Cypress Crew Bulking Up for Winter...

El Nino, we're ready for you! Brought the crew together for lunch today at Capitola Diner, and talked about the coming winter, which Building Inspectors to watch out for and, well, girls...

We're trying out a couple of new crew members, one of which has years of roofing experience, which could come in handy in another month or two... Meanwhile, keeping the crew well-fed and happy. El Nino, bring it!

Which Will Come First? New Addition to the Family or to the House?

04/07/15 - It was December last year, and a delightful young couple hired us to build an addition and remodel their home. One catch, (the impetus behind the expansion) they are expecting their first child in early April! So, after some missteps with the plans and the Building Department in December, we finally broke ground in January!

The foundation and slab were dug, formed, and poured by the expert crew of Whitlow Concrete. Here we see our plumber, Nufo, laying rough plumbing before the slab is poured.

Ready for concrete - with vapor barrier, rebar, and one Red Bull fueled crew member! 

 Let the framing begin!

Roof trusses, OSB shear wall on the exterior walls... starting to take shape!

And the interior framing coming to a close. Six more weeks to go! Will we make it in time?!!!










And now, the 2nd week in April, with a due date of THIS SATURDAY, the 11th, we're putting the finishing touches on - inside and out...

Cypress Is Moving!!!

08/06/14 –

It’s the end of an era, or at least a 10-year stint at the current location of Cypress Construction Services. When I moved to Santa Cruz in 1994, I was living on the West side and going to UCSC while building the construction business, and the West side was my “center of gravity” in the town. As our business grew, so did our geographic horizons, and the ‘center of gravity’ moved downtown, where I moved this office in 2004, and bought a condo in 2008.

Now, in 2014, I’m married and living mid-town around 26^th Avenue, and we are increasingly working in Capitola, Aptos, and Soquel. So, once again, I find our ‘center of gravity’ moving, this time to 41^st Avenue. We found a perfect office in the elegant professional building at 1500-41^st Avenue in Capitola, and will be setting up shop there over the weekend.

 

Looking forward to this move, and being more centrally located in order to serve everyone better! Our new address is: 

Cypress Construction Services, Inc.

1500 – 41^st Ave. Suite 290

Capitola, CA 95010

 

Our phone numbers and email addresses will remain the same. Feel free to stop by and say ‘hello!’

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.