Hard Hat Times

This past week the SIM office and those who work there started on a new adventure: remodeling! Mostly this remodeling takes the form of a badly needed paint job. Some offices had large patches of peeling paint and the majority of the paint was not washable, so fingerprints and lizard droppings were all too evident. The ceilings are turning from a mocha color to a nice, bright white. The office reception desk is now framed in a dirt-hiding chocolate color while the rest of the hallways and offices are being painted a tanish color, again aimed at reducing visable dirt which is so prevalent here. This morning, we walked in and were very surprised to see lavendar walls!! We joked that we were trying to attract a purple loving colleague of ours to come and work in the office. Thankfully, it was only the first coat, a bit more yellow and we had a more expected khaki/tan color. Here you can see the chocolate and lavender walls. It looks quite nice, but it will look nicer without the lavender. The color itself is not bad, it is just rather surprising in an office setting!
Since furniture was being moved around to paint, the opportunity was taken to shift around a few of the offices to hopefully serve people better. I have a personnel interest in the shifting as I am being shifted! My office is currently very large. The majority of things in it are not mine, nor are they things needed for my job. I am being moved to a much smaller space where i don't have to house extra files and furniture. I am looking forward to having my own bulletin board and a bit more say in what is in my space. In order to make the space shifting fit our jobs, we had to shift around some doors. Here is the doorway to my new office from the hall. We had quite a lot of banging and falling cement pieces while this hole was being made. This picture is looking from my office into the director and deputy director's offices. The door on the left has always been there, the door on the left is another new addition. Another long intended project that is being completed is that of putting windows in all the hall doors in the office. Some places like the treasury need a bit more security, so their doors will have grates covering the windows. As more of the offices are using air conditioning and keeping their hall doors closed, it is nice to be able to see if people are available for talking or are in appointments. Here is our new treasurer... we locked her in so she couldn't leave. We just push food through the grate now and again. :) Just kidding Ruth! I'll keep taking pictures so you get the full effect. At least one more paint color will go up, couch cushions are being recovered, curtains are being washed and some changed out. It is nice to see all the changes and extra nice not to be in charge of making them!