Our oven is finally in! What a process that was.
On Monday evening the truck pulled up to the bakehouse. Earlier in the day I had spoken to the driver and informed him that I would not have a forklift on hand until the next day. He said that it wouldn't be a problem. He had a liftgate and pallet jack so it would be fine. When he opened the back of the truck and actually saw the crate sitting there he said there was no way.
A few phone calls and some running around later we had a forklift.
We also had a team of helpers who emerged from the pool hall and volunteered to lend a hand, direct traffic and to offer suggestions to the forklift driver about which way to tilt the forks or turn the wheels.
It was great fun.
After much maneuvering around the crates were finally dropped in front of the window and left on the sidewalk for the night. We let the Red Oak Police Department know that they would be there and they offered to keep an eye on them through the night. Luckily for us both the oven and the mixer were well crated and at 3,000 lbs and 1,050 lbs respectively we assumed them to be safe from thievery.
The next day was supposed to be the easy part.
The front window was removed from the building first thing in the morning. Once that was set, we began to take apart the crate. With the oven exposed I brought out the trusty tape measure to make sure the oven would fit through the vertical space I had. The window is 72" tall, the oven is 75" tall.
I'm no mathematician but that doesn't work.
Also, the folks who we had originally counted on to come by with a forklift had a family emergency and couldn't come.
A few more phone calls and some running around later we had a different forklift on site and a plan for how to get it in. Once the forklift drove around the corner we were set.
The oven was lifted and the pallet taken out from underneath. Then the forklift driver backed up, put down the oven, came back around to the side and lifted it from the short end. He brought it in until it was directly in front of the window which was when we got to work pulling off the front legs. With those off the front half of the oven fit through the window. We scurried back in and reattached the legs. Since it has wheels, we were able to run back out, remove the back legs and roll it the rest of the way in. With the forklift right up to the wall, there was enough room to put the back legs back on and to set it down so that it could, once again, hold itself up.
We pushed the oven out of the way and got to work on the mixer. The crate from the oven was set just inside the window. Luckily this made a platform that was level with the opening. The forklift was able to pick up the mixer and drop it just inside the window on the pallet. We'll deal with moving it to its final home next week.
A few hours later the window was put back in place. The building was whole, everything was inside and we had all made it through unscathed.
So glad to finally have everything in! It is finally feeling like this whole crazy idea may actually work!
None of this would have been possible without some of the amazing people and businesses we have in this town. We are so grateful to Jim, Teo, Weston, Mark and all the folks at Hardware Hank's, Red Oak Glass, Red Oak Fabrication and Williams Recreation.
