Luckily with my absence the kind folks at EliteFts didn't turn off my log and kick me to the curb. Dave is very familiar with my insanity fueled pyscosis when I am all in. So first thanks for not cutting me off yet. It has been a journey moving the gym and actually getting it open.
Instead of getting my lumps the whole term of the project, we got them all in the last three months. As anyone who has built or dealt with a builder on anything can atest, there are always ALOT of ups and downs, WTFs and just plain-you gotta be shitting me. You and yours versus the construction company with the city, county and state bastards mediating and delaying your fights.
We were slated to move in around Thanksgiving but the special LED lighting that was coming out of Cali. was on back order for 6 weeks. I personally believe they waited too late to order them. I left alot to the designers and builder weighin' in on when things were too much for me to take. The lights were one of those things. When they told me they were on backorder and that the company only made a couple of runs a year(I know BS there too), I thought they must be really cool and different then most out there.Most of my space has a different look so again, I thought something special for me was a brewing. When they finally arrived, they were plain white LED lights. Zero special or coolness factors. Luckily they are very high up and put out a crap ton of light, otherwise I might think them high school gymnasium lighting.
My next date, which was sworn to happen more then the first time, was mid December. We got close with the construction company starting to waiver and waffle some tippy toeing around the date. It was sketchy so I postponed it till the day after Christmas. A few weeks before this time, the construction company had begun to avoid answering my questions about switching a few things around. They were less then the allowances so I saw no issues with it and thought they would to. The VP who sold me on the project finally came to me right before Christmas and the move. The reason why I didn't have any issues up until the last three months of the project was that the project manager, who took over a month or so after our original PM moved on, completely mismanaged the project. Most was to my good, but the outcome was we got alot of upgrades we weren't suppose to but they ran their budget way over so they weren't making as much money as they once were. Me and the VP had about a two hour powwow where he took a beating. The end result is yes I got alot of upgrades to our building but these things still should have been my choice not a consolation prize. We had to come to some agreements so they wouldn't put off the other building completion and get mine open. Lot more to it but that is the gist. I was behind the 8-ball with the clock ticking to get out of my old building, be open on all fronts so as not to lose much business because that pays the bills for my fairy tale land.
This is probablly the most planning I have ever done for anything.My goal was to be down only for one week and reopen the day after New Year Day(originally it was Jan1 but we could not get the final inspection till Jan 2nd. I will get to this part as it is a story all to itself ) I thought about this move for TWO MONTHS prior to the original Thanksgiving date. We didn't hire a moving company which I thought about throughlly as well. I even had a friend tell me I needed professional movers and not amateurs. I was okay with this statement but I planned to plan for it all. Had we done it at once, it probablly would have been a disaster. Many stages to move middle aged gym owner, says Yoda.
Act 1: Mats a far and wide
Mats like cars come in many varieties. I grew up with 4x6 stall mats and had some hanky panky days with rolls of mats here and there. I decided to keep the majority of the good mats for the upstairs cardio area so these would be the first to go. I had measured and remeasured a few times to figure out how I would place them on the cardio mezzanine. I checked a couple them and did my calculations based on the 4x6. Figureed the easiest way to lay them without too much cutting to fit. Old mats are grissley like old lifters, tough to cut.
After a couple of decades of moving equipment and cardio your skill gets refined and honed. I knew I wanted to not blow out any biceps or any other piece parts so I arranged for a forklift at both my old place and the new gym(worth every cent over and over again) Then I asked a friend for some pallets. I did get the forklift stuck on the first day. Found out quick, grass and forklifts are not in agreement in this universe.
My plan was to draft as many people as possible. I put out sign up sheets and posted it on grambook a couple weeks in advance. As with any move, lights on roaches scatter. Only the slowest get caught in the web. Usually they are the gamedayers. They just happen to be there. We also happened to pick up a new employee at the same time. Cole who became Cole Trickle(absolutely no resemblance ) So band of mat movers we were. Plan was to stack them up on a pallet figuring two feet hanging off would be fine on a 4x4 pallet and still move them. Well, we soon found out the majority of may were 7'2' and not the 4x6s I thought from the original measurements-fiddle sticks. The pallets still worked but we had to fold them up and stack about 5 to 7 a pallet. As you stack old mats the weight begins to snap some of them. Crap, well in the end these broken in half gave us about 4 feet that feet perfectly on a mat. This would work out later when we moved equipment.
Back to the mat. Once we got them stacked and and palleted jacked outside, Ken would load them on his flatbed(find friends with flatbeds, straps and way more capability then you have!This is a key ingredient!) He has a 16 and 40 footer! Then they got hauled to the new spot. With the 7'2" mats, I had to back up and punt. In my planning, I had them all going long ways to limit cutting. After some finagling, it worked to where we had almost no cutting. I had to change my original plan but that happens. This would be a common theme over the next few weeks.
Act 2: Old and going out with a Fight
With the mats mostly completed and installed at the new location, the next step was taking the old shit down from the mezzanine at the old gym. The majority of the reallllly old cardio was to be turned in as trade with much newer and refurbished equipment. I wasn't getting much and knew that as most of the old was well over 10 years old. So the plan was, get the new(er) upstairs and somewhat positioned and then they pick up the old in the same day.
The most dreaded part of the move for all of us was pulling all the old cardio equipment down. The stairs are 4 feet wide with a sharp turn at the top. Only one way in and one way out. Having carried the majority of the old equipment up, it is a miserable experience requiring 4 plus people, yelling , some screaming and many moments of terror going down the stairs with 400 to 500lb of akward hoping no one slips, missteps, loses their grip or worst of all, not in sync with the rest of us. We got alot more help on this one. I also guiltateered a few of the stronger cats. Remember, me left shoulder does not do the overhead move so much anymore so although i will get in the frickas as much as anyone, I knew having more peeps involed would save the core group. This is also where the whole summer and most of the fall of prowler pushing came in handy. Strong I may not be, but winded I was neither as well. I will say each lift and move I expected the rapture of the biceps to be laid upon me. Blessed it was not. We got it all outside and a giant sigh of relief was felt by all.
So when it came time to place the new cardio and a few antique stepmills I had a gate put on the new mezzanine so we could forklift the new cardio up and in. We strapped the cardio to the pallets with the broken 4ft ish mats to keep the equipment from slipping in between the pallets. Hence to be known as rubbers. Cole's main job was to get us rubbers, dude from here on out. As a side note, I had a dumb waiter chain pulley system installed for future use without the beloved forklift. I do mean beloved in this case by the way. You could also call this working on your technical skills.
Act 3: Deck the Hall
My plan after this was completed was to lay the new gym main lifting hall. My plan was to put down three rows, drop equipment in, lays a couple more rows, drop more equipment in, etc. I had spent many hours contemplating the set up, had it all listed out. Well, this didn't quite work out.
Meanwhile back at the old bat cave, many wheels were in motion there. The electricians had pulled down all the old fans, old store fixtures, tvs stands hanging 20 ft up. Things were getting packed up, chaos was swirling and not of my own creation this time. We had to cool the jets for about a week or so until the day after Christmas. We were scheduled to be closed from Xmas till Jan 2. During the cool your jets phase, we all continued to pack up as many mats, clean up all the 20 plus years of history and hoarder things everyone accumulates-boxes of crap you were never going to keep.
My plan was to move the gym store and spud inc straps last based on having wi fi at the oasis. Can't do business without the wi fi. This turned out to be absolutely correct. I had been arguing with Spectrum on installation for about a month. They were suppose to come a couple weeks before the couple weeks and did and then the guy said he would be right back and never showed back up. They then set it up for jan4(we were to open jan 2) so I had to spend alot of time with some nice people to make the 27th happen. This luckily did happen but the computer guy was off for the week until guess what,Jan 2. This turned worked out but not after some more fun stuff. Meanwhile, work continued the week before Xmas as we palletized and strapped all the equipment down with the prerequisite, Cole grab a rubber, dude.
Christmas comes and goes and it is time to tear the roof off this mofo. Many people show up to help over the next few days almost in shifts. Meanwhile, my plan to keep the gym supplement store rolling goes to shit as my night guy goes on a frenzy while we move equipment to the new spot. But let me back up a bit, the capable people with 40foot flatbeds show up . Well shit, let me back up a bit more. We had alot of issues with the final portion of the entrance to the gym parking lot. It was suppose to be poured weeks before we got the green light. The utilities company handling their part could not tell us if they wanted concrete or asphalt on the part the city owns. My parking lot is concrete as that is what I wanted. Of course this back and forth goes on right up till the move. Finally they tell the construction company to go ahead with concrete. Timing is awesome as the pour goes down the weekend before Xmas! So now I wonder will the concrete hold and not crack when ole 40footer and the convoy go rolling across the great divide. We shall see.
I aloted a few days to get all of the equipment out. Well a 40footer holds way more then I thought it would. Mr F and Billy attack the loading and straping of equipment to the trailer. The rest of us pack up boxes, bars, small things. This is where the frenzy started. Things went so well we had lots of people wanting to move stuff but nothing to move. I just was not ready for this as it deviated from my plan way too early. I hand the small move stuff off to the wife who handles it like a champ as I blew up slightly. This allowed me to go back to the main stuff. Always have a good lieutenant Dan. Nothing has to be broken down, even legasaurus and Gibson the 9 foot red power rack make it out the doors. At the end of the day, we got about alittle over 1/2 or closer to 2/3 of everything. Oh yeah, we had someone on our side as we rolled accross the fresh concrete that had only been dry for 3 day and there was no creaking or groaning. No buttcracks!
So ya, way more then I expected happened on day one due to alot of great people and some thoughtful preparedness. Unfortunately as the equipment rolled off I realized staging it, laying some mat, staging it etc was out the door literally. We staged equipment and not having its final resting spot ready, it filled up quick in the new gym. Well, luckily we have another building we put up for renting out. So I became the traffic cop working the wreck with most of the equipment heading to a detour in the building next door. The space just filled up quick and I didn't want to move it over and over again. The back up and punt was in full effect. Still a awesome day!
Later that day as we returned to the gym to reassess the next stage, this is where the night guy went nuts. When we returned, all of the supplements were packed up, the bathrooms were packed up, all of the computers and equipment that we were still going to use were packed up, alot of the spud inc stuff was on pallets packed up. So my plan to stay open with the store took a nose dive but we did keep up enough Spud Inc stuff to keep running. That turned out to be a blessing.
Day two saw much of the same.We finished the inside and moved all of the strongman/sleds/beloved prowler from outside. Halfway through the second, maybe third or fourth day now that I think of it, we got the wonderful news that the certificate of occupancy was delayed due to water testing
and approval from the city and dhec. I just stood there dazed at the project manager as we were trying to unload our truck full of things. I said do you know how much business we will lose, extra rent I will have to pay at the old place, members who will be pissed that I will not be open when I said I would. He just stood there taking the beating like so many times I am sure he has before with just a glazed expression on his face. Just waiting for it to pass. My questions became how long are we talking? (this by the way should have been done weeks before as the blame game started) He says it could be 4 to 6 weeks. I said who the f#&k do YOU start calling NOW?
So after two days of hammer time and completely moving a entire gym in what I would consider record time, we were done. This, physically wrecking me in the process, is sorta like a hard night of drinking and you wake up to do your walk of shame. You are walking weird and still sorta drunkish but you plod on. The reality of what had happened had not sunk in. Basically we moved the majority of the gym equipment in two days. We still had lots more to do. The only things we left at the old gym was the Spud Inc inventory and all that runs that including the Dale and the Ryan.
Act 4: The arrangement
The next couple of days were spent moving the larges game of musical chairs you have ever seen. I probablly had 20,maybe 30, plus pieces of equipment stored next door and what seemed like a full gym already. The general setup was there, now just had to fill in the 10lb of flour in a 5lb sack. I would set up one section and rachet it down to what I thought was good then start placing around that. I would look at it for a bit, then ask opinions on what to do and then do the opposite ,sometimes well alot. We got what I would thought would be a good set up, then look at what was still left next door and realize I would have to tighten it up even more. This went on for a couple days. Finally realizing that there wasn't anyway to get it all in without making it like the old gym, I cut off 25 feet of the turf area. We had 75 foot but the really cool stuff I got just for this gym happened to be sitting in the 25 feet we needed so 25 foot got chopped off. We did widen the turf a bit more then we originally had but it didn't make up for the lost footage. In the end it worked out fine and didn't clutter too bad but more importantly I got to keep all my extra hammer pieces that just happened to land in this area. Every piece in the gym got moved at least twice but more like three or four times each to get it just right.
Lots more to do and in between times, yell at the project manager, call people to get the CO, get the computer guy in there, get spectrum back out to make sure the wi fi was hooked up, etc. My plan to be open Jan 2nd was right on track but due to other things beyond my control, but the 4 to 6 weeks took 3 days of hounding people to get the water issue done to get the final inspection to be open. Once we got the okay from the inspector, we had to get the business license changed at the final hour. Alot of running around and that was done late on a Tuesday and we finally opened on January 10, 2018.
Key takeaways here:
Plan all of it in stages at least three times
Get forklifts , pallets and straps
Find friends with good equipment and make sure they are more capable then you are.
Be prepared as much as you can, but know things will go sideways many times
Find someone to get your rubbers, dude.