A Tavern Update!

Hey EVERYONE!! HELLO! HI! HOWDY! Oh..God is so good and I am shouting His praises from the rooftops! Can you tell that I'm excited? I am so full of joy,and my heart is so full of gladness I can barely contain it!
So let me tell you what has been happening on the beautiful Square in Lovely New Wilmington! As you can see from my last post, we had our closing on November 24th. (Thank you Laurie for all of the hours you spent, phone calls you made, trips to the Tavern, and sleepless nights that you endured for us! YOU ROCK!)
(Thank you too Rob Clark..you have great wisdom and advice!)
Everything went very smoothly (surprisingly considering the four month process it took to buy this restaurant)and it was ours.
We spent two whole days processing it all. We searched out and inspected every nook and cranny of the place. We praised God. We laughed, we groaned, we shivered with excitement and anticipation and a little apprehension. (Actually Joe fights the fear... I have none..God's in charge and I know He's in control..what's to fear??)
Then we immediately went to work cleaning the apartment next door to the Restaurant. We scrubbed it up and down and fixed what was broken! We went shopping and bought furniture and appliances and it has become our second home! It's beautiful, and although it's four of us living in two rooms..we're doing well! (Girls.. YOU ARE AMAZING..THANK YOU FOR BEING SO FLEXIBLE AND WILLING TO SACRIFICE SO MUCH FOR OUR FAMILY. I AM SO PROUD OF YOU. THANK YOU FOR BEING SO WONDERFUL!!)
So it took us about a week to get moved in, and then we began working on the Restaurant. We started in the basement. Can you imagine what a 250 year old basement, that sat empty for two years looked like? The equipment and walls and everything down there was covered in mold and dirt and ..you don't wanna know what else! But we sanitized everything and scrubbed it until my hands were raw! We repainted and recovered the shelves..we bought a new convection oven (the kind that dunkin donuts used for their donuts and muffins!) we got rid of old tables and brought in new ones..and now it's beautiful! It really is. It's a place where the wonderful Tavern Sticky Buns will be made. It's going to be the place where the Bakery pies and muffins and rolls and breads will be baked. There's going to be a lot of love created in the Tavern Restaurant Basement! : ) A lot of love and a lot of calories : )
Next we went to the kitchen and began moving old equipment out of there. I think some of the equipment was as old as the Tavern itself! That was opened in 1931! By the time we finished (and we're still not done) I think we will have put in an entire new kitchen. We took the old dishwasher out and the oven. We put in a new oven, grill, fryers, and dishwasher. We scrubbed and painted. WE took out all of the dishes and stacked them in the main dining room. We are going to take inventory and count all of the dishes and equipment and then wash and dry and put them away in a proper place. We will decide what we are going to use, and the rest will be put in storage. We are going to keep the old Tavern dishes, because they are in good shape. I think the only new dishes we will need, are going to be coffee cups!
We ordered new dining room furniture for the main dining room.It is being made by Gideon Kurtz of New Wilmington. He's a great furniture maker! We ordered 45 chairs and 11 tables. We also ordered a new hostess stand for the hostess to greet people from once they enter the lobby of the Tavern.
We cleaned and wiped down walls and touched up paint..we washed windows and wiped off chairs. We polished and painted. We moved and arranged things. We fixed A LOT of things!
We have worked 18 hour days..every day!!! It's hard work, but as I said previously, we have done it joyously!! Now we are almost done with the physical cleaning type of work. Now it's time to put it all together. That's the fun part for me. We will begin decorating and designing. We will put the menu together and work on the catering menu. We will get our signs made. We will begin hiring our Tavern Team this next week! We will order uniforms and products for the gift shoppe. We will begin working on the bakery menu. My brother Alan will begin building the inside of the bakery. He's the person who remodeled The Pointe in New Wilmington! If you've been in Suzy Ligo's hair salon, you can see how amazing his work is! We are really excited about getting that designed and built. Oh..friends..there's so much we've done and still so much that needs done. Please continue to pray for us. Please ask God to continue to bless us and to keep us healthy. Ask God to pave the way for us to get open. We are without an income until we open, so please ask God to provide for our needs. I think that's about all for now. I hope you have a joyous and prosperous and healthy new year! Celebrate! There's so much to celebrate! I keep telling Joe, if God would take it all away.. all of it..all of us.. There's still God. He will always be here, and that is enough to Celebrate and rejoice over! God is so good. With A heart full of love, Susan