Think Outside. There is no Box.

August 18, 2021

No Box

There is no box. That's right. No box. Get over it. In fact, if you say there is a box you are limiting your beliefs, abilities and aspirations. AND, if you say "Think outside the box." you are in fact agreeing there is a box and the same applies. If you have any questions please refer to the statements above. 

Oh. There also is no cheese. Nope. None. Nada. So, if you are wondering who moved it, take a deep breath and head back to your desk. You have work to do. Goodness. But wait!! Head back after you read this blog, of course! This is important. THEN you can get back to work. Your boss agrees. 

No Cheese

And, you Packer fans can rest easy. This has nothing to do with those cheesy foam hats y'all wear in support of your beloved football team. Wear them all you want. Knock yourselves out! Go Vikings. 

There is no box. There is no cheese. There is, however, a building in Sierra Vista undergoing massive changes. There were plans made, plans changed and then we uncovered some windows buried in the walls. So, what does this mean for the project? At the moment, and don't hold me to it because it may change yet again, we, well... let's put it this way: Remember the money we saved by buying those specific windows? And, we earmarked those funds for removal of the entry awning; which we were excited to remove? Well. something came up. We uncovered some covered windows buried in the wall. And, the cost to frame that wall properly caused a change order. Being we earmarked money for something that wasn't begun, we un-earmarked it and moved those funds back to the windows/walls. In the mean time, our contractors, who are gracious to be a "team player", determined they might be able to save the stucco exterior. And, if we are able to do that there will be significant savings. But, before we get excited and begin earmarking those funds for something else we will simply put them in reserves. For now. More to come as details unfold. 

Demo in Progress

As you can see from the picture above we are well into our demo. It's exciting to see the changes! We anticipate it to appear a bit cleaner than this when we move the residents in. AND, we have to make sure we have our certificate of occupancy first. Let's not get too anxious!  See that nice wall to the left of the windows? Yeah, The one with the AC unit and the green curtain. This is precisely where there really is a window under the drywall. Who woulda thunk!

Demoed Unit

We signed the change order to properly frame those walls so we can install the windows. As far a timeline, we don't anticipate it being much of a delay. 

A&R Fire has their designer and two techs onsite to begin the installation of the piping for the sprinkler system. As a reminder, these pipes will run along the hallway ceiling and pop into each unit with the fire suppression sprinkler heads assembled on the end of the piping within the units. This is one major requirement we gainfully embraced. I mean, what else could we do? 

We are up to 9 occupied units. And, these are the short-term occupants as we are running it as a motel. Due to weather conditions across Arizona it seems traffic has been a bit light. The onsite guy we wanted to rally behind ended up not passing the background check.  They are managing the building with their staff in the area which includes part time employees who include a manager from Tucson and a leasing agent. We are rallying behind the staff we have there! They are a decent crew. The search for a permanent solution is well underway. This will be needed for sure by the time we move residents into the newly remodeled units which are currently demoed (see below).

Demoed Bathroom

On the far left there used to be a bathroom. This is where the kitchen will go. On the right there is a door; not the opened one, rather, the closed one. That will lead into the bathroom and bedroom of the 1-bed unit. The open door leads to the hallway. And, in this picture the photographer is standing in the living room. Won't this be amazing?

Windows arrived!! Hey Apple fans (me included), don't get your knickers in a knot. These windows are the glass ones in each unit so people can see outside. (A voice somewhere pops up from their screen and says, "What's 'outside'? What do you do there?") They are not the computers. We aren't that silly to install those kind of windows at our building. But a Mac...?  We are going to store the windows onsite so they are ready to be installed as soon as the walls are ready for them. In the current market of shortage of supplies the team has done a remarkable job in ordering the materials they can far in advance. Now, I am not guaranteeing there won't be shortages or delays. I am simply saying we are doing our part to eliminate the bottlenecks where and when we can. 

Think outside. There is no box. 

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