Arthur's Restaurant on Ten Mile Lake - Page 11

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These photos were submitted by Tom Cox in April of 2015

Construction Update as of April 30

On February 23, Tim Mueller of Northwoods Dock and Service and I went out to drill through the ice to sound the depths where our dock supports would rest. We had hoped to provide the DNR with evidence that would allow a different, more accommodating dock configuration than originally planned. Unhappily for us, we were unable to persuade the DNR of the acceptability of our revised plan, so Northwoods installed the dock as originally planned, as you will see. Here is Tim braving the weather to drill through about three feet of ice; he will thrust a ten-foot 2" X 6" to the bottom to measure the distance from the top of the ice to the sand.

Here's a front view of the building at about noon on Tuesday, March 17th. Note the absence of snow!

March 17th, the range hood in the kitchen, with the stainless back-wall (most with temporary protective covering), and the pizza oven at the right.

March 17. I happened to be at the lake that week, so I took a lot of pictures. Here are our two tankless water heaters in the utility room in the basement. These will provide hot water to the kitchen, and they will be supplemented with a standard water heater when the demand from the dishwasher requires it.

Here is a view of the basement room where the electrical service enters the building and all the circuits throughout the building will be tied in. Quite a maze of wires!

Our GC, Carl Peterson, Jason Snodgrass and Carl's brother, Jerry, fit the steel stair railing for installation on the staircase wall once the sheet rock is in place. Food and beer deliveries will come in through the south kitchen door, and will then go down this staircase to the freezer, the food cooler, the dry food storage room or the beer cooler in the basement. Note how substantial the staircase treads are - all made of laminated beams to bear the weight, wear and tear of heavy loads. Can you picture cases of frozen foods, and beer kegs being trundled up and down these stairs?

Our kitchen equipment uses massive amounts of air, not only to feed the flames on the cooking equipment and in the pizza oven, but also to exhaust the cooking smoke and fumes from the kitchen. These are the flues from the kitchen going up through the upper level and out through the ceiling and roof.

Here is a view of Long's Bay from upstairs on Tuesday, March 17 shortly after noon. Ten Mile is still solidly frozen.

Also on that same day the ceiling of interior dining room began to take shape....

...and the sheet rocking crew from Park Rapids was working on the main level bathrooms.

An oval window graces the off-sale room at the front of the building. Here's a view of the window from inside. Trees in the view from the window are across 371 from our site.

Speaking of mazes of electrical wires, here's another illustration of the complexity of the electrical service in the building. All these junction boxes are in the front wall of the kitchen area. Don't ask me what these all provide in the way of service!

Before the crew applied it, most of the cedar shake siding was painted indoors, both because it was pretty chilly outside in mid-March, and because spraying it after application would have required covering all the windows against errant paint spray.

Here's another view of the oval window, this one from outside, also on March 17th.

More wires, more plumbing, in the basement corridor. You are looking north toward the beer cooler at the far end of the corridor. The freezer and food cooler are toward the end on the right; the entrances to utility rooms and the downstairs bathroom are on the left.

Brad Edwards applied most of the ceiling in the interior dining room. Here he is on the scaffold on Wednesday, March 18.

Here on Thursday March 19 Jason Snodgrass applies siding between the windows. You can see what the red cedar shakes looked like before they were painted. The shakes toward the south end on the lake side of the building could be sprayed, since there were no windows to worry about there.

Here, at about 2:30 in the afternoon on Monday, March 23 Jason and Mike apply window trim on the north front of the large dining room in mild blizzard conditions.

Here is what the large dining room looked like on Sunday, April 5. Almost all of the siding is on; soffits are in place, but the facia still need trimming, and that siding at the south (far) end still needs two coats of paint.

Still on Sunday, April 5th, at about 6:00 PM (daylight saving time had by now now ended) Jim Graves snapped this view of building from the southeast. Still the south end must be sided, as well as the upper front and the Porte Cochere gable where the illuminated sign will go. Once again, see the oval window.

Ice-out day on Ten Mile, Thursday, April 16, Northwoods Dock came to install the new dock. It's beautiful! Bob and Cathy Iversen claim to be the first Ten Milers to tie up there, having pulled up to the dock for a visit this past Saturday, the 25th.

Here is Shari Peterson putting the finishing touches on the lakeside wall, also on Thursday, April 16th. The weather is getting nicer, now!

Tony Peterson, Carl Peterson's cousin, has appeared with his son, Hagen, on the site, and is helping in many ways to finish up the building. Here he and his colleague, Carl, put the siding on under the eaves at the southeast front. That scissors lift has been at work almost through the project; it really comes in handy! You could call it the sine qua non of a project like this.

Brad Edwards is an expert at all things rock and concrete, as well as many other things. Here, also on the 16th, he works on rocking the front entrance wall. The rock is all real, and has been mechanically cut in flat pieces by Northland Monument on Highway 200 just east of its intersection with Highway 84.

Here Tony Peterson and his colleague Dan install paneling on the upper south wall of the large dining room. Note the trim over the bar area at the left - most of it Dan's handiwork.

Still on the 16th, Mike Forrey and his colleague from Kensack Karpets install VCT (vinyl tile) on the basement corridor floor. A very nice job!

On Friday, the 17th, the crew was at work siding the upper south wall.

Meanwhile work continued on the trim work over the bar area. Note the attractive valence over the bar, a kind of "shelter" with a "Cape Cod" feel but also a location for lighting fixtures and for wine glass racks!

On a beautiful Saturday,the 18th, Jim and Tom visited the new dock to reassure themselves that it was solid, steady and servicable.

On Monday, April 20, Jerry Peterson continued trimming out the bar area in the main dining room.

About 4:30 PM on Tuesday, April 21, the crew lifted the lighted sign into place on the front of the Porte Cochere.

Here's a close-up of the sign, taken about noon on Wednesday, April 22nd. The sign is lighted at night.

By that same Wednesday, most of the Kinetico water purification equipment had arrived and been installed. Many will remember the difficulty the table water at the former Arthur's posed. Our water will be the "best in the state" according to the Kinetico guys from Bemidji.

Wednesday, the 22nd, Jerry Peterson continues trimming out the main dining room while paneling above the bar on the south wall of that room continues to rise.

Can you see Brad Edwards on his knees behind the yellow ladder? Here he works on grouting the rock he has applied to the exterior of the pizza oven. According to MN health code, the rock must be grouted with an epoxy grout, which is much more difficult to work with than "regular" sanded grout, if only because it dries much faster.

On the morning of Thursday, April 23, Jeff Hanson was on site cutting the sumac and aspen saplings that have taken over the western and northern perimeters of the property since the former Arthur's closed in 2003.

On Friday, the 24th, Brad, always of good cheer, was back at it, grouting the pizza oven rock. The MN health code is strict: note the stainless steel shelf in front of the oven's firebox.

On Saturday, the 25th, I came with my chain saw and a friend from Union Church, Mike Bohanon, volunteered to join me with a big trailer borrowed from another Union Church friend, Carl Larson, and together, we picked up the brush that Jeff Hanson had cut, together with more that we ourselves cut, and hauled it off to the compost heap at the Cass County Transfer Station off Stony Lake Road. I cut up the brush on the trailer so that it would pack better and enable us to carry a larger load. I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of Mike at work, too.

By Monday, the 27th, Brad had pretty well finished the pizza oven, the weather had turned warmer again and he was back applying split rock to the front entrance wall.

On Monday, the 27th, there was no lighting to speak of in the far northeast basement utility room when Joe Sechser and his colleague Al installed the electric plenum heater in the air handler's plenum. I took this picture using for light just the flash on my iPhone - not enough to give me a good exposure. This heater will provide auxiliary heat during the coldest months when the in-floor heat isn't enough to keep the main dining room comfortable.

That same Monday, Margo Cox (no relation to me) used a belt sander to continue buffing the tongue-and-groove boards that would make up the wall paneling in the dining rooms. The buffer is used to give the wood something of the look of "barn board." Carl will use actual barn board for accents in some places in the dining rooms.

On Tuesday, April 28th, the BMI truck came to pour the two pads on which one of the dining room heat pumps and the kitchen make-up air handler will rest at the southwest corner of the building. The make-up air handler provides fresh, heated (or cooled) air to the kitchen to make up the air that must be exhausted through the range hood during cooking operations.

On Wednesday, the 29th, Jason Gilland and his wife, Leah,came to begin laying ceramic tile. They started in the main level bathrooms. Here Jason holds up a square of tile that he has cut to accommodate a floor drain.

Leah used a tile cutting saw to shape a piece of tile for the bathroom floor.

Here's an early look at the tile going down in the women's bathroom.

Today, April 30: Deck installation time! Here, about 2:30 in the afternoon Jason Snodgrass prepares to drill a hole for a deck footing sonotube using the auger attachment on the Bob Cat.

Jason and the auger at work.

By 1:45 this afternoon, Jason Gilland and Leah had begun tiling the bathroom walls. The tile is beautiful!

I'll bring this update to an end with this lovely picture that Kurt Owen, of Ten Mile's south shore, took from his boat this past Tuesday evening, April 28th. Note the dock at the water's edge below. A lovely picture. Thanks, Kurt!

Work to finish the restaurant is progressing nicely, and rapidly. The new parking lot and the outside decks will go in this coming week, but there is still much to do to make the building operational. Opening may now be in early June.