Flooring

One would never pay so much attention to flooring in a building unless you are in the trade, or you have highly developed design sense. Yet, designers spent hours going through samples trying to pick the " it" material for the space. Hardwood floors, carpets, or tiles, you name it. It does make a big difference what color and texture your floor has. You have to consider the amount of natural light, artificial light, traffic load, walls, size of the room, and the height of the ceiling, when you try to decide on flooring.

Spring, Spring, Spring

It's spring time in Chicago, at last. With all the blooming flowers and budding shoots, finally we can leave our winter jackets behind in the closet. It's so nice to see people walking with strollers. It feels like years since I biked last time. Of course, spring time means construction time. We see a lot of projects awaking after months of hibernation. Repairs, renovations, re modelings, and new construction for schools, stores, and houses. We are looking a busy season ahead of us.

Swine Flu and Parking Lot

The two most important issues on my mind right now are the swine flu and the parking lot issues. Swine flu is a fast-growing epidemic of today that scares everybody. Easily it boosts the subtle xenophobia among the public. Often times the construction tradesmen and the laborers are immigrants, so we experience the social swirls day to day. Most of the times, we work with the subcontractors we already know, and they've been living here long enough and we know them well enough. My concern is that this kind of disease can easily turn into more than a health issue; it can develop into something bigger, like social, economical, and political problems. The world economy is already bad as of now, and people are worried that this flu can freeze the flow of world trades. Now, that is really scary for me.

On the other hand, I notice that a lot of buildings are being renovated and built right now in the neighborhood. Life goes on. It has to go on. One of our current projects is a parking lot renovation for a religious institution. I hope everything goes smoothly with the process; I know it will.