The White Horse: Progress and setbacks

Good grief - the pub looks like a bombsite at the moment! Since last week, the decorators have started work on the outside of the building, preparing the windows and walls for next week when they hope (English weather in June permitting!) to paint the entire outside of the building. The plumbers have been back in to lay more of the main pipes as well as fit out the new toilets for downstairs. We've had the back portion of the roof relaid and the old chimney that was unsafe bricked up, ready for the new stud wall which will divide the upstairs kitchen and bathroom.

Unfortunately there has been a bit of a setback in the main bedroom/pub lounge downstairs: a few of the beams that were, until now, covered up have quite a bit of woodworm and are going to need stripping back and treating. To do this we may have to take up the upstairs floor and take down the lounge ceiling. Hopefully it won't be a massive job, but we'll know in the next few days. This means we may be pushed a little behind schedule - fingers crossed we can make up some of the time lost later in the project.

One big piece of progress we have made is appointing a main drinks supplier - business support, training as well as speed and quality of service and account management were all important factors in making our decision. Being a freehold freehouse we have free rein to choose who we feel is the best fit for the style of pub we are looking to run and build into a successful business. After much deliberation we have decided that Marston's best fits our business plan and is able to provide the range of drinks and support that we, as first time publicans, require.

The opening date is still set for the summer (subject to renovation works as above), so apart from keeping the builders etc busy and on schedule we will be spending the next few weeks planning drinks offerings, menus, regular events (eg darts, quiz) as well as our big opening event, most likely to be on a Sunday. We're hoping to pull in a celebrity to officially open the pub as well as have live music, a barbecue and an opening selection of guest ales. Ahead of our main opening we are hoping to organise a cheese and wine evening to get some advice from friends and family as well as try out some of the planned menus on willing members of the village.

We've been doing some market research in the village to find out the drinks, food and events that people would like to see, with a bottle of champagne awarded to the first response out of the hat this weekend. Our likely drinks range will include draught standard and premium lagers, draught cider, one or two real ales (Pedigree is popular in the area and likely to be the main contender) and Guinness, plus a wide range of bottled beers and soft drinks. Food-wise, we're going to be cooking classic pub grub: lasagne, sausage and mash, fish and chips, burgers and liver and onions to name but a few.

So we're motoring on and can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel…!