What an arduous journey it has been so far since the last post. I'm proud to say that we're over 90% complete! The notorious display case that had caused a huge delay (and headache) in the completion of the counter setup finally arrived last week. Man, was that a workout just to shift it from outdoors to indoors. Then, I got sick shortly after when the final touches were being made. We could have reached 95% had I been at the shop instead of sitting at the doctor's office. Thank goodness for technology, messages were being relayed back and forth with the help of my brother and husband. The remaining percentage is just some minor installations (surveillance and POS system), setting up gas account, and passing inspections.
I was asked the other night if I was having fun. Initially, I had wanted to say scream "NO!" because I was mopey dopey over the delays. On the other hand, the question had also made me reflect on what was accomplished so far and despite the tribulations, it has actually been somewhat fun now that phase one is nearly over. There were moments I had really wanted to toss in the towel because there was always an influx of issues one after another. It seriously takes a huge amount of patience and organization. I guess the proper metaphor would be as though you are preparing mise en place for a busy night ahead for the first time at a new restaurant and working a station you had never before. There are so many things in your list to prep but you need to evaluate your time and how efficient you are so that you can have everything ready by the time service begins. Has to be of quality too. No half-assed stuff. Did that make sense? I know. I do that metaphor thing way too often. Anyway, things ended up working out and even though we weren't able to open in 2014, I'm still pretty darn happy that it hasn't come to a complete halt.
It has been partially trial and error. Not every decision made has been the best one but meh, do better next time. Sometimes there's success and sometimes there's mistakes but you try to turn it into something worthy. Okay, I realize that the word should be "failure" as opposed to "mistakes" but I don't believe in failure because I want to succeed. Who doesn't?! Just make sure you don't end up cutting into the building's structural beams because that might be something irrevocable. And yes, that was one of our early major issues. Wasn't my fault though! The plumber decided to take the matter into his own hands without the approval of anyone.
So, that's my update so far. Not sure how insightful this piece was but too late. You've already read it and I've taken up your time. Oh yeah, awning is supposedly scheduled for installation later this week. The whole neighborhood will soon see the store name. Honeybee will no longer be a secret that I have enjoyed keeping all these months.
