Toms' Blog
Join Tom Owczarzak as he chronicals Avanti's migration to our new location: 1042 Beltline Road SE Decatur! Also be sure to check out his Image Gallery.
Lots of stuff happening this last week. The Heating and Cooling people came in and got all the duct work ran and the vents in. Big vents (2 X 2) and they should heat and cool quickly. We also have the vents in the bathrooms for all the stinky people in the office.
Electricians have finished all the wiring and have all the outside lights up and running. All the plugs and switches are in and we are ready for painting.
The security people have drilled all their holes and have the wires sticking out of the walls . After the painters get done they will go back in and put in the security system. We also have the phone people scheduled to come in on the 10th so the equipment room (picture with plywood in it) will start filling up.
The carpenters have moved the insulation in and are starting to put up ceiling tiles and putting insulation in the ceiling. They say they should be done today. Next up will be the painters. They say 2-3 days of work there.
We were planning to move on the 14th and 15th of March but we have pushed it back a week. They should be finished by March 15th we hope. If not it will be early the week after that. Then our work will begin. I can hardly wait. It's only been 3 1/2 months but both Dawn and I are ready to go and get into the new place. Don't know why but it seems like this will be a new beginning for us. We are very excited to get started.
Lot of stuff going on right now. Over the last couple of weeks the electricians have been running wires, putting in lights and getting it ready for us to live in. Really a week ago the carpenters came in laid the framework for the ceiling tile and the lights. That took a couple of days and then the electricians brought in lights and wire. We ended up moving the light locations around for work purposes. In the gold room there were 5 lights in there. It would have been bright enough without all those lights so now we are down to 3 in there. We also found lots of electrical and switch locations that were covered up by the sheetrock. They ended up cutting holes all over the place to find the hidden locations. Kind of like a “Where’s Waldo” puzzle. Lots of fun. In theory the building inspector will look at the overhead wiring today and then we will be able to put power to the building. We will then have ELECTRICITY!!! How cool is that?
The next step is for the carpenters to come in and repair wall dents, dings, holes in the sheetrock. The HVAC guys should be there on Wednesday or Thursday. This will be the next big step because we have to have heat and air for paint and the ceiling tiles. Once that it done the painting will commence.
While this is going on they are hanging doors and starting to put in switches, sockets and emergency signs and lights. They have also installed outside lighting. That means that we will SHINE soon.
Paint has been picked. We had previously decided to go with a gray color instead of the more common beige. How ironic was it that when we went to Sherwin Williams to pick out paint colors the new Gray colors that they had consisted of – Site White, Gray Screen, Online, Network Gray, Software, Web Gray and Cyberspace. Talk about an omen or what? We went with the Online color and within 1.5 hours of picking it out the painters had already picked up 20 gallons of that color and started painting the walls. It is difficult to imagine how carpet and paint will look in a room when all you have are little squares of color.
After all this was started Tom decided to mix things up....
Tom got his way.. He went with Goldfinch (matches the Terrible Towel Yellow) walls and Black carpet for his office - Can you say "door stays closed". Actually I don't think (hope??) it will be to bad but we will wait for the final decision after carpet gets in and walls get decorated with all of the Myriad of Steelers Paraphernalia he has already. :)
Dawn and I went to look for carpet and flooring today. There are so many choices to look at. We look at a 2" by 2" square and hope that we can figure out how good it will look in our store. Not easy. If you look at the picture we choose the 4 from the left and the 2nd down. It's a medium bluecolor. We tried to pick something that would not show stains if (when) they happen. We will see how it looks. I did not want to do the typical grey. Every one does it and I hate being normal. I wanted the deep red but Dawn nixed that. Also the flooring I wanted was a mixture of black and gold (Steeler colors?) but again Dawn said no.
Ok, all the work is done that can be done. The HVAC has the header unit in and has all the arms and legs hanging everywhere. That’s what the vent runs look like hanging from the ceiling. Now we need to wait on the inspection. We have an electrical inspection, a mechanical inspection (on the HVAC) and also a framing inspection. I met the mechanical and electrical inspector on the 30th. Very nice guy. He showed me some things about electricity that I didn’t realize and it will make me think twice about playing around with it causally.
The electricians and the HVAC guys are here. HVAC is heating and cooling. About time. It is really cold in this building. I think each group has brought their own heater in. This should take a few days so they say. The HVAC guys are from Athens, Allen Brown, and so far have done a great job. The units are being hung from the roof so it’s interesting to watch them do it. They make quick work out of it. While they are doing the work in the ceiling the electricians are working the walls. I have made some changes in what I want compared to the drawings. Most of the changes are dealing with the network connections. All the network connections will have a conduit running from the box to the top of the framing so it will be very easy to run my cable. I know one thing, there are boxes everywhere.
All the walls are up. When we first seen it the building looked huge. Now with the walls up it looks a lot smaller. I still think that the areas will look real nice when it’s all finished. I took over the guys to look at their area and I think they will be happy with it. You know, we got to please the techs. If they’re mad who knows what will happen to the computers they are working on. Anyways, the plumbers are in the house and they are plumbing. We are going to have 3 bathrooms in there so a lot of plumbing to do. Most of the plumbing is all plastic. The water was run into one location and piped out to everywhere in the building. Really didn’t take them long to do it at all.
The carpenters are in the house. But can you call them carpenters if that are putting up metal studs? It is really neat how they are doing it. They are basically using a gun type of tool where they load a 22 caliber charge and shoot the nail into the concrete. Goes fast but it’s a little noisy. They say it should take a few days. It’s a little bit strange to see metal walls going up. They look a little flimsy but they say once the sheetrock goes on its very solid. Ok, it’s a couple of days into the process and they the walls are going up very fast. One thing I wanted to make note of. The windows in the new store are surrounded by only the sheet metal that’s holding them. This means that the windows really give a lot. The carpenters came in and framed the window with the “flimsy” studs. What a difference that made. I cannot believe how sturdy that made the window. There had to be at least a 5 inch give to the windows. Amazing.
They have poured the concrete and so now it's official. The new Avanti is under way. So right now we have a solid floor for them to build on. As a side note - our permit number is 08-001. That means that we are NUMBER 1 baby.......
Does the delivery of a garbage bin and a Port-a-potty mean work is to begin? I hope so. They were just delivered today so lets get moving. Don't know if the cold weather will affect the concrete pouring but that is the next step.
Yes, yes, yes. I got a call from Jerry Smith about the permit. The City of Decatur has issued a permit and we are good to go. I had heard all kind of horror stories about the building department and everyone was telling me how long it was going to take. Well, either the building department is really great or Jerry knows the right people. I will lean towards the building department is really great. Jerry got the plumbers in there now and I think the plumbing was inspected. Next step is to pour concrete and start framing for walls.
Got together with the general contractor - Jerry Smith, the HVAC Guy - Allen Brown (from Athens) and the owner of the building. Discussed HVAC and other stuff. Drawing are done, planning is done, talking is done. Next step is for the City of Decatur to review and accept the plans and give us a permit. I was told that this process could take a week or two. Being the holidays are here I would not be suprised if it was mid January. That should still give us time to get construction done and still get in there by March 1st.
The contractors were in the building (see our new swimming pool pictures) and they were doing some prep work, which means they were busting up some concrete for the plumbing. I felt sorry for the Mike (the guy next door in Craig Batteries) because they were using jack hammers and making a LOT of noise. Don’t worry Mike, only 2 more months of this left.
Got a call from our Electricial contractor. We have a good one in I.C.E. They received the full architectural drawings and are goig to start doing the electral drawings. Could we have ALL drawings in the hands of the city of Decatur by the New Year? I hope I hope.
Jerry called and he has the first drawing for us to approve. We made a few changes and the next step is full architectural drawings which include HVAC, plumming and electrical. After those are done then the city gets to review them. Wishfull thinking (by me) 2 to 3 weeks???
Contacted general contractor Jerry Smith to do building construction for new building. Gave him a preliminary drawing for the inside layout of walls and tables. Jerry will start working on drawings.
Signed the contract for the building. 10 years in the same place. Yeah, no more moving. Need to get with everyone about renovations.