Stripped

The day started looking at a few new offices, still no word on our old one but basically it's time to go.

The first wasn't any good, the second was kind of, but some work to make it suit i.e. it's not finished yet. So Rob. Karl and I retreated to a café to discuss options. Try to rent it for 12 months, maybe buy it? Both could work.

Then off to look at Robs old office and some other space there. Not perfect, and throughout the course of the meeting the terms went from "we'll help you out", to 12 months, to later that day, 2 year minimum lease. Yes, landlords know that demand is now high and supply short, the price and terms are negotiable - upwards.

Then off to another, not perfect for the group, maybe for one or two of us. I then went back to our old office to have another look, could this work, despite the landlord putting the price up (see yesterday's blip). I took a moment to call our current landlord and asked him how the inspections were going, he wasn't happy, the engineer wouldn't even go in the building, and we had a long discussion about how if another quake hit there was a real chance the building would just collapse. As a result, he was flying a specialist engineer in from Australia that afternoon, with the inspection at 10am tomorrow. This was a great concern, with a very real chance the building would get a "red sticker" with entry then impossible. Gulp, all our furniture, files, computers and monitors, servers even - it would be a disaster and we'd be crippled for weeks.

So, a couple of quick phone calls and all the business partners met, with 2 trailers, several staff to do the loading as we didn't want them inside and we literally went for it. We literally ran through the offices grabbing gear and loading it down the stairs. Rip the power cords of our monitors, grab one in each hand, and then do it again. After 2 hours we'd emptied the place of all computer gear, all filing cabinets, all the files/papers on desks (we scooped them into boxes), chairs, some minor furniture - anything you could easily carry.

We then loaded it into the trailers and cars and 3 loads full we delivered it all to our old office, in the rain. Exhausted, stressed, but enormous relief at having most of the gear out, especially the servers. Left behind were brand new meeting tables, chairs, 55" LCDs, all our files, fridge's, dishwashers, coffee machines, sofas, lots and lots of stuff too big to carry or not deemed mission critical.

A quick beer to recover, takeout food, and a reconvene at my house for Rob, Karl and I to discuss the next plans. What should we do and where should we go. Needless to say this required more lubrication, in the form of nice red wine, at 12.30 they were kicked out, and Id decided we'd head back to the old office, and as a collective we'd look to regroup once the situation was more clear.

What a day. A dream over (for now). We'll be back, soon!