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Metaphors Were Never Made For Keeping Score
I guess the third time IS the charm.
After two previous unsuccessful attempts at getting the theatre drywall project started, I think we're really moving forward this time. I got a call yesterday afternoon from "Don" who apparently is one of our contractor's lead hangers, who said he and another person would be available starting today to get to work on things. They wanted to meet up at 7:00 a.m. to get into the space and go over the plan, and was that okay? Like, at this point I'm going to quibble over it being too early in the morning.
So, last night I informed all interested parties, told them we were "go for launch" (I've been using a lot of NASA metaphors during my tenure herding this project; and yes, "Houston, we have a problem" was definitely among them), and went to bed early hoping the aforementioned meeting would actually take place.
Would you be surprised to hear I didn't get much sleep?
Well, sure enough, I arrived at the the theatre promptly at 7:00 a.m. this morning, and there was a pick-up truck loaded with ladders, scaffolding, planks and other such gear indicative of guys who do drywalling parked out front, with two guys sitting inside awaiting my arrival: Don and Jim.
We went upstairs, I showed them the materials, outlined the project, engaged in a bit of unabashed ego-stroking (after all, they ARE going to be the first drywall hangers in this part of the country to work with some of these materials), and handed over the keys.
After the preliminaries, Don assured me that, while the job itself was decidedly more involved than what they usually do, the process itself wasn't all that daunting, and that even if it was just he and Jim doing the work, it wouldn't take more than about four days all told to finish, but that they would need for us to provide a few things - drywall tape, mud and extra screws, and things woud be pretty much set. But, in any case they could get started immediately with cutting and hanging the first sections until that arrived. I of course, promised to have the materials on-site no later than tomorrow morning.
Needless to say, I left around 8:00 a.m. feeling somewhat relieved.
I got a call from John, the guy who designed this crazy Rube Goldberesque project, at around 8:45, indicating he had just come by the space; from his tone, it was pretty clear he was in a good mood. When pressed, he said he was quite happy with the small amount of work they'd already done, had offered a couple of very minor suggestions which they had found quite reasonable, and generally felt pretty comfortable about things were going so-far.
I could already feel the Gordian-sized knot that's been growing in my back for the past two weeks begin to ease-off a bit more.
About 1:30 p.m. I got another call from our Managing Director, who had also decided to make a swing by to check up on things (can you tell we're all just a teensy bit, um, what's the word? - Oh yeah, PARANOID! - about all this?) and he reported Don and Jim had already completed the first layer of drywall in roughly 1/3 of the 24-foot "bays" (presumably the ones we've been installing the sound-deadening foam tape in the past few days), which frankly was pretty remarkable given our previous experiences. The best part, though was when he said they seemed to be doing a pretty good job; the panels were being cut correctly, they appeared to be reasonably tight to the joists and framing, and they weren't overscrewing them - all very good signs.
At which point I think the load off my mind actually lightened to the extent that I felt a little giddy, even.
So, I'm planning on dropping by tonight after work to check on the progress, but all signs seem to be pointing towards a quick and successful completion of this project by the middle of next week.
At which time we get to move on to other fun things, like: installing pipe for a lighting grid, moving all the equipment we moved out of the theatre back into it, cleaning up for the beginning of rehearsals for our next production on the 29th, then our monthly late-night cabaret on the 4th, and most importantly, the theatre's 21st Birthday Party on the 12th.
And I think I'm going to survive to see that - for a while there, I wasn't completely confident that would be the case.Labels: Annex
Posted byCOMTE
on 4:07 PM
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