The best thing I did after deciding on the Vienna location was get rid of my first architect. Hamid was a nice enough guy, but he just didn't seem to know much in the way of local code issues, and worst of all was a nightmare to get hold of via e-mail or phone. So I brought in a local guy from Vienna, who had done a lot of the very successful businesses in the neighborhood. I could see his work was excellent in the terms of being aesthetically very pleasing, but he knew all the local code compliance points. I was quickly learning that in the land of free there are a lot of rules and regulations. Also, he had a working relationship with both Nick the landlord and business that was moving out (across the road). Having satisfied myself there was no conflict of interests, this seemed to tie things together very neatly. Most problems in life are caused miscommunication and this seems to have worked very well so far with all parties very much on the same page. This made the discussion of lease terms, conditions and time lines so very much easier, everybody knew what the other people needed.
Before long we had a layout down on paper on how floor space would be divided out, to give the best process flow and impression to the public. We are going to use the Vienna space for 2 functions.
1) Production and initial point of sale.
2) Production for loading a cart that will be initially dispatched to the Ballston.
The space we had divided neatly into an open production area that can be easily viewed buy the public purchasing in the shop. A model I had in mind based on a shop in St Ives from my Cornwall fact finding mission. I can recap that later.
We also built the foundation of the image extending the colours from the logo very professionally designed by my very talented daughter. Now we started building on the foundations of organic content, local suppliers etc. Getting as far away from the image of nasty savoury pie as you can get.
Eventually we had a plan that we could submit to the contractors to get some quotes on how it was going to take to achieve this. I have to say we didn't put anything over the top on the table. I was all functional stuff and all that had to be done to comply with code. e.g. The ceiling has to change. Even though the current place deals with food prep, the ceiling doesn't comply, it needs to be smooth. Just like the bathroom used to comply for disabled use, but now it doesn't. The main problem is, as soon as you change 10% of building space and apply for building permits, it triggers a whole raft of code checks. This will be a pain in the backside for next few months, but a necessary evil that cannot be changed or shifted.
My fiscally shrewd northern attitude was coming to the fore and there are now many spreadsheets monitoring costs etc. How Much??? A cry I introduced to France with C'est Combien??? Is now to become part of the North Virginia vocabulary.
We've had a plan one on the table. Now we are on plan 2 as we've changed a few things that will simplify areas and cut the cost down. I reckon we are pretty much there on the design. I'll find a way to post the final plans so all can see.
Enough rambling for now. There will be more later as bring the whole project progress up to date.
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