Revealing the Barrel Vault

 Mark and Ray spent 2 weeks and 2 dumpsters getting the false ceiling off the barrel vault and then the cobbled together framing that held it all up.

Fiber panels are down, framing still to go.

This is a ton of framing stock.  All held onto the trusses with gravity and bent nails

Finally getting the framing off the beautiful iron trusses.

The iron, even in the newer section of the barrel vaulted space is amazingly elegant.

The older section of hot riveted iron.

The newer section in the rear of the building was matched very well. 

This is why we bought this building.  In person, it feels huge and airy.

It was a lot of pretty unpleasant work.  Ladders get heavy and hard to climb after a while, but we powered through and got it all down.

The barrel vaulted portion of the building is why we purchased in the first place.  Once revealed, it really came home what a special building this is.

Demo Day!

A couple of weeks after we got the keys, some of the folks that work for Cherub decided it was time to come down and swing sledgehammers!

Sam, Jessica, Nita, Ray and Chelsea all came down to start tearing up the joint under Mark's dubious supervision.  Everything was safe and sound as long as they avoided... well, everything.

Nita leads off with some enthusiastic crowbar work

The target of the demolition crew was the smaller section of the building.  Once holding a print shop, it had been carved into little offices and cubbies that all had to go.  Luckily, we had just the crew to get it done!

Walls came down, doors were shattered, HVAC torn from its very roots.  Have to admit, it was dirty, dusty fun.

Jessica tearing into the old rear office.

Sam, Jessica and Chelsea taking out a major divider wall.

Chelsea worked like a champ!

Sam just likes to hit things with sledgehammers...

THE AFTERMATH

 Post demo we retired to the Mexican place across the street for beer and way too much food out of the terrace.

That was a damn fun and productive day!

Nothing was left by the end of the day.  Amazing work.

 Cherub is blessed with some great folks.  Fun to work with and a blast to hang out and destroy real estate with.

Sledgehammer Biopsy. (This may sting a little)

The day after we signed the mortgage and picked up the keys it was time to start exploring our new kingdom.  I walked around the place and randomly broke holes in walls to see just what was hiding in the 80 year old nooks and crannies.

Suspended ceilings hide frightening things.  Like this giant metallic and plastic octopus.

Creepy bathrooms are creepier with holes bashed through them.

It was bad.  Not horrific, but bad enough that the amount of work ahead of us became a little frightening.  We knew if was going to be a total demo back to the support walls, with all electrical, plumbing, heating, phones, etc being stripped back to the sources, but we had no clue the place is built like a battle ship in certain spots.  Multiple layers of sheet rock and steel studs, glued and screwed to the old plaster, which in some places was put over nearly inch thick tongue and groove wood siding.  They don't build em like that anymore...

The old office was build frighteningly well.  Just this tiny amount of demo took 3 hours.

The false ceiling in the large open area was the first thing to be seriously attacked.  We threw a ladder up the to side wall and began tearing down the ancient fiberboard(no, not asbestos) to get a peek at the condition of the barrel vault.  It was tremendously exciting to finally poke our heads up above the old iron trusses and see the scope of the roof scape.

Very first picture of the barrel vault.  There is still dust in the air.

                                                                  It was tremendous!

The following week we had a licensed electrician in to kill all the power in the building expect for one outlet right next to the main power panel so we knew we could strip 80 years of accreted wiring and patches.  Best to start fresh.  We also turned off the gas supplies(2 meters) and locked them off to make sure that we could remove all the old gas piping for replacement.  The water we left on.  Accidentally cutting a water line is annoying, and frequently amusing, and shutting off the one usable bathroom is NOT an option.

Once the dumpster arrived, courtesy of our good friends at Captain Hook.  We like those guys a lot.  Small, local company and the name rocks!

We began in earnest to get the ceiling torn down and all the old electrical stripped off the walls.  Marks father, Ray came in to lend a hand for the demolition portion of the project, mainly because Barb wants him out of the house.  Mark worked on the ceilings off the ladder, Ray worked on the electrical and plumbing removal.

First of 10 piles of wiring, plumbing and HVAC metal we removed.

After a few days we could start to see the span of the barrel vault.  It is everything we had hoped for.

 On the down side of our project planning, it became clear that the leaks in the smaller portion of the building were bad enough to justify a complete tear off and replacement.  Luckily we end up with a superior roof with all of the old penetrations removed and sealed over with a high tech membrane roofing system that will guarantee us a lifetime of security.

Luckily we have used a local company for roofing in the past.  Buck Roofing came out to inspect the project and gave us a quite reasonable bid that we accepted almost immediately. Normally multiple bids are advisable, but we knew what the price range should have been for the bid and when they came in slightly under budget, it was time to sign a contract.  The roof project is set to begin sometime in early November.

The first slow parts of demolition was a blast, we cannot wait to get deeper into the project!

A New Beginning

In early 2014, Cherub Medical Supply, Kansas City's premier supplier of pediatric medical supplies and support, began looking for a new facility from which to base operations.

Years of explosive growth led to Cherub outgrowing their current location in Merriam Kansas, and the need for a larger facility became obvious.  Many lease options were examined through the first few months of the year until the cold equation of finances make it clear it was time for Cherub to purchase a place to call their own.

So the search was on...  Ok not really, we only seriously looked at one property and for our needs, it was a perfect fit.  We were looking for a property in Shawnee Kansas and we found one right downtown.

The New Cherub.  Main building and small office attached.

The Front of New Cherub, complete with Realtor Garry Merritt

Built in the 1930's the building started life as one of the first gas stations in Shawnee Kansas.  Over the years, generations of car loving families held on to it and kept it as an auto maintenance facility.  When we looked at it, the building was owned by the Burdolski family of Shawnee, who operated an auto detailing shop at the location.

When we got our first look at the interior, it was packed with custom and collector cars and auto service equipment.  While it was gritty, and in some cases downright scary, it had amazing bones that we could work with.  Both parts of the building, the larger open garage space and the attached cinder block office space that had housed a print shop in the past, were large open spaces that would allow us to build everything to our exact needs. 

The larger section of the building, looking to the rear.  Lots of cars and a hell of a lot of false ceiling and old electrical to remove!

From the rear of the building to the front.  Yep, a ton of false ceiling!

With fewer cars, you can see the small office built into the front of the building and the entrance to the office space next door.(Just to the left of the Corvette)

The the rear with fewer cars.

This is one damn scary bathroom...

The small office that is built into the front area.

Open office area in the low section of the office space.

Less creepy bathroom.  They actually cleaned it before they left.

Spooky hallways...

Yes, there is mold.  The roof leaks.

Random office partitions.

From the exterior, the main section of the building showed us an amazing barrel vaulted roof.  Our realtor showed us a few pictures of the barrel vault and while it looked in good repair, we were unsure of the total condition.  After a month or so of debate and numerous walks through the property, we decided to take it on.

We contacted our friends at Bank of Kansas City, the bank that we do all of our business and a great deal of our personal banking with.  After a lengthy period of digging through the finances of Cherub, they finally called to let us know we could have the loan.  Working with the folks at BoKC is always a joy, its more like we have family friends in the banking business rather than a relationship with a cold and distant financial institution.  We cannot recommend them enough.

On the morning of September 11th, 2014 we signed the mortgage papers and picked up the keys to Cherub's new home.

We have a hell of a project ahead of us and with luck, it will all go smoothly.