July Building Update

by Alan Beatts

Things are going well with the construction at the new building.  At the beginning of the month, PG&E hooked up the new electrical service.  Despite all the delays and torturous steps to get there, the actual hook-up went very smoothly.  We started at nine and were done by noon.  The PG&E crew were very pleasant and professional.  We shared a couple of jokes at the expense of office and engineering staff, mostly along the lines of, "They don't get it, don't get it right, and waste time.  Thank goodness there are people like us doing the actual work who have a clue."

We've still got two long days ahead switching out the panels for each of the apartments upstairs but, once that's done, the big electrical work is finished. We'll still need to do the wiring for the bookstore but that's a quite simple job.  This week I put in four extra temporary circuits (so we can run a saw and the compressor at the same time without tripping a breaker) and it took me all of about two hours to do.  The final wiring will be a bit more time-consuming but not by much.

Since that work was done, last Sunday we were able to finally tear out the big post in the middle of the store that used to hold the old service.  Having that gone really opened up the space a lot and now I can actually see what it's going to look like.  It's going to be awfully good.  Despite being a tiny bit smaller than our current space, I think it's going to _look_ bigger.

I've got several meetings next week that will move us even further forward.  First I'm meeting on Monday with an asbestos abatement specialist.  I'll get a quote from him to pull all the old floor and tiles that are a problem.  I'm hopeful that the price will be within reach because, after looking over the place, really the best solution is to remove the entire floor and replace it.  With the asbestos out of the way, that's not actually a very hard job and it'll give us a beautiful, strong floor that will last for decades to come.

I'm also meeting with our plumber, Brian Fusco, to get the bathroom work scheduled.  He's a referral from my buddy Bruno, a general contractor here in town who has never steered me wrong.  I'm looking forward to meeting Brian.  Based on our email conversations, he's definitely our sort of people.

The rest of this month will be mostly filled up with completing the framing for the bathroom and, if all goes well, getting a start on framing the new front of the building.