Furniture Assembly

Today David, Millo, T, Robbie, Charles & Rick put together 13 workstations for the design and programming area and another 6 tables for the Story Lab. By the end of the day they were pros. The workstations look great and continue to make the design and programming, maybe, the coolest place in the new building. It also didn't hurt that the ever elusive lights from IKEA were also added to the area.

Duncan started putting together the push board walls in the Story Lab. Our movers came today to take the new racks from our current building and brought them to the new building then Dennis and crew assembled them. By the end of the day, our new machine room was really taking shape.

This morning I sent out the next e-mail blast to close to 2000 people telling them the webisodes are now on the website. We got some immediate positive response from the videos so that was good. We wanted to give people a sense of what's going on and it appears we have achieved our goal. At least the next one webisode will be up by the end of the week.

At the of the day there were about 10 of us hanging out at the new place. For months it was pretty much David, Mary Anne and I with the intermittent visits from Dennis. With so many people now around the building on a regular basis it really does feel like our home. About 9 months ago when we first talked about moving I was against it, for a lot of reasons. Somewhere around Labor Day my mindset started changing and about January 1 I couldn't wait to move. Now, I think the rest of the team is in the same boat, we're all just ready to take the next step and get to the new place and start this chapter of IDEAS.

Shredding Day

Today was actually pretty uneventful at the new building. David did a walk through with Beth from Spectra to go through the flooring to check for anything wrong. A couple minor touch up things but nothing big, besides the chunk of drywall that was damaged in the reception area but we already saw that. We also found out the carpet for the edit suites & offices on the east side came in today so it will be installed tomorrow.

The big event of the day was the shredding truck. We had 2 hours worth of shredding. It was pretty cool, a box truck pulled up, a couple guys got out, went to our room, wheeled out the cart, got up in the back of the truck and started loading it up. You could hear the machine in the back of the truck shredding as things were loading. We shot photos and video for an upcoming Behind the Scenes webisode but I'm not sure the cool factor will translate. I will admit, it was cool but after 15 minutes I was like "ok, I've seen it, now what?". It's cool but it's pretty repetitive so once you've watched it a bit you've seen it.

Sometime tomorrow the 4th webisode will be added to the website www.ideasorlando.com/ideasnewhome

Finishing Touches

This morning David & I did a walk through of the building. Except for the carpet tiles inside the offices and edit suites on the east side of the building the flooring is done. David spent a lot of time there Friday and Saturday to make sure everything got done. It was amazing, the install team from Latin Flooring Company worked their behinds off to get everything done.

We said from day one, flooring and painting will make the place and we were 100% correct. I can't decide what looks better and I think that's how it's supposed to be. It was not easy and it was stressful but we were spot on with the colors and design of both and the building looks great. Check out new photos ont he website www.ideasorlando.com/ideasnewhome

Monday will be the final electrical trimming, touch up of the paint, finishing touches overall, clean up and the build out for phase 1 is over. The timing is working out well as things are progressing with phase 2, the audio build out. Much more on that in the weeks to come.

On the agenda for this week: Shredding day on Monday. Furniture assembly for the design and programming department on Tuesday. Box truck with machine room racks on Tuesday. Phone and Internet transition on Thursday & Friday. Then official move day #1 on Friday. By the end of the day on Friday about 70% of our building will be moved to the new building. Hard to believe.

More Flooring Progress

I think this is the first time I have posted twice in one day. I am only doing it because there has been so much progress since this morning. By the end of the day, the lobby had been stripped and prepped, the base boards were done on the west side, the lounge was done and the far back end of the building was done. Sam and I spent the afternoon editing the 4th webisode in our series and it was strange to hear the interviews before we started the build out then come home and see photos of the building done in some areas. We'll probably post new pictures from today on Monday but by that time those pictures will be old news.

I also went to Best Buy tonight to scope out my new HD LCD TV with built in DVD player. I can't seem to find time at home to watch my DVDs of the entire West Wing and Sports Night series so I'll have them on as background noise when I get to the new place in my new office with new paint and new carpeting.

Flooring Minor Drama

I went to the building this morning to check in on the flooring. Everything is coming together great. We did have a little drama. A portion of the building has a raised technical floor. Since most of the floor tiles are pretty old and beat up we decided to put carpet tiles on top of them, knowing that we would need to pull up the carpet tiles and flooring from time to time to get under the floor. Our concern this morning was whether or not the adhesive would allow us easy access so David & Michael worked with the installers and we think we came up with a viable compromise that will keep the carpeting stable while allowing us the access we need.

Other than that, almost the entire west side of the building is done, except base boards and transitions. The Media Storage and Design & Programming areas are also done and when I left they were preparing to do one of the back hallway areas and the lounge. David is staying down there all day to make sure things are progressing properly.

Lots of new photos and the third Behind The Scenes webisode have been added to the website: www.ideasorlando.com/ideasnewhome

I can't believe one week from today is the first big moving day.

Flooring Install

David, Mary Anne and I had our first official client meeting at the new building today. It was pretty cool to see the reaction of a client who has spent a lot of time in the current building when he saw the new building.

The painters were already there finishing the second coat on the east side of the building. Then the moment we have been waiting a long time for, flooring install started around 8:45am. We ran out to a meeting but by the time we got back at 10:30am all the offices on the west side had their old carpet removed, by the time we finished lunch at 12:30pm one office had the new carpeting in it and by the end of the day, every office on the west side had the carpeting installed. We did run into one problem- the manufacturer sent the wrong carpeting for the offices & edit suites on the east side of the building, oops. The right carpeting should be in early next week and should be installed in time for the move next Friday so all should be good.

Updated photos and websiode 3 should be on the new home website tomorrow: www.ideasorlando.com/ideasnewhome

Videos on the Website & Cabinets

The first two webisodes were posted on the website today. I'm obviously very close to the situation but I think the videos tell a good story. We hope the next webisode will be posted tomorrow. www.ideasorlando.com/ideasnewhome

Our cabinets were installed today and they look awesome. Just like everything else thus far, we're a little nervous waiting for new things to be unveiled and just like all the rest, when we finally see it we're thrilled with the results.

We also shot some more interviews for the Behind the Scenes and verified that the projector already in the Story Lab works and looks great.