Well friends, it’s been a busy few months!
We are evolving and learning as we provide furnished office space. We are slowly getting to know nearby businesses and neighbors. We opened in February. It feels both like yesterday and years ago, and yet furniture and artwork are still being delivered and setup.
In fact, check out our newest backyard addition!
For someone that has always loved interior design, I feel like I have a good eye for things that go together, but I’ve learned that I lack the confidence in the execution. I’m particularly nervous when hanging things on the wall, so actual decorating is a bit slow going. We have tons of sound absorbing commercial artwork and other abstract paintings to add a little color and life to our offices. It’s just hard to know where to hang it all! I guess it feels a bit more permanent than just putting a desk closest to the wall with the hard line ethernet and other outlets, and setting up the large, 32” curved monitor so that there is no glare from the ceiling to desk height windows. It’s easy enough to move a sit/stand desk around a 100 square foot office, or place a filing cabinet, guest chair, floor lamp and shelves in this or that corner. It’s not permanent. Likewise, it’s simple to setup the wireless keyboard, mouse and desk lamp and place the membership swag on the desk for new people.
It’s fun and also stressful to have so many items in my shopping cart and then to hit “BUY!” It’s great to have this amazing vision of what our coworking office in east Tucson looks like, including all the amenities, snacks, drinks, and other free offerings. Thinking of all the ideas of offers, events, and contributions to the community is all well and good. It’s the collaboration with like-minded people that is hard, especially since most of us here are introverts. We have discovered that we are just introverts with a ton of awesome office ideas for Tucson!
I’m writing this as AZ Gives Day is just around the corner and while thinking of the ways in which we can give back to this great city of Tucson, and particularly something that impacts east Tucson.
Since purchasing the property at 6700 E Speedway (between Kolb & Wilmot) which is on the bus route and surrounded by two beautiful washes, we’ve had the opportunity to personally see Tucson’s homelessness closer up than ever before. It’s with a heavy heart that we have had to ask people to move on from our property. It’s a learning experience, to be sure—slightly panicked when we saw a fire burning near our backyard (you know, the Tucson is rather dry), we discovered that it’s legal for people to have a fire to stay warm or use for cooking. As seasoned business owners, we are continually amazed to learn something new every day!
These are people that oftentimes need medical or behavioral healthcare. For that reason, even though we have just opened, we have decided to make a donation this AZ Gives Day to El Rio Community Health Center. As a place that offers healthcare for the homeless, we can think of no better way to impact our homeless neighbors nearby.