Well how did that happen?! April, already! So I guess that means that the opening is this month...
I can't quite believe it, after over three years we will be finally opening our doors. I am not sure it will feel real until I am sitting behind my desk and the excitement of the opening has died down. The last few years have been filled with planning, organising and researching, I am not sure what I will do with myself after the 21st!
As this is my last blog post before we open our new showroom, I thought I would have a look back at the work we have done over the last year, restoring our beautiful building in West Street.
To say it has been a huge effort is a complete understatement. I cannot believe the amount of work that Paul has done. He has been absolutely incredible, working every weekend and every evening, whilst still holding down his full time job. I am amazed, every single day at his dedication to our little shop and the faith that he has in me to make it a success; I couldn’t do it without him. With a lot of help from Lewis, Paul has literally rebuilt our, soon to be, jewellery showroom.
Although we knew that the building would take a lot of restoring, I don’t think that any of us appreciated just how much, and obviously before you can rebuild, you have to demolish! This stage actually didn’t take too long, the building was back to bare brick with a mud floor within the first month. However, putting it back together has taken a year! We have had to replace rotten joists, floorboards, and all of the plasterboards because they had water running down the back of them! If we had known just how much work the restoration would take, I am not sure we would done it, but I am so glad that we did!
Once the building was watertight and dry, we could start replacing the floor plates, all of the joists and floor boards, re-battening the walls, insulating and installing the new plasterboard. All of this took nine months, which blew our original completion date out of the water! After a small debate, the Grand Opening date was finally set: Saturday, 21 April. This gave us a deadline to work to, but it did cause a few sleepless nights. Even though it cranked up the stress levels, we definitely needed to do it because this mammoth project could easily have taken another year. I am sure there will still be plenty of jobs to do after we open but the majority of the work will be done, one way or another.
On Friday, whilst I am sure most of you were enjoying the start of your long weekend, we were at the shop, painting the walls and cleaning up the beams in the roof. The final wall colour is now on (although Lewis thinks it still looks white) and the skirting was fitted yesterday.
With only three weeks to go until we open, it is all noses to the grind stone. I even relined one of our antique cabinets at 7.30 yesterday morning! Writing this, I realise that it sounds like I am moaning, and I’m not. We love it, because it is ours. I can’t wait to be sitting in my shop, at my desk, looking around at all the cabinets and showcases. It will be a dream come true, and then the really hard work will begin; running our bespoke jewellery business.
I know that we will be a success, how can we not be when we are this committed!
I look forward to seeing you in West Malling, later this month!