There was one last major item on the renovation list. Turning the vacant lot next door in a parking lot. There was a small problem with that. We were running out of money. Renovation costs were 300% above our somewhat naive estimates. So Virginia came to the rescue and volunteered to pay for the parking lot. She also agreed to finance the 14 new windows (all with ultraviolet protection for the fabric) by raising our rent. Once the windows were paid for our rent would fall to what we had originally agreed to. One more financial note. During the renovations a branch from a gigantic dead tree on the property fell in the street and landed on a car. Virginia paid for the damage to the car and we paid for the tree to be removed (about $2,000). The parking lot construction went on without a hitch. Interestingly, with the price of oil, concrete was cheaper than asphalt, which was great with us. At that point we had 18 building inspections. We passed all but one. The plumber had installed the wrong type of toilet seat in the rest room. A quick trip to Home Depot fixed that. The last inspection we had to pass was for the parking lot. By then Judy and I had been working on the renovation for 5 months and we were really desperate to get the shop open and generate some revenue. We had visions of losing everything and ending up pushing shopping carts full of junk down Main Street. The building inspector didn't need to be there for the parking lot inspection, so Judy and I were driving when he called. "The parking lot looks just fine" he said, "but I can't find your backflow preventer." Our what? backflow preventer? What in the hell is a backflow preventer? Did it have to do with the parking lot? Judy and I hurried over to our architect's office to see what we needed to do. Ginger explained to us that a backflow preventer is a plumbing device required on all commercial buildings. It's there so that if the city water pressure fails, the water in your pipes won't "flow back" into the city drinking water. When you drive by a commercial building you'll often see what looks like a big rock on the lawn. That's the cover for their backflow preventer. So we called our plumber. He was shocked. "A backflow preventer for that (little) building? You've got to be kidding. We're going to have to dig up the front yard to install it. Getting the device in will cost around $1,800. See if they'll allow you to install a double check valve instead." The city agreed to the double check valve, and for a mere $700 we had a building that was ready to go.
What wasn't ready to go was our inventory. We had enough for a 200 square foot quilt show booth, and that was primarily fabric. We needed to increase our inventory by a minimum of 250%, and order things such as thread, notions and sewing tools. Things we never sold at the shows.
April 2012 Judy, Virginia and I headed to Paducah to sell at the AQS show and upon our return, we were ready for our grand opening.
Your plumber was one very handy fellow. Without him, you could have been stuck with something that you could have avoided installing, and would might not have been a good fit for your establishment. A backflow preventer would not have been apt, as the amount of water you guys would have produced would be too little to merit one. Your city was also very reasonable, so you dodged that bullet. Good luck on your opening!
ReplyDeleteLevi Eslinger @ Capital Plumbing