Reception area before

One of the advantages to closing the office between Christmas and New Years is I can do things like have the office painted without disrupting and displacing staff.  The disadvantage is I don't get much of a Christmas break.  The last time the office was painted was 1995 when we remodeled and moved into the downstairs after the symphony moved out. To save money, Bob and I varnished all the oak, and Dolores, Bob, and few other staff members and I did the painting. Twenty years later, Bob is retired, and the rest of us are older and tired, so I hired professional painters.

Tristan and I were at the office at 7:00 am Tuesday morning and started boxing staff's stuff, moving computers and taking out built-in desktops. The painters arrived at 7:30 and started prepping for painting behind us as we emptied each space. We got everything taken down and the walls opened up so the painters could paint by around noon.  To add to the excitement, the plumbers came in to do a smoke test to see if any of the sewer or vent pipes in the building were cracked, causing the sewer smell in one of our offices. The smoke test took up the afternoon because they pulled the toilets and plugged all the drains. We didn't get smoke coming out of any strange places, but the building smelled like smoke from the breeze blowing the smoke they were blowing out the back door back inside. We believe the sewer smell is originating from the building next door, but we still need to do more testing on our sewer lines.

Wednesday, I worked on project work between answering the painters' questions and moving some things around for them. Since the painters didn't have to move much stuff, and had clear spaces close to the walls, they completed the painting in two days instead of three days they had originally estimated; therefore, Tristan and I spent Thursday cleaning up work areas, building the desks back in, setting up computers and monitors, moving staff's stuff back to their spaces, and putting the conference room back together. We left a lot of old equipment out so we can sort through it and see what we can recycle. We have lots and lots of old stuff in the office.

Since the painters finished a day early, at least I get to take Friday off so I will have a four day weekend before everyone is back at the office to start the new year.

Newly painted reception area.

Cubicles and hallway before.

Conference room, cubicles and hallway with new paint.

Cubicles waiting to be painted.

Cubicles with fresh paint, desktops rebuilt and computers back in place.

Cubicles, hall and outside walls of offices before.

Cubicles and offices with fresh paint on the outside walls.

Back area ready to paint.

Four color scheme seen all together in the back area.

Another view of the back area before.

The back area after.