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For those of you that have been following this blog, you know that I have wanted to open the clinic on a holiday. Here's the run down:

Jan 1 - New Year's Day

Feb 29 - Leap Day

April 1 - April Fool's Day - this was one of my favorites because it would have been so fitting!

April 15 - Tax Day - a day to remember

April 22 - Earth Day - today (You should have seen our cardboard recycling pile curbside! We dragged the cardboard home from the clinic!)

May 1 - so many holidays...May Day, National Workers Day - but we won't make this one and still stay sane!

May 6 - the first tuesday of the month and National Crepes Suzette Day

Crepes Suzette

For any of you that know me - food is my passion so if it has to be a "pretend" holiday (I've never seen any Hallmark cards commemorating the day!) it might as well be one about food! This weekend my mom told the story of me wanting to go out for crab dinner for my 3rd birthday and then there's the one when I was 5 and worried about flying on a plane by myself because I might not be able to read the menu!

Michael and I went to dinner and had a meeting going over all of the things we had to get done to open the doors. The list is still a little daunting but there are some natural deadlines that make it easier to organize.  You may ask how Michael and I had time to go out and eat! Well, thankfully we had the floors refinished this afternoon and so we can't walk on them until tomorrow. No more hard labor today - but you can bet we'll be in there tomorrow.

Thank you all for hanging in there. We will get our doors open soon. I can't wait for you to see the place in person. It's really looking more and more amazing everyday! 

It was a mad flurry of activity this weekend! We've gotten a lot more done and it feels like there's still so much to do! I feel a little guilty sitting here writing this. I put on normal clothes this morning to remind myself that I'm a real person instead of my grungy painting/working overalls. I know you guys are as excited as I am to see our progress, so it's all in the name of the common good right? Thanks for helping me out here!

Mom and Dad painting

So my parents flew in from Los Angeles for their second go around at clinic tasks. Of course we had them painting but that wasn't all! There were doors to be stained, cabinets to be hung and handles to be put on (my dad wants the breakroom named after him!), clean up and cardboard to be broken down, switch plates to be put on and kennels to be moved -that was a feat! My mom and I even laid down the baseboards in the kennel areas. I also ran over to Fabric Depot with my mom, mother in law, Barb and Katie, our veterinary nurse to pick out fabric for the reception counter and found the perfect one! I am so lucky to have a mom that sews and she took the fabric back with her today to make the curtain (oh yeah, she's making the exam blankets too!)

It wasn't only my parents that were there helping out! Michael's parents just moved into town to their new house in Vancouver, WA and in the midst of their unpacking and organizing their lives they put in hours to help at the clinic.  Barb and Jim are expert painters and they painted a couple of the rooms and primered like crazy at out painting party. This weekend they were helping breakdown cardboard for recycling, staining doors and Barb had the unrewarding task of painting the concrete that runs under the brick - it's a tough job and it's slow going and she did a great job!

Kristin with Dr. Jackie Nielsen at the FCCO fundraiser (aka furball)

Thank you all for checking in and for being so supportive. Gotta go change into the overalls and get my booty back to work!

It was a pretty exciting long weekend for us, with a lot happening. Our lab equipment was delivered and installed, our digital radiography system was installed along with the dental xray system, and the electricians hung the ceiling fans and light fixtures. Then on Saturday, we painted like mad, and then hung out drinking and eating pizza afterwards. Thanks VERY MUCH to everyone who came out to help us paint, we were really seriously relieved to have gotten so much done in one afternoon. And thanks to everyone who stopped by to hang out, have a few drinks, and check out the clinic - it was really nice to see everyone there!

Omar setting up our lab equipment	Electricians installed the ceiling fans
light fixtures from Schoolhouse Electric	Paint and maple doors

Digital radiography system installed, and working! This is our test shot of Katie's dog Frida who was kind enough to pose for us

Dad	Mom
Lia	Barb
Ben	Katie

Hopefully tomorrow we'll actually be flipping light switches in the space, turning on our lights! Kristin and I put bulbs in them all today, and the electricians have been finishing everything up quickly - things are moving fast!

Sheetrock, taping, and wall finishing are proceeding smoothly (heh heh, smoothly) and it's starting to look like a real place. The doors are going up too! We'll be painting a few key areas over the next few days so we can be ready for our digital radiography machine on Thursday, and our lab equipment which is also coming on Thursday.

We'll keep you posted - until next time, here's some pictures...

view down the hall from the front	comfort room doorway and window

treatment area with the wet tables in place

Humabuilt doors, ready to be hung. These doors have a thin veneer of maple, but 85% of the volume of the door comes from wheat stalks, so it's annually renewable

Wow it's been over two weeks since my last construction update - sorry about the delay. Let's get down to business...

Week 5 (3/17 - DONE)
The majority of the rough electrical was completed this week, and work continued on the pressure piping for Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Vacuum systems.

Week 6 (3/24 - DONE)
Okay, well - the original plan was to be done with drywall by the end of this week, but in fact by the end of the week it hadn't even started. So, we're now officially 1 week (or slightly more) behind. However, this week we *did* get everything else completed:

• Rough Electrical: Completed, and approved to cover up
• Rough Plumbing: Completed, and approved to cover up
• Network Cables: Completed, approved to cover
• Medical Gas System: Inspected and approved, still pending some extra paperwork and permitting. I had to work HARD to find someone at the city who wanted to look at this system. Nobody thought it was their turf, yet everyone figured someone wanted to look at it. Eventually I found "Special Hazards Inspector" Bob Happle who works for the Fire Marshall, and he was excellent. He came by, inspected the system, told me how to file the permit (which will land on his desk) and gave us the okay. So, despite my previous bitching about the city, there have been quite a few good people to work with there, and Bob is certainly one of the best so far!
• HVAC Venting and Gas Line: Completed, and approved to cover - this included a vent through the roof for the dryer, the water heater, the bathroom vent, and the medgas evacuation system.

So, with all those subtasks completed and all the approvals lined up neatly... we're ready to SHEETROCK!

We also had the "Wash 'n Roll" truck come by to groom DeeDee - it's a cool RV turned into a mobile grooming service. They did an excellent job, and they were very good with DeeDee!

BEFORE	AFTER

Week 7 (3/31 - THIS WEEK): Derek, the contractor doing the framing and sheetrock, had a hard time finding guys to do sheetrock this week - everyone was working on other projects. So Monday and Tuesday went a little slower than expected, although he got some leftover framing tasks completed, which was good. But Wednesday he found a crew of 4 guys who came in and sheetrocked ALL of the main walls and ceilings in 1 day! Wednesday night it looked like there had been an explosion in there, what a freaking mess - my tidy and orderly job site had been ruined, but at least the sheetrock was up!

So the rest of the week the drywall guys are taping and mudding, and derek is hanging doors and window frames. It's starting to look really different in there. I'll hold off on sending sheetrock pics until they get the joints taped and sanded, it looks pretty ugly in there at the moment.

Week 8 (4/7): The plan next week will be for us to paint a few critical areas in the evenings like the bathroom, breakroom and the lab area, so we can hang the cabinets and countertops, and the plumber can get in and do his finish work (hooking up sinks and wet tables). Hopefully we can also get the electricians started on some of the finish work up on the ceiling (pendant lights and fans). Then, next weekend, we'll be painting like mad.

Week 9 (4/14): Now the electricians can really come in and finish up. We'll also be bringing in a lot of equipment, and getting the floors cleaned and re-finished with a couple final coats of sealer. Then, towards the end of the week, we'll start setting up equipment, bringing in furniture, touching up paint, and putting down carpet tiles.

So, technically if all goes as planned, we could still *possible* open on Earth Day (4/22), but it seems unlikely that we'll be able to get all of that together by then. So, the next holiday to shoot for would be May Day (5/1) which is either "Loyalty Day", "International Workers' Day", or some pagany druid thing, or a day where you put flowers in baskets, or something - I don't get it, it's sort of a strange multi-purpose-holiday with a lot of functions all trying to stack up on that one day, but they may need to make room for one more... MTVC Grand Opening Day!

DeeDee feels much lighter on her paws since her haircut

Belmont Sunset, after that crazy day of hail, snow, sun, and rain - btw, "Belmont Sunset" would be a good name for a drink, something with carrot juice in it maybe, and tequila... not sure yet. I'll work on it.