think of the building assomething unreal, a bit
of a fantasy. When it's just a slab of cement and a skeleton it just doesn't feel real. This was something that was going to happen far off into the future, and nothing to really worry about right now. It was fun to walk through the skeleton and take pictures. We talked about what equipment would live where, randomly throwing out ideas-whatever came to our minds, we were going to make it happen. Let's just tell Bruce (the contractor) what we want and he would magically make it happen! Oh yes, this would be really cool, and that would be really cool. What if we did this and that and the other, etc. etc. It's all fantasy, right? No walls, no real feel for the heart of the place. As exciting as it was, it was still "just a building" and all of our grand ideas were just grand ideas. Some would see fruition, and some would not.
Over a period of a few weeks the exterior was beginning to take on new life form, while the interior was experiencing it's own transformation. The skeleton was now taking shape with insulation. Whereas before all you saw was wood and wiring, now we had pink stuff being stuffed into every wall!
Soon after the insulation began taking over, large quantities of sheetrock were delivered. This place was about to become filthy with sheetrock dust!
Little did I know that very soon "the building" was going to become real.
Within the span of less than 2 weeks, we now had walls. No longer could we walk wherever we wanted, with no regard for the layout of the structure. It was no longer just a skeleton. Although with walls up, it was much less confusing. You could now clearly see what was what. Now we had to start respecting the space by using hallways and doorways.
With walls up, again the feeling began to change. "The building" was now becoming "our new hospital". We started to hear a heartbeat, and this place was crashing into our reality in a major way. Wow, this is real...and a huge project! How are we going to accomplish this move? If we ignore it will it just go away? No...It didn't go away, it just kept going!
After the initial panic quieted, and reality began to set in, excitement once again began to take over. The kind of excitement we felt on the very first day of this project.
The exterior was beginning to look pretty. The rock was now going up on the exterior walls and gravel was down for the sidewalks. This place is really going to be beautiful!
After the rock work was complete, it was time to pour cement for the sidewalks. This was the day we had been waiting for! We were to bring our dogs and have them put their paw prints into the pavement along the front of the hospital.
We brought 2 large dogs who were ready, willing and able to walk across semi-wet cement. When we arrived, the cement was still too wet, so we waited, and waited, and waited. Finally the time came...Our dogs paw prints would live in infamy! Luckily the contractor and the cement crew were willing to humor us.
First up was yellow lab Pete. He is very well trained in obedience. Too well trained. Meaning when we are walking and we stop, he sits. He did exactly what I wanted him to do-walk at an even pace on the edge of the cement. Half way through I stopped him so we could check the results....and he sat. Oh no! Like I said, luckily everyone was willing to humor us. So we had to smooth out the cement and try again. This time no sitting! The paw prints looked pretty ok. Then came the stamping. They were going stamp that part of the cement? How on earth would the paw prints survive that? Well, they didn't. Now it was Mastiff Tsunami's turn. She is probably 15 pounds heavier than Pete, maybe her prints would make a deeper indentation and survive the stamping. The cement is getting harder by the minute!
We are almost at the point of no return-If we screw this up, we probably won't be able to fix it. Nami calmly walked across the edge of the cement. Her heavier weight didn't make a huge difference in the depth of the paw prints we got from her. Once again, the paw prints did not survive the stamping. Our pets paw prints were not going to live in infamy after all. We were bummed! To add insult to injury, there are no pictures of this attempt at paw prints in the cement. We were so focused on our dogs making paw prints that we were just too busy for pictures. Nonetheless we now have a sidewalk for our new hospital!
What is going to happen next? Rumor has it that interior paint has been chosen and asphalt will be coming soon!
