WLW Blog
May 6, 2008
Building Blocks
Today the outside wall began to take shape. They begun laying down the 4 foot high cinder blocks that will become the bottom of the outside structure. The remainder of the wall, from the cinder blocks up, will be insulated metal. Man they sure planned ahead. After all I wouldn't trust my forklift driving skills either. What a site that would be... A forklift sticking through the side of our brand new barrel room with a panic stricken blonde in the drivers seat. Oops!
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May 1, 2008
A Building Is Emerging.....
After months of what seemed as if the construction project was on delay, progress is coming along quickly. On April 30th the steel beams for the Infrastructure went up. And in what seemed like the blink of an eye, a steel structure emerged.
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April 24, 2008
Leaving My Mark
On the day of the Big Pour I couldn't resist having a little fun. Tom Sr. wouldn't mind if I leave my mark? I mean a giant lightning bolt isn't too noticeable, right? Besides I'd blame it on Mike. After all he was the one taking the photos.
I even conned Fernando into joining me. Oohhh... busted!!!
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April 23, 2008
The Big Pour
On April 23rd cement trucks filed into our driveway one after another. A light drizzle started off the day. But by 11am the rains were gone and the sun gave way to the perfect cement pouring day. Check out the flames on the remote-controlled boom truck. And that industrial sized cement polisher, now that's what I'm talking about...
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April 14, 2008
Life in the Trenches
With a sigh of relief, I'm glad to report that our construction zone doesn't have that man from Mars, Twilight Zone eeriness anymore. They filled all those open trenches with concrete.
After several months of what seemed like daily dirt pushing, the early stages of a building began to appear. On the morning of March 31st, the cement mixers started showing up two at a time. But the coolest part of the day was watching a giant remote controlled arm soaring through the air and dumping concrete all over the job site. Apparently this contraption is known as a truck-mounted boom pump. It uses a remote-controlled articulating robotic arm to distribute the concrete. The guy working the video game-like remote control moved the boom with pinpoint accuracy and even used a little body English to guide the boom. (He sort of reminded me of an old boyfriend who spent way too much time playing video games, creepy.) There were workers inside the trenches, slogging through the wet concrete as they guided and smoothed it around.
I got to thinking, what if I were working the remote and one or two of my co-workers (or that old boyfriend) were in the trench guiding the concrete... they never did find Jimmy Hoffa!
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April 7, 2008
Crop Circles
The other day Wendy Day, our hospitality maven, made a comment about our new building and it has really stuck with me. So much so that I had to blog about it.
"It looks like crop circles out there," Wendy said. And it's true our 'barrel warehouse' resembles a scene from a Sci-fi flick. But in the place of eerie cornfields there are picturesque grape vines. The trenches for the foundation are dug and if you briefly look at the dirt it sure looks like we had an extraterrestrial visitor here at Whitehall. I'm just glad that I'm not here at night or my imagination would really get the best of me... You've just crossed over into the Twilight Zone...( Do do do doo... do do do doo... do do do doo...)
TV Themes - Twilight Zone.mp3
The technical term for those designs scratched deep into the dirt is "excavated footings," or so I am told. This large grid pictured below is the outline of the new building and where the foundation will be. I am really looking forward to the progress and actually seeing something rising out of the dirt, like a building and not the man from Mars.
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March 24, 2008
Rolling Right Along
Having an office at a working construction site sure has its hindrances. I am just about used to the periodic earthquakes. But our Office Manager is tired of the constant shaking and thinks it loosened a couple of fillings. There's also the afternoon jack hammering, the buzzing and rumbling of equipment stirring about forcing me to yell into the phone. And of course the irresistible distraction of "Hmm... what they doing now?" All and all it's rather entertaining to watch the equipment moving dirt, destroying concrete, digging trenches, and demolishing walls. Check out our new crush pad! Things are rolling along nicely.
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March 17, 2008
I'll leave the heavy lifting to the pros
On an unusual sunny and gorgeous day in February, a towering crane was reaching into our busted open courtyard and plucking out some of our stainless steel fermenting tanks. The tanks ranged from 1800 gallons to 5600 gallons and they were being removed only temporarily to allow the jackhammers to go to work on the courtyard pad. (Come to think of it, I should upload the sounds of jackhammers and figure out a way to get some virtual concrete dust on all your cars too.)
I thought it would have been really cool if they were moving full tanks. Dean, our winemaker, didn't think so, but suggested I could get a ride inside one! He said it would be an "E-ticket ride" whatever that means. I opted to steer clear and watch is all like a Cal-Trans supervisor. Wendy took the photos, so really, I was there only to watch and of course report.
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March 10, 2008
Vacant Land + Mud Puddles = Time to Play
Now that the Merlot vines are gone and the rains have started the 'little kid' in us all has been awaken, especially in Tom Jr. The giant dirt hills and shallow mud puddles are ever so enticing. Dirt bikes and ATV's are considered work, right? Just trying to compact the dirt for the new foundation!
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March 3, 2008
Bring down the house... so to speak
One of the best things about construction, besides all the big kid toys, is demolition! In order to connect our current home with our future building, we (and by we, I mean a heavy-duty excavator) had to bring down the outside courtyard wall. And bring it down it did.
It's times like this that make you want to put on a pink hard hat and fire up one of those bad boys. Well, not really but it's sure fun to watch.
Check it out and if you have a computer newer than our GM's "throw back" computer, you even get sound! Wall coming down CRASH.ppt
**For those not familiar with PowerPoint you must play the presentation as a slideshow. After presentation downloads go to Slideshow on top of screen then View Show . **
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February 24, 2008
And so it begins..
In November of 2007 we began the process of pruning and removing 488 Merlot vines from our estate vineyard in order to make space for the new crush pad and barrel warehouse. By mid-January the big guns were brought in to ready the site for the new building.
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February 23, 2008
WHL gets some more breathing room!
We have outgrown our existing shoes, thus Whitehall Lane is expanding! We broke ground on our winery addition just south of the existing building and are in the midst of constructing this new 9,000 square foot building. The new digs will provide extra space for barrel storage, a new office for Dean our winemaker and a dazzling new VIP lounge for our wine club members and other friends. The general contractor says we will be ready for harvest. Log in weekly to get the latest scope and see if the contractor is on target!
**Warning to the reader... these entries are coming from the prospective of a 25-year-old woman (hence the shoe reference). Therefore you won't be finding an in-depth construction analysis, more like a entertaining play by play of the progress. Enjoy! **
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