Wednesday, May 26, 2010

New Office for RHD!

Big things going on today....we are closing on a new office building which will be the new home of Ranch House Designs, Inc. Over the past few years, we have been in two offices since opening our Wharton office 4 years ago. Our first office was a real crap-o, but at the time we thought it was a chateau. Then, we were lucky enough to be able to lease the top floor of 810 North Fulton, which is one of the best offices in town. Here, we've been able to spend nearly 3 years in a great building with great . Every day is a treat because we share our office with great people and we have lots of fun. But, our new office is going to be nearly 3 times as big, so we are excited about the move!

How this whole office came about it a real story in itself. About 5 weeks ago, I started reading the new Joel Osteen book, whose overall theme is that if you have patience and faith that God will put so many good things in your path. He also talks about how certain moments and certain people are put in your life to change your destiny. The morning after I read that part of the book, I was chit chatting with our neighbor at the office next door, Raymond Harrison. He commented on how our business was growing and he keeps seeing more cars in the parking lot every day. I said that yes, and that we loved our location but if there was ever a building that came up for sale in Wharton where we could have more space, we would be interested.

Raymond then said that unfortunately, finding office space in Wharton was difficult, because a lot of the buildings stay with the same owner for years and years and years. But he said he would let me know. The very next day, Raymond called me and said he had unbelievable news....that a great building just went on the market THAT DAY and that I should go look at it.

The building for sale was the Colorado Baptist Association's office building. It is a great building that I have actually scoped out numerous times on our dream list of office buildings in town. But since it was owned by the church, we figured it would never go on the market. I quickly drove a few blocks across town and stalked the building, since it was closed on a Friday afternoon. Being the impulsive person I am, I called the realtor right away. We arranged a meeting for Monday morning to look inside the building.



Over that weekend, I assembled the RHD advisory board members (my mom and dad, and both sets of my grandparents). We all convened at the new building on Monday morning to look. As soon as we walked in, I loved it. Big, spacious, lots of room, a great workroom, a great kitchen, and a huge conference room.

So at this point, I'm thinking, do I play it cool and act ho-hum? While my mom and grandpa Johnston were inspecting things like structures and all that, my grandpa Williams had already cornered the realtor.

For those of you who know my granddad, you know he loves any type of deal, be it a cow trade, a land trade, or real estate. So after everyone had cleared out, he stuck around and asked me what I thought. I could tell he thought I should make an offer. I said I liked it, and would make an offer, but didn't want to look too eater so I was going to call the realtor a little later that afternoon.

But no...super dealer Sloan Williams walked up to the realtor and said, "We're prepared to make an offer RIGHT NOW." As we sat down, Dadaw morphed into Real Estate Superman. He was throwing out words like earnest money, time being of the essence, and all kinds of impressive stuff. As we made our offer, the realtor said he would have to talk with the church board to see if they would accept. Then Super Dealer says, "We would like an answer by the end of the day!" HA! Now I see where I get my impulsiveness from!

We didn't get our answer that day, but after about 3 days of negotiating, we came to an agreement and signed the contract. Over the past month everyone here at the office has been a buzz of excitement about our new office. And, with that, of course we're going to do a little remodeling!!! Everyone has their ideas and we promised each other that when we have our new office, we would get a symbol that really signifies our place as a leading graphic design firm....A GIANT WRITE ON WHITE BOARD!!!! ha ha

So here are a few photos of the building, as we are purchasing it. We will try to post pictures of the remodel as more things are being updated!


2 comments:

  1. Way to go girls! It is so awesome to see your business and dreams growing so rapidly!

    www.cdycattle.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fantastic! I look forward to seeing before/after pictures - that showcase all of your sweet design skills.

    ReplyDelete