I promised you a photo heavy blog update and I wouldn’t dare rescind on a promise…plus, I just can’t wait for you to see what we’ve been up to!
But 1st, without further ado, I’d like to announce that we’ll be opening the doors to Afternoon Tease on Friday 25th October!
We’re in the final stages now and this week it’s going to all come together, culminating in a huge cleaning session followed by an even bigger baking session! 🙂 I can’t wait to get my hands on the ovens that have just been installed, not to mention my La Marzocco, which is arriving tomorrow!
But here, to whet your appetite are some pictures of what we’ve been up to in the last few weeks…
I finally got to splash some colour on the walls…3 coats of it to be precise……
But I love the finished article.
The counter was added to on a daily basis…drinks fridge, water boiler…
My kitchen started looking like an intergalactic space station…
A very exciting piece of furniture arrived, here’s a sneaky peak but you’ll just have to pop in when we’re open to see it in all its glory!…
My main job last weekend was the floor…I’ve had plans for the floor for a long time and knew it was going to be high maintenance to carry out but was hoping it’d be worth it. I wasn’t disappointed! Welcome to the floor diaries…
Day 1 – Floor is sanded and beautiful oak is unearthed from under the brown sludgy paint…
Here’s a ‘before’ shot…
Day 2 – Miss Igs and I got busy painstakingly drawing a grid over the entire floor…
and then masking & painting the alternate squares of the alternate rows…
It’d be too easy just to paint them, I wanted the grain of the wood to show through, so mixed white spirit with satinwood paint, painted it on and then wiped it off until I had the desired effect…I love making work for myself 😉
Day 3 – After 10 hours of crouching on the floor the day before, I felt like I’d been beaten up but there’s not rest for the wicked so I got back to it, masking and painting the other alternate squares to produce a harlequin pattern…
By the end of day 3, I was knackered but so chuffed to see my floor vision as a reality!…
Day 4 – I had to wait until the evening, when everyone had vacated, to set about varnishing this bad boy! I was using a hardcore floor varnish, which involved the nerve wracking task of measuring and mixing 2 elements that made up the varnish and then using a roller to liberally coat the whole floor…
Day 4 – Was pretty similar to day 3…I had to lightly sand the whole floor before giving it another coat and here it is, 4 days later…
I’m so happy with it and ever so slightly over protective of it…is it acceptable to hand out slippers at the door? 😉
There has been plenty of other activity going on too. A bit of chair painting…
and counter cladding…
which I stained and varnished yesterday…
Just the counter top to be fitted now.
The cafe front has been given a new lease of life by my Mum…
and very excitingly for me, my ovens are in! After cooking in a small domestic oven for so long, I can’t wait to start playing with this kit…
Even writing this blog and looking back at all of the photos, I cant believe how far we’ve come in such a short time! It’s getting so exciting as I see the cafe emerge from under the dust and jumble of powertools!
Just a few more days of hard graft and we’ll be ready to open the doors and welcome you in on Friday 25th!
Remember, if you’d like to keep up with what’s going on at Afternoon Tease, you can sign up here.
