So you know that we're a bunch of theatre and film peeps. We're roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-it-done types with DIY pulsing through our veins. And we're lucky to have worked in a local industry that fosters a strong community so we have lots of people volunteering and providing their services for a song (none of us are great singers so this is a steal!).
On Sunday we unloaded folding chairs, tools, an ironing board and iron, a steamer, ten gallons of Mythic paint and a ton of snacks into the recently emptied space. I'm a big believer in frequent snack breaks, without a handful of nuts every few hours I get wicked cranky. Can you believe that only 48 hours earlier the shop had still been filled with antiques, collectibles and fine Thai silk-wares? And then it was gone. (They really rocked the move!)
We played an eclectic mix of music, danced around a bit to Janelle Monae and Marvin Gaye, ate homemade cookies that our friend, Hunter, had baked and brought over with her, and got to work. Ten hours later we could already see things taking shape and our "privacy" curtain had been hung across the windows. Neighbors dropped by all day wondering what kind of business was moving in. (We disappointed one woman who really wanted us to be a coffee shop.) Everyone was so nice and welcoming! It was almost like being back in the Midwest.
We're retrofitting the existing shelving so it can house yarn and roving, assembling shelves from discarded film set lumber, painting with No VOC Mythic paint picked up at the Porter Square TAGS, and using all the existing fixtures. We'll be reupholstering and painting some upcycled furniture next week. And incorporating equipment from my old costume shop (or as the film kids call it, "my kit"). It's really important to me that we try to use as much stuff we've salvaged over the years so we aren't adding to the pile of stuff in landfills. And I love saying, that wall was in a commercial or that chair is from my first apartment!
Even with the impending snow, we remain optimistic that our doors will open on February 19th. It may not be "finished" but I imagine that gather here 