Updates
Update #4
Construction is underway! The three individual suites that used to be Cricket, Weathered Shed, and Wrap & Ship are now officially one suite that is REDACTED!
Over the last few months, we have diligently worked with the architect and landlord to create a floor plan that would reuse as many current walls and spaces as possible. This week, the construction team will be wrapping up the demolition portion, which includes cutting out the walls that were necessary to remove, removing the old carpeting and cleaning up the cement, and finally replacing all of the old ceiling tiles with nice, clean ones.
Once they finish the demolition, then the new construction begins. We confirmed they will start that process on Wednesday (Nov 13th). The demolition portion was listed as 4 weeks but only took 2.5 weeks. This portion is also slated for 4 weeks, and we are crossing our fingers that it also moves along quicker than planned.
Financially, we hope to secure our last bit of funding from the City of West Allis tonight at the Common Council Meeting. The construction costs were more than initially estimated, so we needed a little more funding to complete the project and buy all the necessary technology and equipment to build the escape room.
Allen, Tyler, and I are working hard behind the scenes, building prototypes and working on the coding that goes into the escape room. We had a big day this past Saturday, watching our separate work come together (mostly successfully)! We continue to work on what we can until construction finishes, and we can start physically building the escape rooms.
At this point, it is less likely that we will open before the last week of December, but we are still crossing our fingers. Unfortunately, it is more likely that we will open in mid-January. We won’t open until the room meets our expectations.
~Nick
Update #3
Redacted has submitted its Building Permits and Plan Review documents to the City of West Allis. Construction should start within the next couple of weeks.
While we wait for the Construction crew to get to work, Allen, Tyler, and I are busy getting the escape rooms ready to go. Allen is designing our Pico Box (pictured to the right). This box is 3D Printed and will contain all the puzzle hardware in our escape rooms. Once it is complete, Tyler and I can use it to test all our electronics, eventually leading us to test our puzzles during construction.
~Nick
Update #2
The first big milestone of the Construction Phase has been completed. We have been working with an Architect and a Contractor to ensure everyone is on the same page about what we want our escape room to become. After a few weeks of discussion, the architect submitted the plan review documents, and our contractor submitted the building permits to the City of West Allis. Hopefully, those will be approved in the next couple of weeks. At that point, we can begin construction.
We have leased three adjacent suites and will turn them into one big area. We are so excited. Here are a few ‘Before’ pictures of the space before construction begins.
Update #1
We are due for an update, so here goes!
A couple of months ago, I bought a bottle of wine. Allen and I were struggling with the fatigue of all the logistics of starting a business. We also were having terrible luck securing financing and a location. Two things happened that we were told, ‘Oh, we’ve never seen that happen before.’ So what did I do? I bought a bottle of wine. I told Allen that things had to improve soon, that our luck couldn’t continue being that bad, and as soon as they did, we would celebrate with this wine! Or if they kept spiraling downwards, we would drink it in our misery.
Well, we finally drank that bottle of wine!!
We were officially approved for our business loan, so we now have the rest of the financing needed to make Redacted Escape Rooms happen. We also signed a lease for our location a couple of weeks ago, but it was contingent on receiving the rest of the financing. That means both our location and funding have now been secured. We can move on to creating the escape rooms rather than working on the logistics of starting a business.
