We were in Kanawha Sunday and Monday finishing up some odds and ends, adding another table and four chairs to the store and keeping an appointment with Mr Farris. We also solved some problems with space planning as well as prioritized some of the projects. Kanawha is still green in mid July.
Monday morning a four inch tree frog greeted us. He flattened his spring green body out on the glass door so from the inside we could see his tan undersides. He rode on the swinging door for several ins and outs seeming to not mind the motion.
Bill brought his new titanium bits and some experience from last trip that helped add more screws to the walls.
Mike and Will helped their Dad load the round table and four chairs in the truck so they would not end up on the highway doing 70mph in splinters. Then Mike spent a perfectly good day following us to Kanawha and unloading everything.
Mr Farris owns the Farris and Family Glass business in Paris. He traveled to Kanawha about 10am on Monday to measure the window on the side of the building and the two in the front of the store. The side window is a double pane but broken so it just needs glass. The two front windows are single panes and fit so badly large insects walk through freely. The suggestion by Mr Farris to replace them with 4 smaller windows is a good one which will make it much cheaper to replace glass in the future. They will cut costs when we run air conditioning and should be very well sealed. Bill ask him if he would be able to replace the lock on the front door for us? Mr Farris leaned back and smiled. He said yes he could replace it and added, "I have replaced this glass before".
When Cathy ran the store, a customer had a goat in a trailer. The goat got loose and ran through the door glass. "This door glass is not goat proof!"
On our anniversary in June Bill gave me the best gift. It was a large wire shelving unit red yellow and rust colored from some store past. For $25 it was a wonderful bargain so now the trick is to find a spot for it in the store. We hope to paint it with rustoleum and use it to hold bakery items, mostly bread.
We found the refrigerator and freezer units for the store so now we had to decide where they might sit when we order them probably in 2009. This sounds like a nobrainer, but you can not line the walls with every shelf and appliance and expect your store to function correctly. Plugs have been the determining factor in most decisions of the electric type.
We are going to use open shelving as much as possible so we have good line of sight. we set up several fake shelves so we could see how much light we might loose at what height. We hope to keep the store as bright and sunny as possible. The open shelves also save on building costs. Fortunately Bill has developed many carpenter skills he never knew he possessed. I trust him to build almost anything. We expect the layout to change as we actually get shelves in position, but for now the plan looks good.
Jody came by to visit, share some handy tips and get paid for mowing. It was a hard decision to farm out the mowing but what a blessing to come without mower and gas every trip. Because Jody does this work for us we have an additional project finished each month. Jody has also been a big encourager always with a kind word to get our lip off the ground and several of her handy tips have saved us money.
On the way home we stopped at a welding shop outside Greenville to gather some rustic pieces for the posts in front of the store. We love to shop at this homegrown business that sells stars, horse shoes, cow heads and more off dusty tables with the smell of burning torch to melted metal is just beyond the back door.
We were told Billie Bell has been ill. We will keep her in our prayers and wish her the best recovery. Her blog has been a real blessing to others.
