On July 8, 2016, Rick signed the papers taking ownership of the Longhorn Saloon!

He knew right away that it needed help.

The renovation started innocently enough.  Driven by health department requirements, and a desire to liven up the Longhorn, Rick and the staff of the Longhorn set out on a course to get’er done in a week, maybe 2 weeks time.

Riiiiiiiight.

We closed at 2 a.m. on August 21st.

The building that houses the Longhorn is old.  Not just old, but OLD.  She had other ideas of speedy.

The Health dept said we needed to replace the floor, and the building inspector stated that the floor was a little spongy.

So of course, everything had to get taken OUT of the kitchen.

And it all went in here:

So the flooring came up.  Then we found that the flooring itself was rotted through, so that came up. But they found that there was sludge under the floor, in the crawl space – that was dirt…. 10+ years of grey water emptying under the building!!

Several days later, the sludge had been removed by hand, filled in with cement, and the process of laying the new floor began.

Except we also found that 10+ years of the drain from the beer taps had been draining UNDER THE BUILDING as well.

More digging, HORRIBLY STINKY dirt from one side of the building to the dumpster on the other side of the building.  Many feet of cement later, it was fixed.

Finally, SEVERAL days behind schedule, we were able to get the floor down and start bringing our newly redesigned kitchen back together.  Out with the old, household model refrigerator, in with a commercial grade $2200 shiny, new refrigerator!  Walls washed, painted, and then covered.  A beautiful new floor laid.  All cooking equipment power washed TWICE.  New sink drains, new sinks, redesigned kitchen lay-out, and Yes, we need better “after” pictures!

Another needed project to be done was the keg cooler.  There had been one, but the compressor needed to be replaced, and the floor was dirt.  So, Josh to the rescue!

Another MAJOR project that people were excited about was the replacement of the (stinky) men’s room.

Out with the old!

In with the new!

Yet another big part of the renovation was the systematic removal of every staple, tack, and push pin from every wooden surface in the building! This was done so that every wooden surface could be cleaned/sanded and given a fresh look. All walls and most ceilings were repainted as well. The outside was given a few coats of paint, as well.