First Fortnight of my shop
It has been a fabulous fortnight but nothing less than a rollercoaster! You know that film, the good, the bad and the ugly - well let me tell you about my shop's great, bad and very bodged ugly!
Always start on the positives, the shop feels lovely. Every time we walk in to it, we talk to it. That's been important for me, I haven't found anyone locally who has a good word to say about the service they received from the previous inhabitants, and that's a real shame. I don't want to take that with me so I'm putting the positive back in the shop. It is starting to feel less neglected and I've been able to add a little collection of beach shells I have found recently, a hag stone given to me by Heidi Swain and the most beautiful clay house from @buzzybumblebee on IG. I posted a photo this week of all the lovely cards I have received and I've been overwhelmed by people's support when they've stopped me in the street and given me a card, or posted one through the door. Such kindness can only fill the shop with love again.
The bad.... the only bad thing to have happened is the relentless phone calls from scammers. In the first day of having the keys I had over 20 phone calls from a variety of numbers all from the 'Change of Tenancy Service'. Surprise, surprise they needed me to pay the surcharge of £27.99 from the previous tenants. As soon as you block one phone number, they use another and then when you block that one, they use a 'Caller ID unknown' number. My phone rarely rings as I prefer to deal with things via messaging, so to receive this number of pointless calls was so frustrating. They aren't the nicest people either - they talk really quickly so you can't grasp what they are asking you to do and they are demanding, there is also a lot of background noise in the call. Anyway by the end of the first week they stopped, it has made me very very careful about answering my phone, so don't be surprised if it now switches to voicemail quickly. I do pick the calls up but not when I have a soldering torch in my hand!
Ok, the ugly..... shall we talk about the way the partition wall wasn't actually attached to the walls? Or the spaghetti junction of cabling above the windows which must date from the 70s and didn't actually work? Or how about the way that I painted some matchpot testers on the wall in 3 different places and they were 3 different colours? Or the 5 coats of paint we have done on the walls to get rid of the navy blue? Or how about the patchwork quilt of pannelling where it was left half done?!
But it has been a brilliant adventure so far... this morning the outside is changing colour and we are still adding some undercoat to the inside walls. I am also slowly painting the furniture to my favourite colour (I've tried 3 colours so far) and I am also really excited about my new neighbour Sarah, who is collecting her key this week - she is an upholsterer and will be in the shop next door. If you stroll along Norwich Street, you will also find Pat, who is opening her hat shop later in August. What a lovely little community of handmakers opening in our town!
I'm hoping to confirm my opening date by the end of this week, but keep the middle of August free!
