Moved!

The next two weeks I will be trying to smoothly transition the business and my life to a slightly bigger space about an hour away. Moving out of the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area to slightly further east, where things are a little bigger and less expensive. I am going to focus on keeping the orders going and moving, I will check the forums a few times a day during this time, instead of all day like usual. I just want to give a little heads up.

I have been trying to finalize a move to a place with a little more room than just a spare bedroom for me to work out of (bigger garage). I have been unsure it would ever happen but it finally did! It was actually kind of sudden, when you find the right place you need to act fast! I will be doing my best not to fall to far behind in the forums. The orders are currently a day behind because I am shipping every other day while I prep the new space.

So If I could ask for a little extra patience with my responses and emails, it would be much appreciated.

-Printed parts are as printed, time away makes me a little less efficient with my batches of parts.

*Snags*, everything was planned as far ahead as possible….Then the elevator went down for maintenance. I am currently trying to move out of a third floor apartment, the stairs were not designed to accommodate this, and the elevator is closed until further notice. I was told they are working on a fix but this is expected to be submitted for approval 3/15/19. Meaning it still has to get approved, scheduled, and then the work needs to be done.

Update

3/2 – The elevator is scheduled to be up this week, meaning I am not going to break down all my rolling racks (saving a ton of work), this will make shipping wonky for the week. Still working on the new space anyway. I really hope to be up to a fairly smooth week starting 3/11.

3/5 – Still no sign of the elevator guys. Things are really getting complicated now. I got stuck unclogging a drain over the weekend, and now I have a repair tech showing up, separate issue (dishwasher leaked really bad- hope the floor is not ruined). I have packages showing up and some shop floor work scheduled for Thursday and Friday. This is the farthest from smooth I could imagine. So I have to be at the new place for signing for my orders but the machines and shipping stuff is at the old place on the rolling racks waiting for the elevator. I am trying to ship some of the random orders that are still coming in and trying to keep up with emails but I am really hoping to put and end to all of this ASAP. On top of it I got a speeding ticket at 6:30am…just trying to get some coffee. Coffee in one place, coffee machine in the other. UGHHHHH.

Just to clarify, the day I got the keys the elevator got locked/tagged out. That was the 15th of last month. I should have been completely moved, and back in business by the 21st. At this point I don’t think I will be able to make MRRF.

3/9/18 – Well the elevator repair got pushed out until the 19th-22nd with an inspection due sometime after the work is completed. No one bothered to tell me this. If I would have known I would not have waited the extra week for it to get fixed. I have been breaking everything down and trying to get it to the new shop ASAP. In the meantime my once understanding landlord that said it was okay to take extra time to move is now demanding I pay more money because his elevator repair is taking too long. I will be tempting to lower couch pieces over a balcony (3rd floor) rail Sunday… I have most my personal items moved and about a 1/3rd of the shop. By today I should have at least half the shop moved and have two people helping me on Sunday to finish up and get out of this nightmare.

On the new end, the floor work was started and pushed back until some sort of moisture test Monday, then scheduled for finishing if it passes. Until I get a floor, I will be working out of my living and dining room. So move, setup, move again. So many things change yet stay the same…

I am excited for this to be over. This is ultimately frustrating, I had this all orchestrated to be the world's smoothest move, and be out of my current place with at least 2 weeks to spare. I am now officially past my move date (I am taking no blame for this). Being in the Bay Area I have one commuting window during the day and a few trips can be done after 9pm, traffic is terrible from one place to the other, which makes this all the more difficult.

I hope to be shipping in some capacity on Tuesday. As you can imagine, paying two rents and not being able to be in full swing is working my last strand of sanity, so this is a priority for me. I have not really unpacked anything else.

3/11 – I am in the new living room waiting on the garage/shop floor issue so I am in the living room and dining room. I hope to do some shipping today and update inventory as soon as I get things out of boxes and in some sort of order.

Old spot HQ #3…empty.

I have a final clean-up trip and get the last load of stuff waiting on the ground floor then 100% focus on the new spot. Thank you to everyone that was more than patient while I was in full freak out mode for the last few weeks.

3/12 – Everything is on the new side now, all 6 printers are finally printing in their temporary living room home. Most of the boards have arrived, I am almost caught up on shipping. I hope to make kits tonight or tomorrow and flash some more boards. The floor is hopefully getting coated tomorrow and I hope it is done in time for the 4-year anniversary….

So it is official, V1 Engineering is in Tracy, California now. Inventory should start climbing (well it has been but y’all buying it up as fast as I can produce it)!!!!