside the kitchen.  I will take an educated guess and say that they are for the freezer and refrigerator. 

Of the two new concrete pads, this one is larger.  Not sure if that means it is the freezer or refrigerator. 

The smaller of the two pads. 

Progress In the Kitchen

The plumbers have been busy in the kitchen.  They  have now installed the plumbing that is in the flooring.  It has passed inspection and the trenches have been filled in with gravel.  The next steps include covering the entire area with gravel and pouring the concrete flooring. 

Pipes were installed and awaiting inspection. 

After passing inspection, the workers began filling in the trenches with gravel. 

The electricians have come into the kitchen and marked locations for electrical work that will need to be completed before the concrete floor is poured. 

The Kitchen is Coming Along

The demolition of the kitchen was exciting to watch and it seemed as if there were significant changes each day.  As the teams come in and out doing various jobs, the work seems a bit less exciting but still very important.  Since it is the kitchen, plumbers have had quite a bit to do before the concrete foundation can be repoured. 

The plumbers have been busy digging trenches to install PVC pipe all over the floor area of the kitchen. 

They have to dig fairly deep in order to lay the pipe.  But the work is worth it because they are replacing..............



.....this sixty year old set of pipes. 



Finishing the Grease Trap

To complete the installation of the grease trap, workmen finished installing the pipes and covers. 

After the 'tomb' for the grease trap was put in, large pipes were added to the top. 

Workers struggled with aligning the covers in order to bolt them down. 

Next, gravel was put down to fill in the trench. 

The next step included putting in concrete to complete the process. 

Gotta' Have a Grease Trap

In order to have a new kitchen there are some prep items that are necessary.  On Monday a new grease trap was being installed in the ground directly behind the kitchen. 

A small crane lifts and then sets the concrete grease trap into the ground. 

The worker has to make sure the trap is sitting in the ground properly.  Notice the PVC pipe that leads to the trap. 

The workers are making sure that the trap is level in the ground.

Kitchen Wall

The construction team has made great progress with the kitchen wall.  This is the wall that will face the dining portion of the cafeteria.  One big difference from our old wall is the addition of windows. 

This is the view of the wall from the kitchen side. 

This is the view of the same wall from the cafeteria side.  There are three doorways with two windows between each of them. 

New Hallway and Kitchen Walls

The start of our new school year is a mere two weeks away.  One portion of the construction that will be completed for our use this year is the new hallway through the cafeteria.  This hallway leads from the back parking lot and comes out by the stage in the cafeteria. 

The demolition of the kitchen is almost complete and now new construction has begun. 



This is a new wall being built in the kitchen.  The opening on the left is the dirty tray window.  The door frame and other two window openings are new. 



This is a view of our new hallway.  Construction worker Tanner is busy laying gravel in preparation for a footer. 

Construction worker Justin stops laying rebar for a moment to give us a quick smile. 

Changes Keep Coming (Kitchen and Back Area)

Coming back to CME after being out of town for a week resulted in seeing the results of a lot of work that has been done.  Here are a few photos.

At the end of the hallway by the computer lab, they have also added plastic sheeting to help keep the dust out of the building.

On the grassy area behind the kitchen, they have placed some concrete pads.  At this point, I am unsure of their use.  Permanent or temporary??

In the back parking area behind the kitchen, workers are busily creating trenches in the asphalt in order to lay water pipes. 

This is the kitchen.  The last picture I posted showed the entire floor area covered in large chunks of tile and concrete.  Now they have cleaned most of it out and are putting gravel into the area.  Small equipment is coming in to knock down more walls. 

This view is from the back wall of the kitchen and looking through the new doorway they created a few weeks ago.  The closest area would have been a dry storage area.  The blue double doors were the doors for Primetime's storage closet in the cafeteria.  The hole in the wall on the right looks into the boiler room. 

Workers are currently removing conduit and piping that are in the roof. 

Geometrically shaped trenches in the back lot. 



Workers are on the roof removing the conduit and pipes from the roof. 
The small back hoe is sitting where a small concrete storage shed once stood. 



Work Continues

The week of July 4th has seen an influx of more workers to our campus.  There seems to be work going on everywhere on the property.  Here are a few updates.

The flooring in the kitchen continues to be demolished. 



Looking through the window into the kitchen, the scene makes me think of a frozen moment of angry ocean waves during a storm. 



The front corner classroom is being emptied. 

Workers are waiting for the SkyTrak to return so that they may fill the bin with debris. 

Now it is almost cleaned out. 

Kitchen Update

Demolition of the kitchen continues on.  It doesn't look much like a kitchen anymore.  Only outer and load bearing walls are still up.  Windows have been knocked out, the refrigerator and freezer have been removed, and they are currently working on jackhammering out all of the existing floor tiles. 

Just as they separeted the debris in the front of the building, they do the same in the kitchen demolition. 

This is the first evidence of something new to our renovation process.  The frame for a new double door has been added.  Look to the inside wall and you will see the measurements for the inner doorway.  This will ultimately be a hallway that will lead to the new cafeteria.  It will run where the current stage is in the cafeteria. 

This is the kitchen as the photographer is standing against the farthest wall of the dry storage area. The manager's office, prep area, ice machine, sinks, and employee break room have all been demolished. 

This is the view from the sink/dishwasher area.  Directly in front would have been the wall that separated the serving line and the cooking are that had the stove and convection ovens. 

The dirty tray window from the kitchen side. 

This machine has a jackhammer attachment on the front.  It was removing the floor tiles that would have been in/under the refrigerator area. 

A close up of the jackhammer attachment.  Workers said that to remove all of the tiles would take 2-3 days.