Roughing It...In...Electrical Stuff

Another eventful day (what else is new?). I was awoken this morning by Jeff, who suggested I meet the electrician already on site at the store. I was fine with this, and it was nice being able to explain to him in detail where the POS terminals and printers would be situated. He was finishing up his rough-ins (hence the title of the post) when I arrived. He presented an interesting snag, pointing out that the existing electrical wires and conduit hanging from the ceiling have to come down before he can run the new lines above the ceiling; he suggested I get on it ASAP.


This surprises me because we were ready to take that down when we did the demolition, but Jeff's superintendent Mark (a good, competent, and patient man, for the record) told me during the demolition in October that we would be better off leaving it so that the electrician could see where everything had been when he started his work. I'm going to see if Jeff can get that all removed at no additional expense to me, based on the fact that I had the manpower and the tools to get all this stuff out of the way two months ago, but at the moment all my tools and expertise are otherwise occupied in Chicago.

I also spent a good part of the day trudging through mindless HR paperwork in order to set up my ADP account, finally mailing it via FedEx late in the afternoon. Another distraction involved trying to figure out how to pay my Nicor (gas) bill. I ended up paying a dollar surcharge to do it via direct bank withdrawal, since a local convenience store listed as a payment center didn't look all that reputable, and would only accept cash. I also tried to log into my account on the website, but for the second month in a row it showed my account as "inactive" and wouldn't let me in (a phone call to Nicor will fix that within a few days). It' s always the small things that can quickly whittle away the hours of a day.

And finally, my work day was capped off by Todd (landlord) meeting me a the bank, presumably to sign the SBA paperwork and have it notarized. I had gotten him his requested assurance that the exhaust hood would stay on site in the event of a default, and subsequently called my banker to guarantee him that anything nailed down would remain as well. However, he read the admittedly legalese-intensive (and therefore impossible to understand) documents and felt like he needed his lawyer to review them to make sure that none of his provisions in the lease are superseded to his detriment. What does this mean for me? Well, I've got a contractor who has already started work, and I can't gain access to my funds until Todd signs. Thankfully, he has said that he understands my predicament and will likely sign as a gesture that he is working with me to get the place open. I'll take that, but I admit I'd rather he have signed today and gotten it over with, although I understand wanting to fully understand what you're signing.

So the waiting game continues. But in good news on another front, I made friends at the bank while waiting for Todd to arrive, and David happened upon a few Wesleyan students he grew up with the other day who will now be enthusiastically spreading the gospel of the 'zone (maybe they'd even want to work with us).

Oh, and finally I may have found a sink for my store. It's a local source, so I won't have to go through the ridiculous hassles associated with renting a Budget truck. I had to meet the seller at a convenience store in a notoriously bad part of town, so I left most of my cash and all my credit cards at home as a precaution (I later regretted this when I didn't have enough money to pay for my groceries later in the evening). Anyways, the sink is plenty big - almost too big - in good condition, and ready to roll. Nonetheless, I have an email in to Jeff, Russ (architect), and the health inspector, just to be sure that I don't buy something I can't use. I'm finally learning to be cautious before jumping into uncharted waters.

Plenty more tomorrow, as I plan on finishing my paint job at long last and ordering my light fixtures (in other words paying signage expert Kevin to place the order, because he can get the stuff much cheaper than I could). Other developments will probably also conspire to fill my day with intrigue, and then I go on to my first night as a server at my former employer - I can't wait to see how it goes (although if anything eventful happens there, I'll probably post it on my other blog). More soon.