Business is booming

Ok, not quite booming but we did have a great weekend.  Almost 3 times the sales we've had compared to prior weekends.  A large chunk of that sales figure was thanks to our friend Lesa who was buying some gifts for friends.  Between the contribution to our sales and the help she and Rich gave with painting the Tarpon, I am beside myself from how lucky we are to have the friends we have.  Including the ones who have been feeding us when we get home late and tired on Sundays (thanks to Stacy, Jodi, and Mark x 2).

Our wonderful friends decided to help us knock out the majority of painting to be done in the Tarpon.  I had completed about 70% of the front room (which will be used as a 2nd bedroom/office) a couple of weekends ago and wanted some additional opinions on the color before moving forward.  I had chosen "Aqua Glow" by Valspar. 

The consensus was it was a great color so we went for it.  Between the 4 of us and a few ladders we completed the front room and the kitchen/living room.  We were down to the last drop of paint otherwise we would have started the bedroom too.  It looks SO great.  Best of all now we can start hanging some art including this awesome rope picture from Ambient Light!

We also added another pottery artist this weekend - Apholz Pottery.  I didn't have a good camera with me but here is a cell phone pic of the display with his work.  AND, we had our first fine art sale of one of his pieces on Sunday. 

Sunday we had a great sale just as we were closing.  The guy who made our signs came in with his girlfriend and announced they were getting married tomorrow (today) and she needed a dress to wear!   I was so thrilled for them, and so excited that they came to us to buy a dress.  They picked out 3-4 to try on and she chose a beautiful silk chiffon sundress with a watercolor-ish pattern in blues and white.  It was perfect.  She also went home with a pair of aqua blue crystal earrings to wear with the dress.  I can't wait to see pictures!

Weekend progress w/ pictures 8-29

Had lots of help and fun w/ friends this weekend - our friend Steve came out on Saturday w/ his son Cooper, and Lesa came our on Saturday and then back again w/ Rich on Sunday.  Here's our completed items from the past weekend:

• replaced doorknobs on the dressing rooms w/ ones that lock
• added light kits to the ceiling fans in the Redfish for some much needed extra light
• made a padded headboard for the bed in the Redfish
• finished painting all but one bookcase
• worked on displaying jewelry in the boutique
• added the shelf onto the display case so that I can stand up large pottery platters for display
• got about 60-70% of the clothing price tagged (while drinking mimosas)
• got our sign hung!
• removed a ton of ivy from the front landscaping to a. not kill the tree it was wrapped around and b. make more room for parking
• continued clean up in the gallery
• finished setting up the bar
• hung mirrors in the Redfish
• plugged in and partially programmed the cash register
• learned how to run credit cards for purchases
• bought/installed a smoke detector for the Redfish and worked on getting our fire extinguishers up to code

We also went out to Micheli's Saturday night with Steve and Coop and saw a really great band, the Sand Fleas.  Hope to see them again soon!  Had the usual working lunch from Andy's Seafood across the street, and the boys (including Cooper) had a drink at Bert's (I was too tired and went to sleep instead).  Steve and Coop also did a little kayaking Sunday morning.

The latest pics - still not complete but almost there.  Next weekend we will hang all the art in the Redfish and Gallery, as well as have the boutique completely set up and ready for bidness :) 

Last of three moves and the house closing - D.O.N.E.

Holy cow....what a week. 

Thursday the movers showed up to pack and move us from the house to the condo.  We opted to pay them to pack up our kitchen and closets in the interest of time.  It took them WAY longer than we expected.  Anyway, they got the interior packing done and had gotten about 2-3 hours into the truck packing when one of the guys started puking from heat/dehydration and had to quit.  So Chris helped them pack the rest of the stuff and they took the truck back to the office while we drove up to the condo and had nothing to sleep on or eat from.  We borrowed a Pottery Barn chair/bed cushion and some towels/pillows/sheets along with a wine opener.  Luckily when we realized we were not getting our stuff that night we had some wine glasses still out, and the movers don't like to move glass/liquids so we had wine out as well.  We ate some turkey lunch meat and cut up fruit with our fingers for dinner on our 4 inch thick "bed" on the floor.  Oh well it was way better than being ON the floor and NO wine/food.

Friday the movers showed back up with FIVE guys this time (there were two on Thursday) and they unloaded in a quick two hours.  The Verizon guy showed up on time and got done during the same time, so I was able to leave for Matlacha with a condo full of furniture and all of our belongings, a bed made up for Sunday night when we returned, and working TV and internet. 

This weekend was spent unpacking inventory for the boutique, setting up a BJ's account (and buying a TV for the 1st rental cottage) and putting together outdoor furniture for the restaurant.  We were so busy we barely stopped to eat.  We realized just how much more we get done when our friends are there to help (as Stacy was Friday night and Saturday morning).   Anyone want to volunteer to come help this weekend?  Rich and Lesa are rude enough to be traveling :) :)  J/k love you guys.

We had to go back to the house yesterday while the new owners were there (we let them in the house on Saturday even though the closing was this morning) to finish cleaning out.  Even with two moves done by movers, a U-haul trip, and multiple trips made by us with the Jeep and the truck filled to the brim, we still had one more trip with each of our vehicles filled to capacity yesterday; and Chris even had to go this morning to get a few things we couldn't fit last night.  Unbelievable.  Our 2 car garage at the condo is wall to wall crap.  I thought my garage was bad before....

The closing went smoothly this morning, we're all moved, so all the worst things are now over. 

Next up - setting up merchant accounts to accept credit/debit card payments, buying a cash register, changing signage, finishing the boutique and cottage set ups, and figuring out our cafe situation.  The woman who ran it before has expressed interest in coming back but we've yet to get a commitment from her. 

Sorry no new pics; literally didn't even think about it until just now.  Busy bee.

1st of THREE moves - check!

Friday we rented a U-haul trailer to take down the furnishings for the Key West Cottage.  Ikea delivered the bed, mattress, and sleeper sofa (and 2 bookcases for the boutique) to our house, and we loaded them onto the trailer along with the buffet, dining room table and chairs, desk and chair, end tables, coffee table, 4 arm chairs, and a few misc boxes and linens.  It was a long day as we did all of the loading/unloading just the two of us.  BUT it was SO FUN to sleep there Friday night in the partially furnished cottage!  We slept on the mattress on the floor since the Ikea bed is still in boxes.  That will be phase 2 this weekend, where we supply lots of beer and wine to our friends in exchange for furniture assembly and painting.

Here are a few pics of the cottage.  We will add the couch, bed, and some decorations this coming weekend.  We will also paint the walls a light gray-white.  And take much better pics.  And steam the wrinkled chair covers.  And add a layer of polyacrylic to the dining room table top.  And probably do 2 dozen other things.

I.  LOVE.  IT.

The contract is FINALLY executed

Wow.  What a ride.  After many, many, many go arounds....waiting...negotiating....paying lawyers....we finally have a done deal.  No turning back.  Friday we sent in our down payment and signed papers...which wasn't quite as smooth as it should have been due to a last minute request on the sellers part.  We realized last night it was so anticlimactic when we finally got it done because of all of the highs and lows, waiting, frustration, etc.  That and we were literally half way out the door for a birthday party weekend w/ 40 of our closest friends :)  Last night we finally toasted it and let it sink in a little.  Which was closely followed by the realization that we have a million things to do before taking over on August 1.  But we'll get there and I'm sure it will have been worth the pain and the wait.

So yeah, August 1 is the date!  Of course that's a Monday so it will be more like August 5-6 that we'll "open".  Not sure what we'll have in place other than the boutique.  We'll have to figure that out in the next 6 weeks as if the past is any indication, things will continue to change/evolve by the week.

Still no offers on the house but things have picked up a bit showing-wise.  After having the showings slow down to about one every other week, just this week we've had 3.  Yesterday we had a couple come to see the house by boat; that was a first.  We plan to hire a realtor in the next week or two to hopefully get this done asap.

The rollercoaster continues

But I hope the ride is almost over.

Last week we got word that most of our requests had been met and implemented into our documents (lease and addendum), along with a new surprise.  The "key west" cottage, the one that I have been chomping at the bit to decorate and collecting furniture for since FEBRUARY, is now occupied and won't be open to us to use or alter until August.  While at first I wanted to scream with frustration (and I sort of did), after my head cooled a bit I realized that since they state that the occupants would most likely want to continue renting the place from us, that's guaranteed income starting day 1 vs having to advertise and hope people want to book.  And while I love the idea of having the unit available for our friends to stay in, we can't deny the appeal of guaranteed rent.

In addition, there is someone utilizing the kitchen facility that may also want to continue, to the tune of a regular rental income.  Since the last occupants had pretty much unexpectedly (to us) stopped serving, we were trying to figure out whether we'd undertake the restaurant ourselves or find a new tenant.  This solves that problem.

So all in all to have these (maybe, and I say maybe since everything seems to change by the day) tenants in place when we take over is a good thing and will limit what we have to focus on at first.  Having too much to take care of in the beginning would definitely stress me out.  Now I guess we can just focus on the boutique, the owners cottage (where there will be room for friends to stay, albeit not an individual unit unless we stay somewhere else), and the boating business. 

Yellowdog....where your friends are

Last night Stacy and Mark McLeod threw a fantastic party in honor of my 13th 29th birthday and, way more importantly, to celebrate Yellowdog.  McLeod came up with the motto above and I think it just might stick.

Stacy gave me a few coastal magazines, a standup paddle board magazine and a beautiful book on beach cottages.  To our collective amazement, the March edition of Coastal Living magazine has a great article on west coast Florida islands - and the first one in the article is Matlacha!  Rock on!  Also mentioned were Boca Grande/Gasparilla and Cabbage Key, our new next door neighbors.

I tried to find the article online but they must not have the current issue online until it's off of the newstands.  But I did find a few old articles - to see go here and here.

Here is a picture of downtown Matlacha from the article.

Courtesy of coastalliving.com and the Currituck County Department of Travel and Tourism.