Construction
More Door Ideas
So I was playing in SketchUp again. Here are a couple other ideas for doors. the glass for #1 is about $60 per door, the glass for #2, #3, #4 is about $10 per door because they are stock sizes.
I kinda like #3?
Update: Turns out the glass I found is only 1/8″ thick, so we’re back to option #1.
Office Space Renderings
Here are a few pics I drew up for our new space. I used Google SketchUp to re-create the space off of the PDFs that Jeff Bogart sent. It was pretty easy to trace out the floor plan to get a better feel for the space.
It’ll be interesting to see what things look like in ‘real life’ versus the renderings.
I know that it is a little different than the plans, but I wanted to see how many people we can fit in there before we have to tear down that wall and add more space. Turns out…15 is the magic number.
Door Issues and Ideas
So I learned yesterday that the doors we ordered were a LOT more than the original quote. It’s a long story, but I was asked if we could find something else. While talking to Fred, we came up with the idea to take solid-core slab doors and mill a window into each one. That’d save us a few bucks on each door, and give us the opportunity to do something real cool with our own design.
I cracked open SketchUp and I was off to the races. Here’s what I came up with.
As it turns out, it’ll work! the Per-Door cost is a bit more, but we save enough on the entry doors to off-set the difference.
Final Floorplan!
Here it is…the moment you’ve all been waiting for. (Not really, I know…it’s not your office.) This is our final floor-plan for 4403C…aka: The SparkBase Offices.
For those of you out there with no vision, I’ll post a few renderings later in the week.
Hammers start swinging on Feb 25th!
General Contractor Time!
So one of the things that people don’t often think about when building an office…the General Contractor. (GC as they are known in the industry.) This is the person that you’ll need te rely on to make sure 3 things happen. (I like numbering things.)
#1: You stay on budget.
#2: The architect’s vision stays intact.
#3: You stay on budget.
Initially I called a guy that I trust not to steer me wrong. My good friend Leigh Weinberg. He’s got years in HVAC build-outs, and I figured he’d be able to point me in the right direction. I was right.
Leigh hooked me up with Fred Shafer. He was the first GC I talked to that didn’t cringe when I mentioned a budget. This is important…it’s my money on the line here! $20K over budget turns a $10.50-ft buildout into a $10.80-ft. When you are talking about 3,500-ish feet, and a 5-year lease, that all adds up.
So Fred is our guy, and he starts in a few weeks. He’s telling me it’ll take about 6-weeks to build everything out. We’ll see ow that works, but I’m cautiously optimistic that he’ll pull it off.
Welcome aboard Fred!
Initial Floorplan
After we decided how much of our space to peel off, the next step was getting an architect on board. I’ve known Jeff Bogart for a long time, and knew I wouldn’t have to spend a lot of time explaining what it is I do. The conversation went something like this…
Doug: Hey Jeff, it’s Doug Hardman.
Jeff: Doug! How are you man?
Doug: I’m great, I’m moving our offices to Cleveland and we need an architect.
Jeff: Where are you moving?
Doug: Tyler Village…it’s at 36th and Superior.
Jeff: Nice. When do you want me to stop by?
Doug: I’m here now. Can you come by?
Jeff: I’ll be there in 40min.
Jeff came out, measured a few things, asked a few questions, and he was off to his office.
Some of the things we were looking for in a space are…
#1: Wide-open area for our developers to collaborate.
#2: I giant-sized conference room where we can sit 10 people and not have to worry about it.
#3: Nice-sized offices for Geoff and I. (I wanted a ginormous one.)
#4: A nice Kitchen with lots of counter space and cabinets.
#5: A lounge where everyone can relax, watch some TV, and play some video games.
#6: Storage for now, and later.
Past that, it’s up to Jeff how he lays out the space.
2 days later, I got an email with this preliminary drawing.
Nice, and close to what we were looking for. We talked for a bit and we’re waiting to see what the changes look like.