Those of you who have visited Main Street in the past week have probably noticed the temporary sign attached to our temporary wall. I know at very least a few hundred people have seen it; traffic to our website sprang up as if to testify to the unholy power of advertising.

We're planning on starting our new structural steelwork next week. In the meantime, I have a photo of our permanent sign to share from our friends at Urban Neon. It's a precision-cut piece of aluminum, digitally printed with our favorite ice cream-eating robot.

Our friends at D+D Concrete finished demolishing the existing facade today. There are no longer any walls on the front of the building, because walls are for chumps.

This new arrangement really lets the natural light in.

We began preliminary work grafting an entirely new face onto the shop, but plans were scrapped due to an inordinate number of crying children distracting the crew.

Next up will be the new steelwork!

Last week, the final segment of our concrete floor was poured. You can see that the front of the shop is the lowest point (ideal for a no-step entrance), followed by a short ramp for restroom entry and three steps after that for admittance to the kitchen.

This week is all about demolition. We're tearing down the exterior walls on the front of the building to make way for the incoming wrap-around window.

To maintain structural integrity in the face of, uh, wall-lessness, the roof of the building has been shored with a lattice of temporary beams.

Don't worry about the old walls -- they seem to be pretty happy about the prospect of being eradicated.

I don't know about you guys, but I for one am really excited to see this orange stucco get smashed to pieces.

It's a generally accepted practice to prepare ice cream in a kitchen with a floor.

I casually tested the waters on this matter while in the health inspector's office. Playing it unbelievably cool, I wondered out loud, "Sure, non-porous floors are great, but I bet it would be ALMOST as code compliant to cook above piles of construction debris." The sharp look the clerk gave me told me everything I needed to know: floors are a required kitchen element AND my sunglasses look really awesome.

Today the fine folks at D&D Concrete started pouring our new floors, and they're looking fantastic.

Incidentally, I decided to make a poster for D&D Concrete.

Once the floors have been poured, facade demolition will begin!

We promised to share more details about our front windows a few weeks ago, and today we'll make good on that.

As it currently stands, our building has a few small forward-facing windows. They are entirely functional, in that they are almost fully transparent and allow some degree of light to filter in. Step beyond the entrance, however, and the narrow confines may remind you of a particularly rectangular cave.

Fortunately, there is a lonely little three foot wide alley that runs along the side of the building. Our master plan entails knocking down a piece of the wall that adjoins the alley and installing a wrap-around window, opening up the interior of the building and finally giving the sad little alley something to be excited about.

These windows aren't done blowing your mind, however. When warm weather greets us, we'll be able to slide the glass panes out entirely, allowing patrons to enjoy amazing sundaes while perched on the sill.

Are they eating indoors, or are they eating outdoors? Please refrain from driving yourself to madness pondering this as THE TWO WILL BE UTTERLY INDISTINGUISHABLE.

Remember when I mentioned the difficulty of trenching within the narrow confines of the shop? We decided to go ahead and get an excavation team to make it a lot easier.

The incredible upshot of this turn of events is that there is currently a mini-excavator in the shop. Gaze upon it and know, in your heart of hearts, that you desire nothing more than to ride it home and name it Darryl.

You and Darryl will work together to fight the global epidemic of solid earth with no holes, a situation of which you have suddenly become keenly aware and passionately opposed to.

Based on the advice of prominent industry insiders ( and incidentally mandated by a handful of municipal sanitation regulations ), we're aiming to provide running water inside our ice cream shop. To this end, we're installing plumbing!

Please keep in mind that there was no working infrastructure in this building when the project began. Electrical service had been physically cut, the few existing water and sewage pipes were blocked, and the gas meter was lying unattached on the floor. We're rebuilding all of these systems from scratch to ensure that modern best practices will be used from the foundation up.

To install the plumbing lines, our team has been digging a deep trench down the center of the floor. This job is trickier than normal, as there isn't a lot of horizontal space to pile debris. Working within a strict set of limitations only serves to sharpen your focus, right?

RIGHT?

If you've ever walked down Main Street, you might have at some point stopped and thought to yourself: "Man, what is up with this weird orange thing squeezed next to that dark alley?"

This question may have been followed quickly by a more technical observation: "I didn't think adobe was typically used as a building material in this climate region."

Gentle walkers, I am here to tell you that this facade is not actually composed of adobe. It may have at one point aspired to present itself as such, but it is merely a ruse perpetrated by stucco and coral paint.

I do not believe that this is the ideal presentation for an establishment billing itself as an "Ice Cream Factory". Our plan is to remake it as a storefront of wood and metal, aiming to combine light hearted fun and proficient industry.

The windows, in particular, will be the foundation for the new feel of the space. As soon as I get done nailing down their details, I will share more about them.

After three days of mild disturbance to the peace on Main Street (sorry, neighbors!), the original floor is completely gone. The back portion of the shop, which once was raised about a foot and a half above the rest, has been happily annihilated.

Our space is limited, so we're aiming to squeeze as much utility as possible out of what we've got. With our newly flattened footprint we'll have enough room for the incoming refrigeration, cooking range, and the all-important batch freezer.

Tomorrow, I'll share our plans for the building's facade. It's a pretty stark departure from... whatever you would call it now.

Construction of the Tubby Robot Ice Cream Factory is underway!

Our demolition crew is currently tearing down the interior walls and making prodigious use of jackhammers to remove the entirety of the floor. Don't worry! We'll be replacing it with a better floor soon.

This project centers on the revitalization of a property that has lain dormant on Main Street Manayunk's otherwise bustling commercial district for many years. As neighbors ourselves, we're excited to have the opportunity to contribute to Manayunk's unique flavor.

Demolition is planned to continue until mid-week, at which point we'll have a blank slate on which to build our tiny frozen empire. I'll share some more details about what we have planned as the week progresses!