• Energy Star¬Æ Qualified
• High-quality 2400 x 600 dpi resolution
• Features network connectivity via wireless/wired interfaces
• 250-sheet capacity tray

The CD to install the driver is gone.  Fortunately, you can go online to download it here. Select printers and then HL-2170W and download the correct driver for your system.

In the beginning we used an axe, tearing down walls, building new walls, tearing out carpet, sealing concrete, removing sheds, re-welding gates. Our construction crew worked efficiently and expediently to convert a dark and musty office building abandoned and in disrepair into a blank slate. There’s a wealth of pictures from several stages all completed in record time over the course of two months. Matthew’s set is here, a wealth of shots are available on the Caroline Collective Flickr Group.

The next step and one that continues to be addressed is using a scalpel to convert that blank slate into a functioning coworking space. Every weekend, we plug leaks, tear out fluorescents, garden, shop at IKEA, clean, paint, install fixtures and strategize inexpensive solutions. It’s daunting but over the course of a year in this 7-day-a-week job we’ve learned plumbing, electrical work, demolition, light construction, woodworking, painting, landscaping, horticulture, janitorial services, and interior design. We’re not trying to say that Caroline Collective is the Money Pit but the building is anywhere from 30 to 60 years old depending on where you’re standing.

While the majority of the heavy lifting has been completed by Ned and Matthew we’ve also learned that people love to get their hands dirty. When there’s fun decorating to be done we like to bring people into it. Our first painting day had around fifteen people who came for fun (and lemonade offered by @thebloggess‘ daughter) and were able to get our coworking space and several offices painted. That was also the day The Bloggess broke our shower. Seriously.

Our second Community Repair day will be this weekend, Sunday, May 31st from 11am til 2pm. We will be preparing for our one year anniversary by fixing all our leaks and putting a shine on things. Everyone is invited to stop by as we’ll need help hanging things, moving things, painting things, taking things apart, planting things and putting things together. Stop by between 11 and 2pm on Sunday May 31st. Simply bring your work clothes (and any plants if you have them) and we’ll provide food, drinks, paintbrushes, screwdrivers, hammers, and power tools!

The real lesson learned:

If a community is to use or benefit from a project, a space or an initiative then part ownership should be given to that community. This ownership can be physical or metaphysical and can be offered by incorporating input from the community or by giving the community members the opportunity to physically contribute to the project. The result of this ownership is an increase in the perceived worth of the project in the community’s eyes because of the added input or sweat equity. Additional benefits of opening up the mindshare are that new ideas come from the wisdom of crowds. Projects with large amounts of physical labor benefit from an averaging of the workload across the constituency who will use the space. Ownership bestows a pride in knowing that one’s individual contribution was part of something positive and larger but is also a buy-in to the accountability for the project shared among the faciliators and the members of the community. The community is more likely to use something that was built for them with their contributions than something erected in isolation and then handed the keys.

In the case of Caroline Collective’s maintenance and repairs, inviting the community in to help us complete them is helpful on many levels. First, it gives people the opportunity to indulge their inner handyman or to get crafty. Second, a community improvement day is a great community building exercise as it allows people from disparate backgrounds to share a common narrative. Third, it gives the community a glimpse of the incredible amount of work required to keep Caroline Collective open and functioning as a community resource every week.

We were half correct.

Billed as the Presston (plans available here), these tables were designed by our friend Presston, a set designer for the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences. These tables are less expensive than the IKEA solution, almost twice the size by square foot and have a pleasant visual contrast between the black stained top and the natural wood legs. Initially, everyone was quite satisfied with the size and the space of the tables. As the year wore on a couple of them began to wobble a little bit as everyone’s elbows rocked back and forth in coworking delight and for most events we reconfigured the space to fit the needs. Suffice to say, these tables got a lot of mileage over the course of the year.

Ultimately, we needed to replace the legs with something that didn’t wobble. We looked into reinforcing the wood, we looked into cutting plywood outlines to add more rigidity and prevent a moment arm. We even looked into replacing the legs with uber-chic pipe fixtures. None of these solutions were either cost or time effective. Which brought us back to the IKEA legs that work so well for many other tables they sell. After some clever tinkering from Ned we found that a small strip of plywood on the back of the hollow core doors provided enough structure to secure the legs. Voila, we’ve got legs that no longer wobble, rotate or quiver in a strong breeze. And with half our solution provided by IKEA and the other half a hollow core door, we’ve still got larger tables for a lower price.

We never seem to learn this lesson. But seriously, anything construction related takes almost triple the time allotted and double the cost. Take our lock-replacement scenario for example. We needed to replace a lock on a sliding glass door recently. Simple fix right? Sure. We figured it’d take 3 hours tops, that’s including getting the replacement hardware which should be easily accessible at any hardware store or home depot right? Right?! Wrong! Of course the door was made in the 70′s and no one has anything close to the right hardware, so it has to be special ordered from Pennsylvania, and of course when it gets here, the doors have been so jimmied over the years that even the special order stuff doesn’t work. Almost two weeks late and four times the original cost (two wrongly purchased sets, the right set and expedited mail delivery) it takes a heavy drill, some rather rough sounding hammering and a set of lock-washers to fix a patio door lock! Sheesh!

But a padlock alone will work for now. It’s taken us almost exactly a year to get around to this, and honestly it’s always been at the top of our to-do-list. But, dude, it’s hard to find a welder in town who can “work with our budget.” We were fortunate enough to meet Marty, a UH studio arts student who specializes in welding and metal work. Marty came over to Caroline yesterday and helped us to finally make our gates more user-friendly. He added some steel plates, cut off excess material and lined it all up just right so that we no longer need to bother with that noisy chain! Thanks Marty!

p.s. if any of you need the assistance of a good metal worker get in touch with us at Caroline for Marty’s contact info.

Part of our mission is to be as open and inclusive as possible. This is how we work to create a productive atmosphere and maintain an innovative and exciting buzz. Diversity and opportunity are important to foster but it’s important to keep a focus and maintain order and professionalism. We’re slowly learning to be ok with not being everything for everyone and that a little bit of curation can go a long way.

Speaking as landlords of a type, and being under our own, we know first-hand how crucial close communication between both sides of the equation can be to a successful business relationship. From our experience, very few people actually want to cause problems, or “get away with something.” However, mistakes can be made and people (ourselves at times) can land in uncomfortable situations. Open communication and the ability to face a problem “head-on” has proven itself time and again to be one of the best, if only effective solution to uncomfortable business problems. Plus, we’ve also found that most people, landords included, are interested in finding effective solutions to complex problems. Who doesn’t like a stumper!

We’ve struggled with this one for a while. Since the beginning of Caroline Collective we’ve been adamant about keeping our day-rate free. The central idea of Caroline Collective is to foster community and serendipitous connections across a wide range of interests, skill and boundaries — charging folks at the door just didn’t seem to make any sense. Well, we’ve learned that some things just need a little value assigned to them. So here are the facts:

It cost Caroline Collective roughly 18 bucks per person per day to maintain the coworking space. That’s just the cost of the space, not including operational expenses. So we figure it’s pretty fair to offer a suggested day-rate of $10.00 per person. 10 bucks gets you all the great things that you love from Caroline, and now you get that added good feeling of knowing that your contribution is helping to sustain an exciting and innovative cultural institution. Of course, you can give less or even more, after all, it’s only a suggestion.

Here’s another “duh” lesson. Aside from just being plain rude it’s bad business.¬† Granted, we’ve tried to mediate the need to both show-case under-represented artists and simultaneously foster a neighborhood-friendly feel, but no matter what, the bottom line remains: upset neighbors do not argue for the success of a “community-focused” organization. Oh!¬† A specials shout-out goes to the folks in the condo to our South! You guys are the best!

We know this sounds a bit obvious, but (and we can’t believe we’re admitting to this) we actually worked in the front office of Caroline for, well probably about 4 months before we caught on. We’re not sure why. We barely used it. But it was such a nice office. Just ask Mandy of Fresh Arts, the current happy member. So now we work in the big coworking space, out in the open, with all the files and junk tossed into a closet. It’s better this way. We weren’t that organized to begin with.