So... here endeth day 3. As many have asked I thought today, as promised, I would give you a guided tour of the shop. So come on in for your virtual visit.
This is the newly-sanded and primed/under-coated front window. No longer will it be dark brown and dull. We're going to inject a bit of brightness. No. I lied. We want to inject a LOT OF BRIGHTNESS!!! The woodwork could be white or it could be cream or it could be a colour. We're not sure at the moment but the white undercoat has made such a huge change already.
Just to protect unwary passers-by my kiddie painted a beautiful sign to warn them of wet paint.
A lovely white door too. Let's go in through and have a nosey around.
Here are Sandra, my OH and Kiddie working on the floor. A total replacement is out of our price range at the moment and after the nice man yesterday said said cleaning the nasty black lumps off wouldn't be feasible. So we decided to lift dirty ones and swap them with cleaner ones from the back of the shop.
While we're at the front of the shop, here's the kiddie priming the inside of the window frame. Child labour is a goooood thing. :)
And this is Sandra's current favourite corner of the shop. The floor tiles all look nice and clean and gum-free and the walls have been painted. Perfick! (OK. Ignore the hole in the wall - it will be hidden by shelving so noone will know it's there).
And this is the back of the shop. Behind the yarn pigeonholes is the place where we swipe the unsoiled floor tiles from. We now have the fridge installed so can buy bigger bottles of milk and therefore can have more visitors/helpers to come and play.
Scattered on the floor are the contents of the kitchen and the fairy is in there hard at work again. Shall we take a peek?
Look there she is. Bent over her work - beavering away. But just what is she up to?
Ta-dah!!! She's playing with sticky backed plastic. All those episodes of Blue Peter she watched weren't wasted on the fairy. In her youth she wanted to be Valerie Singleton when she grew up.
She has covered the stained worktop in Fablon which is actually cerise pink and lilac - what a strange camera distortion. Bleach and Jif sorry Cif weren't doing it but again a new worktop is much further down the line. It looks lovely now it's finished.
The next room across from the kitchen is the gents' loo. This has not been used as a 'facility' for a long time. It is a storeroom and cloakroom for all our coats and bags.
Next to this is the stockroom. Empty at the moment but not for too much longer. Can't wait.
And finally we move across to what will be the mail order packing and despatching area.
And then on to our office. It's starting to look quite grown up in there already. Quotes and invoices and a desk diary and everything. Before too long we'll have a computer in there too and then it will be really serious. :)
So there we have it. Things are trundling along nicely. All the walls are emulsioned. All the woodwork is primed ready for paint. A few floor tiles need gluing in place then we can have a good go at hoovering and maybe hiring a carpet cleaner just to give it a 'once over'. Early next week we'll be able to start and move in all of our fixtures and fittings ready to take delivery of some stock.
Lots of lovely customers keep coming past and waving and popping their heads round the door to tell us how glad they are that we've taken the shop on and they can't wait for us to open. Neither can we - wait that is. There's still a great deal to do but it's going to be fab.
Right. The Chinese is smelling gorgeous and the sofa is calling my tired body to come and vegetate in front of the telly. We're having a day off tomorrow so I'll post again on Monday.
ttfn
xxx
