brrrrrr.....

OMG---it's officially COLD in Portland, Oregon!!  Fall is long gone and as winter closes in, the newest reality is that we are going to be working on this cart in the RAIN, SNOW, WIND and FREEZING COLD TEMPERATURES!  If you know me, you know that I despise being cold, but we powered through the 30 degree temps on Saturday to get a lot of work done on the cart.  No complaints...this is what we signed up for, right?

We moved on to cabinets this week.  The walls are UP and STURDY, which means we can get going on the interior stuff.  This has not proven to be an easy task...just ask Travis.  The cabinets were too long, so we had to cut them to size (and by "we" I mean Trav), and then had to cut the shelves to fit and the drawers to fit, etc.  WOW!  There may or may not have been a lot of cussing throughout the day, but we're halfway done and proud of our progress!  Once we get them mounted on the wall, we'll be able to lay the counters on top.

The most stubborn cabinet we bought because of the drawers.

Cutting the drawers to size...(Don't mess up....You only get one shot!)

Next up will be paint...I think I can handle this part.  (I'm really good at drilling, taking out screws, painting, measuring stuff, holding stuff, picking out the music and making cocktails when we get irritated or frustrated).  

Thanks to Denise Hanggi from W+K for donating the paint for this project...amazing!

Now the bigger question is, what color should I chose??

SIDEBAR:

Sorry about the delay in posts....I had to get outta Dodge and head to Vegas for a much needed vacation...BIG SHOUT OUT TO TWO OF MY FAVORITE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD- JEN AND JUD.  I love you both and am so excited I got to spend some time with you--thanks for the continued support and excitement over The Grillery!  (Another thanks to Jud for teaching me how to play craps--and win!!--I might be going back to Sin City sooner than I thought...so fun!)

(Not Jud in this picture...he's a little camera shy, but Jen and I look cute so I had to post!)

View from our room at Caesar's Palace....sweeeet.

Cameras Rolling...

NOVEMBER 1st....I can't believe it.  NOVEMBER 1st?!?!  October ended well with the Oregon Ducks ranked #1 in the country and the Trailblazers off to a 3-0 start....I'll take it!

Hard to believe we came up with this idea 3 months ago and all that has gone into it so far.  Annnndddd, the fact that the cart still LOOKS the way it does....Let me explain.

This project is massive...(you've seen the pictures).  Every little thing we do makes a huge difference in our eyes, but to the layperson, it looks EXACTLY the same...which is to be expected... but disappointing all the same.  It's all the OTHER things we've done that require so much time and energy.  Examples include writing a business plan (whoa), research, fundraising, more research, meeting with vendors, interviews with our producer, research, designing the logo, meeting with cart owners, eating cart food (i.e. research), buying materials, thinking of more fundraising ideas, hitting the gym to work off our "research," etc...you get the idea.  Now, combined with the fact that we can only work on the cart after work and on weekends, this whole project is going to take longer than expected...sigh.

Oh yeah....and we're filming the whole thing.  Meet Colin.  He likes to keep the camera rolling even when I ask him to "CUT!"  (I guess that's the point?!)  He is responsible for capturing this whole thing and turning it into something each of you will actually want to watch...hmmmm.... Those of you who know me, know I'm silly, irreverent, sarcastic, honest, sweet, crass, strait forward and funny (so I've been told).  Now times that by a million and add Travis to the mix....yikes.

Floors are DONE!  They look pretty damn good too!

Travis got familiar with power tools to cut out the walls.

http://youtu.be/MKqWqeuupms


And I got familiar with the drill to actually put the walls up--so empowering!!
(click the link above to view awesome video)

The good news it....it's still fun.  And we are both really excited about the whole thing.  We are constantly getting amazing feedback and killer ideas from everyone we talk to.  The task may be daunting, but we know it will be worth it.  Even if we are the only ones who SEE the progress....at least we know we're making it...