Update!

I was going to start off this post saying that it's been a slow couple of days but then I realized that a lot of things actually happened. The flooring got dropped off Friday but ultimately we decided we needed to wait to put it in until the bar was built.

Last week the city told Wayne he would need to do seismic upgrades to the building if he wanted to change the occupancy to put a recording studio in the back. So he was all ready to scrap the occupancy change because it'd require like $300,000 worth of upgrades, sprinkler systems and earthquake retrofitting. So he called the guy to say, thanks but no thanks and the guy at the City pretty much told him not to give up yet and that he'd get what he wants if he just sticks it out a little longer. So now we're back at square one, waiting on the occupancy change.

But on a positive note, we have (unofficially) hired our third employee. He is a bartender, restaurant manager, DJ and vinyl fanatic named Edgar. So just like Reid, he's the total package and has all the qualities we're looking for. Plus he's a super cool guy.

It's still TBD whether we're going to hire a fourth or not. We originally were going to have one full time and three part timers, but Alli just informed us that she might want to be full time in which case we won't need to hire another person. But I like the flexibility of having another person for scheduling purposes, so we'll see.

I met with the payroll company and the workmans comp company and got all that squared away this week. I got an email from the POS/merchant services guy and he might have found us a deal on a slightly used POS system, so that could be cool. We also finished painting all the chairs and re-surfacing all the seats. "Re-surface" really means that we sprayed them with a vinyl and fabric spray paint to change the color.

I'm going to the City today to drop off our OLCC paperwork and get the green sign that goes in our window letting the neighborhood know that we have applied for a beer and wine license. We're also going to Home Depot to do a big lumber shop to get everything for the bar. We're on attempt #2 to make the bar top. The first time didn't turn out too well, but hey, now our friend John has some nice wood to use as planter boxes in his garden. All I can say is that the learning curve on this project has been huge but I am so grateful for the experience!

Red Carpet Welcome

Today I went to the office of the Merchant Service guy Carl used to use. He's been working his butt off trying to find a point of sale solution for us. Problem is most POS machines are for either retail or restaurants but we need both. And usually Merch Service guys don't even deal with POS systems but Portland Merchant Services is now also getting in the POS game.

When I drove up this afternoon for our meeting this is what I saw as I walked up to the front door.



Kinda makes you feel all warm and tingly inside.

Facebook Fan Page

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Refurbishing chairs

We're trying to re-use as much as possible from what was left of It's a Beautiful Pizza. One of the things that we have A LOT of are chairs. We had stashed them in this secret attic that we found a few weeks ago but yesterday we climbed up there and brought down a few for painting.

There are a two different kinds of chairs. One is a "ice cream parlor style" chair with a round seat and the other is a ladder back chair with a more square seat. Both have red vinyl cushions that we are going to re-cover. We went back and forth many times over which seats we should use. The round ones are more attractive but the square ones might be more comfortable to sit on. So in the end we decided to go with both. I think it adds to the ecclecticness.



Our friends Alli and Ryan came over to help my sister and I paint the chairs black. It's looking like Alli is #2 to be hired by Hall of Records, after Reid. She's going to be a great addition to the team and will be the only other girl besides me (Katie), Justin's Mom and Aunt Bettie. You may remember her from the pregnant with possibilities party. We're happy to report that she no longer needs unemployment. :)

The Chalkboard

This weekend we finished our Chalkboard Menu. We made it ourselves (with the help of a little guy named Tiani) out of recycled wood, luan and some chalkboard spray paint.



Here's a sneak peak of things to come:

Pint Night

1/2 Price Sandwich Night

Open Turntables

Weekly Sandwich Specials

Out of town visitor

This past Friday my sister flew in from Chicago for Easter Weekend and we immediately put her to work :)

Actually, I think that's the real reason she wanted to come out. She came equipped with painting clothes and a strong desire to help.



We made a shelf that separates the red from the white wall and it turned out fantastic! She also learned what scaffolding is and went to work touching up the paint on the windows.



Maybe I shouldn't mention that they are the ceiling windows.



(Mom, please don't be mad)

Hello Again, Windows!

For a brief moment in time, yesterday, our store was open for the world to see! Well, maybe not the world, but at least the people walking down Belmont. We took down the painter's plastic and got to see the gorgeous windows that have been covered the past few weeks.

The entire front has been painted a chocolate brown. Set in this color, the stained glass above the door isn't as imposing and we're starting to actually like it. We may paint the yellow part of the sun black to look like a vinyl record.





Of course about a half hour later, the windows were taped back up with paper. We still have a lot of work to do! :)

New Dishes!

Justin and I are super stoked because we found the best dishes!! We've always wanted large, colorful cafe mugs to serve both our coffee and soups in. Up until today, we've had a hard time finding exactly what we wanted. But this afternoon, we saw these awesome mugs, plates and bowls on sale at Fred Meyer.

I challenged Justin to make a mental note of the name of the company, Hausenware, and we came home to look them up online. I found out that they are sold at Ross for a fraction of the price. So we made the trip down to the Lloyd Center and wiped them out of house and home! We bought 10 bowls and 25 mugs for $2 each!!



They are the perfect match for Aunt Bettie's Organic Tomato Soup with fresh grated parmesan and tapenade. Can't wait!!

Adios, Totem Pole

Hello, Red!

Night Owl Record Show

Saturday April 17th is the date of both the Night Owl Record Show and the annual Record Store Day.

The Vinyl District blog is the official blog of Record Store Day 2010. It makes us wish we were open already!! But we WILL be selling records at the Night Owl that day. It will be our third appearance at the show and we are looking forward to it!

Gorgeous Day!

The last few days we've been working on the "details". We had to put painting on hold a few days until John can get the sprayer from his work. So we've been trying to be productive while we wait.

Today, I went to Pitman Restaurant Supply and bought a sink for our kitchen. We also inventoried all the wood we saved from Carl's mosaic waterfall wall. We're going to use it for our moldings and on the front of our bar. We already bought all the paint so we went ahead and started painting the moldings. They are a rich chocolate color.

It was a gorgeous day outside!






I also went ahead and stained the table tops. They turned out a gorgeous, deep cherry color. We have an amazing patio!

Prepping to Paint

The past few days we've been getting the space ready to paint. After many weeks of resurfacing the wall between Wayne's side and ours it's finally done! Now we know how to drywall and do a skip trowel.



We started covering the beams with painters plastic and washing off the existing walls. The totem pole is also starting to see the end of its days. So many people have jokingly asked if it's staying. But no, no it's not.



Tomorrow our friend John is renting a paint sprayer from his work and is going to help us get paint. We'll probably be doing that all week.

Ah, the City

Everyone I've talked to that has dealt with the City Permit Dept has said it's challenging, at best. Justin and I went there a long time ago when we were trying to change the zoning on a building we wanted on Hawthorne. I just remember filling out little cards of the departments we wanted to talk to and waiting our turn to go talk to them.

Well it turns out when you want to get the permit itself you have to see every single department. It's a multi-day process that Wayne's in the middle of right now. Our building is a class B occupancy which means we could only have 50 people on each side (our side and Wayne's). It's fine for us because we are small but Wayne's business includes a music venue so we need to get a higher occupancy.

This could take a while and we can't get the permits for the plumbing, electric and building until we change the occupancy. We still have a lot to do, though. We can paint and put the floors down and bring in the shelves and DJ booth and put in our seating, we just can't build what's on the permit, which is the bar and the wall to enclose our kitchen. But we can still prep it as much as possible. We want to use the wood pieces we pulled down from Carl's wall on the bar and moldings.

Once we get approved we can do the rest. Luckily for us, all the electrical is already there. It's just a matter of extending some lines. We were also super lucky that we have a floor drain and plumbing on our side already. Carl was using it for his drinking water station. So we'll be adding two sinks and a line to the espresso machine.

I'm so looking forward to it all coming together!

Vendors, vendors and more vendors

One thing I was not expecting was to be bombarded with as many vendors as we have been. A lot of them are really great people. They're just trying to get our business. But my phone has been ringing all morning. It's like once you meet one, it sets off this ripple effect and I get ten more calls.

I remember being in the pizza place before it switched hands and the phone ringing constantly. Carl said that he got at least three calls a week from merchant service people trying to get him to switch to their service.

I guess it's not really a big problem to have. We're meeting more and more people and everyone is super excited for our business. I just think that once we have our vendors in place I'll need to come up with a polite way of getting the rest to stop calling.

Stuff

We're beginning to acquire a lot of stuff for the store and it's been accumulating in our apartment.



This morning I went to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. I didn't even know it existed, but the girl that is helping Wayne design his side brought him there yesterday and he told me about it. I found some pre-finish and stain for the tables and bar top and bought an amazing Chandelier for $35.



We may end up spray painting it because we were originally intent on finding a gold chandelier. We wanted it to match this other lighting fixture we brought up from California when we moved. It's been sitting in our apartment for over a year and a half waiting to be restored to its former glory.



But it's kind of interesting that the chandelier turned out to be purple. We have a Justin Bua poster that we love and may turn out to be the focal point of the room. The background is a deep red just like our walls.



In the poster, he contrasted the red with green and purple. So maybe the purple in the chandelier will go well?? I guess we have to wait until we get the room painted and see how it looks. Either way, we're excited with all of our acquirements.