The last few weeks has seen mega-progress except that I have been mega-busy, traveling and doing stuff to prevent me from adequately documenting the progress. Here's the deal: The 2nd floor, where CaptionMax will live is all framed out and all the electrical is roughed in. The first floor's corridors, common areas, bathrooms are also framed out. The big cafe and kitchen on the first floor are framed and ready for next steps, and lastly the City of Minneapolis blessed all our plans including the grand vestibule entrance way. We are now full-steam ahead with all the details worked out in pricing, materials, what we're going for and what we're not, etc.
It's been a heck of a time making the numbers work for the budget but still staying green. Being responsible to the environment costs a lot of money up front, but pays back in the long term. It's easy to see why people opt for the cheap building techniques. but in the end they pay for it and the earth suffers. I can be all righteous now since I'm spending buckets of my life's savings on this environmental stuff, so I'll take all the credit I can get.
So, enough of the boring stuff, here's something we think you'll all enjoy:

Yes, that's right, you have been very observant to
notice that in fact the gas meter has moved about 30 feet to the North to make way for the grand entry way that was planned
right smack dab where the gas meter was. This will make a great thing to look out at from our new lobby. Let's not even ask why I
didn't move it somewhere less conspicuous. Let's just say that Max wants to keep an eye on expenses, and being able to watch the gas meter is just another way of monitoring my business.
O.K. Big deal. What's the deal with this. A friggin box with some wires in it? Yeah but look at those wires dude! Those are each like 1" thick and there's millions of them and they go everywhere and we cut the bastards to move the electrical panels. It was so sad to see such healthy wires cut in the prime of their life. Then, seeing 1000's of feet of copper on the ground made me ache with the price of copper at $4/pound. Ouch-o-rama. The electricians needed to justify the $180,000 I'm being charged to re-wire the building I guess, so they started by just ripping out the "old" worn out wire. Amazing, it looks perfectly good to me.
Here's another painful picture. This guy who didn't want his face or name in the picture, went around with a damn monkey wrench and a pail and drained the ozone-depleting freon from all 28 of our AC units both on the roof and in the basement. Then, he says, OK all set there, buddy...I'll be back on Monday with the crane to hoist all the old roof top AC units off your roof--which by the way is ALSO being replaced. I guess the HVAC people needed to justify the $330,000 they are charging to redo all our clean air needs.
And this picture proves that there are real electricians with real electrician tools and supplies at the time I snapped this they were adding outlets to the captioning area. This is just a plug for Fraser Morris electricians. Oh man I'm getting wired on this coffee. Somebody switch me off or throw me a line, my puns are shockingly bad.
And lastly, we have opted to go for a brand spanking new roof--The WHOLE damn building gets a new roof. I'm not even sure why, but they tell me it needs one, and at $80,000, it's a bargain I just couldn't refuse. It will be white though...so it will be like snow all year, which it practically is anyway. And the roofers are throwing in new scuppers as part of the deal. And if you don't know what scupper means, look it up in your Funk & Wagnall. ---ADIOS for now. I promise more exciting photos in my next posting.-max-