Standing By, Sitting Tight and Embracing Change

 July 20, 2021

Embracing Change

"Stand by!"

"But I can't stand!"

One day a few weeks ago I was visiting a good friend of mine, Jonmark. He sent me a question via text and I responded, as I often do, "Stand by!" He quickly replied, "But I can't stand!" I responded, "Oh boy... You're killing me. Sit tight." He replied with a "Haha" and a thumbs up. You see, Jonmark is in a wheelchair. Not only is he good-natured, he has an incredible mindset and, besides his success in business, he has had success in other outlets as well. He was paralyzed due to a motocross accident when he was young. What did he do? He took up racing again and now has a team "Dead Legs Racing. You can learn more about his story here: Mind over matter: Dead Legs Racing proves anything is possible with the right mindset.

He embraced change. 

Here at Bakerson and Thunder Mountain in specific, we too embrace change. Now, our changes are not nearly as traumatic nor life changing. However, it is positive change with a terrific mindset. and things are happening in the city of Sierra Vista!

With that I have some updates. First some great news! We have our first permit! Now, before you spit out your coffee in surprise and ruin your keyboard, it's the demolition permit and not the approval of our masterplan just yet. So, what can we demo? The interior of the units! We will remove cabinets, toilets, sinks and carpet as needed. We will also lay out the units so we know how they will go back in when we are ready to install them. I will make sure to get some demo pics soon so you can enjoy the process too! Here is a pic of where the work will begin:

This Wing

The other building going right to left in the picture above will have the interiors demoed later. Now wouldn't be wise to start as this is where we currently have people staying. And, we are hoping some of them move from where they live to the part in the yellow box. They wouldn't even need a moving company!

The company installing the sprinkler system for extinguishing a fire should more than a fire extinguisher be required is about to start work. They will likely start after my next update next week. But hey! It's news and they are on the schedule. More on this to come. We are progressing forward! Which is good thing because there is no such thing as progressing backward as this would be regressing. I digress. 

The funds have been sent to the contractors to begin work. We are well on the way. 

We have also submitted for our next draw from the lender. Based on past experience, this will be quickly replenished and we can be ready for when the remaining permits come in. Could be in a week? It's about that time. 

We are continuing to market for weekly STR so we can reduce the cost of the "Valley of Death" as we call it. This is the period where the property is costing money and yet there is little to no income to offset it. This, of course, is very common in new development as well as redevelopment. 

When we met with the City of Sierra Vista they said, by code, each door to the units on the ground level needs to have self-opening capabilities for the handicapped and the elderly. As you may have sometimes noticed, it can be difficult for those in wheelchairs to pull open a door and roll back as the door opens and then roll through the doorway while pulling the door closed behind them. Or, you may have never noticed this before, which is fine as I have created the visual for you with the explanation above, which should be sufficient. 

Will it Fit?

Being there could be many definitions, understandings and interpretations of the requirement, we have agreed to a modification of the city's recommendation. At a minimum we will have the electrical wired to each doorway and have it capped off there. And, if we get such a request from a resident needing a self-opening and self-closing door, we will install the system, as needed. It was a fair compromise as it could have been exceedingly costly to install these on each and every ground floor unit regardless of the resident need. 

Dead Legs but not Dead

In closing I would like to share additional links to Jonmark:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deadlegsracing/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deadlegracingco/

What's next? Stand by. 

And that is our project from my corner of the globe ~Bruce