Valley Girls

After many months of looking at spaces, negotiating terms, planning space and looking at blueprints, we are just weeks away from moving our office, and I can't wait!

We've been in our current office for six long years. It's in an old brick farmhouse that is part of a larger historic section of Mt. Washington, which is a neighborhood in Baltimore. Our building has been part restored and part renovated. To look at it, it is really great. Exposed brick with horsehair mortar, exposed beams, tin roof, plank floors, and juxtaposed with blond wood and built-in iron beam desks with Italian laminates. It is beautiful. The problems though, are many, unseen and insidious. First, there's the noise -- if it rains or the wind blows, the roof is so loud that work can't be done, phone calls can't be heard. There's no insulation - anywhere- so we freeze in the winter and fry in the summer and pay hefty electric bills just the same. The phone and IT system is antiquated and maintained by the landlord, so it's out of our control......and now he's tripled our rent! So move it is.

Our new space is perfect. Out in "the valley" -- that's Greenspring Valley, hon. Horse country. Or in our case, we front onto a field of bison. See photo. It's a new building in an old village, and our space is being built out just for us (tenant improvements here we come).

The landlord is great - all through the negotiations and the build out it's been fun and relatively stress free.

In the long run, it's all about the landlord and the space.

We move on June 1. I can't wait to get back to the work of advertising, versus the work of moving.