First step: Raise the roof!
Well, honestly, we had a flurry of first steps over the past week since formally announcing our new Downtown headquarters, meeting with sign companies and contractors and building inspectors and so forth, while also putting the finishing touches on layout/design. But the biggest moment for Dali and me so far, beyond a doubt, came late last night with the first tearing up of the ugly drop ceiling in the place.
Two minutes of exclusive footage:
We've gone back and forth on this ceiling countless times, she and I, and it's been a challenge just sorting that out. The height of the place with the drop ceiling is 11 feet, which isn't bad. But there are 4 additional feet to be had up there, and that'd just be ... wow, you know? A lot more expansive in both feel and scope. And a lot more like a traditional Downtown storefront in that they're usually super-tall.
So, it'll now be 15 feet ... eventually.
Take one peek at that video, and it's easy to see there's a ton of work ahead cleaning up electrical, heating, cooling and other riff-raff that just shows up in a structure that's a century old. And that'll take both time and maybe more money than we'd budgeted. The goal is to have everything done by March and, of course, to keep costs reasonable.
We'll see how both of those go. But what's certain already is that, if we don't do the ceiling the way we want in the beginning, we'll never do it at all. So we'd rather apply this approach right up front -- just do everything first-class -- and hope it pays off with a better experience for visitors.
Lots of readers have asked for regular updates, so expect to see a lot of this, both here in Site Stuff and in What's Brewing.
And thanks again to everyone who's expressed support for this project!
