I never thought I would be posting a “building update” in February, but here it is! Our original date for moving into the new building was last fall, just prior to the Feast of Tabernacles or just afterward. No one thought we would still be in our current office in Allen into the new year.
But the end is in sight! We have good assurance from the builder that he will finish by Feb. 19. After that it will depend on the city of McKinney to issue the final occupancy certificate (OC) or at least a temporary occupancy certificate (TOC). We have another three weeks to go and that should be enough to get everything done. We unfortunately had to pay rent for another month (February) for our Allen office. But because of all the delays, our builder has agreed to help with some of the cost for the additional month.
I visited the building site today (Thursday, Jan. 31) and was very pleased to see the progress since my last visit. I try not to go by every day, although it is tempting to do so. Going by each week gives me a better perspective on what has been done. In the past few days, carpet has been installed, and about 75 percent of the wood paneling is complete. All the tile has been installed in the four bathrooms. We still need to install the vinyl flooring for the two break rooms. The framing for the canopy in the back has been installed, and the canopy itself should be finished by Monday, Feb. 4. Additional canopies have been installed over the windows on the west side of the property.
Most of the trees have been planted, and sod has been installed around the building and grass seed has been sown on the rest of the property. Originally we asked for only minimal landscaping since we were unsure where we would be moneywise as we got to the end of the project. I am happy to report that in spite of the additional costs (some at our request and others because of city requirements) and difficulties along the way, it looks as though we will have money left in our budget to add more landscaping and to do additional work on the studio.
We have contracted with a moving company to move our furniture from Allen to McKinney on Monday, Feb. 25. Our last day of work in the “old” place in Allen will be Friday, Feb. 22. Our plan is to move all the technical equipment—computers, servers, etc. on Saturday night and Sunday (Feb. 23 and 24). Then everything else will be moved on Monday. When the furniture arrives, we should have all our computers, servers and other equipment up and running. So, there should be very little downtime. Also, we were able to contract with a moving company for several thousand dollars less than we originally budgeted. In spite of the frustration with this process, we are seeing several remarkable things occurring here at the very end.
Interestingly, we moved into the Allen office on Tuesday, March 6, 2012. A little over a month from now we will celebrate our seventh anniversary in the Dallas area. I am happy to report that it appears (barring any further delays) that by March 6, 2019, we will be a full week into our new office! All of this is quite amazing, but the credit goes to God our Father, who has made all this possible!
Thank you for all your support. Please enjoy the video that accompanies this message. It won’t be long until we will be reporting from our new address: 3701 Medical Center Drive, McKinney, TX 75069.