Captain’s Log – Star Date December 2007
It has been nearly eight months since we left the comforts of the mother ship in College Yard and, despite the protestations of a number of the crew, we appear to have survived with our sanity and clients intact. There has, as expected, been the odd casualty. I believe Worcester’s High Street stores have reported a downturn in spending this summer, some are saying due to the flooding in June and July, most are blaming Rabjohns withdrawal from the city centre!
1, 2 and 3 College Yard has spent the last few months slowly evolving from a building site into a modern office environment. Now that the walls are being painted and the doors being re-hung, we are beginning to see the results of the last eight month’s toil. Of course there has been the occasional hiccup along the way - we would have expected nothing different from a project to completely refurbish a building that is over 200 years old. Walls out of true and doorways not quite square both give structural engineers and architects some interesting challenges.
Just how many tradesmen can be crammed into one building at a time? With builders, plasterers, electricians (electrical and data), plumbers, painters, carpenters and glaziers all working at the same time, it really does feel a bit like an ants nest, a job for everyone and everyone with a job. The greatest contest was to get a single sheet of double glazed and strengthened glass measuring 4m x 1m up to the top floor to be installed in the “showpiece” glazed roof. The supplier first sent four men then, on seeing the task ahead, sent eight. Our contractor removed floorboards and expanded a doorway in their attempts to manoeuvre the piece of glass into place. On the third attempt the glass reached the top floor and as it was being lifted into place, “ding”, a corner clipped the exposed steel beam and shattered into a million (no exaggeration) pieces. There was one sub-contractor who needed to wash the well placed boot mark off his trousers that night!
So, just three months to go and the return home will be complete. New offices with open plan working creating a better team working environment. We are all counting the days……
Beam me up Scotty.
