Construction update. Sept 30.
Hello everyone!
Here's my update on the construction of our new location so far. I wish I could post more often, but I'm deeply involved in the building process.
If you haven't read the previous post, let me remind you - this is my fourth location, and we are building 3 escape rooms simultaneously. Two are turn-key from Indestroom and one from Time Quest. We got the keys to the place on June 15th. After 3.5 months of construction, here's our progress.
First, the good stuff:
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We've painted the walls and ceilings and replaced the floor and baseboards. You could say we've created a “clean slate for work”.
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This time, we are first assembling the puzzles, connecting them, and then building decorations around the puzzles. And I like this approach much more.
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As usual, connecting puzzles from Indestroom took only a week for both quests. The turn-key from Time Quest is much more complex, but the design of the puzzles and decorations is worth it.
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Architectural drawings are ready and awaiting approval from the landlord, and we can apply for permits in the city. This time it was faster than I expected.
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An artist team has started working on Alice in Wonderland decorations. This is our first experience when I am not designing and building myself. But for the future, this experience is useful, it saves time.
We are right in the middle of building “big decorations” like the nose of a ship, airship cabin, ship piles, and airship engine. I hope it will be completed by November.
Now, the bad stuff:
The bureaucracy in the company that owns our retail space is incredibly annoying. We must get approval for every single move. Want to put a white frosted film on the windows with our logo? Then a 3D render, film model, and a contractor who will do it are needed. First 3 weeks of design approval, then 3 weeks of realizing that we want to stick the film on the windows ourselves.
All documents, insurance, and bonds from contractors we provided - have been waiting for approval for a month. I can't even imagine how long the review of our final floor plan will take, even after they reviewed all draft versions.
They insisted that we open in November (ha ha ha), while they respond to me at best once a week or two.
If in November we install new walls (they do not interfere with building puzzles and decor), and all necessary doors, I will say that this will be the fastest construction of a location in my experience. But we still need to get the permits, so better not to guess.
Always happy to answer questions in the comments, and you can always support me by getting my book!