Day 109: Back from Wedding Bliss with Major Construction Updates!
A number of you have reached out asking about construction progress since I haven't posted anything in about two weeks. My sincere apologies for keeping you in the dark—but I have a really good excuse!
The radio silence wasn't due to any construction disasters or intentional information withholding. The past couple of weeks have been even more hectic than usual because my oldest son got married! The wedding was absolutely beautiful, and I'm completely over the moon for my son and his gorgeous new wife. I wish them all the happiness and joy in the world!
I'm just now catching up on everything—social media, emails, and apparently my construction blogging duties.
Three Major Updates That'll Blow Your Mind
Now, back to business! I've got three incredible updates that I can't wait to share:
The Boulder Scare That Wasn't: Remember that humongous boulder threatening our stormwater system? False alarm! No extra expenses, no delays—just a valuable lesson in double-checking assumptions.
We're Going Vertical—FAST: The building erection has progressed so rapidly that I literally couldn't believe my eyes. Scroll down to see the superstructure image. I promise you'll be amazed at how quickly they erected the building skeleton.
Wicked Pickle Tournament & Founding Memberships: Open Play is sponsoring a fundraising tournament for YMCA and Hopkinton Center of Arts on October 25th. This event marks the launch of our first wave of Founding Memberships—your chance to secure the best deal we'll ever offer!
Boulder Crisis Averted with a $20 Canva Solution
If you recall from my last update, we discovered another massive, trailer-sized boulder that seemed immovable. The team's only solution was bringing in a hammer to spend 2-3 days breaking this geological monster into manageable pieces—at a cost of over $20,000.
Something didn't sit right with me, so I decided to verify whether this boulder was actually blocking our progress. I took a drone shot of the site and overlaid it on our civil engineering plans. Five minutes in Canva—scaling, aligning images, and reducing the drone photo transparency to 50%—revealed the truth.
The boulder (which I colored red for dramatic effect) sits completely outside our Cultec chamber installation area. We don't need to touch it. At all!
This simple exercise saved us $20,000 and three days of work! Consider me Canva's newest and biggest advocate. Instead of wasting time demolishing a perfectly harmless rock, my site team focused on productive work: completing the stormwater management system installation and working with our electrical contractor to install and backfill secondary power lines from the transformer to outdoor lighting and the building.
Building Erection: Blink and You'll Miss It
The building is going up. Fast. Super fast. The picture truly speaks volumes!
This erection team operates like a Swiss watch—all business, zero wasted motion. Just two weeks ago, we had an empty concrete rectangle. Now we have a complete structural skeleton! I still can't wrap my head around it.
Next up: installing metal wall and roof panels, followed by insulation. If the weather cooperates, my building erection team promises to be completely finished by the end of October! Can you believe it?!
Community Engagement: Wicked Pickle Tournament
As we approach the construction finish line, we're ramping up community engagement. Open Play is proudly sponsoring YMCA and Hopkinton Center of Arts' annual Wicked Pickle tournament on October 25th.
Perfect timing! By then, our building will be nearly complete and weather-sealed—making this the ideal milestone to launch our Founding Membership sales. After this marathon project, we can all finally see the finish line.
Feel free to join the Wicked Pickle as a player, or just stop by to say hello and soak up the fun atmosphere of competitive players sporting pickle costumes. Yes, pickle costumes are apparently a thing, and I'm here for it!
What's Next
Stay tuned for more building progress photos as our structure takes shape, plus details about the Founding Membership deal launching in less than two weeks!
Between wedding celebrations, boulder discoveries that weren't problems, and watching our building literally rise from the ground, it's been quite the month. Sometimes the best construction updates come after stepping away from the project long enough to see just how far we've come.
The Open Play dream is becoming reality faster than I ever imagined!
