Downtown Toadal Fitness Completed!!!

I was over-the-moon happy to make the phone call last Friday to Christophe, Toadal Fitness' owner, to let him know that we had passed our Final Building Inspection at the downtown location and it was ready to be open for business! Our work there included total demolition and rebuilding of the Women's and Men's locker rooms and restrooms, and creating a central hallway to lead members from the front workout room back to the cardio and Yoga/Zumba rooms.

The challenge for us was that we were only able to do one restroom/locker room at a time, while the other served as a unisex room for the membership. We had to build half of the central hallway at a time, relocate fixtures, do flooring, tile, electrical, HVAC, sheetrock, etc. from start to finish - twice!


We started with the Men's side:

 

Then opened that and moved on to the Women's:

 

 

 

Our sincere thanks goes out to Christophe, the owner,  Ernesto, Tyler, Shani, and the rest of the employees there, and to the membership, who lived with the dust, the inconvenience, and sometimes the noise of rebuilding their facility.
And my hat's off to our talented crew, and our miracle-working foreman that saw this job through from start to finish - Nick Rahall. Job well done!

To Health!!!

Winter, Our Busiest Time of Year?

01/22/14 - "Hurry, let's get this job done before the rains come!" was the refrain from our clients back in October and November, and here we are, nearing the end of January, with still no rain in sight...

 



There came a point early this month, that clients realized that we could go ahead with their weather-dependent jobs with the assurance of warm, dry weather, and all of a sudden, we're building out of people's roofs, replacing roofdecks, lining up Westcoat(R) deck resurfacing work, and a host of jobs normally relegated to the summer months.

 

The men are in their element, framing this large dormer for a home office remodel in Soquel, and I'm reminded once again of what a diverse, talented group of people we have on our crew and in the office.

My heart goes out to the folks enduring such a harsh winter back East. And the drought here in the West is just cause for concern. But a couple of sayings come to mind:

Make hay while the sun shines...

&

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!

 

Full Speed Ahead with Toadal Fitness Remodel!

01/13/14 - Work is progressing nicely at the remodel we're doing at the downtown location of Toadal Fitness.

Work started in December, and we closed down the Men's locker room for a complete make-over.

During this time, club members and staff have been great, accommodating the noise and commotion that comes with the territory. It's such a pleasure working with the club's owner, Christophe, with his wacky sense of humor and admirable quest for making the best club he can for the members, and really caring about them and his staff. His philosophy of making these clubs a place for 'everyone,' not just buffed supermodels really has paid off, and his plans for expansion of the existing clubs, and new locations is a testament to his business acumen and just being a 'good guy!'
Full speed ahead!

Cypress To Remodel Toadal Fitness in Downtown Santa Cruz!

09/20/13 – I am really excited about a project we have coming up where we’ve been given a great opportunity to make the greatest gym going even better.

2nd floor addition will rise up from the back half of club.

The owner, Christophe, and architect Dennis Anderson, and I have been in the planning stages for months now, and things are finally starting to roll. The 1^st floor remodel will consist of updating and improving the restrooms/changing rooms, adding a hallway and stairs, and in the Spring, we’ll build a huge 2^nd story addition with two classrooms to add to the one on the first floor.

Architect Dennis Anderson and assistant, Sam, take
measurements and notes.

Christophe has a great business sense and philosophy with these clubs – they are clubs for everyone, not just fit, trim bodybuilders and athletes. He’s devoted to the total health of his members. And expanding the downtown location like this is exciting to be a part of!

Cypress employee, Nick Rahall, contemplating his near future.

Cypress At ECHO Seminar/Trade Show!

March 02, 2013 - This morning, I was honored to be included among the vendors with booths "showing our wares," and meeting and greeting hundreds of attendees at the bi-annual ECHO Central Coast Education Seminar. ECHO, or Executive Council of Homeowners, is a nonprofit membership corporation dedicated to assisting California homeowners associations (HOAs). The good folks there sponsor seminars like this to inform and support people that are serving on the Board of Directors in their HOAs, and help to demsytify some of the dizzying legal, practical, and procedural aspects of being a Board member.

There were three groups of industry professionals that discussed several important topics:

"Practical Management" provided a blueprint to establish an effective working relationship with your property manager.

"Protect Your Landscape Investment" offered a new way of looking at landscaping, with an emphasis on water conservation.

And "The Downside of 'Keeping It Casual'" addressed the risks inherent  in communities that choose to overlook certain Davis-Sterling and procedural requirements.

And before, and in-between these speakers, we had a change to meet and introduce ourselves to the attendees. It was good to see so many familiar faces there this morning, and good to shake the hands of so many new people as well. And it felt great to talk over some of the things that we specialize in - Westcoat(R) solid-surface deck coatings, Hardie cementitious siding, composite decking, et al - and find that many of these Board members are looking for exactly what we do!

A big thank you to the folks at ECHO, and everyone that gave up their (early) Saturday morning to attend!

Cypress Now Offering Finish Carpentry/Cabinetry

February, 2013 - We are pleased to announce the addition of high-quality finish carpentry and cabinetry to our ever-expanding scope of what we offer to our customers. Over the years,  when sourcing kitchen cabinets, custom vanities, and built-ins, we've noticed a real gap in what's available between the economical, big-box store variety, and high-end custom cabinetry offered by local woodshops. But with the expansion of our crew last year, we now have three talented, experienced finish carpenters in-house. Most recently, Nick Rahall, our multi-talented foreman/carpenter made an exquisite custom vanity and built-in unit for a bathroom remodel we are doing in Aptos.
The vanity features high-quality dovetail joinery, smooth-as-silk rolling drawer slides, and a glossy, sprayed paint finish.

The built-in features a slide-out drawer at the bottom for a clothes hamper!

Congratulations on the fine work for this job, Nick! We look forward to offering this kind of quality to our customers in the future!

Cypress Construction Christmas Party 2012!

 12/21/12 – Today, we celebrated the year past, and the coming 18th year of Cypress Construction Services with a festive Christmas party at Center Street Grill in Santa Cruz! How grateful I am to have had such a good year that we could come together and take time out to appreciate each other, and the fine folks we’ve worked for this year. As usual, it starts out with a long-winded speech by the boss. As I looked around the table at the 16 talented men (and woman) that work for Cypress, many of whom brought their spouses to share in the festivities, I couldn’t help but think about the past year and the many challenges we overcame to be here.

Next up, a rare viewing of last year’s irreverent video chronicling our history - “Cypress Construction…from the beginning.”

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

 

And it was time to eat, drink, and be merry! Hat’s off to Center Street Grill for the great food, service, decorations, and professionalism. They were so easy to work with!

Then it was awards time. I’m very proud to have awarded certificates and gift cards to the following:

Martin Hernandez – Most Improved Employee

Nick Rahall – Best New Employee

Juan Acosta - Most Valuable Player/MVP

Congratulations to all!

Then it was time for our traditional “Great Moments In Cypress History” where I’ve handed out memorable (good or bad) quotes from various jobs throughout the year, and we all try and remember where the quote came from. Needless to say, many were fond memories, and some that we’d rather forget…

Finally, it was the Secret Santa gift exchange, and wishing everyone a Happy Holiday, and a nice, long 4 ½ day weekend!