And the hard work begins!

When it comes to commercial real estate it's always a game of hurry up and wait. I signed the lease over a week go but had to be patient while we waited for the previous tenant to vacate. It was weird signing the lease this time around. It's the first time that I have done that without Greg by my side. And it wasn't because he wasn't on board. It was just that we had already done this several times before and I didn't realize that I was breaking a tradition until it was actually happening. It made it kind of bitter sweet for me. From now on Greg will just have to be there no matter how busy we are.

So anyway, on Friday we were handed the keys and became official Paia tenants! We still have so much work to do but are trying not to rush ourselves. It's always been a push before to open by a certain date. But this year we don't have another rush until Christmas, so we have some time. So far on the list is paint the outside of the building, add a patio, plaster the inside, take out the drop ceiling, add some vintage wallpaper and make a whole lot of jewelry. Greg started on Saturday and is already exhausted! Thankfully though we are blessed to have friends willing to get dirty.

I won't post all the before photos until I have some after photos. But I couldn't resist this one of Sophie standing at the front door while we were doing the walk through. I hope that one day when she is all grown up that she can look at that photo and know that we were doing it all for her.