Two More Sleeps

Just two more sleeps until we open the shop to the public!

Today was full on, pricing stock and working out how to display it all.

Right at this moment in time, the shop is a cross between 'a shambles' and 'a fabulous space' but by Monday morning, it should have all fallen into place perfectly.

It's well after 11pm and we worked for almost ten hours today. No doubt tomorrow will be the same, so I'm off to bed to get some sleep to regenerate and rejuvenate.

There's nothing else to report really.

The same CD played over and over all day and we sang stupidly to most of the songs..

We had a couple of visitors including two happy fur babies that loved to cuddle.

We had an early lunch at 'A Taste of Burrum'  and I had grilled barramundi with salad, which was DELICIOUS!

It was a happy day and we are still enjoying this process!

I'm working on my dream :)

Nite all.

Nowhere Fast

Today was one of those days where it took a long time to do not much!

We spent a lot of time on the phone with the bank creating a business account, then a lot of time online printing out and completing all the paperwork, then a lot of time at the Post Office processing the application. Then a lot of time scanning all the paperwork and emailing it, before snail mailing it.

We spent some time reviewing the new logos so that I could message the designer to make some minor changes.

Adoring Husband removed the old blinds and replaced them with the new ones. He drove into town and collected the clean rugs from the dry cleaners and he drove to Craignish to collect our FROG box.

I don't know how we would have managed this last month without him. He has been crazy amazing, continually putting his hand up to help in so many different ways. Sometimes he's been a pain in the butt too, but mostly he has been our saviour.

The weekend is going to be the making of us as we attempt to stock the shelves and do the pricing and make an inventory and create the display cabinet door bells and the front glass door cover and the cushions and hang the wall hangings and OMG the list goes on!

We'll do our best work under pressure! I have faith in us :)

Adoring Husband is going to be at the shed assisting at this weekend's first aide course.

I took photos with my camera today, which I haven't downloaded or edited yet. I'll take some more photos on Sunday night or Monday morning to show the work that we've done.

So much fun to be had!!

Oh and I won $38 in Powerball this week ... a pleasant surprise ... and the first prize has jackpotted to ten million dollars, so I'm going to win that next week. Haha!

It's already after 11pm, so I'm off to bed. So much to do! So little time!

Nite all.  

So Little Time!

We left home at 8.45am.

We returned home at 5.30pm.

We spent that time in The Bay and today's check list goes like this:

• Appointment at the bank to discuss business account options
• King Kong to get big bells for the front door and little bells for the glass cabinets, journal stands, a big white vase and some big artificial sunflowers for beside my desk.
• Stocklands for more journal stands, check and buy this week's lotto tickets, change the lenses of my distance glasses at OPSM, drinking glasses and teal rugs from Kmart and beanbag beans from Target.
• Spotlight for material to cover the training chairs, blinds for the front windows and back door.
• Bunnings for a bracket to replace the broken one, check the prices of wet/dry vacuum cleaners and find a dead bolt.
• Aquavue for lunch.
• Go Natural to get ice cream and yoghurt.
• Office Works to pick up an order and to buy any other lovely office stuff that our hearts yearned for - because, well you know, it's Office Works!
• The security shop to check out deadlocks.
• Big W to get a vacuum cleaner.

That's about it for the day! We dropped off all of our goodies at the shop and checked our mail at the Post Office and finally headed home.

I DID remember to take photos of the shop this afternoon!

Now I'm off to bed so that I'm alert and ready for another big day tomorrow!

Nite all.

Coming Together

It's all coming together nicely and I still forgot to take photos!

It's been such a long day, I can't even remember what we filled it with.

Adoring husband fixed the door and the leg of the big counter that the previous owner left for us, but then we changed our minds and decided to get rid of the big counter.

Unfortunately, it was too big to move, so Adoring Husband had to destroy it, which was no mean feat. It took a long time, a lot of noise and a big mess to get it into pieces small enough to move and dispose of.

The Motivator received a surprise parcel of stock that she ordered a LONG time ago. Beautiful colourful timber jewellery that we displayed on our new ladder-style cabinets and which look lovely with the Cenzoni leather bags and wallets.

We rearranged the glass top counters and the small cube units. I displayed some of my journals and notebooks on one cube unit, but we ran out of the little display stands, so that's on our list for tomorrow.

Our glass column cabinets look great in the window and it took us a while to figure out where to put the big table.

Tomorrow, we have another day in The Bay with a 'to do' list a mile long, so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Ticked Off.

Two amazing things happened this morning.

1. The real estate agent actually came to the shop to answer our enquiries.

2. Telstra said they would be at the shop between 8am - 12pm and they turned up at 8.15am!

We now have phone and internet connected!

The Motivator and I had a business meeting.

We had just started to assemble some furniture when the cleaner arrived.

Before he even started, there was an issue about the equipment that he brought with him - this young guy (Josh) was sent to us with specific equipment, that just wasn't capable of doing the job that was required. He apologised profusely and did the best he could, but the carpet did not get cleaned as well as it should have.

I sent both a private message via their website and then an unfavourable review via the survey email that they sent me this afternoon.

Josh did a great job of cleaning our windows and doors. He was a lovely young man, very polite and courteous.

Before he cleaned, The Motivator and I moved as much furniture into our office area as possible - this part of the carpet is the cleanest in the building, so we decided not to clean it - mostly because we had no way of moving everything out of the space to have the entire carpet cleaned.

So while he was cleaning, The Motivator and I bought some lunch at the fish and chip shop - grilled fish and salad - then sat in the lounge chairs outside our shop in the shade and enjoyed the cool breeze while we ate said lunch.

It was a very pleasant couple of hours.

When Josh left, with yet another apology, we began assembling the table and chairs that The Motivator bought yesterday, but then we were interrupted when she remembered a Skype interview that she had made an appointment for, so I finished assembling the chairs, while Adoring Husband put together the table.

The whole set looks fabulous under the down lights in front of the yellow wall.

We selected the material that we'll use to cover the training chairs.

Adoring Husband and The Kiwi (who stopped in for a visit and offered some help) broke one of the legs off the big counter when they attempted to move it ... truth is, it was already damaged badly, so it didn't take much to break it completely.

We re-hung the blinds for some privacy/security for the night.

By this time, it was after 6pm, so we packed up and headed home.

I made a quick curried mince with rice for dinner, followed by fresh strawberries and coconut ice cream with home made strawberry sauce for dessert.

It's now rapidly approaching 11pm so I'm off to bed so that I can be fresh for a big day setting up shop tomorrow.

Things should move along quickly now!

I will take a video tomorrow to show how the shop is coming along.

Nite all.

Checked Off

Today's check list ...

• Confirmed with the logo designer to create two logos as described.
• Looked for the Estate Agent to verify some information - message left.
• Two shop counters repaired by Adoring Husband, assisted by me and then painted by me.
• Training room cleared of most paint gear, i.e. ladders, drop sheets, paint tins/brushes etc
• Shop vacuumed.
• Paint scrubbed off the carpet.
• Cleared stuff no longer required in the shop.
• Blinds attached to front doors. One then broken and removed! Newspaper reattached to door!
• Explained what the shop was about to 3 random visitors.
• Showed Brad through the shop describing our plans.
• Participated as a guinea pig for local fish and chip shop, being the first to taste and review their new grilled fish recipe. Bloody bewdiful!

Did a quick savoury mince dish for dinner.

My body is feeling a bit the worse for wear tonight. It's already approaching 10pm and I'm off to bed right now!

Telstra technicians are coming tomorrow to connect our phone and internet. The cleaners will be here after that to clean our carpets and windows, so we need to move some stuff out of the shop and clear the floor for them.

We'll be taking my swinging pod chair to the shop at some stage tomorrow or Wednesday.

Still so much to do.

Time now for sleep.

Nite all.

One Down, A Few To Go

Another day down and one day closer to opening the doors!

Today, all the painting was done and dusted. I did the skirting boards and a tricky strip between doors. I cleaned the toilet and hand basin. Cleaned the other room divider, emptying out the drawers and cleaning out all the fine dust that floated and landed in them from the sanding and planing.

We cleared a lot of rubbish and The Fisher King did a tip run. He also finished painting the architraves and the doors, as well as filling more holes.

The Motivator and I moved some furniture and cleared some space so that the cleaners can do the carpets on Tuesday, although we MAY get them in earlier yet.

The Motivator vacuumed the carpets and cleaned a few of the bigger items in the space and we figured out what we didn't need, so that we could remove it from the space.

We planned our launch day for 2 weeks after our opening day, to give us time to make it enjoyable instead of rushing it for this weekend.

At 4pm I did a coffee run and came home to cook dinner.

I'm feeling a bit weary tonight and I don't think I'm capable of any further brain work. It's time to rest.

Nite all.