| Let's
Move in October!
By Kenna S. Eaton, general manager, from the October Newsletter
October, yes,
this month we are moving, a little later than we promised before…
You may be wondering what caused the delay, why we changed the
schedule so often and what the have we been doing for the past
6 months?
As I write
this I’m still sitting in my usual, stuffy little office (although
I’m not complaining, at least I have an office) and I have just posted
the “Last and Best Schedule” with our new moving dates. When we
started this project I had hoped that we would be able to accomplish the remodeling
project
and be in our new location before the schools reopened in early August. Wishful
thinking.
If you’ve been involved in any kind of remodeling then you already know
that you are at the mercy of someone else’s schedule, and that’s
why the old saying is that remodeling always takes twice as long as you planned.
All sub-contractors try to fill up their schedules at the beginning of the season,
but as the time progresses things change and with that change comes a domino
effect. If the wrong pipe got ordered for your project then the plumbers will
be at someone else’s job today until the right part comes in. And so
it goes all the way down the line.
As the summer progressed into fall we realized that we needed
to adjust our plans and stay in this location until the end of
September when our lease expired.
Since so many people asked us when we were moving we felt the need to print
the dates of the move and when and how members could help. We printed
those dates
in the newsletter, in the store and in the local paper.
However, in
the middle of September the new tenants for this location (Safari
Pearl, Eclectica, and Urbana) came by to offer
us the option of staying here
two more weeks. As we took stock of the new store we realized that we really
did need those extra weeks to get a few more things accomplished before relocating.
We took them up on their generous offer and quickly reprinted our schedule
of closure and re-opening. At this moment I suspect that we followed
that plan as
best we could, but I’m getting cold feet about projecting the future
after having to change my plans several times. So hopefully it all worked according
to the latest (and best) plan!
In the next
few months we’ll be publishing a reconciliation of the
expenses incurred throughout the entire project but as of this
date (9/15/05) we have
spent the following amounts:
Equipment: $249,663.90
Improvements: $329,686.38
Fundraising and promotion: $11,970.06
Rent & insurance @ new store: $37,456.80
Security Deposit: $8,000
Pay off old loan: $60,765.92
Travel: $886.06
Total Spent so far: $698,429.12
I’m sure we’ll spend a little more between here and
there, but we’re still trying to keep this project on budget
even if it’s not on time!
The
Latest and Best Schedule for the Co-op Move
Saturday, October 8th: Last day for store and kitchen
Sunday, October 9th: Moving Day: sign up if
you want to help and we’ll call you with the details
Monday, October 10th: Movers come in and move equipment
Friday, October 14th: We re-open at new store!!!
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