Well, I hate to call it the old center. Day to day we actually call the older one north, and the newer one south. As I said before, It's actually my wife's business, something for reasons that are slowly becoming clear after 2 1/2 years, that she decided that she wanted to do after her job at WAMU was eliminated in the Chase takeover. My job is maintenance, repair, bookkeeping, furniture building and sometime financier.
My wife is dyslexic, as are both of our children. I prefer that term to the "Learning Disabled" moniker that the professionals prefer to use. She may teach stubborn to Missouri mules, but she isn't learning disabled. She's clawed her way thru a public education, a Bachelor's degree, an MBA, a Chartered Financial Analyst's designation and now a certificate in Early Childhood Education is nearly in hand. She's been called dumb or stupid plenty of times along the way.
When the public schools started down that path with our kids she fought back with everything she had. She found an intense program in Atlanta for dyslexic and ADHD kids, The Schenck School, using the Orton-Gillingham approach. For our kids it was a two year immersion in phonics, math and art. There was a tremendous investment in building / rebuilding the kid's self esteem after suffering the slings and arrows of misplaced understanding. Ten percent or more of the population is dyslexic. Famous dyslexics include Einstein, Da Vinci, Thomas Edison, Tom Cruise, heck even Fonzie (Henry Winkler) People with Dyslexia It's the kids who suffer the most. Most schools aren't set up to deal with dyslexia, and many educators refuse to believe it exists. Unknowing teachers and school age cruelty take their toll on dyslexics.
I think this business is her way to save them all.
Let's get to the heavy lifting on the other side of the squiggle.
Friday, September 26, 2008, the day after quite possibly the largest bank robbery in U.S. history, my wife knew she was out of a job. The only real question was when. There was no way Chase was going to keep many of the WAMU people, especially those in the troubled home mortgage business. She needed a new career, investing and finance hadn't been working well for her over the last 10 years. The corporate world had become a less welcoming place and she'd committed the worst sin of all, she'd gotten old... Not less skilled, just old and expensive.
My daughter had been in the day care business (industry?) for a while. It was more rewarding than retail and the money was a bit better. They decided that they could open a day care business and do no worse than the industrial centers around the area. They spent months trooping through every piece of commercial space available in Everett. It was difficult training the agents in the type of space we needed. At this point, all 3 spaces we have rented with this business, we've ended up dealing directly with the landlord without a rental agent involved.
We need open space, there are guidelines on how much space each child needs (50 sqft for an infant, 35 for a toddler). That's usable space, subtract for door swings, storage cabinets, changing tables and bathrooms. Water; specifically drains, we need sinks for adults and kids in each classroom. Toilets for the older toddlers and preschoolers, preferably in or adjacent to the classroom, you need to supervise them at all times, idle hands and water do not mix well.
They thought they found a good site, a former dentist's office just a couple of miles from home. As they started into the permit process a local architect told them that there was no way the county would approve the property in that area for a day care. He did recommend that there was a property in downtown Everett that might be suitable. He directed us to check with The Everett Herald, they had an old building that might be available.
The Herald had given up on their CRE firm, they weren't getting any traffic, it was the early part of the Great Recession. We were able to deal directly with them, they were excited at the prospect of a day care going into their old day care building. And, they were willing to work with us. But there was a concern since the old center had closed over environmental issues, that we couldn't get a license. The tribal wisdom was that the previous management wanted out of the deal and had called the state to complain about the noise pollution.
I've described the situation before, so here it is quickly. There was an access road to the Port of Everett along one side of the property. On an adjacent side is a thru siding for the BNSF, the trucks would rev their engines trying to climb the hill, jam gears trying to slow down as they went down the hill. The trains are required to blow their horns (3 times?) before crossing a road. Couple of dozen trucks a day, 3-5 trains per day and a bit of switching activity can make for a very noisy place.
In the ten years since the old center closed down, the port had built a bridge over the RR tracks and eased the slope from city level to dock level (40 foot difference). They trucks aren't jamming gears, the trains aren't honking near by. We had the licenser come out and spend a part of a day at the center, she was surprised at how little noise a train actually makes. Since it is a yard, they are going slow, but even the coal trains, with diesels don't make that much noise. The trucks a about 25 feet above us and really don't make that much noise.
The site was cleared of the noise complaint. We could now try to work out a deal with the paper. And, figure out what to do to turn the space from an office / storage building back to a day care.
Stay tuned for Part 2 when the hard work starts.
Updated with links
Previous Adventures:
Intro
The New Center
Floors in the New Center
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Small Businesses