Changes, Chaos and Construction

That pretty much sums up the last week for me!

We are doing a bit of construction (or is that DEstruction?) at the store so we have a bit of mess and chaos. For those who don't know, I own the building that the store is in and there is an apartment on the second floor. I used to rent it out but when the tenants moved out I decided to keep it for my own use and put my office and storage up there. It also comes in quite handy when we have big events because my mom uses the kitchen to store and prepare all the food. The only problem is that up until now the only access to the apartment was by way of the alley. Not such a great thing at night or in the winter when it becomes a skating rink. So for a long time I have wanted to re-open a long closed stairway that led from our closet in the store up to the apartment, but I have been unable to get a carpenter willing to do the job. I finally found one (waving "Hi" to Doug), and he started work last week.

As usual with old buildings-when you start ripping open walls you tend to find unexpected things. Thankfully we didn't find any bodies or anything - with this building's history, you just never know- but we did find another door behind the wall. Well, you know we couldn't just leave it there without exploring... It led down to a storage room, which is great because we were losing our closet to gain the stair access. The downside is that we now have another day or two added on to the construction since we need to insulate and reconstruct some walls. During all this time, everything that was stored in the closet is now piled up in the classroom which is not fun when we have classes going!

So I apologize for the mess in the classroom and the dust and noise in our stamp department!

Another change I made over the weekend is to my internet service provider. I have been using AOL for more years than I can remember, more than 15 definately; so that's pretty much all I know. I have rarely used internet explorer. Well, with these tough times I am looking to cut expenses where I can and don't know why I have been paying $25 a month for AOL when I pay for cable internet at home and at the store. So I cancelled AOL. I still kept my email address (inspirationsta@aol.com) but now I have to get used to a whole new way of finding my mail and my favorite places! So if you email me and I don't get right back to you, don't feel bad about calling or emailing again. It may take a while for this old dog to learn new tricks!