The biggest hurdle I faced when I decided to take my baking and cake decorating skills to the next level was how to get it approved by the health department or what are the requirements to be approved by AHS. I started researching and reading lots of articles. After a week or so I was more confused and since the information i gathered did not fit in to complete the puzzle and there were lots of missing pieces!!
But after a lot of self talk and motivation I emailed the local health inspector requesting of what my first step of action should be and was told to draw a simple sketch of the plan or layout of the kitchen. I am not sure why this made me anxious or nervous,but I was !! once I started visualizing what I wanted it was easy to draw a simple sketch with a pen on a paper. Again the email was sent to the plan review specialist. when I got my hand drawn plan approved I was so happy and felt that this it!!
But that's where the hard work starts!! The requirements for me to have my basement kitchen approved were ceiling, floors and the walls have to be smooth, and easily washable. we need to have 2 sinks one for hand washing and the other one to be two compartment one and wall and door separating the kitchen space and the rest of the house.
So I started researching for contractors and and then the quotes. within 2 to 3 weeks I had finalized everything and the work began. First was to organize and remove all the junk that I didn't need and getting rid of them. once I was happy
with the left over stuff, my daughter in law helped me to get the stands from Costco, boxes from IKEA and some kitchen organizers from Homesense.
The plumber was the first one to start the work in installing the second hand washing sink which was completed in few hours.
The general contractor came in and patched up the walls, removed the texture from the ceiling.He had to sand and paint the wall and the ceiling. It almost took 4 days to completely finish and clear all the mess. The final part was to install the glass partition and the glass door. it was completed within half a day.
Once everything was done and I booked an appointment with the health inspector. The inspection took about half hour and the most important thing is it to make sure everything is clean and presentable. we passed with flying colours. our commercial kitchen is up and running and serving the people of Greater Edmonton area.