Wednesday, Feb. 3 will be a day that goes down in historic annals - future generations will still be talking about it. It was a day that lifeBLUE Media officially opened its doors to friends, clients, neighbors, family, government dignitaries and other distinguished guests. We cut the ribbon as a symbolic gesture of new business in the City of Allen, we welcomed our guests and showed them around, we ate delicious food and enjoyed amazing margaritas, we laughed, we told stories, we met many great people.

And so, in case you missed it, here are scenes from the lifeBLUE Open House. Our new office, perched above the shops at Watter’s Creek in Allen, TX, was on the drawing board for nearly two years, under construction for almost six months and we can all finally agree — it was well worth the wait.

Click to view the Open House Slideshow

lifeBLUE Media is about to take a great leap forward.  We are moving out of the historic flour mill in McKinney to a brand new shiny office space at Water’s Creek in Allen, Texas.  While excitement grows over the impending move, we also feel a twinge of sadness in leaving lifeBLUE’s first office space.  So we thought we would share some memories our team has of our time at the Flour Mill.

Quirks and oddities go hand and hand with historic buildings, and the flour mill is no exception.  It has all the creepy corners, dusty upper floors, sinister basements, and wildlife one might expect in such a venerated structure.  One lifeBLUE employee thinks a dead body might be hidden somewhere.

Our first impressions of the old structure were very mixed.  We didn’t quite know what to think when walking up to the green barn style doors.  Were we walking into a horror movie?  Were we about to meet our doom at the hands of serial killers posing as owners of a web design firm?  Our irrational fears proved false (thus far) and the old world charm and organic tones of the brick walls, wood floors and pillars grew on us.  Now at the end of our tenure here some of us feel saddened as we make the move to our new building.  The flour mill simply weaseled its way into our hearts.

At first, the space we occupied left us a lot of elbow room.  Over time things got more… cozy.  Isn’t it odd how situations such as this drive innovation?  As we grew and space shrank, the situation lent itself to more collaboration and a stronger team atmosphere.  We were able to become a close group working together to produce a better product in less time.  In a way, the flour mill played a part in our growth as a company.  We started as just a group of developers and designers, but over the past three years we have become a tight knit group.

For all its quirks, this building served as the backdrop for a great deal of fun.  The small field behind the building staged many “Ultimate Frisbee” showdowns.  The unfinished upper floors became a playground for our afternoon team building activities.  And we can never forget the black cat that had free run of the building and frequently displayed its rodent trophies to us as we came in for the day.

You don’t get to have free run of most office buildings.  The flour mill gave us this privilege.  We were able to play football outside.  We had photo scavenger hunts, treasure hunts, and played sardines.  The unfinished third floor provided a unique backdrop for taking photos of our many themed “dress up” days.  We were all more than a bit scared on the nights we needed to work late as the noises of the flour mill convinced us that ghosts might actually be real.

This week we sat down and shared our memories of our vintage location.  We laughed at the stories of our run-ins with hawks, the pot holes in the parking lot, and our quirky neighbors.  We recounted the frustrating moments, such as injured employees having to navigate stairs just to use the rest room.  Together we all sighed in relief at the thought of never again having to step up two and a half feet to get on to the landing from the west parking lot because there were no steps.

However, with all our excitement concerning our move to a new office many of us also felt a tug on our heart strings.  The flour mill is where lifeBLUE cut its teeth.  The flour mill is a piece of history that is now part of our history.  Those of us who spent time within the aged walls of the old girl will always look back with fond feelings as we remember these formative years of our company.

So goodbye, sweet flour mill.  We now move forward to new horizons, but you will always be missed.

Of course we had to take time and mention the overwhelming response we received between July 9th and August 8th in conjunction with our “I Need a New Design” Contest here on lifeBLUE. Just to let you in on some of the raw numbers involved:

• There were 209 websites submitted that graced our “Wall of Shame”.
• 10,827 votes were cast over the 1 month span.
• Contest winner ReviewBack.com brought in 4,391 votes (and yes, we verified them).
• Blogs are powerful. Through our 2nd chance offer, ThirdFloorCards.com won out after offering up a blog post reviewing our website and ended up in 4th place overall before winning the random drawing of ‘2nd chancers’.

A full write-up of the contest is currently running in our Company News section. Most importantly, we want to thank everyone that took the time to make a run at being dubbed the worst looking website out there. We enjoyed having you here at lifeBLUE.