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.

Red Cent & New Pictures

For the last 2 weeks David and I have been anxiously awaiting a red cent sighting. Red cent is the accent color on the East side of the building and for whatever reason, the painters haven't done any of the walls with that color. The anticipation was killing us but today around 5:00pm David called me from the building saying they had done the red cent and it looked beautiful. I'm going first thing tomorrow to see it so I'm looking forward to that. They also began painting the last minute offices so that will be done tomorrow. One of the last minute office painting rooms is my office so I have a vested interest in at least one office.

Two days of pictures have also been added to the website: www.ideasorlando.com/ideasnewhome We took pictures on Friday then David took pictures of Duncan painting the new lines in the parking lot on Saturday. We talked about refreshing the lines in the parking lot as one of those little things that will make the new place look nice and in the end, it was a huge thing. The new lines make it look brand new and of course Duncan was precise and made everything look very professional.

Sam and I finished two webisodes in the Behind The Scenes series that will be posted this week. We have another two to get done in the next ten days then the remainder will be done once we get to the new building.

Busy Day

Today was a busy day. We had what was probably our last presentation to our staff about the progress of the new home. We have them every two weeks and two weeks from today is day one of the move so we certainly won't have any meetings that day. I think everyone enjoys the presentations. It's nice to show so much progress each time. I think back to the first presentation or two and I got the sense people weren't exactly sure of how they felt about things. The room was pretty quiet, there wasn't that much conversation. I think it was a lot of people not sure how they were supposed to feel. Now the new home updates are actually a little raucous, people are anxious to see the progress and if you know our team, nobody is afraid to speak up. You can actually see the excitement in people's faces now. I think they are a lot like me, they can't believe we're two weeks away from moving but they are excited to get in the new building.

After the presentation we made a trip to IKEA. Lead by David and his shopping list, Charles, Robbie and Greg Roux helped fill up eight carts full of desks and tables to fill the Story Lab and design & programming area. In all, 13 workstations for the graphic area and 6 tables for the Story Lab and the longest receipt I have ever seen and we were all done.

Then it was down to the new building to drop off everything. Dennis, Michael and Dexter were there all day today replacing raised floor tiles. Getting rid of the old beat up ones and replacing them with the new floor tiles that were delivered earlier this week.

While we were downtown, the on West side of the building the wallpaper was already removed inside the offices (see yesterday's post). The workers were already on to patching the walls then sanding will be done this weekend and painting will be done early next week. We did need to push back the flooring install start from Tuesday to Wednesday but they should still be done by next Saturday. It's hard to believe at this time next week the build out will all be done. Then it will be time to completely focus on the audio department design and build.

We should have updated photos on the website early next week: www.ideasorlando.com/ideasnewhome

Change of Plans

We had a change of heart today on some painting. We have this great building with the new offices and great paint and we know the flooring will only make it better. It was brought to our attention that the offices on the west side of the building that we left the gray wallpaper will stick out like a sore thumb. After Scott yelled at us for waiting this long to realize that, we asked for a price to paint the remaining offices. He made a fair offer and after some working by our team to figure out the finances, we decided to go for it. It's easy to say "we'll do that after we're in the building" but we all know that things are always much harder to do once the building is fully occupied and is there ever a good time to cover everyone's desks and other things for a couple days to paint? So we made the decision to do it. Scott's crew is going to work through the weekend so we do not lose time on the schedule. The wallpaper needs to come down and the prep of the walls and the first coat needs to get done before flooring install. Of course I have buyers remorse but that's about the money because I know the colors will make the building that much better.

David and I walked the building with Scott and got the schedule for the finishing touches. Most of the building still only has one coat of paint. The painter doesn't want to do the second coat until the flooring is in because the flooring will scratch up the wall and the flooring people don't want to do install until the painting is done because the painters will drip on the new floor. We'll see, tear out of the carpeting that's there is Monday, install starts Tuesday and the painters will do the second coat after that.

Bathroom sinks and vanities were in today. They look nice and most importantly, clean.

There are only a few things left to do: wallpaper tear down and paint that we added, finish the rest of the painting, clean up, flooring, mill work, final plumbing and electric. At this time next week we'll be finishing up flooring and getting ready for the first phase of move in the following week.

Painting & Final Construction

It's been a couple days since my last post. Since then the painting has progressed quite a bit. Painting got off to a slow start but they have made a lot of progress in the last 2 days. Yesterday the door frames for the new doors went in. We also took out a door in the back hallway of the building heading towards the break area and engineering that looks good. According to the schedule, painting will be completed by the end of the week, clean up to follow with flooring to start next Monday. Someone here made the comment that if flooring is starting next week the end must be close, gulp.

Since we made the slight change to the painting last week I'm really happy with how it looks. I can't wait to see the flooring with it. We said fromt he very beginning that the most important upgrades tot he building will be the walls (painting) and flooring. We said that months ago and we're about a week out from seeing it. Check out the updated pictures on the website www.ideasorlando.com/ideasnewhome

We also will be singing the contract for the next phase of our audio build out in the next 24 hours. We saw the first drawing of the mix suite last Friday. David made a calendar of things that have to happen between now and about April 10th and there's something on every day. It's going to be a busy couple weeks.

As we continue to pack the current building, somethings we're happy to see go and others are a little sad. For instance, we have decided happily to sell the Studer mixing board in Audio A and get a new ICON board. The Studer has been great for us over the last 11 years but it was time. On the other hand, the projection screen in Audio A and the Screening Room came down today. When you think of what was shown on those screens over the last 20+ years, it's been a great run for those rooms. On the other hand, the new building will have a nice home theater to replace the screening room and our new Audio A will have start of the art equipment and be acoustically designed for the technology today.

End of Build Out Week 3

A lot has happened since my last post. Painting started just a couple days ago so I went there yesterday afternoon to check on the progress. David had called earlier in the day after he made an "executive decision". On the west side of the building we had a base color with two accent colors. David didn't think one of the accents worked so he decided to scrap that color and only use one accent. I think it was a good decision because when I saw the one wall in the accent I agreed it just didn't work.

I seem to find myself at the building most Friday afternoons and it's actually been a nice way to end the week. It's crazy right now but by 3 or 4 in the afternoon on Friday the new building is empty so there's some peace in my world for a little bit at the end of the week. I walked around the building to take pictures and shoot video for the Making Of video.

Speaking of the video, we've been hoping to get the first part of the series up on the website but we've been really busy so it's been tough getting into the edit suite to finish. Hopefully this coming week.

Yesterday we saw the first step in the drawings for our new audio suite and stage. We've gotten off to a slow start designing the new rooms but I think we'll be moving much faster over the next couple weeks and we'll be in construction right as we finish the rest of the building build out which was the plan from the beginning. Before it's all done we're going to have a great mixing suite and have a nice stage that we can shoot and record in. Rob and I had in our head what the room would look like and how it would be laid out. Little did we know our thoughts were not acoustically sound so we need to change our mindset a bit.

We spent today in the vault again. This was day 3 of the vault clean up/packing. Unfortunately, we're still not done. Hopefully we'll be able to address it more during the week because my weekends are getting harder and harder to spend at work.

Painting

Painting started yesterday. David & I went this morning and the conference room was about 60% completed and one of the main hallways was 90% painted. When we left they had just started one of the accent walls. When the building was all gray wallpaper it was a normal corporate building. As soon as the wallpaper came down we could see the improvement with just that. Now seeing actual color going up on the walls looks great. Some new pictures will be on the website tomorrow www.ideasorlando.com/ideasnewhome

Finishing the drywall was also on the agenda for today. Since everything passed inspection, all the areas that had one side of drywall are not being completed and prepped for painting. Painting is scheduled to be completed middle of the week next week with flooring starting March 23. We remain ahead of schedule on the build out.

We stopped at our favorite store, IKEA, on the way back to the office. We scoped out a couple things and actually made a sizable purchase. We bought computer tower holders that attach to desks so the towers aren't on the top of the desks but also aren't on the floor. We bought 2 stools that will go in the Design & Programming area, and a couple other peripheral things for the new place.

Inspection Pass

Today was inspection, everything passed with a few minor tweaks. With everything passing we were officially able to move the schedule up a couple days. Keep your fingers crossed the schedule stays that way.

We also saw the newly exposed windows in the graphic area. It makes the room look so much bigger. Today we did the walk through with the flooring installer so all things are a go for flooring to start a week from this coming Monday. Prior to that though painting will start this week. Lots happening in a short period of time. Be sure to keep up with the photos on the website www.ideasorlando.com/ideasnewhome

Let There Be Light

David checked the online inventory for our lights on the IKEA website this morning and saw the Orlando store had 10 lights in. I gave him the credit card and before the end of the day, all 10 were in David's car on their way to the new building. Of course, I still have 6 coming from Seattle but had time to cancel the order from Houston. Between the one I already have, the 6 from Seattle and the 10 David got today I now have too mamy lights. Anyone need some IKEA lights? New line of business, kidding.

I made a mistake Saturday when I said our inspection was today, it's actually tomorrow. Our General Contractor, Scott, also called us today and made us a deal we couldn't turn down to take down the infamous carpet wall in graphics and expose the 3 sets of windows. So our graphic area will have cool lights from IKEA but will not need as many since the area went from no windows to lots of windows in a couple days.

End of Build Out Week 2

Our permit officially came in yesterday which means we're ready for inspection on Monday. Our track lighting fixtures came in at the end of the day yesterday so that's good. David & I stopped by the building yesterday afternoon and saw that the windows in the graphics area on the east & west sides have been exposed. It's amazing how a little natural light can make an area look completely different. I think the guys will be pleased with some windows in their area. David & I went to the Orlando Magic game last night compliments of Co-Advantage, Sky Box tickets! We parked at the new building and walked to the Arena, that was very convenient.

I'm taking a break from Vault Cleaning/Packing Day 2. Lots of old tapes and lots of packing of tapes going to the new place. I would say overall we're about 50% there but we feel like we made a lot more progress today than we did last week for some reason.

Orders Arriving

No it's not our IKEA orders though. We ordered a line painter and cans of paint so we can refresh the lines in our new parking lot. Don't worry, we'll take pictures of me, David & Mary Anne re-striping our parking lot.

Today we're also expecting the new track light fixtures to come in. You know the line in Animal House where Flounder goes in to the store and says "May I have 10,000 marbles please?" That what I felt like ordering these lights: May I have 100 track lighting fixtures please?

We also posted some new construction photos on the website yesterday: www.ideasorlando.com/ideasnewhome And we're close to being able to post the first webisode in our Behind The Scenes series.

IKEA Drama Update

To recap how we got to this point. We want lights from IKEA got our graphics area. The Orlando store had 1 and we need 12. They were supposed to get more in this week, then they were not coming in this week.
David saw on line that the Charlotte store has 27 of them in stock so we called there to ask (beg) if someone there would pull 11 off the shelf and ship them to us. We offered to give them our Fed Ex number and we would also pay the "pull fee" for them to get them off the shelf. They refused and suggested we call the Seattle store since they can do phone orders.
I called the Seattle store and got through their phone tree to nowhere and got a wonderfully helpful person. She explained the process and we started entering the order for 11 lights and she found out they only had 6 in stock. She suggested I call the Houston store because they have the same phone order process.
I called the Houston store and went through their phone tree to nowhere to the phone order extension. The message says something to the effect of rather than wait on hold, go to our website and place the order there. So as I'm listening I go to the website. The message goes on to say please leave us a message with what you want to order and someone will call you back within 48 hours to verify your order and get payment information. So I hang up because I don't want to wait 48 hours to place the order.
I go back to the website and start entering the order and hit submit and it says someone will get in touch with me within 48 hours to verify the order and get payment info.
So the good news is that I have 6 lights coming UPS Ground from Seattle so they should be here some time before May and maybe another 6 coming from Houston is someone calls me back to get my credit card info. Never in a million years would I think spending money would be this stressful.

Contractors

We have had such a great experience with our contractors thus far and a couple people have asked who they are so here's our main three contractors on the project:

Nelson Blankenship, Jr.
Blankenship Architects Inc.
540 Lake Faith Circle
Maitland, Florida 32751
407-331-8868
nelson@blankenshiparchitects.com

Scott Greer
Greer Contracting Company
670 Clay Street
Winter Park, FL 32789
407-599-5380
scott@greercontracting.com

Beth Bennett
Spectra Contract Flooring
100 South Lake Destiny Drive
Orlando, FL 32810
407-475-1144 ext. 250
Beth.Bennett@spectracf.com

New Contact Info

Make a note of our new contact info:
IDEAS
64 E. Concord Street
Orlando, FL 32801-1331
407-601-7878
www.ideasorlando.com

Today we walked the building again to check on the progress. We are in the window of time where no more work can really be done until final permits are approved so progress is slower now than last week. Things are coming along great though. We should be setting our official move date(s) this week.

Shirley, David & I went to the Women In Film board meeting tonight downtown. David & I walked to the meeting at the City Arts Factory, it was a nice walk down Orange Ave. to meet Shirley. It was nice talking to people who have seen the press release about us moving or mention how good it will be for us to be downtown.

After the meeting we walked Shirley through the new building to show her the progress. David & I are so close to it sometimes we forget what it's like to show fresh eyes what we're trying to accomplish.

David got the designs for the kitchen. We're going to have a lot of cabinets. The new kitchen space is smaller than our current kitchen but the pool table will not be in the new kitchen (it will be in our lounge) so it's ok to have a smaller kitchen. Even though it's a smaller kitchen, we'll have more cabinets so that will be nice.

Build Out Week 2

Have you ever wanted to take a hammer and just beat the crap out of a wall? We got to watch someone do that this morning. We're trying to find some windows behind drywall so what better way to find them then by knocking holes in the drywall in front of them. I wasn't the lucky person who got to do it though. They think they found the windows so we might have 2 more windows in the new place. We'll post pictures this week of the hammering.

We also walked the progress of the build out. The vault is SMALL! Good thing we're purging so much before we move. The new offices look great- not too small and have a good feel to them. It's amazing how good the building looks, and that's just with the wallpaper down. It's going to look so much better with the new paint. After watching the build out of a couple of our past projects, Siemens Base 21 and the National Museum of Crime & Punishment, it's interesting seeing this process from the other side. It's cool watching when it's someone else's space but when it's your own every little detail is exciting.

I stopped at IKEA to see if they got any of our lights in, nope. I bought the last one they had of the kind we want. 1 down, 11 more to go.

Vault Packing Day 1

Today is the beginning of packing up the vault. Part 1 of the packing is the purging. There are so many tapes in the vault that go back 10+ years that nobody even remembers what they are, when they were done and who they were done for. We need to determine which tapes need to come with us to the new place and which ones need to go away. But let me tell you, there are a lot of tapes and they take up a lot of boxes, and they are not light which is not good for my bad back. We have me and Mary Anne going through each shelf and filling carts for Carlo and Christina to enter as "purged" in the computer or check them out to a box as they begin their trek downtown. Yes, Christina is our former assistant editor. We figured, the most knowledgeable people about the vault are the people who were responsible for it. In the last 11 years it's been me, then Amanda, then Christina and now Carlo. We didn't have Amanda back for this, 5 people in the vault would have been a bit much.

Make sure you check the website tomorrow, there will be new pictures from the building construction.