At The Shop (10/31 & 11/7)
Our first combined “At the Shop” entry is due to the fact that we are so busy I feel like pulling my hair out at times! We have two dining tables, a kitchen, 115′ of bookshelves, a wine rack, and old wooden English phone booth refinishing job in the works! All for a shop that employs me and as I beg and plead, my brother. I currently have enough work to keep me busy into January, yet I have over half a dozen quotes still outstanding, and last week a customer I built a entertainment center for about three months ago e-mailed me wanting a dining table and chairs, a utility cart, bookshelves, picture frames, and accent moulding! Wow!
I think I have finally been around long enough for the whole word-of-mouth and repeat business thing to begin running its course. It is a great feeling to get a call from a potential client who says they got your name from one of their friends, or to get a previous client wanting you to do more work for them.
We are still hard at work on the kitchen job. I think we are rounding the home stretch, with just the doors, drawers, and install left. That is still a lot of work, but it feels great to get so close to the end. Speaking of end, we already installed all the base cabinets. The granite company had to be able to template Tuesday in order to guarantee the counter tops by Thanksgiving. So, my brother and I took 3.5 hours to install the base cabinetry that normally would have taken only 2 hours had we not had to wait on and work around an electrician. It was not that bad or horrible of a situation, but it made me realize how nice it is to be the only sub working in one area as tight as a kitchen. Kinda makes me thankful I don’t do any new construction.
The easel is finished and has been delivered to the client. All went smoothly and the final product came out looking absolutely fabulous!