07:40 – My basement lab is no more. Well, the room is still there, and it still looks pretty much the same, but its function is changing. Amidst everything else on my to-do list, I decided that it was time to convert my working lab into a prep lab. So far, the visible changes are subtle. Instead of shelves and cabinets filled with relatively small bottles of a few hundred different chemicals, those shelves are now in the process of being filled with relatively large bottles of a few score chemicals, all of which are used in making up kits. I’m also going to fill in an unused wall area with another 20-odd feet (7 meters) of shelving.
It’s hard enough keeping up with the chemicals for just the chemistry kits. In April, we’ll be shipping biology kits as well, and by August we’ll be shipping forensics kits. There’s some overlap, but not a great deal. Thus the need for more working and storage space. I regret the loss of this dedicated working lab area, but a prep lab is a higher priority. And, obviously, it will still be usable as a working lab, albeit not as convenient.
I was going to write something with a straight face about converting our upstairs hall bathroom into my new working lab, ripping out the toilet and bathtub and installing working benches and cabinets. I was going to make it so convincing that Barbara would believe it and think I’d lost my mind. But April 1 is too far in the future, and anyway Barbara has been so good-natured about my taking over large areas of the house for business purposes that it wouldn’t be fair to provoke her further.