Weekly update!

It has been a busy week for us! If you've been following us on Facebook and Twitter then you know that we successfully completed our lease negotiations and took possession of our new store property! It has been a long(ish), frustrating(ish) road but we're finally there and ready to start working on getting the store ready to open.

So, when's the grand opening? Well, we're not 100% sure at this point but it looks as if we'll be ready sometime around mid-August. The work we have to do to get the store ready really won't take all that long but everything has to be approved by the landlord and go through the Clark County permitting process, which we're told will take about four weeks from start to finish.

Let's talk a little about the store!

First, location. We'll be located in the Hazel Dell Towne Center, the shopping center off of Hazel Dell Avenue with Target, Office Depot, and Petco. We are in the section that contains the old Best Buy store (easy to find because of the big blue fascia!) in the "L"-shaped west building. Suite 120 is at the end of the short leg of the "L". Someday soon there'll be a big sign proclaiming our existence but, for now, just look for the empty end store with lots of stuff going on inside!

The store itself is 1,800 square feet, roughly 60' by 30', with entrances on both short walls and two banks of windows on the exterior long wall. A simple floorplan is shown at right. We'll have a nice, long group work table in front of the large bank of windows, giving plenty of natural light. You can see a picture of that table in a previous post but it's a tall gathering table with bar-height chairs. We think it'll be very comfortable to work at even for a long while. We'll also have a couple of nice seating areas with leather armchairs and, of course, the "cuddle chair" for whoever wants to knit in sheer comfort. Please try to stay awake!

Our fixtures will mostly be white, with most of our stock displayed on IKEA Kallax shelving units or IKEA Lack shelves. We'll probably also have a couple of slatwall carousels with tools and notions and may display pre-packaged fiber that way as well.

The main store floor will be finished concrete stained with Valspar's etching concrete stain in lovely cayenne. We haven't selected the paint for the walls yet but have narrowed it down to a range of warm tans that complement the floor color.

Now, the restroom. First a picture of what we're working with (left). Yech, right? We plan on taking this from rest stop shabby to residential fabulous by removing most of the sterile commercial fixtures (the grab bars have to stay, of course, due to ADA regulations and to help those that need them) and replacing them with nice residential fixtures. We'll removing the existing vinyl flooring and replacing it with a nice tile and installing double-beaded wainscoting with baseboard and chair rail around the walls. We'll also be replacing the light and mirror with something a bit nicer.

Not pictured on the floorplan above is our dye lab, which will be installed in the in the southeast corner (the diagram above is oriented so up is north). Our architect is drawing this up for us right now and we'll post some specifications when we have them. Essentially, though, there'll be a countertop and a sink along with a heating device (still deciding if that's an oven, cooktop, both, or something else.)

If you haven't already, you might want to sign up for our weekly mailing list. We'll send subscribers a weekly e-mail with information about events that week and, once we're open, information about new arrivals, coming specials, and regular discount codes for use in the shop or at our online store.