Weekend progress w/ pictures

Well it was just the two of us this weekend and we continued the momentum of gettin' stuff done!
Our weekend summary:

• met with a local lady who publishes a "Gallery Guide" for the Island to work on an ad for the inclusion of Yellowdog
• finished steaming and organizing clothes
• unpacked art and homegoods
• did a little decorating throughout the property
• primed 3 1/2 out of 5 book cases that we are painting white for use in the boutique and cottages
• primed and painted the two mirrors going in the Redfish
• picked out art (from our existing stash) to hang in the Redfish (not hung yet)
• cleaned up the Redfish for pics
• weeded and sprayed landscaping
• put together more outdoor furniture
• got rid of a truckful of boxes/trash/scrap metal
• bought a cash register
• got a business phone number
• met with the guy who will make our new signs
• ordered business cards
• drastically decluttered the gallery - put some stuff away for use and others in the overhead storage
• met some key people in the area - the owners of Bert's Bar and Grill and the owners of Island Visions Gallery.  Enjoyed talking with all.

I'm probably forgetting some stuff Chris did while I was doing other stuff but we both worked a good 10 hours on Saturday and another 4-5 on Sunday.

Some fun things we did - I did my first paddle board in the area early Saturday morning.  We also had dinner at the Tarpon Lodge and Micheli's.  Both meals were amazing!!  The restaurant manager at Tarpon Lodge is one of the friendliest ladies around - she absolutely could not be nicer.  There was a fantastic singer and acoustic guitar player at the Tarpon Lodge, I don't have her info here but I'll post it another time.  She should seriously be famous.  I hope we can afford to pay her to play at Yellowdog someday :)

Enjoy the progress pics!  Sorry for the mediocre quality, we forgot the camera so these are phone pics.

New names and an opening date planned!

I completely forgot about the new names we picked out for the buildings! 

Currently, they are known as the "Key West Cottage", the "Dutchman" and we think the third one was just the "Gallery" although we refer to it as the Winston's cottage (the name of the tenant in there).   We wanted to change the names to be cohesive and relevant to our plans.

So, two weekends ago when all the friendlies were around, we decided their input after several cocktails would make for big fun.  Rich had the most original, yet disgusting, name; which won't be repeated here.  I think some other jokes were thrown around before he realized we were actually looking for REAL names.  It didn't take too long before we came to fish names; namely because of the desire to use "Tarpon", the very cool large fish that is popular to fish for around the area.  The other two very popular sport fish around are called "Redfish" and "Snook"; and the cottage names were born.  The "Dutchman" is now the Tarpon, the "Key West" is now the Redfish and "Winston's" is the Snook.

Another decision that was made is to open the boutique Labor Day weekend.  There is simply way too much to get done on weekends only to rush to get done before then, so we decided to not stress out so much and just go w/ that.  This weekend we'll put a sign up in the windows for all of the gawkers who come by and look in on their way to/from Bert's.  It's a great sign that there is a TON of foot traffic going by every weekend we've been there; and this is slow season. 

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.

Stronger thighs....weaker liver

This weekend was major - tons of accomplishments and stronger thighs to boot.  My quads are killing me from all of the squatting down to paint, move things, climb up this, down that, etc.  I didn't really need the reminder of how much I haven't been exercising; but I guess I will be grateful for the good workout that comes along w/ moving and doing so much manual labor.

So - this weekend, along with Mark, Stacy, Rich and Lesa (and Two Men and a Truck) we:

1. moved most of our furniture down
2. painted the boutique
3. painted and set up the dressing rooms
4. set up the clothing stands and some of the displays
5. set up the inside bar
6. painted the inside of the smallest cottage
7. put together the 2,483 piece bed
8. finished some furniture painting projects
9. removed the old crank boat lift
10. cleaned up some debris from the outside bar
11. really got the smallest cottage about 95% ready to rent
12. did a huge amount of cleaning and decluttering (with lots more to go)
13. tested out the awesome commercial coffee pot
14. watched dogs play
15. did some paddle boarding and kayaking
16. had lots of mimosas 
17. laughed after some burly local guy at Bert's said to Mark "You look just like my sister!" (seriously, you can't make stuff like that up!!)
18. had a ton of fun

Here's some pics as proof :)

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.