Well, it was another one of those late nights at the clinic. (Yes, the post is right 1:05 AM!) The kind of late night where I forget to eat dinner and have to bargain with the poodle for a few extra minutes (over and over again). Luckily, she is very resiliant and will nap for long periods of time before she asks to go home again.

This time it was a marathon painting session of the back room where our dog kennels, oxygen and nitrogen, server room and general storage are. It's a small enough room to make it fun. The stakes are also pretty low since it's storage but it is a part of the hospital we spend some time in so I wanted it to look nice and finished. My friend Cheryl Janis (interior decorator, feng shui consultant and Editor in Chief of Planet Pink n Green) came to the clinic on Friday for a decorating help session. She already helped pick the colors and the furniture and consulted with us on the design of the clinic and it was great to have her over for some finishing touches. She single handedly rearranged the living room (waiting area) furniture and, using everything I had already placed in the room,  made the room so much more inviting - amazing! We walked through the clinic taking notes on what the space could use when we came to the back area (which I just wanted to wave my hand at and move on to the good stuff but she lingered). Cheryl asked questions about how we were planning to use the space. She talked about the Feng Shui areas of fame and relationship/love which are combined in our back space and offered suggestions for decorating and making it a vibrant space. Number one - finish the space.

Hence the marathon painting session. I finished most of the room in Devine Almond to match the Digital Radiography Suite. Cheryl explained that pink is a great color to use in the love/relationship area of a space but I was bound and determined to use only the colors I had on hand. My first thought was to to use the Aura Wisteria which is a lavender color - close enough to pink, right? When I was looking for the Wisteria, I remembered the Devine Peaches and Beans that we used in the bathroom! Perfect - that color is so happy and it really brightened up the space and peach is definitely close to pink! I painted it on the main wall in the back and then decided to use it for Mr. Oxygen and Mrs. Nitrogen's house (see Michael's earlier post on requirements for passing final inspection!). The floor in that room and the DR Suite is black and we decided to paint the ceiling black to match. Oooooh, the Peaches and Beans looks so awesome with the black!

Black paint freckles!

I had already painted the DR ceiling on friday (that was quite an adventure!) First of all, I didn't bring a hat and was a little worried about getting black paint in my hair. But, being ever resourceful, I grabbed a surgical bouffant cap and wore it for protection - perfect. Then I encountered another snag when I started to warm up with all of that overhead work I was doing. I was wearing my usual painting clothes except I had a nice t shirt on under my painting fleece. I was getting hot and wanted to take the fleece off but I didn't want paint on my t shirt. Picture this: me in my paint splattered overalls, stripped down to my camisole, and wearing a bouffant surgical cap. Thank goodness there were no cameras present. I did the same cap trick tonight but this time I remembered to wear the paint splattered t shirt. I did take some self portraits for this post (sans surgical cap) for your entertainment. Michael is out of town and would have done a much better job at capturing the black splatters on my face but these will have to do. 

Painting overalls, painting shoes and messy hand

I've been getting a lot of requests lately for more pictures of the clinic. We'll get there, I promise but there are still some finishing touches to add before it's photo ready. Michael's photographs do capture the space well but it's nothing like seeing it in person. So we'd like to invite you come by and tour the new clinic! Saturday June 14th is our big Open House. From 3pm-6pm is the general public open house and from 6pm-8pm is the private veterinary industry open house. I hope you all can come and check out the hard work you've been reading about - I know you're curious! It will be a lot of fun!

 

Carpet gives the room a warm feel

When I was first talking to people about my vision for the practice whenever I mentioned that I was using carpet as my flooring, I got a lot of "you'll be sorries", rolled eyes and just plain crazy looks. I had never seen a clinic with carpet before but then again, I wasn't going for anything that I had seen before. I wanted a comfortable space for pets and people and carpet adds an extra layer of comfort. Dogs are so much more stable on carpet and it really gives a warmer feeling to the rooms. The carpet I picked is a beautiful leaf pattern in brown called "All About Me" by Mannington carpets. They are carpet tiles and are really durable. You can even bleach them! Josh over at Floor Solutions helped us pick out the right carpet, got me samples in all of the colors I wanted to check out and finally helped with my order. He's been great!

Sam feeling much better

Once we put the carpet tiles in the rooms looked amazing. These tiles go on with an adhesive that holds the tiles in place but allows you to remove individual tiles for cleaning - a feauture I figured would come in handy and well, it did! This past week we saw a sick puppy named Sam. Sam had been having diarrhea and not feeling well. Turns out his diagnosis was Giardia which can cause some pretty yucky diarrhea. Sam had some diarrhea on the way in out at the curb and we were making arrangements to go collect the sample when all of a sudden poor Sam just had to go! He picked a centrally located carpet tile and deficated. It was soft and stinky and there was even blood in it. Well, we got our fresh sample and I proceeded to pull up the carpet tile, replace it with a clean one and rinse off the dirty one. It worked like a charm and Sam was nice enough to keep it isolated to one square.

Me cleaning the carpet tile - it's so easy!

Thank you Sam for testing out our carpet and we are so happy to hear that you are feeling better!

 

 

yeehah!!!

We had a minor complication with the inspector today involving something the Fire Marshall already signed off on, then he sort of shrugged it off, and said "want me to sign the final on this?" - do you think anyone ever answers that question in any other way than a booming and emphatic YES?!?! That's what I did anyway, so he signed it, wished us luck, and disappeared. So, as of 3pm today, we were officially OPEN FOR BUSINESS!

We can barely use the phone system, the software's not ready, the shelves are empty, the credit card processing machine just showed up this morning, we still need to put up the door trim and baseboards. But the phones have been ringing - lots of existing clients, and even a couple new ones already. We've got six appointments scheduled for tomorrow already, and a few surgeries on Friday! So, despite having a lot to do still, we're open, and we already have a little momentum, which feels great!

Sorry this didn't get posted until so late, I know some of you were dying to know how it turned out - but we're just getting home now, and I still need to rig up some temporary patch so we can produce statements for clients tomorrow when we charge them. So I've got to get back to work, just thought we'd share the news.

CLICK HERE for a nice big image of our completed inspection card :)

 

I can't believe our last update was on the 1st of March!

Well, we've been really busy with the clinic and have lots of updates. Michael has been coordinating up a storm and putting hard hours of physical labor into the job - framing, putting in lights, hanging cable trays, and laying out where everything goes. 

Me and Mom at Clyde Commons enjoying Popcorn and Champagne for Happy Hour

This past weekend my parents came up from Los Angeles to spend the weekend with us and celebrate my birthday. We had a great visit and roped them into helping at the clinic - birthdays are great for that! My dad helped Michael with framing and when my mom and I arrived with painting supplies we all set to work on priming part of the big wall - prepping for casework installation. That wall is high! But my dad did enjoy riding the scissor lift up and down after Michael strategically placed it between the truss and ductwork, without hitting the plumbing stubs! Man, can he drive that lift!

Me standing by the primered wall in the treatment room

As far as schedule goes, things are looking great! Michael is coordinating all of the subs to their maximum potential and to their credit, the subs are working hard and getting things done on time or ahead of schedule!

Michael's prediction

Week 3: Rough plumbing complete. Rough framing complete. Storage space electrical installed.

Week 4: HVAC registers installed, returns and supplies dropped into rooms with ceilings. HVAC venting installed (dryer vent, gas waterheater vent, medgas vent, bathroom exhaust vent). Pressure piping for oxygen and nitrogen installed. Medical waste gas system installed.

Michael framing

So far, half way into Week 4, we have rough framing completed, storage space electrical installed, oxygen and nitrogen outlets installed, pressure piping for oxygen and nitrogen half way finished, medical waste gas system installed, the HVAC guys are in there today working on the vents and the electricians started installing the electrical work in the stud walls yesterday (that's a week 5 goal!). Extras include framing in the display shelf by the front door, framing the reception counter - Michael is hoping to finish that today, hanging cable trays - Michael finished that yesterday for the pressure piping to rest on - it looks really cool, primer started on the big wall - mom, dad and myself worked on that and I'm going back in tonight to continue, all silver straps on the ceiling painted to camouflage their existence - I finished this on sunday - what a huge job but it looks great, and can lights and bathroom vent installed - Michael's expertise once again.

We also had an electrical inspection of the back space (where radiology is located) yesterday, so the landlord can finish the ceiling - yay we passed. Next is the rough framing inspection and then the electrical inspection, once the electricians finish, and then the dry wall can go up! Once the dry wall is up we'll be calling the painting team back up from California for another session.

 

“Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow - that is patience.”

 

Not much to report on the space, sadly. No doors yet although we have heard a rumor that they are on order and should be on soon. I do like the idea of soon. The concrete has been cut for the scale and for the pipe to run the toilet. They now have to place the pipe and fill in some concrete and then our concrete grinder can come in and work on the floors. (Luckily we don't need possession of the space to get that started - yay!)

Me with my head through the HVAC hole into our space

Close up of the garage door

The sink for the hall arrived the other day - it's a beautiful red textured glass vessel bowl for me to wash my hands in between appointments. The waiting room furniture is in and waiting for delivery. I have purchased the exam room furniture. (Mango wood - how weird is that?) This week we also ordered the interior doors for the space – they are beautiful wheat core doors from Humabuilt. The lights from Schoolhouse Electric are in and waiting for delivery. A bank of kennels has shipped and is in storage waiting for delivery and I've gotten calls from various equipment companies wondering when they can ship. And then of course there's the lovely digital radiography unit that's waiting for delivery and set up date - definitely need electricity for that one! I have the autoclave and duel flush toilet in the garage and various pieces of equipment being stored in the attic. It is a bit like a holiday with packages arriving daily.

Oh yeah, I put together my surgical packs that arrived - they are really cool! I have played with my dental kits and watched the DVDs they came with too. I’m keeping busy and secretly hoping for keys.

Still waiting….  

 

 

Wow! This has been MY busiest week ever - lots of stuff happening although still no keys in my hands.

Monday - Michael and I went over to the space to meet an HVAC contractor to get a bid. The apron is poured and finished. The workers were putting up the garage door for the space on the end and it looks really cool. (They were planning on having ours on by the end of the week). Michael was meeting with people and getting lots of bids throughout the week and hoping to have those ducks in a row by next week. I've been also getting a lot of encouraging emails from previous clients - it's been great. I really enjoy catching up with people and filling them in on the latest.

Opal's chandelier - look familiar?

One client, Judy and I were emailing back and forth reminiscing about her dog Opal that she lost at 17! I loved Opal - she was such a special old lady and just had so much charm. She always came in with fancy collars and she was the real lady of the family. I told Judy that Opal would have loved my clinic. She would have especially loved the chandelier that's going in the waiting room. Well, Judy checked out the blog and saw the picture of me holding the chandelier and emailed me a picture of the chandelier she and Opal picked out for their room. She told me that Opal used to love to lay on her back and stare at it - it's the same chandelier! 

 

Male Bufflehead

Tuesday - A beautiful day - cold but not raining and the sun was out. If you stood in one place the sun actually felt warm. I couldn't miss out on the opportunity so DeeDee and I walked up to Mt. Tabor for exercise and inspiration. I called it work because I was thinking about the clinic. I must secretly tell you guys that I love walking up to Mt. Tabor and seeing all of the people with their dogs. I watch them all and imagine them as my clients and patients! We had a really nice walk around the lower reservoir where I always like to check out what birds are in there. We saw a lone seagull hanging out on the water and a few Buffleheads. Buffleheads are the cutest waterfowl - they're small and striking and so fun the way they disappear under the water and pop up again. I also saw a couple of crows at the edge of the water enjoying a bath. No mallards this time. We came across a couple of robins on the lawn hunting for worms and a small flock of juncos speeding around. There were lots of people out enjoying walks with their dogs or kids (or both), runners getting exercise, an older couple holding hands and an occasional bicyclist and Parks and Rec. worker. The view of the city from the top reservoir was great - so sparkly in the sun! I love Mt. Tabor Park - to me it represents community and that's one important reason we named the clinic after it.

Wednesday - Shopping - but not the fun kind. I went looking at ceiling fans for the clinic -didn't find anything perfect...yet. Also went out looking for furniture for the exam rooms. I had found the perfect pieces at Denali in SE Portland but they are moving warehouses and won't get the orders in until March. Being an optimist, I am hoping that March would be way too late. I went quite a few places on the West side of town and found some really nice peices and a place that even customizes but it's pretty expensive. I'll continue the search next week. While I was on that side of town I stopped by Murrayhill to say hi and pick up some dog cookies for DeeDee. It was so nice to see everyone. My going away party is scheduled for next Sunday.

 

Marley - MTVC First Official Patient

Thursday - Worked relief at Rose City Veterinary Hospital. What a crazy day but so nice to be back in practice. The hospital is beautiful. They remodeled last year and it was a beautiful facility to work in. The clients were great. So nice to see people from the neighborhood. And the staff were so nice to help me out. I didn't know where anything was or how to work within their system and they were patient and good humored about it. I have a few more relief days scheduled there. After work I went on my first housecall. I had it planned earlier in the week and when the owner of Rose City called to say he hurt his back and wondered if I could cover for him - I was happy to. But I still wanted to do my one and only housecall. So after work I stopped by to see one of my favorite patients, Marley. She has a growth that is getting larger and her mom was really worried. I examined Marley - felt the large lump and did a fine needle biopsy of the mass. Turns out it is a benign lipoma - yay! Officially, Marley is the first patient to be seen at MTVC!

View of the space with the garage door on

Friday - another relief day - this time for Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon. I examined 20 cats and helped spay and neuter them. It was so much fun. I examined the cats in the bathroom of the warehouse. These cats are owned and fall under the "pre-feral" category and were done through the Cat Nip Program in conjunction with Multnomah County. It was fun to examine these nice owned cats - usually at FCCO all of the cats are feral and can't be touched! A lot of them were young and they were nervous but it was nice and quiet in the bathroom and Wilma (who was helping me) is very skilled at keeping cats calm and handling them if they are not. Once the exams were done I was on the truck and scrubbing in. I worked with Dr. Hale who is an expert spay/neuter surgeon and it's always a good time when we work together in the surgery suite. On the way home I drove by the clinic and found that the garage door is on! But the regular door is not yet. Rumor has it that those go on early next week. Michael says they finished the dividing wall so the space is looking more complete! Before we take full delivery of the space we need to have the HVAC to the space in working order and they're on that too, so hopefully soon! We should be ready to get in and get building as soon as we take delivery of the space!

I'll keep you posted and promise more pictures of the space soon. 

  

Well...it's done. The permitting is complete. Michael used his architectural and business skills and spent many hours (about 18 hours total) at the City showing them the plans, making corrections, and going from department to department to get signed off. There were some scary steps along the way. We thought we were going to have to pay an extra $6,000 in system development charges for transportation but it turns out after persistent conversation with the City that we could be exempted entirely since we would not be impacting traffic more than 15%. Hurray for us!

There's nothing sweeter than approved plans!

 The stories abound - Michael can share some those if he'd like. They were terribly amusing but since the City will still have to come and inspect the building- perhaps those are better kept until after we're done.

Ok so we still don't have keys to our space (Yes, I am well aware that the 1st of December has passed) because there are no doors to the space yet. In fact, despite the last 3 days of no rain the concrete has not been poured in the front. You remember the concrete, don't you? Remember...the slope in the front of our space...one of those hiccups? Anyway, if I sound cynical it's only because I am so excited to get in there and get moving!

On the upside, they are almost done with the wall between our space and the one next door (which will hopefully house a bakery) and they have cut the door to our back space where radiology will be. 

That truck sure makes the space look small

We have scheduled the arrival of our Fovea Digital Radiology Unit for the end of January and I have ordered furniture for the waiting area. We picked out this awesome dental unit from iM3 - they are so cool and they have an office in Vancouver, WA. I've ordered our Bair Hugger patient warmer and my technician and I are researching fluid pumps. We have ordered scrubs and labcoats to try on. And are in process of getting notecards and our new client gift (tote bags) made! I've worked with our interior designer, Cheryl Janis to pick out colors and can't wait to paint them on the walls (when we have them!). Michael will be purchasing our light fixtures from Schoolhouse Electric this week. And there is still lots of work to do but now we're getting into some of the fun stuff.

Michael heads to the space tomorrow so keep your eye out for more pictures.

Yesterday I went out chandelier shopping with my friend Laura (realtor by trade, professional shopper by choice with a veterinary past). She and I braved the downpour and winds to hit a couple choice lighting establishments. All had wonderful pieces but, as both Laura and I agreed, we have very expensive taste! Some were really cute but too small for the space and some were perfect but too far outside my budget.

Me holding the chandelier

We finally got to our last stop, Hippo Hardware. If you don’t know Hippo – it’s a 3-story building filled with things you need for your older Portland home – doorknobs, registers, bathtubs, chandeliers, and so much more. They had some great choices and I noticed one I particularly loved off by itself. A very nice gentleman came over to be sure we weren’t parked on the street – weekday evening limits were coming up – and since we weren’t we snagged him and asked some prices. Sadly he informed me that my chandelier was way outside my price range. He then informed us that he was the owner and we chatted. He gave me some heartfelt advice on business ownership, entertained Laura and I for awhile, and then found someone who really knew prices. We were told the chandelier was $950 less than what we had originally been quoted!! Turns out the “crystals” were plastic. I did not love it any less and I brought it home in the back of Laura’s car with her making very careful turns and us giggling every time it made clinking noises.

Of course I hadn’t seen it lit up and wasn’t sure it even worked but everyone at Hippo was so nice and assured me if I kept my receipt I could return it. That night Michael braved the rain to buy a plug-in cord to see if it lit up (I think he was secretly hoping it wouldn’t – not a fan of chandeliers). He wired it and plugged it in and it was beautiful! To me it looks like a pineapple – the symbol of hospitality and I think it will look perfect in the waiting area of the practice – I can’t wait to see it hung!

Hiccups – bumps in the road of a perfectly laid plan. The latest, after weeks and weeks of Michael working on the plans and finishing the drawings this weekend (with an awesome rendering of the front space) today we find out the owner of the building is putting a 3 ft. entry way into our space. This, in our current plan would make our clients shimmy past the front desk into the space – terribly amusing for Candid Camera but not nice for clients. So, it’s literally back to the drawing board.

 Does holding your breath help?

Cool rendering of the front of the space.

Before that there was the issue of where to put the scale. We originally settled for it being a few feet inside the front door – recessed in the floor and covered with a rug (this plan would now put it in the entry – outside the hospital door!).  One day when I was visiting the space to look at colors with our interior designer, I heard the guys talking about cutting the concrete in the front of the space. I casually mentioned this to Michael who then found out that they are putting in a 1:12 inch slope in the first 8 feet of our space. Can’t weigh animals on a slope – scales don’t work that way. Luckily we have relocated the scale (because of the slope issue!) so the new door issue does not affect it directly but there are a host of new issues like where to arrange things around this new door location…sigh.

Scaring us is not working – we’ve been pretty frightened and the hiccups persist.

I have our kennels on order – I was originally told the only ship date was mid February but then got a small bank of kennels to be shipped earlier – whew – hiccup averted. Then I get a call from Michael today and he tells me the kennel dimensions for isolation are too big and we need to shrink them!! Yikes – I had to sign off on all kinds of papers to get those ordered and verify the order was correct. Luckily Paul at Snyder Manufacturing was great and so helpful – no problem. 

Does eating a spoonful of sugar help?

There was the hiccup with the code for usage in our backspace that I already mentioned – another worry, another headache. Some research and expert letter writing on Michael’s part got us our variance for that space – whew. 

Has anyone tried drinking backwards?

I am so sure there are more hiccups in our future – if anyone has any cure all remedies, I’d love to hear them. Even if we could shorten the severity I’d take it. For now I’ll take some deep breaths….

I know you all have been dying to hear and see more about the space. So, drumroll please… I have pictures for you today. The space is in a beautiful old building built in 1924 and was used as an auto repair shop - so it was a large open space with room to move cars around. The trusses and the ceiling are cedar and when they were being sandblasted we discovered that the block wall that runs the length of our space was beautiful clay block underneath the white paint. So for our first improvement of the space we had the entire wall sandblasted to bring out the original color of the block. (By the way, does anyone know what these blocks are called? They have 7 “stripes” on their face.)

the wall before...	and after sandblasting!

A quick tour: the entire length of the block wall to the back of the building is our space (including behind the existing plywood wall). The pipes sticking out of the floor are where our other wall will be. The back area behind the plywood wall is where our radiology area will be along with our larger dog kennels (when we need them, we actually plan on keeping our patients in the treatment room with us) and some storage space. The hallway through the building will be underneath the skylights - it will be great to have some natural lighting in the practice. The other great feature, which isn’t done yet, is the front of the space, which will have a large glass roll up garage door to let extra light into the reception/waiting area.

The building remodel is on time and should be ready December 1st for us to get in and start our buildout. I’ll keep you posted with more pictures as we progress!