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We Got To Move These Refrigerators, We Got To Move These Color TV's
It appears I made it to 49 after all. The way this past week started out, I wasn't exactly full of confidence I'd survive in good enough shape to be more than a blubbery pile of goo on the floor by now, but despite the set backs, the delays, all the things that were supposed to go one way, but insisted on going the other, here I am.
The second team of movers proved more than equal to the task, even despite the fact that our massive main reception desk initially couldn't be maneuvered out of the old office. But, removal of a few drop-ceiling panels and brackets gave us enough clearance to just squeeze it out.
And the guy who did our data line wiring just happened to be available for a brief window and was able to come in and rewire the entire phone system on Thursday, plus fix a couple of boo-boos (totally my fault) that were overlooked during his first installation.
So, once again, just about everything came down to the absolute wire. But, the good news is the phone system was up and running on Friday morning, we sussed out our data network and all the various and sundry machines are happily beeping and booping with each other and - most importantly - with the outside world. The only negatives at this point are one network jack that seems to be on-the-fritz, and the fact that my boss picked up a virus on his laptop most likely due to the temporary jury-rigged Internet connection we set up earlier in the week (we ganged my co-worker's Clear Wire modem to my wireless router, but had to leave everything open and unsecured, because nobody else could get my WEP access code to work - the techno-geeks among you know what I'm talkin' 'bout).
Friday morning I rented a small storage locker and in the afternoon picked up a rental van, and we all schlepped over to the old office to clean out the last of the odds-and-ends, hauled it all back to the new office, emptied the truck, then filled it with about 60 bankers boxes full of old documents we don't need on-site, but aren't allowed to throw away, and my boss and I then took them over to the storage facility and loaded them in. Even though I rented the smallest space they had available, we still only managed to fill it to about one-third capacity, which means we can still get to things in the highly unlikely event we ever need to access anything.
The final bit of business was to contract with someone to clean out the detritus still left at the old space and haul it off to the dump/recylers. There's a company in the same building that does this, but their estimate was IMO somewhat excessive, so I contacted the building maintenance man (the same guy who drove me to distraction on the kitchen counter project), and he underbid by about $200. Plus, he would have had to check us out of the space anyway, so this way we don't have to worry about that part of things either. He came by around 5:00 p.m., we handed him a check and all the keys and access cards for the old building and parking garage, and so the moving part is now officially done.
There's still a huge amount of work to do: lots of re-arranging, moving things into place, getting rid of packaging, along with general clean-up and a final move in of a couple of items, most notably our conference table which is in the process of having its surface refinished. But that will happen next week - or beyond.
I finally managed to attack my new office on Friday, and even in the short amount of time I was able to devote to it, got it into workable shape; now it's just a matter of dealing with the finishing touches, and turning the place into our new home. We have about a month before our annual Holiday Party, which should be plenty of time.
So, tomorrow it'll be back to a somewhat normal routine, plus playing catch-up on the rather modest backlog of things that didn't get dealt with last week. It's just good to have it all over and done with - the scope of this project turned out to be akin to the massive build-out at the Theatre I managed in the spring of 2008; just as nerve-wracking, frustrating, but ultimately satisfying in its completion.
Now, all I have to do today is whip together a ginormous fundraiser for tonight.
Piece of cake - birthday cake, to be precise.Labels: Birthdays, fundraising, Moore Theatre, Office Move, Work
Posted byCOMTE
on 7:42 AM
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