Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Mojo and Buddy
Monday, September 20, 2010
The Power of a Decorated Fleet!
First was Amy J, who found us having a bite to eat outside Panera in Redmond. She recognized us by the two dogs at our feet. She'd spotted the car parked a few yards away, and was excited to read about a nearby Doggy Daycare. She has a large Labradoodle who needs some social time. I'm hoping we'll see him at our Grand Opening.
An hour later, in Overlake, we met Diane. She was parked next to us, and when we emerged from the shop, she asked about Scampers location. It seems her Mojo needs a place like Scampers for the occasional half-day while Diane plays MahJong.
Way to go, Karen of Stripe Graphics, and Joel and the team at Olympic Reprographics - Thanks for doing such a great job!
And Diane and Amy, we look forward to seeing you again soon.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Flooring Woes (Whoa's?)
Oh, Dear! Oh, Woe is Scampers new floor. Scampers new floor is Whoa'd.
When Stina found that gorgeous Black with 17% Lipstick Red Fleck recycled rubber flooring, we were thrilled! To bits!
5000 square feet of recycled rubber flooring is a rather large order, so we were not too concerned to learn that the order had been split between two separate factories, having been reassured that the colors would be a perfect match.
When Tran arrived and rolled nine massive rolls of 50' long rubber off the back of the truck into our loading bay, I was excited, if a little frightened - for Tran as well as for our new rubber. When the second fellow arrived the next day with two pallets, each with 16 rolls of 25' long rubber, something seemed a little off. But! The boys were going to come and install them on Sunday. Yippee!
12 hours of work by two hard-working men, who installed flooring into the hardest most complicated corners, followed by 12 hours of work by two hard-working old broads, who wrestled with the stickiest blackest goo you can imagine to seal the seams, and what do we discover? One guess! The two factories sent us floor of two different thicknesses! We almost had a 1/8" step in our floors!
And not only that, of the 32 rolls of the wrong stuff, which is the first stuff we'd used, 11 were completely unusable because their edges so badly ruffled they looked like they could be made into flamenco costumes.
Well, this morning, the first call Stina made was to the rubber flooring company. They're going to make it right. Well, I know they will, but will they reinstall the new shipment? Will they do the caulking? Oh, I sure hope so, because we are truly tuckered out now and can't even imagine ripping this floor up starting all over again.
When Stina found that gorgeous Black with 17% Lipstick Red Fleck recycled rubber flooring, we were thrilled! To bits!
5000 square feet of recycled rubber flooring is a rather large order, so we were not too concerned to learn that the order had been split between two separate factories, having been reassured that the colors would be a perfect match.
When Tran arrived and rolled nine massive rolls of 50' long rubber off the back of the truck into our loading bay, I was excited, if a little frightened - for Tran as well as for our new rubber. When the second fellow arrived the next day with two pallets, each with 16 rolls of 25' long rubber, something seemed a little off. But! The boys were going to come and install them on Sunday. Yippee!
12 hours of work by two hard-working men, who installed flooring into the hardest most complicated corners, followed by 12 hours of work by two hard-working old broads, who wrestled with the stickiest blackest goo you can imagine to seal the seams, and what do we discover? One guess! The two factories sent us floor of two different thicknesses! We almost had a 1/8" step in our floors!
 |
| 1/4 Inch - Not right |
 |
| 3/8" - The Right Stuff |
And not only that, of the 32 rolls of the wrong stuff, which is the first stuff we'd used, 11 were completely unusable because their edges so badly ruffled they looked like they could be made into flamenco costumes. |
| Rosie and Biscuit like it. We're a little less happy with it. |
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Flooring Underway!
Okay - once the flooring arrived (it came in two instalments from two different suppliers arriving on two different days), we were finally able to start the installation.
Gregg and Eric got to work, and boy, it turns out that laying this stuff is really hard work.
Gregg and Eric got to work, and boy, it turns out that laying this stuff is really hard work.
 |
| Cutting angles and corners in dense rubber flooring, to make it fit perfectly. |
Friday, September 10, 2010
Fun Times with City Halt
As sent to Sarah:
Originally, we had planned to open this coming Monday. Actually, we had planned to have a Grand Opening Open House tonight, even, but we've run into the quagmire of the City of Kirkland. We were expecting to have a challenge with the King County Board of Health, as we are the first dog daycare to open since they rewrote their regulations on animal care and kennels, but other than a couple of rather over the top requirements (double-bag the poop?!) that we were able to handle, they've been great. On the other hand, the permitting process through the City of Kirkland has been more of a by-guess and by-golly experience for us. We've had several of our contractors exclaim that the City staffers must be using our application to keep themselves busy, as they really don't have any other new applications coming through the door while the economy has been so poor. So we're their entertainment, paying fee after fee, when we could be open, hiring tax paying citizens, and being a tax paying business... Today, we submit our revised and improved application, with every single requirement addressed and proven. Wish us luck.
Originally, we had planned to open this coming Monday. Actually, we had planned to have a Grand Opening Open House tonight, even, but we've run into the quagmire of the City of Kirkland. We were expecting to have a challenge with the King County Board of Health, as we are the first dog daycare to open since they rewrote their regulations on animal care and kennels, but other than a couple of rather over the top requirements (double-bag the poop?!) that we were able to handle, they've been great. On the other hand, the permitting process through the City of Kirkland has been more of a by-guess and by-golly experience for us. We've had several of our contractors exclaim that the City staffers must be using our application to keep themselves busy, as they really don't have any other new applications coming through the door while the economy has been so poor. So we're their entertainment, paying fee after fee, when we could be open, hiring tax paying citizens, and being a tax paying business... Today, we submit our revised and improved application, with every single requirement addressed and proven. Wish us luck.
Whoo Hooo! New Logo-Wear for Scampers Folks
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Oh, A Pox upon the Teens Mucking up Epoxy Paint!
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| Sarah's scraping the carpet glue off the concrete in preparation for our new rubber flooring. The three teens, Sarah, Katrina and Blake, did a lot of hard, ugly, messy work and we were grateful. |
$600 later, we hired ourselves a "work crew" of summer-bored kids. Three 14 year olds and expensive paint - bad combo. Well, we learned something there!
But after a stern talking-to, they bucked down and did a great job of the finish coats, and we now have a stylish two-tone space.
p.s. I realized after a re-read that I did not give these hard-working young people near enough credit. Granted they were a little less than perfect on Day 1, and perhaps a bit more focused on the head-banging rock 'n roll blaring from the boombox than on the precision of their painting, but they did get a full day's work done, and on Day 2 they were fabulous and the end result is quite cool, so we truly are very grateful to them for their dedication and effort. And we had fun too!
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