Michael's Eco Signs and Barb's brownies

Our Open House last Saturday was a smashing success. We were busy all day with tours and conversation and the best part was that people started hanging out and talking to each other. Oh and all of the cute dogs coming through the clinic was great too. It was fun to point out all of the green aspects of the practice - Michael made signs highlighting each part and it was definitely a hit. Everyone enjoyed the tours and some people even made appointments to come back with their pets!

Yummy food trays from Zupan's

We had excellent appetizers from Zupan's courtesy of Pfizer and Abbott and my Mother-In-Law, Barb Sulis, made delicious brownies that were gobbled up quickly. My friend Tara from Sweet Treat Company came by unexpectedly with a surprise dessert - her famous cheesecake kabobs with heavenly lavender caramel syrup, cookie crumbs and strawberries - those were gone in a flash leaving only lots of mmmmmmms and ahhhhhs and the lavender caramel is now legendary! Thank you Tara! (If anyone needs the perfect party food - contact her!)

Michael hanging pictures in the hall

We started pretty early that day, and my parents, in town for the event, were lifesavers once again helping to clean and set up. DeeDee held down the fort at home because seeing so many people in her clinic upsets her and she insists on barking so much. Mojo was there to entertain guests and meet the crowds. I think she picked up a few fans.

Crowd having fun in the treatment room

The industry party from 6-8pm was so much fun. I met a lot of new people and watched connections being made between people that haven't seen each other in awhile and I even saw some new introductions. The mix was wonderful. Dr. Shaw from Back on Track came and gave a quick assessment that Mojo looked like she was walking a little more normal! Yay those exercises that Dr. Shaw prescribed and Mojo's hard work is paying off. Dr. Laird Goodman and his wife Pam came to show their support. I worked for the Goodman's at Murrayhill and it was so nice to see them and give them a tour of the clinic. Dr. Don McCoy was there as well, owner of North Portland Veterinary Hospital. He is the surgeon that skillfully amputated Mojo's leg! He is also the owner of Mt. Tabor's Grandfather clinic. You see, I opened Mt. Tabor after working at Murrayhill and Dr. Goodman opened Murrayhill after working at North Portland. We are like a clinic family and it only seemed fitting to take a picture! There were so many other people there as well - too many to name specifically but we are so grateful to all of you for coming. And thank you for all of the nice gifts, flowers and cards full of well wishes! Our friend Linda brought an excellent bottle of wine - 3-Legged Red and she didn't even know about our recent adoption!

Clinic Family Portrait: Dr. McCoy, me, & Dr. Goodman

Daniela and Katie also did a great job setting up, giving tours and essentially working all day. It was a great success and we couldn't have done it without you guys, thank you for your amazing effort and genuine dedication to the clinic.

Mojo helping Daniela get ready for the Open House

We held a party after the event at the Backstage. What a fun time and finally a chance to relax with friends. It was the perfect venue. Michael and I spent every Sunday night there eating and playing pool throughout the buildout of the clinic. It's where we had the famous competition playing to keep Mojo (read more here). And it was the place we went to relax for an hour or two, talk business, drink beer and listen to our favorite songs on the Juke Box. It was nice to share that with friends and celebrate our opening.

Gift from Linda

If you missed the Open House don't despair, you can come in for a tour anytime and we'd be happy to show you around. 

In the process of planning for our Grand Opening Celebration (you do know about it, right? you're invited!) we were discussing showcasing all of the elements we incorporated which focused on sustainability, and environmental concerns. I'm reluctant to jump on the bandwagon and make a big fuss about how "green" we are (like every other company today) but then again, it truly is important to us, and I'm sure those of you who know us will recognize it as genuine concern.

1. No Commute
The clinic is deliberately located close to home so we can reduce our fuel consumption. Kristin's previous commute was about 30 miles round trip, now it's 1.4, and she almost always walks or rides her bike. So she'll now use about 3 gallons of gas per year commuting, if she drives once per week. She was using about 6 a week before!

2. Supporting Local Businesses
Keeping it in the neighborhood is also key to doing business locally - we know the businesses around here, and we're buying from them, recommending them, and giving out gift cards to them for our referral program. Keeping our business part of a neighborhood (instead of a metropolitan area) helps people keep their lives focused locally, which further reduces fuel consumption.

3. Natural Light
The space we chose has abundant natural light from skylights, and we struggled to use it as best we could, basing the whole design around it. Where we needed ceilings, we used relights (interior windows) to use whatever natural light we could get. During the greater part of the day, the whole hallway, treatment area, laundry, and kitchen need no additional light at all.

4. Compact Flourescents
We used them wherever possible - unfortunately there's a few fixtures where these still don't work (a couple due to size, a couple because they're dimmable) - but the majority of the lighting we *do* have to add to our natural light comes from compact flourescents.

5. 100% renewable
We've signed up for the "Green Source" option with PGE, which means 100 percent of our electricity usage is offset with renewable resources - about 85% wind, and 15% biomass.

6. Paper reduction
We're still in the process of going entirely paperless, but almost everything we do is digital (faxing, record storage, emails) with very little printed material.

7. Recycled Paper
When we do have to print, it's on 100% recycled paper. Our business cards, mailers, printer paper - everything.

8. Heating and Cooling
The building's orientation and construction (masonry) keep the temperature pretty moderate and stable, so we don't anticipate needing lots of energy for heating and cooling. The owner of the building also added a lot of additional insulation on the roof while remodeling. Actually, once in the winter while I was working in the space, it warmed up for a couple of days, but remained 10-15 degrees colder inside the space the whole time!
We also incorporated fans into the design of the space to keep pushing the heat down from the open area above - you can really feel the difference, even with the fans on just slightly.

9. Tankless Water Heater
We have a gas-powered tankless water heater, which means the water is heated on demand, instead of keeping a 75 gallon tank heated 24 hours a day. The only drawback appears to be that the water takes a bit longer to heat up, so I suppose we're using more water than we should in return for a reduction in fossil fuel consumption - so...

10. Dual-flush toilet
...hopefully we're offsetting that increase in water use with this - it's got two buttons, let's just call them button "number one" and button "number two". I'll let you figure out what they're used for, I don't have to spell it out for you do I? And button "number one" only uses a half-volume flush, which is what's used most of the time.

11. Fleece exam pads
For the exam rooms and kennels, we're using fleece pads instead of cotton, since they dry so quickly, and therefore require a lot less energy.

12. Humabuilt Doors
We really wanted wood doors to contribute to the warm feeling we were trying to achieve, but luckily found an option that we thought was the best of both worlds - Humabuilt Doors. They're made from wheat chaff - which is annually renewable - pressed into a particle board, and then covered with a thin, nicely engineered maple veneer. The result is a beautiful door that looks like solid wood, and is about halfway between the weight of a solid-core door and a hollow one.

13. Natural Finish
The doors are finished with a clear wood wax called "Osmo Polyx Oil" which is really beautiful and durable, and easy to repair when needed. It's made of ingredients like sunflower oil, Carnauba and Candelilla wax. It's got a very small amount of (benzene-free) mineral spirits in it, but other than that it's all natural.

14. PaperStone
This stuff is truly awesome - it's dense like hardwood, durable, beautiful, and it's made from recycled paper and natural resins. And when I say dense and durable, I'm serious - we went through 3 jigsaw blades just cutting the oval for the sink! One of them was embedded so tightly I thought it was going to have to become a permanent part of the countertop. A few stats:

A 1" by 60" by 144" (we used about twice this amount) slab of PaperStone Certified (versus a regular phenolic composite manufactured from virgin fiber and a regular, commercially available, solvent-based resin) saves:

• 1233 gallons of water
• 2.03 million BTU's of energy
• 131 pounds of solid waste
• 254 pounds of greenhouse gases
• 55 pounds of petroleum-based phenol
• 22 pounds of natural gas-based methanol

Plus it's dimensionally stable, and amazingly tough structurally - it has a compressive strength of 45,000 psi and you can cantilever it 4' with less than 1/16" deflection.

15. Salvaged Redwood
Our shelves up front are reclaimed railroad timbers from the great people at EcoPDX here in Portland on North Interstate. They typically reclaim Indonesian hardwoods and make furniture, but at the moment they have a huge pile of reclaimed California Redwood railroad ties from a dismantled goldrush-era railroad. They split them and glued them for us, and we built them into the design. You can still see holes from the railroad spikes, and staining from the oils that got into them.

16. Mango hardwood furniture
Yet another way we managed to get some really nice wood without cutting down trees in a tropical rainforest. Mango plantations are a great source for beautiful dark hardwood, since the oldest trees stop producing fruit, and are felled to be replaced by new ones.

17. Marmoleum Floors
In a couple areas we wanted floor covering (near the kennels) and went with Marmoleum - which is a "true" natural linoleum, as opposed to the PVC-based stuff that passes for linoleum these days. It looks cool, comes in a million colors and patterns, and it's made from linseed oil, jute, and rosin - no harmful chemicals are used, so there's no long "offgassing" period like there is with vinyl flooring. Plus when it eventually does wear out, it's completely biodegradable.

18. Low/No VOC paint
Most of our paints were extremely low VOC or no VOC paints - Benjamin Moore Aura, Yolo, and Devine Green. VOCs are emitted from traditional paints for years after they're dry, and some are known carcinogens.

Okay, enough already. That will teach you to get me started. If you're still here after all that, you deserve a drink on me. Come to the Open House and take me up on it! It's this Saturday, June 14th. General Public from 3-6, Industry/Friends/Family from 6-8, then from 8-midnight we've got space reserved at the Backstage (behind the Bagdad Theater) for food, pool, and beer.

I am very honored that I have been invited to speak at a Women's Veterinary Retreat in Bend this weekend. I will be discussing the topic of starting up a practice with two friends, Dr. Tracy Thompson of East Padden Animal Hospital (open) and Dr. Nancy Curran of Two Rivers Veterinary Clinic (opening this summer). It's going to be an exciting event. I actually attended a similar retreat 3 years ago and found it to be an amazing connection between women veterinary practice owners and associates who may someday want to be practice owners. And lnow here I am going back to speak as a practice owner! I will be out of town for the weekend and have my wonderful friend, and very skilled relief veterinarian, Dr. Alison Lord watching the practice for me Friday May 30th and Saturday May 31st. Daniela and Katie will be there too, of course, to answer any of your questions, schedule appointments and help Dr. Lord with any pets that need our assistance. I will be back in the office for a normal work week on Tuesday, June 2nd at 10am.

Smith Rock near Bend, Oregon

Open House June 14th! We are very excited to invite all of you to our open house so you can see the fruits of all of the hard work that you've been reading about here on Ready, Vet, Go! Come check out the chandelier. Or maybe your favorite story was about the vessel sink that we aquired last minute for inspection when our original red one was without certification! Or how about those carpet tiles - are they really tiles? Our public Open House is from 3-6pm and we are having a private Industry Party from 6-8pm. I hope you can attend - it will be so great to see you all and meet those of you in person that have been following our progress. All pets and people are welcome!

We've been blogged about! Check out the posting from Cheryl Janis about her visit to our clinic with her sweet kitty, Baby on her site Planet Pink n Green. 

Well, it was another one of those late nights at the clinic. (Yes, the post is right 1:05 AM!) The kind of late night where I forget to eat dinner and have to bargain with the poodle for a few extra minutes (over and over again). Luckily, she is very resiliant and will nap for long periods of time before she asks to go home again.

This time it was a marathon painting session of the back room where our dog kennels, oxygen and nitrogen, server room and general storage are. It's a small enough room to make it fun. The stakes are also pretty low since it's storage but it is a part of the hospital we spend some time in so I wanted it to look nice and finished. My friend Cheryl Janis (interior decorator, feng shui consultant and Editor in Chief of Planet Pink n Green) came to the clinic on Friday for a decorating help session. She already helped pick the colors and the furniture and consulted with us on the design of the clinic and it was great to have her over for some finishing touches. She single handedly rearranged the living room (waiting area) furniture and, using everything I had already placed in the room,  made the room so much more inviting - amazing! We walked through the clinic taking notes on what the space could use when we came to the back area (which I just wanted to wave my hand at and move on to the good stuff but she lingered). Cheryl asked questions about how we were planning to use the space. She talked about the Feng Shui areas of fame and relationship/love which are combined in our back space and offered suggestions for decorating and making it a vibrant space. Number one - finish the space.

Hence the marathon painting session. I finished most of the room in Devine Almond to match the Digital Radiography Suite. Cheryl explained that pink is a great color to use in the love/relationship area of a space but I was bound and determined to use only the colors I had on hand. My first thought was to to use the Aura Wisteria which is a lavender color - close enough to pink, right? When I was looking for the Wisteria, I remembered the Devine Peaches and Beans that we used in the bathroom! Perfect - that color is so happy and it really brightened up the space and peach is definitely close to pink! I painted it on the main wall in the back and then decided to use it for Mr. Oxygen and Mrs. Nitrogen's house (see Michael's earlier post on requirements for passing final inspection!). The floor in that room and the DR Suite is black and we decided to paint the ceiling black to match. Oooooh, the Peaches and Beans looks so awesome with the black!

Black paint freckles!

I had already painted the DR ceiling on friday (that was quite an adventure!) First of all, I didn't bring a hat and was a little worried about getting black paint in my hair. But, being ever resourceful, I grabbed a surgical bouffant cap and wore it for protection - perfect. Then I encountered another snag when I started to warm up with all of that overhead work I was doing. I was wearing my usual painting clothes except I had a nice t shirt on under my painting fleece. I was getting hot and wanted to take the fleece off but I didn't want paint on my t shirt. Picture this: me in my paint splattered overalls, stripped down to my camisole, and wearing a bouffant surgical cap. Thank goodness there were no cameras present. I did the same cap trick tonight but this time I remembered to wear the paint splattered t shirt. I did take some self portraits for this post (sans surgical cap) for your entertainment. Michael is out of town and would have done a much better job at capturing the black splatters on my face but these will have to do. 

Painting overalls, painting shoes and messy hand

I've been getting a lot of requests lately for more pictures of the clinic. We'll get there, I promise but there are still some finishing touches to add before it's photo ready. Michael's photographs do capture the space well but it's nothing like seeing it in person. So we'd like to invite you come by and tour the new clinic! Saturday June 14th is our big Open House. From 3pm-6pm is the general public open house and from 6pm-8pm is the private veterinary industry open house. I hope you all can come and check out the hard work you've been reading about - I know you're curious! It will be a lot of fun!

Carpet gives the room a warm feel

When I was first talking to people about my vision for the practice whenever I mentioned that I was using carpet as my flooring, I got a lot of "you'll be sorries", rolled eyes and just plain crazy looks. I had never seen a clinic with carpet before but then again, I wasn't going for anything that I had seen before. I wanted a comfortable space for pets and people and carpet adds an extra layer of comfort. Dogs are so much more stable on carpet and it really gives a warmer feeling to the rooms. The carpet I picked is a beautiful leaf pattern in brown called "All About Me" by Mannington carpets. They are carpet tiles and are really durable. You can even bleach them! Josh over at Floor Solutions helped us pick out the right carpet, got me samples in all of the colors I wanted to check out and finally helped with my order. He's been great!

Sam feeling much better

Once we put the carpet tiles in the rooms looked amazing. These tiles go on with an adhesive that holds the tiles in place but allows you to remove individual tiles for cleaning - a feauture I figured would come in handy and well, it did! This past week we saw a sick puppy named Sam. Sam had been having diarrhea and not feeling well. Turns out his diagnosis was Giardia which can cause some pretty yucky diarrhea. Sam had some diarrhea on the way in out at the curb and we were making arrangements to go collect the sample when all of a sudden poor Sam just had to go! He picked a centrally located carpet tile and deficated. It was soft and stinky and there was even blood in it. Well, we got our fresh sample and I proceeded to pull up the carpet tile, replace it with a clean one and rinse off the dirty one. It worked like a charm and Sam was nice enough to keep it isolated to one square.

Me cleaning the carpet tile - it's so easy!

Thank you Sam for testing out our carpet and we are so happy to hear that you are feeling better!

It's been a fun week, beginning with the inspector coming in and signing off on our final! What a great opening day gift...really the only way we could open our doors. So officially we opened the doors a week ago in the afternoon once the inspector left. We received lots of phone calls that day and had so many people stopping by to wish us well.

Beautiful flowers on our reception counter

I'd like to take a moment here to thank everyone for their kind comments on the blog, congratulating us and wishing us well. I'd also like to thank the people that have stopped by to tour the practice and for their lovely compliments and the friends and family that have sent flowers and cards full of congratulations and good lucks! It has been an overwhelming outpouring of support and I can't thank you all enough.

Organic irises

It has been exciting to have the doors open and people scheduling appointments. Seeing pets in the practice has really given the space the extra dimension that it needed. We have been educating clients, taking care of the pets in the room with their families present - I always thought it was a little strange to take pets away from their families. When I was a freshman in vet school, I brought my dog, Seso in for a visit and they were going to take her to the back to draw blood. Like I said, I was in vetschool and I had worked in a veterinary office for years. Oh, and I have the personality to speak up...so when they were going to take her back, I simply said no. Probably a little strange back in 1992 but I held her for them and she was perfect. The mystery of what happens when the pets go to "the back" shouldn't be an issue in a trusted veterinary practice. We've demystified the process by inviting clients to be present. Even if we must go to the treatment room for a messier procedure, they can come with. The pets are calmer and it gives us an extra opportunity to teach and converse. Katie, our veterinary nurse, is very kind and skilled and is an excellent teacher for clients looking for hints on nail trimming or even medical procedures like injections. For those in the veterinary field that are mildly horrified by the concept of performing treatments in front of clients - I should tell you that we even drew blood from a kitten and with the help of her family did so with little trauma. If you have never had the opportunity to experience collecting blood from a kitten, it's not easy. They are not easily distracted, they hate being held still,  and they cry during the procedure. We used all of our tricks - we twirled the kitten around, used babyfood for distraction - which she liked and ate the whole time (but still cried), and used some mild tapping/shaking. She was good (but still cried) and reached her limit right when we finished. With a little "good kitty", petting and more babyfood and she was good to go. 

Red and DeeDee on the waiting room couch, supervising our hard work

We're still working out some kinks and still decorating, putting up baseboards, organizing, getting signage, ordering and figuring out our flow but we're getting there and enjoying every moment! Sometimes we're even there late until 2 am! Please feel free to come by for a tour or schedule an appointment with our wonderful client coordinator, Daniela.

Thank you all for such a great week and we're looking forward to meeting all of you and your wonderful furry families. 

yeehah!!!

We had a minor complication with the inspector today involving something the Fire Marshall already signed off on, then he sort of shrugged it off, and said "want me to sign the final on this?" - do you think anyone ever answers that question in any other way than a booming and emphatic YES?!?! That's what I did anyway, so he signed it, wished us luck, and disappeared. So, as of 3pm today, we were officially OPEN FOR BUSINESS!

We can barely use the phone system, the software's not ready, the shelves are empty, the credit card processing machine just showed up this morning, we still need to put up the door trim and baseboards. But the phones have been ringing - lots of existing clients, and even a couple new ones already. We've got six appointments scheduled for tomorrow already, and a few surgeries on Friday! So, despite having a lot to do still, we're open, and we already have a little momentum, which feels great!

Sorry this didn't get posted until so late, I know some of you were dying to know how it turned out - but we're just getting home now, and I still need to rig up some temporary patch so we can produce statements for clients tomorrow when we charge them. So I've got to get back to work, just thought we'd share the news.

CLICK HERE for a nice big image of our completed inspection card :)

Well, one final (?) gripe about the permitting process, then you won't have to listen to me whine anymore.

As Kristin mentioned, JUST LAST WEEK we heard that our modest little oxygen tank requires its own sprinkler, and a vent, and a fresh air supply, and a 1-hour fire rated enclosure. Yes, just LAST WEEK - after months of permitting, reviews, discussions, phone calls, emails, inspections, and corrections... someone just finally figured this out.

Well, we got that sorted out - it turns out we don't really need all that - just a separate "room" for our oxygen. Apparently nobody at the city bothers actually READING the code, so I have to do that for them. I think maybe they sort of *glance* across the pages, see the word "sprinkler" in there somewhere, and make the rest up. I'm serious. And since they don't even read the code, I'm hoping they don't read this blog either. Or if they do, I'm betting they won't see it between the time I post this and the time they sign the card tomorrow morning. They can read it all they please after that :)

So anyway we built a tiny little wall, with a steel door on it, and the Fire Marshall came out today and, after scaring me with a couple new suggestions, said he'd sign off on it as it is... and there was much rejoicing (hooray!)

We also got our final approval on our mechanical permit today... additional rejoicing ensued (hooray again!)

So all that's left is to get the final inspection completed - last time he was out, in addition to the oxygen tank incident, he pointed out that we needed a smoke gasket on the back door, and a door closer... fair enough. I put those in, and called him back. Hopefully when he comes out tomorrow, he'll just nod and sign the card... then I'll scan it and post it here in victory... wish us luck!

Also - the REAL website has been released! All this blog activity is groovy and all, but we need a general-purpose sort of site. It's not all final, or perfectly functional (the record-access parts aren't hooked up yet) but it's generally all there, and looking pretty nice thanks to a spectacular design by Lia at Avive Design, some excellent copy written by Kristin, and some mediocre photos by YT (no Drew, not the girl from snowcrash).

So, go check it out by clicking on the "Mt. Tabor Vet Care Home" link on the top of this page... or in case that one's too subtle for you, here's a more conspicuous one...

http://www.mttaborvetcare.com

let us know what you think! You can also check out the "Portland Picks" website - we're running an ad there all month on the lefthand side of the front page.

starting to look like a genuinely official place of business, is it not?

Picture of Ell's Studio 2008 Tags from www.ScrapbookSavvy.com

For those of you that have been following this blog, you know that I have wanted to open the clinic on a holiday. Here's the run down:

Jan 1 - New Year's Day

Feb 29 - Leap Day

April 1 - April Fool's Day - this was one of my favorites because it would have been so fitting!

April 15 - Tax Day - a day to remember

April 22 - Earth Day - today (You should have seen our cardboard recycling pile curbside! We dragged the cardboard home from the clinic!)

May 1 - so many holidays...May Day, National Workers Day - but we won't make this one and still stay sane!

May 6 - the first tuesday of the month and National Crepes Suzette Day

Crepes Suzette

For any of you that know me - food is my passion so if it has to be a "pretend" holiday (I've never seen any Hallmark cards commemorating the day!) it might as well be one about food! This weekend my mom told the story of me wanting to go out for crab dinner for my 3rd birthday and then there's the one when I was 5 and worried about flying on a plane by myself because I might not be able to read the menu!

Michael and I went to dinner and had a meeting going over all of the things we had to get done to open the doors. The list is still a little daunting but there are some natural deadlines that make it easier to organize.  You may ask how Michael and I had time to go out and eat! Well, thankfully we had the floors refinished this afternoon and so we can't walk on them until tomorrow. No more hard labor today - but you can bet we'll be in there tomorrow.

Thank you all for hanging in there. We will get our doors open soon. I can't wait for you to see the place in person. It's really looking more and more amazing everyday!