Cypress In 2016

"What do you do with an up economy?" was suddenly the question in 2016. And it was a long time coming. For years we've struggled, reinvented, and worked hard to get through the recession and its aftermath, and this past year all that changed. The phone kept ringing, the emails kept coming, and I was often in the position of making the choice - expand and attempt to capitalize on the upswing, or focus on what we know and keep a good thing going. And I've been tempted by that in the past - large office, office manager, 16 employees... and all the stress, headaches (and sometimes lawsuits) that result.

And so, this past year, we've completed a couple of additions/remodels...

 

Along with the reliable and gratifying stream of kitchens and bathroom remodels.

Of course, there was our share of decks, and this year saw expansion into more composite materials (ChoiceDek, etc), Cable-Rail railings, et al.

As I've said before, our work with Homeowner's Associations is the single biggest reason we survived as well as we did through the tough years. And that hasn't changed despite the economy turning around.



When all is said and done, it's not 'how much' or 'how big' we've grown, it's taking care of a great crew, so we can continue to take care of our great clients, and the homes they live in!

Making Up for Lost Time

8/09/16 - After the economy went off a cliff in 4th quarter 2007, it was imperative that we hunkered down and reinvented ourselves to survive. Gone were the elective kitchen and bathroom remodels, additions, and upgrades. In our case, we were very fortunate to have aligned with work at homeowner associations (HOAs), and just the bare-bones, essential commercial and residential work that came our way.
Last year, I was encouraged to be receiving as many calls as we did for elective kitchen and bathroom remodels.











And this year, we're currently working our way through our 2nd exciting residential addition.

Great to see the resurgence in upgrades like this Choicedek composite deck with stainless steel CableRail railing.




Grateful to be full-speed-ahead in 2016!

One Step Ahead of the Raindrops...

12/17/15 - Here we are again, breaking ground and starting an addition with another "California winter" right around the corner. Finished the interior remodel (in the idyllic late summer/fall) while we waited for the Building Permit on this. So the foundation went in last week:

And now framing. Hoping to get to the point where we can put the "lid" on it before the weekend, with rain predicted 7 out of the coming 10 days!

More updates to come. Meanwhile, grateful to be keeping the crew busy with so much work now booked for the next few months...

02/03/16 - Happy to be putting the finishing touches on, and clients moving in next week!

 

 

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!!!