Author: Jennifer O'Driscoll

Did I say “check back in two or three weeks” in my last post on this construction blog? Hmm. Well, it’s been more like six weeks, but I am happy to announce that the construction is done! We will be open for business and begin seeing kitty patients on October 31.

Starting on Tuesday, October 16, you will be able to make an appointment for your cat by giving us a call at (785) 856-MEOW (6369).

We are working very hard these next two weeks to get everything in the clinic purrfect for the cats of Lawrence. We can’t wait for this Halloween to get here! 

You may have noticed that the Cat Clinic construction blog is running late. There are two reasons for that: 1) the construction itself is running late, and 2) as we get closer to opening, there is so much to do that I no longer have time to take photos of the progress.

So from here on out the construction progress will be a mystery. Let’s pretend this is like a home improvement TV show. You, dear reader, are the homeowner who has to leave the premises so that you will be surprised at the final reveal of your newly renovated home. Except in our case, the big reveal will be of the completed Cat Clinic of Lawrence. Not quite as exciting as a free home renovation, but real life is no HGTV. For one thing, this project is taking a lot longer than two days.

Thanks for following our construction progress, and check back in two or three weeks for the Final Feline Finish! I hope. If only we had this guy on the job:

This week the job site is finally starting to look like it might become a veterinary hospital. The cabinets went in:

Once they began going up, the progress was quick. Here are all the cabinets in the surgery prep area (where the scrub sink, autoclave, and area to wrap packs will go):

 Right side of the lab area cabinets:

 Left side of lab area:

Cabinets in an exam room that will become an exam table:

The electric supply for the x-ray machine is starting to go in:

Doors salvaged from the church are going to be exam room doors:

The insides of the cat townhouses (for cats to stay in while boarding) got put together. They are put together in a row. The whole row is too big to fit in one photo, but here are some of them:

The little boxes are steps to help older cats or young kitten to climb from level to level. The front doors of the cat townhouses are wood and glass. We have been staining the wooden part of the doors to match the pews that will be seating in the clinic:

The wet tables arrived and were installed in the treatment area:

The back doors to the exam rooms went in:

The window we reused from the church as an observation window into our isolation room went in:

The parking lot got a new sign:

 Now the parking lot just needs a whole lot of weeding …

This week marks the end of the estimated time to complete construction — the estimate was 3 to 4 months. Running over time-wise puts us in the same boat as pretty much every other construction project ever, though, so I am trying not to stress about it too much.

The floors got their coat of epoxy this week, which ended up looking clean and neutral. They will be easy to sanitize, which is important in a cat hospital.

The reception area (and looking into one exam room):

The hall looking into three of the exam rooms:

Looking into exam room 1:

The epoxy in the front (reception and exam rooms) and back (halls, breakroom, restroom) is gray. In the medical areas (surgery, treatment, x-ray) it is light blue. Here’s a photo of the treatment area:

The gray and the light blue floors look different from each other in person.

Here’s a view of treatment from the opposite direction:

In other construction news, the Dillons grocery store across the street closed on August 13th. It is going to be torn down and a brand new Dillons built on the same site. Goodbye, “Dirty Dillons” — as this store was affectionately known. I am excited to have a brand new Dillons nearby in about a year. This is a view of the old one from the front yard of the Cat Clinic:

If only their construction could have been going on at the same time as the Cat Clinic’s.

Apart from the floors, the other progress this week was the installation of the breakroom cabinets I bought from the Lawrence Borders bookstore when it went out of business. In their new life they are part of the pharmacy area:

I think they turned out great, and they were an amazing bargain. Here’s a straight-on view (the gaps are for a small refrigerator and a sink):

Next week: more cabinets and (hopefully) more progress.

To be honest, this week was not too exciting, constructionally speaking.

Progress consisted mostly of prepping the floor for the final covering, which will be epoxy. Before the epoxy, the floor has to be cleaned, and self-leveller poured in places where the floor is not flat.

The result:

That is the “waiting” side of the reception area. This is the other side of the reception room:

An exam room:

Hall leading to the exam rooms:

Hall leading to treatment area:

Hall leading to the break room: 

I know, fascinating, right?

Somewhat more exciting this week was the arrival of two big pieces of equipment.

The autoclave: 

 And the dental unit for cleaning cats’ teeth: 

 I can’t wait until it is time for the equipment to come out of the box!

Speaking of time, you may have noticed that the Cat Clinic is due to open in late August. That is still true, but very late August is probably a more accurate way to put it. There is still a mountain of things left to do before we are ready for our feline patients, but we’ll get there!

This week the work was priming and painting the walls and ceiling. How many gallons of white paint does it take to cover the inside of a cat clinic? More than 70 (yep, seventy gallons):

Everything we didn’t want painted white (they used a sprayer) had to be covered in plastic:

The result:

That is the south hall, with the breakroom at the end. Turn right before the breakroom and there is another hall with a restroom and the mechanical room opening off of it. Next, a painted exam room, with construction dust hanging in the air (and an abandoned drink in the corner):

The side of the reception area where the desk will go, with the front door on the right:

 The view from the front desk (a.k.a. the inside of the front doors):

Next is a photo of the “waiting” side of the reception area. (Our goal is for cats and owners to not spend any time waiting, but I’m not sure what else to call the part of the reception area that will have seating.) Now that it is painted, this corner looks so clean and white … except for the pile of trash, that is. 

 This will be the pharmacy area (the doors to the exam rooms are on the right):

Here’s the view of the vaulted ceiling (now painted white), taken standing in the treatment area looking toward the front of the building:

Next is the entrance to the x-ray room on the left, and the isolation room on the right (no, it’s not a closet with a window; it is housing for contagious kitties who need to be hospitalized away from other cats). 

In addition to the paint job, the crew scraped the concrete floors to get them ready for the epoxy flooring to be poured next week. I didn’t take any photos of the floor scraping because that was too boring of a picture, even for me.

There was one other thing that got completed this week that I do consider photo-worthy though. I made a cross-stitch version of a Charley Harper print, and it came back from being framed this week:

 Where in the clinic should we hang it?

This week, the cat clinic is starting to look pretty. At least, the windows are:

The windowsills come later — they will be oak, stained dark to match the pews which will be seating in the reception area. Another pretty window:

The curved part keeps the 8-foot ceiling from blocking the 10-foot window.

The afternoon light in the reception area is pretty, too. It is getting a little easier to imagine this room with seating and a reception desk, populated with cats (safely in their carriers) and their people.

The back wall under the arched ceiling is crying out for some kind of mural. I’ll have to work on that…

We will need a lot more light in the treatment area in order for us to see what we’re doing with our cat patients, but it is nice to have a window in the room anyway: 

It is hard to capture in a photo most of the work that went on this week, which was sanding all the mud and texturing the ceiling. All the white dust on the floor is from the sanding.

It was easy to get photos of some important deliveries this week, however. First were the cat townhouses:

That was one heavy box, with five unassembled cat townhouses packed into it. There was no way to move the box into the building, so it had to be unpacked piece by piece:

They don’t look too impressive at the moment, but eventually those melamine boards will be part of spacious, comfortable houses for cats to stay in when their owners are out of town.

There was another big delivery this week as well, which took up most of the treatment area — the cabinets:

There are a lot of cabinets; this is not all of them in the photo. A bunch more were put on the “roof” of the surgery room to be out of the way while the clinic is painted — which is on the agenda for next week…