If you show up, we will put you to work. Just ask Alison. The first day she showed up we put her on demolition duty in the bathroom. She was a trooper and pulled a whole shelf unit out. She's an ace vacuumer too. Thank you for all your help, Alison!
On Sunday our families all arrived to help us demo the shelves in the back room. Kevin (aka Ghost, to differentiate between him and Nathania's Kevin) and Chloe discuss strategies here. All four walls were covered in makeshift shelving and we had to unpuzzle the construction before we could really get into it.
Chloe's mom and pop jumped right in and started tearing things up. Before we knew it they had that wall cleared. Within a couple of hours the room was empty of shelves and we were amazed at how much more space we have than we initially thought. We'll be moving certain shelves back in to handle backstock and storage and to divide the teaching space from the office space.
While we worked on the shelves, Tony tackled the wiring for the telephone and the DSL. Despite a wasp sting on his hand (the nasty things had a nest in the wiring box outside and Tony inadvertently put his hand right in it), he got new cable strung and our wireless internet up and running, so we now really can use the shop as our base of operations.
Eddie discovered that the bathroom door was a little bit too narrow. We really want the bathroom to be accessible to all our customers. Ultimately we want to be able to fit a wheelchair through the door, so we'll reposition it to the adjacent wall and make a wider doorway. That project begins this weekend.
We were also pleased to get a helping hand from our friend Kathy (those who read Nathania's blog will recognize her from the comments as Kathy in San Jose). She helped us sift through the wreckage and tidy up at the end of the day.
There's always plenty to do, so if you have some time and want to come help, just give us a call beforehand. Meanwhile, every Sunday between now and opening we'll be having work parties from noon to whenever. We're still in the messy stages now, so dress appropriately. Next update.... paint!