No Oak, IKEA and Screamscape

Here's what I learned today: Mary Anne doesn't like the oak furniture in our current building. It's amazing how much furniture we have in our current building. When you walk into a room and see a desk, 3 chairs, a bookshelf, a cabinet, a file cabinet, and a small table it's amazing to think how it all got into that room, and that's just my office and it's only 10x12. We have so much furniture and unfortunately not a lot of it matches. I'm about 75% way through mapping what from the current place goes where in the new place, what is not coming with and what is going somewhere but I don't know where yet. The goal: try to have some semblance of consistency throughout the new building.

An update on our IKEA adventure, we got a form letter back from them today from there corporate office saying they don't ship products from one store to another because it's too costly. They suggested that we check back periodically to see if the Orlando store gets their shipment. So let me get this straight, you have a customer that wants to give you money for your product and you won't do anything to help them. What happened to customer service? In this economy I would think a retail store would be willing to help a customer that wants to spend money at their store. Obviously not! All done venting.

We're also getting a kick out of all the people talking about our move on Screamscape. Rumors all over about what Disney might do to our building after we leave.

IKEA and Making of Video

We went to IKEA yesterday and found some really great lights for our art department/graphics area. We went to pick them up and they only had 3 of them and we needed 12. So we talked to someone that worked there and he said to call today and ask them to order them from another store and they would be shipped directly to us. Today when I spoke to 2 different people on the phone they had no idea what I was talking about and said IKEA doesn't do that. When I asked when they thought the next shipment of those lights would come in and they said "next week". I asked whether next week meant early, middle or late in the week. I was told they had no idea and sometimes it doesn't even come in during the week it says it will. Talk about frustrating, we find lights that we really like but we can't buy them. I'm standing here with a credit card begging someone to take my money and nobody can get me the product that I want. Frustrating.

With any luck we'll start editing our Making Of video tomorrow. We've been taking photos, shooting video and done some interviews tracking this entire process. Tomorrow we begin editing episode 1. The goal is to do 5-10 mini episodes of 2-4 minutes each throughout the process and in the end, it will make 15-20 minute piece telling the entire story of our move.

Creative Lab Floor & Scoping Out Furniture

This morning we locked the design and colors for the Creative Lab floor. Who knew it would be that complicated. Anyway, it's done and most people agreed with the final results. It will definitely be a different look from the rest of the building.

We went out today and looked at some furniture options. David, Mary Anne and I all pretty much agree with what we need and where we need it. It's a matter of figuring out what is the right priority for the budget. The "big" things aren't really the problem it's the accessories. In the end, I went out planning on spending money but we didn't buy anything, just more thinking and mapping things out.

Finally, we went to the building to check out the build out progress at the end of the day. New pictures will be posted on the construction page on the website http://www.ideasorlando.com/ideasnewhome/index.php. Things seem to be coming along nicely. We also posted a nice picture of the outside of the new building on the home page so for those who have not seen it check it out.

Paint Colors & Start of Construction

Yesterday we finalized paint colors. After Friday I wasn't sure we were going to get there but we did. And thankfully, there's very little gray in the new paint colors. I'm excited to see how it turns out, I think the final colors are great.

We showed up today and construction had begun. It was amazing, we showed up at 8:45am and wallpaper was torn down all over the place and some of the minor demo had already started.

Check out pictures of the paint selection process and the start of construction at our new home website http://www.ideasorlando.com/ideasnewhome/index.php

I almost forgot, we completely scrapped our floor colors for the creative lab. We were never really sold on the original selections and we changed them on Friday. Then Robbie came in this morning and said we should go completely opposite of the way we went on Friday. After talking about it, we decided to go down his path so I had to call Beth at Spectra and make sure she had not placed the order yet. Right now Robbie is designing the random pattern (yes, it's an oxymoron). It looks good so it looks like we'll go with it. Why not, right?

Paint Colors

Before the holidays we sent out a survey to the entire staff to find out what they liked and disliked about our current building and what they hoped we could do and not do in the new building. There were a few overwhelming requests that came from the surveys, one of them was color. Consequently, one of our main goals for the new building is to have more color. If you've ever walked through our current building the one color that comes to mind is gray. There's lots of gray walls. We're trying to lock the paint colors for the interior. We thought we had a palate that we liked but to be sure we bought small cans of each so we could paint some walls and test out what we chose, and it's a good thing we did. We spent yesterday afternoon painting various tests on the walls and of the four of us there (Mary Anne, David, Robbie and me), I don't think there was a single color that we all agreed on. The one thing we all pretty much agreed on was that the sample cards we had been looking at didn't match the paint once we put it on the walls.

So it's back to the drawing board on paint. Tomorrow will be day 2 of paint choosing. Mary Anne made a comment that now she understand how things end up gray, because you start out with such grand plans and in the end, gray is the only thing everyone can agree on and it's the safest. Rest assured, if we end up with simple light gray walls, it won't be for lack of effort to find other colors.

Yesterday we also spent an hour presenting the progress on the new home to the staff. The biggest challenge we (David, Mary Anne and I) face is expectations and understanding that not everything can be done at once. It would be great if we had 6 months for the build out and an unlimited budget. We have 6 weeks and a limited budget so we cannot do EVERYTHING. It will be a work in progress for probably the first year we are in the new place. We know we need to add partitions in the big spaces so they don't feel like sweatshops. We know we need to update more of the dated parts of the building. We know we need to do some things that were on the "want" not the "need" list for the initial build out. As long as our staff understands we're going to do the best we can for day 1 and keep making improvements as we can, I think it's going to be a great new home for us and everyone will be excited to come to work every day.

Going Green

The one thing that the new building does lack is storage space. Because of this, we were nervous about where to store old files- accounts payable, accounts receivables, etc. We decided to do an experiment in which we scanned and e-mailed PDFs of all paper files on our copy machine. Then we would organize them electronically and burn to disks. This is turning out to be a great thing. We just finished all the paperwork for the 2004 accounts payable and it will take 1 full box of paper and turn it into 1 CD, not even a DVD. This has changed our thinking on a lot of our paper files. Not only can we reduce the storage space needed but we're going to be doing something good for the environment as well. We were trying to figure out where we would store 15-20 boxes of files, now we need to figure out where to keep the 1 binder of CDs & DVDs. When it's all done I don't think Christine will ever want to see our copy machine or a PDF ever again.

Another Day

Today we did a final walk through with the architect & general contractor so the architect is locked in to what he's drawing to submit for approval from the landlord and the city for permitting. We should have the drawings by the end of the week and the construction will physically begin next week.

Our general contractor also gave us the paint samples, cabinet & counter top options and the bathroom vanity samples. Since Mary Anne has already set the color palate we have that part taken care of.

We also finished our two days with our acoustical designer for the audio space. Now he goes back and figures out what to build and how it should be built.

Last Minute Changes & Press Release

I had a thought over the weekend that kept me from sleeping because I was thinking about it but it appears to have been a good idea since Mary Anne, David & Bob also agreed. Nothing like a last minute change to the floor plan the day before we sign the flooring contract and meet with the architect and general contractor to get them going.

We got the last piece of the press release announcing our move today, it was the quote from Disney. We now have a quote from the mayor, the President of Walt Disney World, one of our best clients and of course our owner, Bob Allen. Not a bad group of people talking about us. The press release will be released tomorrow on Business Wire to 4000 media outlets nationwide and another 1700+ people in our company database.

Here's a link to the press release: http://www.ideasorlando.com/pdf/NewHome.pdf
Or you can find it by going to our website at www.ideasorlando.com and clicking on the purple dot.

Colors, Lights, Signage & Flowers

We went to the new building today and planted some flowers. It was driving David crazy that we have a small planter on the front steps and it's just dirt so we stopped at Home Depot and got some flowers.

Mary Anne noticed that a new sign was put up at the front of the parking lot with our logo saying no parking except for IDEAS staff & visitors. Very cool, our very own parking spaces, without security clearances.

We also bought some lights to test in the graphic/art department area. David got on a ladder and we checked out how they will look and we like them. A nice look with the ability to direct the light.

Mary Anne and Jennifer were walking the building when I left figuring out the color palate for the walls. Now that we have chosen all the flooring, it's time to pick the wall colors.

We are now officially signed with the general contractor and architect. We all meet Tuesday to lock in and get going.

Earlier this week I mentioned the article in the Orlando Business Journal about us moving, here it is: http://orlando.bizjournals.com/orlando/stories/2009/02/16/story5.html

First Moving Truck & Flooring Locked

This morning, about 7:30am the first moving truck showed up at our current place to take the first load downtown. The truck filled up fast with some machine room racks and a couple working desks. By the time I got down there around lunchtime Dennis & Michael already had a few things set up and were working on the machine & server rooms. Seeing the racks really makes it seem like it's our home.

We also finalized the flooring plans. We're really excited about the flooring. Some great designs and some great colors. We really enjoy working with Beth & Megen from Spectra Contract Flooring. Megen has some great input on color and Beth is a great project manager. It's really nice when you can work with a team that understands what we're trying to accomplish but is also respectful of our budget. They have worked very hard for us to give us a great look and while hitting our budget. Actually they cam in $.04 under budget.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Today started with a phone call with the Orlando Business Journal. They are doing an article on our move. The article will be in this Friday's print edition of the OBJ.

We believe we have finalized our flooring plans. After a bit of back & fourth and the usual give & take, we have hit our budgeted price for flooring. We do a final walk through with our provider, Spectra Contract Flooring, tomorrow to make sure we're on the same page. Assuming that goes well, we'll be locked in for flooring.

We also have all but finalized things with the architect and the general contractor. A couple minor paperwork things to work out and we'll be ready to go there as well.

The contract was signed for the acoustical architect so he will be with us next Monday & Tuesday to help us design our new post audio studio.

And finally, it looks like we have our brand new phone number. I'll post it as soon as it's official but we think we picked it. Not a whole lot to choose from but we think the new number has a nice ring to it.

Staff Meeting

We had a staff meeting today. We gave an update on where everything is with the new home. Mary Anne presented where we are with the flooring. Most people seemed pleased with the choices and color palate, some were not as enthusiastic. I guess we can't please everyone. It's hard when you present carpeting in 4 samples and it's not in the environment it will be in the end. I wish everyone could go to the new building and see the flooring in that environment. I think they'd have a different opinion of it then.

Our staff seems to be most interested in seeing the shredding machine we're going to get for the clean out of our offices and the tape vault.

We also rolled out the new URL for our website: www.ideasorlando.com
We think that has a better fit for us now being in Orlando.

Spending Money & Making Of Video

It's so easy to talk about what you're going to spend money on but it's another to actually start doing it. We have finalized our budget for the build out and while we're still working out some of the details, getting the people in to reset the raised floor and start with the acoustical designer for audio are done deals so you'd think it would be easy to sign their proposals and lock them in. But for some reason, I'm nervous about pulling the trigger.

We also shot interviews for our "Making Of" video this morning. I've never been shot for "official" interviews before so the make up thing was a bit weird. She kept going back to her kit for more. When we were done I felt like I was wiping off make up for hours. I think I was being interviewed for about 30 minutes, hopefully I didn't sound like an idiot. I think the video is going to be cool. Hopefully we can put together a coherent story in a couple minutes so it's not too long and boring. I'm sure Mary Anne and Sam will figure something out. Eventually we'll be posting short videos of the process on our New Home website http://www.ideasorlando.com/ideasnewhome/index.php

Meetings & Decisions

David's meeting with a painter this morning. Who knew there were so many decisions to make BEFORE we even pick a color. Do we paint the wallpaper? Do we need to take the wallpaper off first? If we paint the wallpaper do we use a oil or water based primer? Will the wallpaper bubble and start to fall off? Decisions, decisions.

David's also meeting with one of the potential contractors now that our build out scope has shrunk. It's amazing how fast the money goes so we had to reevaluate the scope a bit. Hopefully we'll get to a comfortable place this week so we can get going.

Another thing, Friday when were at the new building we tested some track lights. I think the track fixtures that are in there are from 1988 so we need to do some updating. Thankfully, the tracks will work with track fixtures from this decade so that was a pleasant surprise and will be a huge help financially. It's a lot easier to get new fixtures and new fixtures AND tracks.