The process is the product

Rehabbing an old space can be a frustrating experience: walls are never where you want them to be, you always end up one outlet short, and you always wish you had another 200 square feet to get to the perfect layout.  With Hotel Renard, none of these things are true.

We've a great landlord, one who is fast to respond, and shows up instantly when we have questions or needs.  Our neighbors are all great folks, willing to put up with hammers and saws at all hours of the night as we push for full occupancy so we can use the space.

For most ventures, getting things done can take months, even years.  I know personally of retail and food establishments that waited almost a year to get walls built and painted, floors rolled out, and final approval for the landlord.  For Hotel Renard, we could probably do it in 3 weeks, start to finish.

Our co-tenants have been at the space almost every day, pull carpet off the walls, sweeping up dust and garbage, and tearing nails and skin out constantly.  I'm ecstatic that the only people we picked to talked to were the ones who will be working through the process.  As I've always said, you know within 8 minutes if someone should be in your life, and these kind and hard-working folks made the shortlist well shy of the full 8 minutes needed.

Today the last of the drywall went up, with 80# of dust hitting the floor to be swept and vacuumed.  Tomorrow, tape and rock will go up to make the walls ready for priming.  If things keep moving forward, we'll be primed and painted before the week is up.  We visited the space for the first time just 2 weeks ago (exactly), and now we're just weeks from being able to move in to a completely custom built rehab.  That's nothing short of a miracle.

In 2 weeks, we laid out a floor plan, got approval from the landlord, and finished the build out.  In 2 more weeks we'll have paint on the walls, and new flooring down in the living spaces (i.e., bedrooms).  Our co-tenants are lofting their bed up 6 feet (with 11 foot ceilings!) and putting their walk-in closet underneath.  Smart!  After the bedrooms are completely, we'll be moving into the kitchen/living room space to put in flooring, cabinets, and appliances.  The kitchen is a bit of a frustration, because we just don't know how to maximize space while not giving up room we need for 3-5 people who will be regularly eating and living in the spot.

In order to provide a good idea of how to layout the kitchen and living room, I did something unique with our large format printer: I printed actual sized vinyl mock-ups of cabinets, appliances and furniture.  With these, we can move things around and walk the layout to see what works and doesn't work.  Once we have the layout approved by everyone involved, we can go and buy the necessary goods and get them up.  Architects, interior designers, and do-it-your-selfers should learn form this technique as it works much better than a CAD plan that gives you no reference point in reality.  This system works.

We still don't have a set-goal of what we want to do with our gallery space, but that comes last.  Once we can live there, we can work there.  Once we can work there, we can try many different options out until we come up with one that actually works efficiently and profitably for all parties involved.  We're not looking to end the process of building out the space, though.  The process truly is the product we're looking for.

A few things discovered today:

• The roof above the living area is flat and has a wide-and-safe staircase access.  Awesome for plants and flowers.
• The basement has a ton of mildew, requiring a complete teardown of the walls and studs.  This is something we'll do immediately, as well as performing a mildew abatement to try to keep it from reoccurring.
• We found TONS of outlets in the living area hidden behind the carpeting attached to said wall.
• The space is much quieter than I had envisioned, and the furnace works great.