Towle's Corner Store
Dixfield, Maine
Original Blog May 2007-October 2010
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Welcome! This site is dedicated to my convenience store and gas station in Dixfield, Maine. I'm hoping this site can serve as a virtual view to all of my supportive family and friends and any customers that are interested in the day to day activities of the store and what we offer our community. October 4, 2010: October Menu Posted! September 1, 2010: September Menu Posted! August 2, 2010: August Menu Posted! July 1, 2010: July Menu Posted! June 1, 2010: June Menu Posted! May 10, 2010: May Menu Posted! April 4, 2010: April Menu Posted. March 12, 2010: Spring/Summer 2010 Posted!! Stop by and pick one up! 8 New Sandwiches and a new pizza offering. The menu continues to evolve here and I was able to accomodate people's requests and suggestions. It's great to get the menu refreshed for Spring. Also! Check out our St. Patty's Day Celebration on Wednesday March 17, 2010. March 1, 2010: Monthly Menu Now posted! February 3, 2010: Sorry, a little late this month! Monthly specials now posted. Thanks! January 13, 2010: New special on Wednesdays Starting today each Wednesday we will be offering the following special: Buy 1 Slice of Pizza and get a free 12oz Fountain Soda or Buy 2 Slices of Pizza and a get a free fountain soda of any size (12oz, 16oz, or 21oz). January 3, 2010: Happy New Year! Thank you again to all of our customers for a good 2009. I hope everyone is having a safe weekend amid all the shovelling we are all doing. I have a lot of new ideas to implement in 2010 based on great feedback from our customers. 2010 will include different promotions this area has not seen in these kinds of stores and I will continue to build and exapand our inventory so our customers will have access an even greater variety of convenience goods and services. By the end of the month our winter menu should be available. For now I have posted the daily specials menu for January. December 2, 2009: December menu is now available here. I'm am pleased to announce our 3rd Annual Holiday Day Dinner will be offered December 25. We will be open 6AM-9PM on December 25th. Please keep our party platters in muind for anyone entertaining this holiday season. They have been a big hit here at the store. Also remember we have liquor gift packs available if you are looking for that last minute gift! November 1, 2009: Our monthly November menu is now posted here. I'm am pleased to announce our 3rd Annual Thanksgiving Day Dinner will be offered November 26 Thanksgiving Day. I'm also posting more information about our party platters for anyone entertaining this holiday season. They have been a big hit here at the store. October 1, 2009: Our October menu is posted featuring some fall classic dishes. The Pepsi Special was very popular last month and we are still featuring aggressive pricing on some Pepsi products. This month I am rewarding our loyal morning customers with two specials: 20oz Coffee and Muffin: 2.49 20oz Coffee and Donut: 2.25 September 1, 2009: I guess August was about as good as summer got this year. As usual our September menu is posted for the month. Also keep this special in mind if you are stopping in for lunch or dinner at the Corner Kitchen: 20oz Pepsi/Diet Pepsi 20oz Mountain Dew/Diet Mountain Dew 20oz Dr. Pepper/Diet Dr. Pepper Are all being offered for .59 with any 3.00 kitchen order. Limit 2 per order. This is a great price for 20oz bottles of Pepsi Products! August 3, 2009: Well the first 3 days of August have been nice so let's hope for more good weather in August! Our August menu is now available. We also have a beer special running for the month -- 6 pack cans of Bud or Bud Light for $3.99 July 1, 2009: I think everyone has had enough rain! Many parts of Oxford county have had flood damage and the weather continues to be overcast and lame. I hope this doesn't ruin July 4th for everyone. Our July menu is out! Happy 4th of July! May 29, 2009: The new Summer/Fall Menu is now available for download here and printed up for you at the store. It seems hard to believe but this is our 4th menu since the store opened in November 2008. I'm very pleased the new menu is released. Please stop in and pick up a copy on your way by the corner. The one item that we discovered today that got left off by accident was the very popular Deep Fried Green Beans. Sorry about that--it was definitely a mistake. We will still be offering that item and I'll get it back on the menu in the next printing. May 2, 2009: May daily specials are now posted. For the first time since construction began on the Corner Store Dad and I have a combined "Spring Specials" advertisement in the newspapers this week. Here is a pdf version of that ad. It's been great to finally have time to do a combined advertisement highlighting the two stores and offering some good specials for our customers. The biggest special we are offering is Buy 1 Large 1 Topping pizza -- Get one Free! It's a great deal for a 16" pizza. The ad runs from April 30 through May 3rd. Many people have already been taking us up on the special which is fun to see. By the end of the month the Summer 2009 menu should be available for download with printed menus available shortly after. I'm looking forward to seeing some of our new ideas and improvements in our new menu. There will be some new items which we are pretty excited to be able to offer here on the corner. The hardware store web cam is also back up and running long after a winter hiatus. The hardware store web page does need some updating but the camera is snapping pics and I think the final location for that camera is pretty good. Check it out: http://www.towleshardware.com March 30, 2009: April Daily Specials are posted. Also check out our Easter Dinner on April 12. March 27, 2009: RETURN OF THE WEB CAMERA! Ok my tech friends have been giving me serious grief about the missing web camera for the Corner Store. Now that nice weather has started to return I got outside and got this done. Hope everyone can enjoy the now permanent home of the new camera and it should finally stay in its place for a long time. Thank you for all the people that emailed how much you enjoyed checking in on this little corner of Dixfield, Maine. I do hope to get the Hardware Store web camera going again soon. March 3, 2009 February 10, 2009 February Specials are posted! January 4, 2009 Happy New Year! January Specials are now posted. December 5, 2008 Holiday Dinner planning is complete! Here is the menu. December 2, 2008 Thanksgiving Day Dinner was a big success here again at the store. Many customers commented what a great value for a great meal it was again this year. I enjoy being able to offer that kind service for our community here at the store. The menus have arrived and look awesome. The pdf has been posted here for awhile now but feel free to grab one on your next visit. I should have the details of the Christmas Dinner posted in next couple of days. November 21, 2008 I put up a picture of the new corner in Dixfield showing both the hardware store and the corner store. The image didn't come out great on the web page. The original photo is here. With paving complete everything looks really nice now. It's hard to imagine there was a third building there 6 weeks ago! November 19, 2008 Our Winter menu is finally here! We don't have the printed copies yet but they should be here next week. November 18, 2008 We now have our very own gift card. The card is for use only at the Corner Store and can have a value loaded up to 75.00 a great holiday gift! October 30, 2008 It's hard to believe this Saturday the new store will have been open for its first year! Nov 1, 2007 we still had a dirt/mud parking lot and a giant hole with an exposed fuel tank in it but we were open. I'm pleased to be offering our Thanksgiving Day Dinner again this year. We received a lot of great feedback last year from customers so I hope our improved menu for the day will please a lot of people. October 29, 2008 I'll have more photos coming up soon on the hardware store website http://www.towleshardware.com. There will never be stores built like our old hardware store so it is a sad day. It is nice to see the new building "rising up" to take its place. Also, please check out our Corner Store "Hunter's Breakfast" September 23, 2008 Yes, you are on the correct website! I had to move out of the hardware store last Friday night and over the weekend. Unfortunately this is going to shut down the webcams on both stores for a few weeks until things get reinstalled. I do intend to have cameras on both stores by the time the dust settles. Please come check out the new hardware store! It looks great and we are all very proud of it. August 8, 2008 Announcing our new Sunday Only Special: The Corner Store Sampler! Great for Sunday Sports! Your choice of 4 of the delicious items below:
July 9, 2008 I'm very pleased to announce today that I received my license for Towle's Corner Store to become an Agency Liquor Store for the State of Maine. The decision letter along with the license certificate included the following paragraph: "Based on the the evidence in the record, the Department finds that the applicant is a feasible location for the placement of an agency store as supported by its location, adequate parking, shelf space and square footage, inventory, store hours, security and services offered. Therefore it is the decision of the Department of Public Safety to award an agency liquor license in the Town of Dixfield to Towle's Corner Store." This has been a long term goal since I first designed the layout of the store two years ago and am looking forward to bringing these products to our community. I will be meeting soon with the state representative assigned to this area to submit the initial order of inventory. We'll be doing a lot of re-shuffling of our existing inventory to meet the space requirements for the liquor but I expect by August we would be ready to start selling the new products. July 1, 2008 It was an fun grand opening weekend for us here at the store. The weather cooperated perfectly and it was nice to see everyone on such a busy weekend. Above I've posted all the winners of the prizes for the raffle. Congrads to everyone and thanks for your patronage to our store! June 10, 2008 Please join us for our grand opening weekend June 13, 14, 15!! June 5, 2008 I've posted what our specials will be for the entire month of June. I've really wanted to do this since opening but it has taken all of us time to adapt and learn here in the kitchen. As I stated on the June menu, multiple specials will be offered each day besides the "headline special" and we'll also have a soup of the day. The most current update will be to call in and listen to the daily update on our phone system. I really have no idea if this approach to our menu will work or not. It's the best method I have been able to come up with so far that keeps our menu offerings dynamic and not just be a place that only serves pizzas and subs. I would enjoy hearing comments from anyone on how they think this will work out. You can email at ctowle@hotmail.com June 2, 2008 Well it's time to call my construction project over. If you are looking for the original construction page/photos they can be found here. The new focus will be on the daily offerings our store has.
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May 23, 2008: New Summer '08 Menu Released!
New Menu: Summer08.pdf
I am very proud to able to release our new menu today. I think the new menu reflects our first months of experience serving food here and hopefully demonstrates that my goal is to try to have a dynamic menu that is offering something new as much as possible for our customers. By Monday I hope to be able to start posting the specials of the day here on the web site. When viewing the menu please note that it is the same size as our old one 8.5 X 14 so printing it out on 8.5 X 11 will make the print smaller. The printer received the new menu today so we should have the new menus available for take home by next Friday. I hope everyone enjoys some of our new offerings. Have a great Memorial Day weekend!
May 18, 2008: Project Completed!
With paving finally occurring on Tuesday this week I finally can accept that this project is over. Just in time for Memorial Day Weekend! It's been a great year with this whole project. I think the building came out great and I think it's a great addition to the town. There are still many things the business needs to do to stay competitive and move forward and I will revamping the site soon to keep customers updated as to what's happening on this corner of Dixfield. Due to the many comments I've received I will be maintaining the web camera. I have heard from many how popular it has become to see this view of Dixfield.
As many of our customers have realized my Dad and I have begun work on the next project---a new building for the hardware store. I strongly encourage all those interested to check out http://www.towleshardware.com I purchased a construction web camera for viewing there as well.
April 29, 2008: Arrival of our Slush Puppie Machine!
A sure sign of summer coming soon. I knew this was one of the pieces of equipment I wanted to eventually get installed but knew winter wasn't the best time for it. I'm glad it's finally here. It's already been very popular.
April 28, 2008: Canopy Finally Finished!
Photo: Canopy with painted columns
Painters arrived during a very beautiful Spring week here at the store and finally painted the canopy columns. It looks much nicer than having just the primer coat and really dresses things up.
Many customers have been asking when paving will be done. I am told there are still a few roads posted but that should end this week. Paving should begin in two weeks. It will not take more than a couple days to complete once they start.
April 27, 2008: more signage added
To promote some of the services we have here at the store I had these mounted to the brick columns on the side of the store facing Route 2. The "Free Wi-Fi" sign is a little hard to read from a distance but I think it will still work.
The other sign that is a little difficult to read is in the window. It displays the jackpot totals for Megabucks and Powerball. It updates automatically through the lottery equipment here in the store. The display shows up good in the parking lot when the sun isn't directly on it.
March 17, 2008: Easter Dinner Announced for Sunday
easter.pdf: Please join us for Easter Dinner.
March 13, 2008: Improved Daily Specials Announcements
With some assistance from the network crew that helped me install the phone system and data network I've modified the main Auto-Attendant that customers hear when you dial in. Pressing 1 will now give you the daily specials!
Some customers have voiced some resistance to using the auto-attendant but my goal is to utilize the technology for ensuing order accuracy and provide people with useful information. I think having the daily specials recorded as an option is a useful application people will like. I'm hoping I can convince others on our crew here to not be shy and record their voices for the update of the daily specials. I'm very proud of all the people that work at the store and I think this is nice way to put them out front and let our customers know who they are.
In this changeover I've been able to make the prompts shorter and more precise which will hopefully help our customers get to where they want to go. I guess we'll see how it goes at lunchtime today.
March 12, 2008: Towle's Corner Store PR
SJ's Blog: Dixfield University? We had some customers at the Corner Store last weekend that blogged, "If Dixfield had a University, all the college kids would hang out at the Corner Store." I thought that was a great compliment and I hope she doesn't mind that I quoted her here and cross referenced her blog link here. I worked 5 years for Saint Michaels College in Vermont and 7 years for Wheelock College in Boston so I certainly appreciated this compliment very much. Thanks again SJ!!
March 11, 2008: Announcing St. Patrick's Day Specials for Monday!
stpats.pdf: Join us in celebrating St. Patrick's Day here at the Corner Store
March 7, 2008: New Seating Added
seating.jpg: One of the most common suggestions I've have had since opening were requests for additional seating. In my original floor plan I was hoping to get 4 of the booths across the windows facing RT 2. On paper it looked like it was going to work but I ended up (in the real world) being 7 inches short for the 4th booth.
I was able to order a counter top of the same laminate the booths were made of and it was installed today adding 4 more seats. I think this is actually better than the 4th booth as it gives another seating option that we didn't have before. It came out nice and all of our seating still has great views of the corner.
February 15, 2008: Menu Corrections
menufix.pdf: Unfortunately, I guess I've been staring at the menu for so long a few items got misprinted. Here are the corrections. Thanks to our customers that helped point them out to us! I'll get these corrected in the next batch.
February 6, 2008: Winter 2008 Menu released!
winter08.pdf: After trying 3 months of various offerings based on our opening menu we all feel confident that we have an official menu now to present to our customers. We spent a lot of work on refining this and used a lot of feedback from our customers which was a big help. We won't have printed copies available until next week but since it's all "digital" anyway I can certainly upload what was sent over for hardcopy.
Note: Printing this out on 8.5" X 11" paper is going to make it look a little hard to read. The printed size is 8.5" X 14" paper which gave us the room to spread things out and make it all more readable. It is meant to be a tri-fold brochure. Feel free to come in and pick up a copy anytime next week.
January 11, 2008: Updated branding decals applied
Photo #1: Weld Street (US 142 View of canopy with new Gulf branding decals applied
Photo #2: Main Street (US RT 2) View of canopy with new Gulf branding decals applied
Fortunately things warmed up this week and contractors showed up to apply the updated Gulf branding to the dispensers and canopy. The columns will be painted this spring.
January 6, 2008 - Project Completed
Marwin Construction has left after completing the concrete pad and bringing in some fill for grading. Both gas islands are now open for business and the store now looks open with all the barricades finally removed and cleared away. Our regular customers and a lot of new faces are returning to the Corner Store which is nice to see. I'm happy we've been able to earn their business and support. There is still paving that needs to be done in the spring which will really make things nice but we are trying to do the best we can with the uneven parking surface that's been created by all the storms we have had so far.
The kitchen is still evolving as we try out different combinations of offerings. I am pleased to announce our new Sports Sunday Specials which I am posting here now. To kick things off we'll be offering the Sunday Specials on Saturdays to hopefully gain the interest of NFL playoff watchers. Go Pats!
December 28, 2007 - A new LED Sign for Dixfield
Photo #1: US RT 142 / Weld Street View
Photo #2: US RT 2 / Main Street View
December 24, 2007 - Merry Christmas!!
Pumping Gas - Marwin Construction packed up the concrete pad framing and brought in some gravel this morning. I am able to open open the 2nd island with pumps 3 and 4 on them. The POS system worked correctly on all the tests so we opened the pumps up today for the public. I don't expect too much traffic as the canopy price sign isn't lit yet but it is nice to be able to finally offer gas again on this corner of Dixfield, Maine.
Merry Christmas everyone!
December 20, 2007
Canopy lights! - The Internet camera took a nice shot of the canopy lights and I wanted to put it up here for viewing. The concrete pad under the canopy will be poured tomorrow. All the dispenser controls are connected now and are ready to start pumping gas. If all goes well I'll be able to pump gas from one pump on Monday morning. The other three locations will all be blocked off due to the concrete pad that will need to be poured over the two fuel tanks next Wednesday or Thursday (I hope).
December 16, 2007
Photo #1: Grocery and cooler area
Photo #2: Grocery and showing the wall of chips
Photo #3: Kitchen area showing the custom black marker boards -- looking forward to getting the writing on them this week!
Photo #4: Coffee Island with addition of the Coca Cola Fountain Soda Machine
Photo #5: Seating Area
Photo #6: Bakery Section, and Hot Dog/Nachos Counters
Photo #7: Front Counter filling up fast but with still plenty of space for great service!
Well this is the first time it has snowed before Christmas in many years in Dixfield. We've had four storms in two weeks with another storm today dropping 6-8" of snow. Normally I would never have an issue with this but it has made some difficult work finishing things outside. It is nice to live in an area where people don't completely lose their minds every time a few inches of snow falls--unlike Boston! In Dixfield, everyone stayed open, roads stayed cleared and people simply adjusted to winter arriving a little early. Concrete was poured Friday for the two pump islands between the canopy posts. Extensive wiring has been pulled between the store and the canopy. The dispensers are coming Tuesday and if things go well pumps may be primed for a startup by the end of the week. It would sure be a nice Christmas present.
As frustrating as not having the gas running on the corner has been there have been advantages. In the last 46 days people have been able to start adjusting to how the building works and how to adapt their work to support our customers efficiently and effectively. Scott (the store chef) and I continue the work on finalizing a full updated menu for the new year. Communication of what our full offerings are is challenging but also interesting. A big edition finally arrived this week with the installation of the two 11' Black Marker boards my Dad and I mounted today over the kitchen area. This should help illustrate our full menu in a great presentation. The ATM machine also arrived this week and I finally got the proper authorization and credit card configuration pushed through to begin accepting EBT/Pine State/Food Stamp cards.
There is always more to do but the timing of the gas finally arriving will signal the start of things finally all being online in the new store. I thought that for this post I would put up inside pictures on here which I know have been lacking. I hope you enjoy them.
November 30, 2007 Updated Pizza Pricing
pizza.pdf: Now that we have good experience selling some great pizza I'm pleased to announce new pricing effective today.
November 25, 2007
tanks placed: 2-8000 gallon tanks waiting to get connected (new one is on the left) The tanks are laid side-by-side vertically to the place where I'm standing. The original Irving tank (on the right) is an 13000 gallon tank split in to two compartments (super 5000 gallons and regular 8000 gallons). Medium octane is mixed by the dispenser.
The reason for the additional tank--there is incentive via freight delivery to being able to take a complete tanker truck (8500 gallons) of gas. Ordering less than this amount incurs additional freight charges just to get the gas delivered to the site. The new tank and the 5000 gallon compartment in the old tank will be connected in a way that will allow me to meet the new contract expectations of taking 8500 gallons at a time.
Thanksgiving Day went very well at the Corner Store. A lot of people in the area saw my newspaper ads and came down for the take out Thanksgiving Dinner. I was happy to see a lot of new faces in the building and I'm really hoping they will be back for more. People were very satisfied with the dinner.
This week SHOULD be a big week to start the final stretch. General Contractor is planning to be here most of the week to fill the massive hole out front and begin the work for the canopy. This is the part that has been most frustrating--waiting for us to get back on schedule. Other jobs the GC had experienced some unplanned events that caused all of his projects to back up. I'm really hoping the corner looks different by the end of the week.
November 12, 2007 Thanksgiving Day Dinner Announced
t-day.pdf: I'm looking forward to our first dinner offering--Thanksgiving Dinner!
Sun Journal Article: A new article in the Sun Journal today featuring the new Chef-Scott Croteau from Phillips, Maine
November 9, 2007 New Signs Arrive
It's great to finally be open. Everyone has been very supportive and patient with us as we continue to get processes and procedures in place to deliver the quality services expected of us here on the corner. I am anxious to get gas pumps and canopy installed.
Front Entrance: Emphasizing that we serve food and especially Green Mountain Coffee
RT 2: A visible sign as you drive east or west on RT 2
Photo #1: Shoring Efforts for additional gas tank installation
Photo #2: A very loud day pounding these steel pieces into the ground around where the new tank will be
November 1, 2007 Opening Day with new logos released
logo.jpg: 3 New Logos for the corner
I'm posting this at 5AM and customers have already started coming in and getting their morning coffee which has been great to see. Over the course of the last few months I've been working on some basic marketing and logo design for both stores and came up with the following logos.
October 31, 2007 The first menu for the Corner Kitchen
Corner_Kitchen_Menu.pdf : Opening menu November 1, 2007 subject to change as we get settled in!
October 27, 2007 Almost ready to Open
Photo #1: Grease Trap Installation
Photo #2: Coffee Island featuring Green Mountain Coffee
Photo #3: Coffee Island showing Iced Coffee and creamer
Photo #4: Point of Sale Counter
Photo #5: Back wall of kitchen showing hood and heavy equipment
Photo #6: Looking out from the front line of the kitchen
Photo #7: Customer counter at the kitchen
It will be 22 days without a Corner Store in Dixfield on November 1st and that's about long enough for me! I am disappointed that the entire lot won't be completed in time. I found out late last week that additional shoring needs to be placed near the existing gas tank before adding the 2nd tank being installed. Apparently there are a limited number of companies able to perform this task. They will be here in the next two weeks and canopy, new pumps, and paving should be completed very quickly once this task happens.
The building is looking great inside now with all the furnishings installed. Cleaning and small fixtures still need to be installed which is what we'll be doing today. New inventory has already started coming in and being placed which is exciting to see. Phone system and free wi-fi are also now working. I am confident we will be open November 1st. It should be a pretty busy day. Many of our customers in the hardware store and around town are looking forward to having the store open again.
October 14, 2007 Demolition Completed
Photo #1: 45 minutes into demolition most of the store is down
Photo #2: End of the day Saturday
Photo #3: Towle's Hardware and Lumber visible for the first time from US RT 2
Photo #4: End of the day Sunday (front view)
Wow this week flew by fast. Hard to believe we were able to move out of the old store in 4 days and organize selling off some commercial equipment and parts but it is over! The old store is completely gone and work will now begin on connecting the sewer line, installing a grease trap, an additional fuel tank, canopy and dispensers. Should have some good activity on the camera from now until opening (which is still on track for November 1). All the lights across the front of the new store now light when it gets dark and the store looks really nice.
Some good photos here of the destruction flying around this little corner in Dixfield but the open space that is visible now is exactly what I was hoping for. It should be easier to get gas in a few more weeks and still have plenty of additional parking.
October 12, 2007 Demolition Update
Well a last minute change here. People that are interested in the tear down of the old store should watch the web camera tomorrow morning (Saturday AM). The General Contractor had some time to start earlier than we had originally planned. It's been quite a week hauling and salvaging from the old store but we will make deadline for tomorrow AM. I've repositioned the camera now for what the view will look like.
October 9, 2007: Moving Day
Photo: Moving Day at the old Corner Store.
Time to start packing up what remaining inventory is left for the big move. The old Corner Store will be closed for good now as we begin to open up the new Towle's Corner Store. I took one last shot of the building as it looked this morning.
October 2, 2007: Starting the finishing touches
Photo#1: Cement board siding completed on hardware store side
Photo #2: Cement board siding completed on alley/back side of new store
Photo #3: Cement board siding on gable section completed on RT 2 side
Photo #4: Good entrance view of completed masonry work
Photo #5: Inside view w/final coat of paint and flooring looking in to retail area
Photo #6: Inside view w/final coat of paint and flooring looking at seating area
Photo #7: Better view of tile flooring in retail area
Well the last few days illustrate what a difference a few days make when it comes to the inside work. Final coats of paint look great and already brighten up the spaces inside even without the lighting installed. Lighting installation begins later this week as well as installation for the cooler doors. The floor tile looks great and I think the colors have been chosen correctly to last a long time. The general contractor and I have been finalizing paperwork for filing with the State of Maine for all the gas dispenser and tank work starting on the week of the 15th and the remaining work shedule still appears to be on track.
I want to thank our loyal customers for understanding the brief shutdown we have to complete to get things opened correctly in a few weeks. I know many have asked if we would be serving coffee out of the hardware store. Unfortunately, that's logistically not going to work due to sink locations and the power limitations of the existing hardware store. We'll all be working very hard those weeks to get the new building online as quickly as possible to make sure your return to the new Corner Store is a great experience! Thanks for all the support.
September 19, 2007: Let there be light!!
Photo #1: Exterior Lights on building
Had to mark this day! Today Central Maine Power completed their electrical work to get new service installed for the building. Not the best picture but you get the point.
September 17, 2007: Looking like a store inside now
Photo #1: Refrigeration units being placed on to roof
Photo #2: Front entrance masonry work well underway
Photo #3: Kitchen FRP walls being installed
Photo #4: Insulation and sheetrock work almost complete
Photo #5: View of Kitchen and seating area
Photo #6: Electrical panels continuing to grow
Photo #7: Looking through storage area cooler entrance to kitchen cooler entrance
Yikes..sorry it's been so long since I got another post up here. Work has been progressing quickly inside with insulation and sheetrock quickly filling the walls and the store layout is really taking shape. The biggest thing I've been waiting for is getting Central Maine Power to get the meter energized so crews can get lighting installed. They have been running extension cords out the back of the existing store and it's starting to get to the point where better lighting is going to be needed to keep things moving inside.
Now that it is mid September I've been working with MarWin Construction to finalize a schedule for transition. I think this is going to be the trickiest part of the whole project to keep the window of having both stores closed as small as possible. The following dates are quickly coming up:
October 9: The Tuesday after Columbus Day weekend the existing/old Corner Store will be closed for good. The remainder of this week will be spent pulling inventory, equipment, and anything else worth saving out of the building. I have already sold the 8-door walk in cooler and they will be arriving to remove it later that week. I'm envisioning an all-hands-on-deck week with teams at the hardware store and corner working together to get everything we need removed. It may be a little tight for space in the hardware store yard as storage space is already becoming a premium.
October 15: Demolition begins of the old store. We absolutely must be out of the building. CMP will be cutting power the week before and I hope to get all Verizon services transferred over before the 15th. This week should be an interesting week to view the camera during the day. I will turn the Internet camera focus more toward the whole corner so curious people can see the demolition of the old store and grating and piping taking place to install the new gas dispensers and canopy. The process will take almost two weeks.
(tentative) November 1: Assuming all construction is finished and all the inspections have been done this is the tentative day of opening the new building to the public and starting full retail operations. I really want to take the last week of October to really test the new POS system, phones, network, etc and make sure the employees have enough training on the new system to handle most of the basic transactions. This is by no means a "Grand Opening". While we will finally be open November 1 to the public there will be a lot of new things to get adjusted to (such as a kitchen!) and I really want to have us in a good stride and plan a fun Grand Opening for everyone in early May 2008. May isn't a bad time for this as May was the month my parents re-opened the original store in 2001. The store had been closed during most of 2000 while Irving was trying to sell it.
September 1, 2007: Inside work begins
Photo #1: Electrical Wall work in storage area
Photo #2: Storage area entrance, standing in delivery entrance
Photo #3: My IT/data closet :-)
Photo #4: Cooler area (will hold 12 doors)
Photo #5: Freezer area (will hold 3 doors)
Photo #7: Standing at Kitchen counter area looking back at cooler entrance
Photo #8: Standing in Main Entrance
The Rumford Falls Times August 29 Edition had a great article talking about the new store and Gulf Gas returning to the 36 Main Street address. The story and photo were authored by Bruce Farrin. The story isn't on their website yet but the article is here.
The past few days almost all of the work has been inside the building. A significant amount of the electrical work, HVAC, a framing has been started. It's nice to see the inside of the building begin to look like a c-store. Tomorrow I think all crews will be hitting the inside of the building pretty hard to make up some project time now that the roof work has been completed.
August 23, 2007: A new/old brand of Gasoline returns to Dixfield
I signed my first gas supply contract today! When the new store opens in the fall the new supplier for gas on this corner of Dixfield will be Gulf!
Besides negotiating a fair contract for the supply of gas for my new pumps and canopy being installed in the fall other reasons I chose Gulf:
-Gulf is in process right now of upgrading their image and marketing. The new canopy and dispensers I'll be installing in a few weeks will have the new look on them. The company is investing in new advertising promotions and programs. I will be able to offer their fall promotions to our customers at opening.
-Gulf is based in Newton, Massachusetts and has an extensive gas supply distribution system throughout the northeast of the US.
-Gulf is offering a great Gas Card program. They offer a co-branded Mastercard offers consumers 3% off of Gulf gas purchases and 1% off everything else. I'll be able to accept this card as part of the contract I signed today. We'll be passing out applications in the existing store store starting tomorrow but you can also apply for the Gulf/MasterCard online.
It's a coincidence but 36 Main Street Dixfield use to be a Gulf Station! Here is a photo from the early 1950's of 36 Main Street Dixfield selling Gulf. Nice to have a little nostalgia to remember the past.
August 18, 2007: An Entrance to Catch Your Attention
Photo #1: Trusses installed for the entrance
Photo #2: Entrance from the Left
Photo #3: Entrance from the Right
Photo #4: Framing walls inside begins
Photo #5: Work to complete the roof
Most of the last two weeks has been focused on completing roof work. This included shingles, rubberized materials for mechanical bays, and building out soffits. The most visible work has been building out the main entrance to the store. People will be able to enter on both sides (left or right) and there is some really nice signage space designed over the entrance where I will be placing the store name as you can see from the drawing at the top of the page. This area isn't really viewable through the camera due to the existing store still operating so I grabbed a few shots to put here for everyone to see. Walls are starting to be framed inside the building which is nice to see too. Roof work should be completed by the end of next week.
August 2, 2007 - Raise the Roof
Photo #1: Parking lot full of trusses
Photo #2: Truss for one of the bays
Photo #3: View from Fire station of refrigeration bay
Photo #4: Crane extended over height of hardware store
Photo #5: Adding additional bracing to a truss
Photo #6: Swinging truss up and over hardware store
Photo #7: Two of 3 bays w/sheathing
Photo #9: Looking up at two bays with additional bracing
Photo #10: Seating area with sheathing and truss work completed
Photo #11: Main Entrance w/sheathing
Photo #12: RT 2 view adjacent to existing c-store
After two weeks of getting trusses constructed and delivered on site they finally arrived July 24. The building contractors worked fast sheathing the frame in about two days and we lost most of the parking lot that weekend with piles of trusses all over the area. Monday 27th it was full speed ahead with a crane arriving promptly on site at 7AM.
Besides the fact that these are custom pre-built engineered trusses it's interesting to see them up close and the different types that were spec'd for this building. On the side of roof facing the fire station there are three large "bays" cut in to the roof for refrigeration and mechanical units. Watching the builders work it was clear there was "some assembly" required as additional bracing and supports were added all around the 3 bays. The builders were able to get primary trusses across the roof completed by Wednesday and they are focusing their efforts now on sheathing the bays for a rubberized roof coating to protect these flats areas from Maine winters and other elements.
I'm really happy the architect was able to design the roof using these spaces for these large units we'll all see later. Getting a lot of this equipment up and out of the way, as opposed to being on the ground, definitely protects the equipment better and I think in some cases (refrigeration) the units are more efficient above the cooler space. Space is really a premium on this corner!
July 15, 2007 - Camera on the Move
With 3 of the walls completed the sheathing pretty much blocked the camera. So, I have moved it up above the hardware store to a window just outside my apartment. Should be a pretty good view when the trusses show up next week!
July 14, 2007 - Rise Up
Photo #3: Nice photo of pouring and spreading concrete
Photo #4: Side view of pouring
Photo #5: Rear short of pouring activity
Photo #6: Footings of entrance and 2 columns
Photo #7: Front entrance framed in
Photo #9: From inside entrance looking out on to existing c-store
Photo #10: Standing in back corner of kitchen looking out over seating area
This week was full of activity with concrete trucks showing up first thing Monday AM. The same concrete company Mark brought in for the form and footing work had a different pumping truck this time. This pumping truck had a even larger boom on it which towered over the existing c-store. The truck certainly didn't have to move around at all this time reaching all four corners easily with concrete. A larger crew was also here that day to spread to floor evenly. They moved very quickly throughout the day.
Later in the week framing began and it was great to finally see things like doors and window cutouts looking like the drawings I had been looking at for many months. Footings and forms were also poured this week for the main entrance and the two brick-faced columns.
The weather co-operated for the most part pouring the fiberglass concrete floor and entrance forms. During the week the freezer base (the box you see on the floor) was dug out and poured. Showers soon started right after he finished. Not sure how that is going to get addressed yet. Water sat in the base overnight so the chance of the concrete not being able to set and scaling is pretty high. I'll have to wait and see how Mark addresses that on Monday.
July 7, 2007 - Good week of hard work by all!
Photo #1: Standing in the kitchen area looking out at conduits for sinks, drains, coolers, etc.
Photo #3: Conduits for the bathrooms
Photo #4: Rear shot from Hardware Store
Photo #5: Route 2 view between c-store and fire station
Photo #6: Electrical Wall (back corner)
Photo #7: Placement of the walk-in freezer base- (I think)
Even working around the July 4 holiday for everyone we made a lot of progress this week. Monday and Tuesday the focus was on placing the plumbing, water and sewer systems in the building. Thursday was all electrical conduit. I've been very impressed with the workmanship Mar Win Construction has done here. Mark has done a great job so far keeping things moving. All the sub contractors seem to have a good understanding of his expectations as well. Monday will be final wrap up of remaining conduit issues and as as long the weather cooperates we should be able to pour the floor Tuesday.
I've made a few changes to the web site. I started to realize that the more pictures I keep adding the slower the page is going to load. In my "former job" I would be told by my web designer that I wasn't being "bandwidth sensitive". While DSL and cable modems are more popular today there are still many using dial-up. So I have changed the photos to be hyperlinks to click on which should allow the page to load/refresh quicker. You should also see a better picture this way. Just remember to use your "back" button to get back to main site.
If you have a chance let me know how that works out. :-) I'll post more photos now that there is more interesting stuff to look at.
June 28, 2007 - Back to Work!
Photo #1: Conduits for Gas Pumps
Photo #2: Rear View from Hardware Store
Photo #3: Completed forms for planter
Very hot day here in Maine but there was a lot of activity outside! A lot of dirt being moved around! My general contractor needed to finish some work at few locations which took longer than expected. Must be summer. A good sign for the Maine economy though-- commercial construction is being done in Bethel and Oxford which is great for everyone. From the updates I got today from Mark I think we'll be full speed ahead here for a few days. More grating work scheduled for Friday and plumbing and electrical work begins next week.
With the camera update running pretty well I'll post a a few photos in this post of some of the work. From left to right...the first photo is conduit placement for the two pump islands I will have after the existing store is torn down. I'm standing in what will be roughly the managers office doorway. There will be a wall coming up behind the standing conduits to mount to.
The middle photo is a shot from the hardware store. At one point I counted at least 3 more trucks of gravel hauled in as fill to level things up. The right photo you can see the completed planter foundation set on top of the footings back on June 17.
June 17, 2007 - New Technology Added!
Finally got my Toshiba 1K-WB15A Network Camera installed. The camera is mounted right outside my Dad's window off of the hardware store. This should be a good view for a couple weeks but after the walls are up I may move it back up by my apartment. The camera updates every 3 minutes and works amazingly well. I was surprised how little time it took to get it going. Of course, being a former Director of Information Technology probably helps. One technical note: The photo won't update in your Internet browser automatically. If you have the page up for more than the three minutes and you want to see the new picture hit the F5 key or the "refresh" button on your browser.
On Friday footings were poured for the RT 2 walls which will hold a narrow planter running the entire RT 2 side. I'm not much of a gardener but the architect convinced me this would help the appearance of the building not appear so "high" over RT 2. A few years ago major repairs/construction of RT 2 by the State of Maine lowered the road around this intersection making the whole corner a little awkward to develop. This lot specifically is lower than the fire station, hardware store and corner store lots so this work is trying to compensate for that for overall appearance and accessibility. I think the additional wall on RT 2 will look nice. Gardening isn't really my specialty so I will need to choose carefully what goes in there!
June 13, 2007 - so where in Maine are you?
Well, I was afraid this would happen. After we get off to a great start Mark let me know that he might not be back early this week as he removing gas tanks from a station up in northern Maine. Hopefully I'll see him tomorrow. Things are pretty much the same as they are in the 6/11 photo except for maybe a few of my pacing footprints in the gravel!
Visting with everyone in Vermont again over the weekend I remembered how "challenging" it can be to describe where Dixfield is. It's certainly not "near" Portland (1.5 hours away). If you're not from Maine you don't recognize the names like Rumford, Jay, Livermore, or Turner. And paying tribute to a famous road signpost in Maine, to say Dixfield is simply between Mexico and Carthage, across the river from Peru, or down a few miles from Canton (via the Canton Point Road) doesn't really work well to explain exactly where Dixfield, Maine is. But it is true!
Of course, over the years I learned different ways to pinpoint Dixfield for different audiences. When I worked in higher education a reference to Farmington (40 mins away) worked well due to University of Maine at Farmington. Another reference point was the Lewiston/Auburn area with Bates College being there (45 mins away). For the skiers, if I referred to Newry, Bethel, or Sunday River (40 mins) away people would get the general idea.
So since things have temporarily stopped outside I'll post a few links here about Dixfield, Maine for you to enjoy!
Official Town of Dixfield Web Site.
An interesting statistical based view of Dixfield here.
Another statistical based profile but cool picture of Weld Street here.
August 7, 2005 Maine Today Article by Ray Routhier - great description of Dixfield, ok my Mom is quoted in it..what can I say?
June 11, 2007 - a new week begins....
Really enjoyed seeing the SMC Class of '92 this weekend in VT. Everyone seems to be doing really well and it was nice to catch up with a lot people I hadn't seen in a long time.
Mark's crew worked most of Friday and Saturday breaking down the forms and backfilling around the poured foundation. Work should begin soon on services and utilities, Verizon, Central Maine Power and Town Water connections.
June 6, 2007 - need a foundation....
After a few days of rain here the crew was finally able to finish setting up the forms and pouring the foundation. Same company came in with the mixer, pump and boom and 4 mixing trucks to fill the forms with concrete. Yikes...I wonder how many trucks the floor is going to be!
On Monday Donald Neigberg stopped in from Newton, MA in on his way to Rangeley for his annual fishing trip. Don was one of the many people I worked with at Wheelock College that had to endure my stories of living in Dixfield, the hardware store, and Maine in general. It was great to see him finally in Dixfield! I think he was more impressed with the Hardware Store than c-store construction. Since he is a professional carpenter I can understand. It's also not every day you see a full size refrigeration railroad car not sitting on a railroad track full of 2.5 tons of 50lb bagged Sunflower seed, huh Don?
I've gotten a lot of positive email of the web site which is great and I'm glad this is working out as a good way to share what's going on. I will warn everyone though that new photos probably won't be up until Sunday/Monday with the weather outlook and waiting for the foundation to set. It's not very exciting watching concrete set. Meeting with Mark this AM it sounds like back filling around the foundation will probably happen this weekend. We should then start seeing some interesting work as sewer/water/electrical and other services start getting installed.
A good time for a long weekend for me as well. I'm off Thursday to my 15 year college reunion at St. Michael's College!
June 1, 2007 - Bring in the concrete!
After some morning prep work laying forms the concrete mixer and pump truck were brought in to pour footings around the sides for the new building. It's a little harder to see in this photo but the pump truck is behind the mixer. It was impressive to watch because with the large boom on the pump truck the crew was able to get to all the sides with the trucks being stationary. It poured fast and the trucks were gone in 2-3 hours.
May 31, 2007 - PR and Visitors
Not much to update on construction today but still a busy day. A great article describing the project was printed in the Sun Journal newspaper today by Eileen Adams. The article can be found here.
Also, had some old friends from VT stop by on there way to Moosehead Lake. Showed them the big hole I was making in the middle of town. Good times! I'm sure more details of the expedition can be found on Mike's blog.
May 30, 2007 - The Big "little" Dig in Dixfield
An entire day of hauling dirt out to prepare for the foundation work. Seeing an excavator working in the middle of Dixfield certainly created a great deal of questions and commentary in both the hardware store and c-store. Everyone seems very enthusiastic which has added to a great atmosphere in both stores.
Representatives of Irving Corporation also stopped by late this afternoon to remove their sign from the site. The sign is Irving Property and I was worried about it getting damaged during construction. As you can see from the photos, it's a big building in a small area to construct it in! During the design as I visited a lot of c-stores in Mass, Vermont, and Maine I couldn't come up with a smaller building without leaving out a distinct significant feature that I wanted to include.
The best view of the foundation work is really from my Dad's office in the Hardware Store. His window will end up about 15-20ft off the wall facing what will be the delivery entrance to the storage area. The trench for this work is about 10 feet off the window! I think he enjoyed the view and dreaming about the chance for the General Contractor to let him run the excavator for awhile! And of course who could blame him?
May 29, 2007 - Ground Breaking!
I got up early today. No big ceremony planned--just wanted to be there to see this all start. It's been six months of meetings and architects and I'm really happy this is finally going to start being real!
The crew at the hardware store got a call just as I came in at 7AM that "a truck" had rolled off the highway near Falmouth and caller was trying to reach Mark. We later found out that the excavator trailer had blown a tire and gone off the road. Mark was already on his way back to an area where his cell phone would work to get an update. Just my luck!! First day and we already got delayed! Fortunately, nobody was hurt and Mark (General Contractor) got another excavator from Farmington back to Dixfield by 2PM. Impressive!
Below are a couple of "pre-construction" photos of the Dixfield intersection of US RT 2 East and US RT 142. The areas in these photos are going to be dramatically changed in the next few months. Good stuff!
