Girl, You Know It's True.
After last night’s post that included some rumination on a larger storefront, I was inundated with emails about if we are moving, when we are moving, and where we are moving. What I’m saying is that apparently I’m not the only one with a larger space on my mind.
So here’s what I said to someone on Facebook earlier today: our moving plans are perfectly analogous to when you buy a 1,000 piece puzzle and you drink two glasses of wine and construct the entire outer frame of the entire puzzle. And you feel pretty good about that and completely confident that you will slay the next 850 pieces before the weekend is over. Except the middle is always a mess and by Sunday, you are are just trying to match pieces together to see if anything might work. In other words, as a wise friend once told me…the devil is always in the details.
In pursuit of all transparency, I’ll tell you that we’ve got our eye on the former Orange Leaf location immediately next door to our friends at The Southern Rose. This means we would also be Hyvee adjacent AND we could just roll our equipment across the parking lot and plug it into the new space. Of course, nothing really works that easily…so it more likely means we can pay someone to move our equipment and a solid chunk of money to someone else to wire it all up.
Look, the whole thought is exhausting. I haven’t mentioned it, but over the past few weeks, I’ve basically learned enough to write a dissertation on the flex tube air duct systems that exist in that potential space. Don’t be jealous. (Short story: if they are flex tube ducts that are 38 years old, they really have just lived their useful life. You are welcome. What other HVAC questions do you have?)
It is completely impossible to know what will happen over the next few weeks as we work to make this deal come together. We can only control about 10% of the narrative, with the rest up to billionaire landlords, city permits, and funding. Now you know what I’m up at 4 am.
So let’s breakdown it down to all the interesting facts:
How many square feet will we potentially gain? 1,050. Our current space is 1,050 and the new space is 2,100.
Does it still look like an Orange Leaf? Sadly so. There’s much to be done to make it look like PJP.
Will you have an office? Girl, you know it’s true.
Is the rent more expensive? SO. MUCH. MORE. EXPENSIVE.
Are you scared? Clearly.
Are you excited? Definitely.
Why didn’t you tell us before? Well, we are going to be pretty salty if it doesn’t work but there’s no point in keeping that a secret. We are all friends here.
Did you look at a lot of different locations? No. Jeanne and I are pretty certain about what we like and what we don’t. We would slay on House Hunters.
When would this all happen? Presuming it happens, likely in the early summer.
When will we know for sure? Your guess is as good as ours.
So there you go…take it for what it is worth. We’ve spent an ENORMOUS amount of mental energy on this project, so all we can do now is believe that if it works…well, it is meant to be. And if it doesn’t…well, PJP Buttonwood? She’s always our favorite girl.