Remodeling. That is a big word. It means work… and a lot of it. Physical work, mental work, exhausting work. It also means change. Good change and the promise of something new. When you start to see the finished product come together, it’s so satisfying.
Paul and I love to do remodeling work for our flip houses. It’s almost fun. I know… we’re weird. (Check out some of our past remodeling stories.) We also enjoy doing remodeling projects in our own home. But when it’s for the business? That brings on a whole different kind of stress level. We’re under more of a time and money crunch. You know, the whole paying rent and mortgage thing… trying to get finished as quickly as possible to get moved as quickly as possible and be closed the least amount of time as possible. A lot of moving parts trying to get all lined up to work perfectly together.
Paul is a very handy guy and can do most types of remodeling work himself. However, there are a few items that we’ve had to hire others to complete. That in and of itself isn’t an issue. It’s the “not being in control of when it gets done” that drives Paul a little bit crazy. For those that don’t know him, he doesn’t sit still. He is always on the go, getting things done. I am amazed daily at how much he has completed by the end of a 12-hour day. So for him to have to wait on someone else to do something (even if it really isn’t much of a “wait”), makes him feel like he’s getting behind. But, even with that being said, we are well on our way to getting this project finished.
The process of looking for a new location started a little over a year and a half ago. We were asked by our current landlords to start looking because they wanted to expand their business into our storefront. That is totally understandable! That was why they had purchased the building in the first place and they were giving us a generous amount of time to relocate. They weren’t really even giving us a deadline. We were, however, a little bummed because we felt that we had finally gotten the store fixed up the way we wanted and were still a new business just starting to get our feet wet. We weren’t really looking forward to having to start over already.
So the process began of looking for a new place to rent. There were many spaces that we looked at or that were mentioned to us but none were quite right. Either the rent was way too high, the location wasn’t optimal or wouldn’t work for deliveries, or it wasn’t the right size. So then we looked into building a new space. As I’m sure you can guess, the cost involved with that was more than we wanted to take on at this time with us still being a new business. So then we decided we’d have to find something to buy and fix up, like one of our flip houses but for ourselves and for our business. But we ran into the same problems of the price being too high, not the right location, etc. We even bid on a property that our city owned. When that fell through for the second time, we were at a loss.
But you know that saying, “all things happen for a reason”? I truly believe that. We had thought the city’s building would work perfectly for us. It was way more space than we currently needed which was going to give us plenty of room to grow, add more for the community, and basically just see where it could take us. When we didn’t get it, we kind of felt defeated. It was starting to go through both of our minds that we might actually have to close the store. We still hadn’t been given a deadline to move out, but we knew it was getting closer. One morning, on a whim, Paul decided to talk to a local store owner to see if he would be willing to rent us one of his buildings. Like I said, we were at a loss as to where to go next so he thought, what the heck? All he can do is say no. We have to try or admit defeat. And you know what?
He didn’t say no.
He actually said he was willing to have a discussion about selling us TWO of his buildings. Fast forward a few months and we are now the owners of 300 and 306 West Main in Salem, Illinois.
Paul officially started working on the 300 W Main building on Monday, December 29th. Today is Monday, February 10th; six weeks since he started the remodel. He’s been there every day, most days for at least 12 hours. Even with the extreme cold weather, snow, and ice, he’s been there. Every. Single. Day. The storage room is practically done and we’ve started bringing inventory over to fill the shelves. The office area is ready for carpet, doors, and baseboards. The showroom is so close to being ready for the displays. But the outside still looks the same. With it being winter, it’s been very hard to find days when it’s warm enough to paint outside. The front of the building needs a facelift and that definitely needs to happen before we open. Pray for a few good warm days before March!
In the current location, the back rooms are being taken apart. Walls and shelves are coming down, inventory is being counted and packed, and it looks a little chaotic. In the showroom, you can’t really tell that anything is happening yet. But that’s about to change. We are almost to the point that the displays are going to need to be cleared so they can be moved. Come back soon for the after pictures when we have finally opened our new doors!
In life, there are many situations where you might want a do-over. We’re getting that in our business. A little sooner than we would have liked, but still a do-over. Paul and I honestly had no idea what we were doing opening a store. We have learned a lot over the past couple of years and have said many times “we should have done this” or “we should have put that there”. Now we’re getting to do it better. In a better location, with a better following (we didn’t have any following the first go round), and a better situation in general. I am so incredibly excited to see what this new chapter brings us and the City of Salem!
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