The door to the future

Well, we spent the weekend alternating between unpacking our belongings into our rooms above the shop, with working in the shop on the last bit of painting and fixing up of things.

The big change was to our front door. We decided to keep the original door for a while, rather than replace it with a new one. So we needed it to look a bit industrial...

Yes, that is real rust on a timber door.

I have used Porter's Paints 'Liquid Iron' base and 'Instant Rust' finish to rust paint all sorts of things in the past, so I knew it would work well on our door. The nice thing is that it will keep changing as it slowly rusts some more.

Then we got creative.

I raided my parts bins and found an old machine wheel for the door handle, and an old pressure gauge to decorate the door. The inside of the door has an old crank handle as the internal door handle.

All of this using old found junk, so it will show people what can be done with the sort of stuff we will sell.

Only one thing to do - get 810 back on the door so people can find us!

We live here

Well, we are now officially 'in' the building. We moved all our belongings in upstairs on Tuesday this week and we are mostly unpacked and sorted.

The store is looking almost crowded with stock, which is great because we thought we may not have enough to fill it. We hope to start on the weekend, laying out stock and making it all look good on display and ready for customers.

So it is starting to feel real now...

Inside the shop

It has been a very busy week or so, beginning with two coats of gloss black on the shop floor last Friday, followed by the beginning of the big move.

Now we can see the retail space taking shape. We finally found a suitable bench for a shop counter (a timber kit wooden workbench via eBay), and we have also found some more exciting big pieces for the store (wait until you see the butchers scales!).

So Tanya and I are busy packing this week, ready to move out of our home and in to our new home above the shop - the big move is next Tuesday so we will do our first blog post from the shop next week.

Painting

To be honest - I do not enjoy painting, but Tanya seems to love it!

I mean - this photo is at the end of two days straight of sanding, cutting in, rolling, second coats, cleaning up, etc, etc - and Tanya is still smiling. Says a lot for how happy the shop is going to be.

In other news - a steampunk friend of mine in the UK has just sent me artwork for our promotional postcards, so I will be handing them out at an event this Saturday night to drum up some interest in the store.

Finally - Friday will see the last of the painting ( I hope) and then we can start to move stuff in.