Hi Everyone,
I hope you've had a spectacular weekend. We finally got some much needed rain, not a lot, but at this stage anything is welcome. In my case this means I'll have to call the tire man to fix the other tire on the mower and get busy on mowing some of the weeds that have continued to grow. I don't mind a bit, any excuse to be working outside is welcome in my book. Lets move on to the topic of this post. :-)
Many of you may recall June 30th I had water damage in the shop, if you missed that short post you can revisit it
HERE. This has been my second go around with water damage in my shop, last time was 5 years ago tomorrow Aug. 27. That time it was all in my "war room/work room". I had just received 7 large shipments of Christmas merchandise in, Mr. P was working out of state, it was my birthday weekend, No I don't believe I'll ever forget that incident. At least during that time I was able to remain open, this time I wasn't so fortunate. They say good things come out of bad things. In this case after almost 8 weeks of a lot of hard work I have to agree. This isn't exactly the way I would have planned updating the shop, it's all worked out and I'm pleased with the way things are shaping up.
I've started the fall decorating as you come up to the shop door, hopefully to put a smile on your face and the expectation of things to come on the inside. Because our temperatures are still a bit on the warm side I haven't added a couple of items to the bench, as the days start to cool down I'll share some updates with you. The new Open Sign is on, so please come on in.
As you walk in the door the check out counter greets you. If you've followed the blog or a new follower you can see how the shop layout was before
HERE. These pictures reflect part of the earlier layout and the dark green carpet.
I didn't want to put you through picture overload, so I made a collage of the loading and unloading of almost 400 boxes, the carpet is out, walls touched up, even the pegboard is given a fresh coat of paint and the new carpet goes in and the carpet in the office has new pad and stretched. Wowser! The before pictures make me realize just how big the area is "empty". lol
Every single piece of furniture was moved to a different location as it was brought in out of the pods, except for the coffee station. I want you to feel welcome when you come inside, please help yourself to a cup of coffee while we continue the tour.
This is now the over all view of the shop. Many that walk in the door have been amazed, they've said: I've expanded, the shop is bigger, you have more space and WOW! All great compliments that mean the world. Most all of the display pieces are antiques I used in our other home. When I decided to open the shop they fit perfectly into the scheme of things. A few of them are still being repaired hopefully to be returned soon.
Behind the screen you can see the backside of my small dinosaur T.V. It's sitting on the credenza along with the sewing machine. Now just ignore the furnace and that 'ole hot water heater. I thought about putting some type of a screen or fabric up to totally hide them, but I truly enjoy sitting there being able to see all the way to the front of the shop as well as seeing the great outdoors.
The little alcove where the cream cupboard sits is once where the check out counter sat. I love the way the cupboard is niched into it's own special area. The silver you see is the conduit where I had some electrical work done, that will all be painted in due time. The white shelving used to house personal items and a few things needed at the check out counter, in other words a catch all, hidden behind all the screens I used as a backdrop. When I re-configured the layout of the shop I knew they would serve a better purpose displaying merchandise. I love the look now, not only is the merchandise displayed nicely, all the "junk" is either thrown away or organized in another room I call "the War Room" or many of you might call work room. I'm going to have to come up with another name for it as well.. yes folks, it's all organized as well. There is still some behind the scene stuff to be done before that reveal. Let's just say I'm as proud of the way that turned out as I am of the shop.
I couldn't resist sharing a close up of the touches of fall on the check out counter.
~BEFORE~
~AFTER~
Hugs ~Lynne ~
