I've heard that a few people have been asking why we would have left the front of our building at 224 Queen Street until the very end to finish. Here's why:
- The front is the most intricate. It takes the most time to do well and right. We are saving the best for last.
- Being more intricate it takes much more planning, development, and thought. That takes time.
- The sides and the front are inter-dependent and there is a certain order you need to do things to make it all come together correctly.
- We don't really care that it is the front. We see the whole building as a project to do well The 22.3 feet that people walk by is just another side to us. To put it into perspective the building has 200+ linear feet of wall. 10% of it is the front.
- When we "do" the front it will render the front entrance unusable for an amount of time. We had to build a side entrance to facilitate building access while the front is unusable. That side had to be done first.
- We have worked on the front. You might notice the completely rebuilt porch roof, the seven installed windows, or the completely scraped and primed trim, overhangs, and decorative brackets.
- There are 2.5 of us working on this project on top of our full time jobs. It's done evening and weekends to not disturb the building during business hours. We're doing it as fast as we can.
When ripping apart a 100+ year old building you become keenly aware that the work you are doing lasts longer that your own lifetime. As a result we want to do it right. We have a strong desire to do things well, as they should be done. We want this building to be done correctly, to be efficient, and to be well built. The art of craftsmanship is something we hold near and dear to our hearts and feel that that art is starting to be lost for a quick visual fixes. Everyone is a fan of Mike Holmes until the motto "make it right" affects a building they work in or a renovation budget they are in charge of. "Making it right" takes longer, is more expensive, and often requires work to be done in a way that most would see as illogical. Also, sometimes you have to undo some of your work when you discover something new.
We're excited to be nearing the end of this project. Finishing the highly visible front will be a very dramatic and climatic end to a 4-5 year project. It will be much more satisfying for us to step back from the front and say "we are finished" than to step back from the rear corner by the parking garage and say the same.
