Tasting Room Update #1

Mike and I have been pounding nails, and thumbs, as we worked over the past couple weeks to get the deck on our tasting room before the winter snows hit. While we haven’t quite finished the deck, we did get a good deal of work done on it. And considering the winter storm that hit late last week, now seems an appropriate time to give a status update.

“Phase 1” of the tasting room project is getting the outside work done. This has included taking out some trees to make way for the deck, landscaping/building a paver-brick path to the deck, and then building the deck. Deerings Tree Service came in and took out a couple of trunks from the birch clumps that flank our future front door, as well as some other trees that had seen better days. Grand Traverse Organic helped with the landscaping by bringing in 34 yards of fill, building a paver brick path on top of that, and doing some planting. And Dennis Coburn, known in the industry as the “log doctor”, is telling us where to dig, hammer, and screw in the deck materials. Mike and I are acting as the cheap labor…

So now, some photos. The space was originally Larry Mawby’s home, built in the late 70’s. It sits on top of what is now the wine cellar for the M Lawrence and bigLITTLE wines.