Back Almost to the Drawing Board

The light is there at the end of the self-imposed tunnel of perpetual conceptual architectural napkin drawings.

I've been working with architects for the last year. Seriously... a year. Okay, so my architects are actual one architect - my sister. She put up with every single change we made in location, space, concept. That work made Cinema 16:9 a reality. So now, it's coming down to the final months, and I have to make certain that what I build is what is legal and what the landlord can allow in the space.

So I want to go with someone local. Someone who can go to the site every day if they had to. And luckily, my potential landlord knew just the right firm for me to work with. And so armed with 9... yes 9 previous versions of all of the different locations my sister did concept sketches for, all of the renderings... I sat down with the architect to help me finalize the concept, and do the schematic drawings I need in order to make this happen.

What I said to my potential landlord was that with all the changes over a year, it's easy to become bogged down in perpetual concept drawings. I said that I need to get out of concept and into schematic.. I think I've got the right contractor, I need the right drawings.

And so we discussed... and discussed. We discussed the feel, the look, the concept, the sales process, the lighting, the bathrooms, the stairs, we discussed the Victorian carousel I'd always wanted, the cinema, the 16, the 9. We discussed it all. We discussed the past, the present and the future. We talked about global warming's effect on household pets in the year 2020. And when it was all over... they said the following:

"Well I think we're going to have to really sketch out the concept first."

Now, I don't suppose that would bother me so much if the architect were Frank Gehry...

"Here Dave. How's this?"

"That's great Frank. Now we need schematics."

"Okie Dokie.."

Actually, I don't think Frank Gehry would be the right architect for this project anyway - and I certainly couldn't afford the first pen flick of that concept.

Where was I? Oh yes... more concept drawings - They must have noticed that several veins in my neck burst and I was bleeding freely all over the nine other concept drawings we'd already completed, because they stopped for a moment and then said the following:

"All of these drawings will be a great help. It really helps to have something to guide us."

So... not all the way back to the drawing board, then... but there will be a drawing... and a board. and someone is at it...

So that timer on the main page of the website... will that mean anything?

Probably.

But not what you thought it meant, right?

Probably.

How much longer?

Well, not much longer... all that blood loss from the other night... I feel woozy.