Office Improvements

As we get ready to open for business, we know we need certain things in the office, and one of those is a reception area where we can great staff and clients when they visit.

Here's where our new reception area will be!

At the same time, we realized that the former “storage room” at the Hermit Haus wasn’t really anything more than a pony wall with some thin plywood over it, so we brought three manly friends in, and they made it go away. They all got to use power tools, too, which adds to the fun.

This will make a bright and cheerful reception area when we're done!

The day was uncharacteristically mild for August, so with a bunch of box fans, the basement wasn’t swelteringly hot. Part of the reason for doing this tear-down now is to prepare for our new basement heating and air conditioning system, which will be installed next weekend, we hope.

The guys finally got rid of the giant silver hunk of old A/C ductwork that was in the kitchen/back entry, too. That leaves a blank slate for our contractor, Felix, and his HVAC team to work on.

There’s still a lot of ceiling to be removed before next weekend, but the team had to stop once the dumpster got filled with debris. They’ll resume next Friday.

We will be putting in new flooring, so will have to live with this for a while.

When the room was all cleaned up, everyone was amazed at how much lighter and more spacious the basement appears. It helps that a light fixture was revealed (the kind that used to be in the whole basement).

The plan is to put the reception area for Hearts, Homes and Hands in the space where the room was, but to leave some of it open for a nicer atmosphere. We also plan to bring a couch into the reception area to replace the futon, which has served us (and the previous owner) well, but may need a new home.

We won’t be able to replace the flooring until we do the office remodeling, but I’m sure we can make it look okay until then. We do have rugs!

We are so excited about the improvements! More to come!