A Whole New Year

Thank goodness this year is finally over. So much happened this year, and it has definitely been a stressful and emotional ride. Work has been busy and a seemingly impossible deadline for an office remodel, plus planning a party that was to take place New Year's Eve in said office added a giant dollop of stress on top. BUT we pulled it off (mostly), and actually the one thing that was not done turned out to be a positive. We were supposed to have glass walls put in to separate the reception area and the offices/meeting rooms. They were not able to go in on time, but it was actually nice because it was open and roomy for the party and it was like a dollhouse because you could see into the rooms, and use the tables.

So after about 4 very short and busy weeks of construction, the ceiling collapsing, painting, stripping paint of of brick, new hardwood and carpet, installing electrical and light fixtures, moving around furniture, and building cubicles, we totally transformed the space. I don't have any before pictures, and we wish we would have taken progress pictures but we didn't have extra time or energy for that sort of thing. I can tell you though that it looks a million times better. It used to be dark and dingy with black carpet and black paint on the brick. And the prior tennant was a questionable "massage parlor" so that made it feel extra shady.

We got lucky with the furniture. About two weeks ago I had a mild panic attach thinking about how all this needed to get done, and THEN we needed to furnish the space. So I went on a used furniture hunt and hit the jackpot. $60 round tables, a desk that matched our current desks perfectly, nice looking side chairs that were in good shape, cubicles that we had actually looked at previously at another location and they magically found me again (the exact ones we wanted to buy a month ago but someone bought them out from under us), and a nice new desk chair for me. On another trip there to pick up some of this stuff I found the perfect conference room table in the back room of the furniture place, and we got a set of chairs to go with it. We got the reception love seat and chairs at IKEA and they are actually pretty comfortable for IKEA furniture.

So the furniture made me feel better, but there was also the cleaning and party prep that needed to get done. The contractors were finishing up the day before the party, there was still stuff all over the place and things like plate covers on outlets still needed to be put on. So we were down to the wire getting the place picked up, and it needed a deep clean real bad. The bathroom was probably the grossest bathroom I have ever cleaned, and I made that thing sparkle! I also scrubbed the kitchen floor on my hands and knees picking paint off with my fingernails, cleaned the fridge that had mold and other surprises in it, cleaned out all of the cupboards and drawers, washed all the windows, vacuumed both offices, and cleaned the other kitchen floor. Man that was a long day.

Here are some pictures of the new space:

 Sparkly clean bathroom complete with new shower curtain (yes we have a shower in our office)

 Clean kitchen getting set up for the party

 Reception area - love the exposed brick and the light fixture

 This will be my boss' office once the glass walls go in

The "dollhouse" view of the meeting rooms.

Yesterday morning we were busy with final clean-up and party prep. I had to go pick up the food and luckily that was right before the freezing rain started. As much as this party stressed me out and I didn't really want to be there for 6 hours making it another 12 hour day, it was a success. We had a pretty good turn out, people seemed to be enjoying themselves, and the bosses were pleased with the outcome of all of it. It feels SO good to have it all done, or at least mostly done. Hopefully next week I'll be moving into my new office with a window again. I have only a 4 day workweek left and then I have time off to be with my husband while he is home! 2011 is going to be a good year, I can feel it.