I am dying to get into the new storefront and start furnishing / decorating, but there are two barriers in the way:
a) My lease doesn’t actually start until Nov 1
b) I need all my store furniture at Berwyn Sprout and the Berwyn Shops until end of December.
And that’s mostly fine — I’m going to be busy enough at the Shops that it doesn’t really make sense to try to open the storefront in Nov / Dec of this year. BUT, I want to.
I did talk them into letting me borrow a key for an hour so I could go in and do a floor plan — I needed one for the permit application (and the landlord didn’t have one, alas), and so I took the measuring tape and headed over — only to discover when I got home that I had not been sufficiently precise about my measurements, because the math wasn’t quite math-ing.
I spent about two hours on that, to come up with the image here, and it was only THEN that I remembered that the tenant two before me was an architect, and he almost certainly had floor plans, since he’d designed the space, and I know his wife, and I could’ve just asked her….sigh. (Mariannell Bassett-Dilley, if it’s easy for Tom, I’d love a copy of the floor plan. If it’s not easy, don’t worry about it — this is probably fine for going on with.)
It was really nice being in the space, and I’m trying to figure out what I can reasonably bring over in November. I already brought over toilet paper and paper towels. Need hand soap. Tea kettle and mugs and tea. Do I need a food license to let people have a cup of tea (free) when they’re in my store? Something else to figure out.
There’s storage there, so I’m tentatively thinking that I should take over my large folding tables and keep them there, so that if I do want to do a pop-up day or two in November, I can. And it looks like my friend Lissa Dysart (aka the Tomato Lady) is going to do a vintage glassware and other lovelies pop-up in the space in December (which will help with the rent), so stay tuned for more on that. Hopefully my tables will be of use to her.
I think I want a little comfy seating area. Do you see the corner that’s 102″ x 58″? That feels like the right spot to put a loveseat and coffee table and end table and comfy chair. I have the comfy chair at the Berwyn Shops, so I’ll move that over at the end of the month, and I’d be making the coffee table and end table — lots of people come into my shop and ooh and ahh at my tables, but then say, “I don’t know where I’d put it!” So it seems like demo-ing how you can easily incorporate them into your home would be worthwhile.
I’m currently looking at this Jumal velvet loveseat.
https://www.wayfair.com/…/house-of-hampton-jumal-575…
I am really trying not to loan the business money if I can avoid it, and I’m currently a little low on cash (the ICE raids have REALLY been affecting sales at the Berwyn Shops (which are in a majority-Hispanic area); I usually do about $500 – $750 / weekend, and it’s been more like $200-$300 the last month, which sucks). And I could put it on a credit card, obviously, but we try very hard not to carry over balances at all, so there’s not much point in that unless I really think sales will pick up, and normally, I would absolutely think that, as we go into the holiday shopping season, but with ICE here, I honestly have no idea.
My team is working hard on getting more of the items into the online store, which should help — sometime in the next day or two, both the white candles and the bee jewelry should be available for ordering online. Please keep me in mind for your holiday purchases!
(And if you don’t buy from me, do still hesitate before hitting that Amazon purchase button, and consider whether there’s a small / local / immigrant business you can support instead.)
I can also move over Kevin’s parents’ lovely wood bookshelf, that has been stored in our garage — it might make more sense to wait until I’m moving everything at the end of December, and just get a U-Haul or hire movers then? But I’d love to start the gaming nights a little sooner. But then again, in December, all Lissa’s lovely and fragile glassware will be in the space, so maybe I should just be patient? I suppose I can bring board games over and folding tables and chairs and still have a game night or two in November, before her items arrive. It won’t look fancy, but gamers aren’t picky, in my experience. As long as there are snacks, everyone will be happy. 🙂
I need to paint. I’m pretty sure the ceiling is going to look like what I have at the Shops right now — blue, with gold stars and constellations. I used Benjamin Moore’s “Stained Glass” blue last time — not sure if I’ll stick with it. Maybe. I should find out what it’ll cost to get a painter to do the blue. The gold stars and constellations I can probably manage myself.
I have various rugs at the house that I might move over to the shop. Kevin and Anand don’t really need rugs, right?
I am tempted to build something forest-y on part of a wall. We’ll see.
I have all sorts of other things I should be thinking about right now, things I can actually do, and should actually do, but I keep daydreaming about this…oh well. 🙂
