THE YEAR OF CARE HOMES
Our main source of work this past year has been in the healthcare sector, which I kind of find shocking as with everything going on Covid wise you’d have thought that we wouldn’t be going anywhere near these places, but that really isn’t the case. A large part of the work has been for care homes, particularly Kingsley Healthcare. They have home’s scattered about the country and are working hard to raise the standard of elderly care. This is great for us because we get to produce some really nice fitted furniture for these homes.
The centre I want to tell you about today is Buckingham Lodge Care Home in Watton, Norfolk. We have been working closely with Kingsley Healthcare’s designer to develop his designs to work with the space available and to make them cost effective for the centres as they will be looking to update there other centres across the country. This involved the usual JFW process of drawings and site surveys which you have read about in my previous blogs, if you haven’t you should check them out.
SITE SURVEY
I took the long ride down to Norfolk on a very sunny but cold Monday way back in March and upon arrival was ushered into a tent to be swabbed for a lateral flow test, the result would decide if I could enter or not. I was relieved to discover I was negative and I was permitted to enter. I was greeted by the manager who wore the most vibrant and flowery shirt I have ever seen, he pulled off the look with style! He asked me if I knew what I was doing, I said yes and armed with my map/layout plans I went through each room measuring the various spaces and rooms for the furniture we had to make. Then, I left and went to the beach…….
PRODUCTION
Everything went so smoothly, there were very little hiccups, nothing to really write about of any interest anyway, everyone knew what they were doing, with Owen and Lee doing the most with the counter and fireplace bookcases, then Lee taking on the media unit and refreshments stand on his own which is a big step forward for him. Danny was working his magic with the spray gun and Dexter completed the Library bookcase then we were done and dusted and ready to deliver.
EARLY STARTS
The doors came up at 6am and the van’s sprung to life quicker than I did when my alarm went off 40 minutes before. The whole team minus Lee and Charlie (who were both enjoying the baking hot sun in Somerset and Wales) took the long drive down to Norfolk. Upon arrival we did our lateral flow tests and after a 30 minute tea break we were cleared for entry. We smashed the install, completing in two long days and leaving behind some happy and impressed residents.
I’m sure you will agree we did pretty well to fit all this in two days, especially on the hottest day of the year!
Have a great weekend!
Adam