Restoration Day #1

Beads Are Looking Good

Yesterday was the first day I could actually feel our recovery.  The clean up and restoration actually begun within hours of the crash.  But, it was hard to feel progress as I was still absorbing the destruction.  As soon as the car was towed out of the store, the clean-up crew got underway.  They started to pop out the remaining shards of glass and to saw the twisted metal into removable pieces.  By nightfall, the big debris was hauled away and we were left to survey the space.   All we could say was WOW!  It is a weird mix of total destruction and pulverization next to beautiful well preserved inventory.  

Last Friday, still stumbling around in shock, I made my way to Lieber's Luggage just down the road on Menaul. They had a van crash into their store in January.  Leslee the owner was extremely nice, and took the time to talk to me about how they have been handling repairs, restoration, insurance companies, and general coping.  The insurance piece is confounding.  I called their adjuster for some advice.  It turns out that in the grand scheme of insurance claims mine is not really a big deal.  The gentleman spent 1/2 hour answering my questions and explaining how it all works. It really is another language and I am naive about it. 

Yesterday, was the first workday that the insurance companies have been in gear and that's when everything started happening. Our building repairs have been assessed by my landlord's insurance agency and we all agree about what needs to happen next.  A big factor for re-opening is that the carpet needs to removed. Not only is it burned in the front of the store, but it contains glass slivers throughout the store, all the way to the back wall and near the bathroom.  It can never be cleaned to safety so it will be replaced.  This is apparently the standard for restoration.  We are hoping to pick our new carpet today. We wanted a Poppy pattern, but my landlords (nice as they are) said "no".  We understand and will likely pick a brown mix again.  When the carpet is ready to lay, everything will need to be moved. GULP!

Another big job is cleaning the tubes and cases.  Apparently, I have the right to have my insurance company buy all the inventory affected by glass.  It would mean replacing all the beads and relabeling the tubes.    We have 10,800 tubes of beads in just the standing cases alone. So re-tubing and relabeling would keep us busy and closed for a long time. Instead we will be removing the tubes and cleaning them off and cleaning the cases to make everything glass free and safe to handle.  In the end, that is the most efficient use of our time.  I am sure our insurance company will be pleased that they do not have to buy over 10,000 tubes of seed beads.  As you can see from the photo, we've already begun the process. While we are cleaning we are re-organizing the beads.  We finally get to integrate all those gorgeous new permanent and duracoat galvanized beads into their rightful places with the colors of their kind.  Hybrids, new colors, and "orphans" are being moved too.  We get excited at the thought of it!!   We plan to  have new "maps" for customer use so you can easily locate the bead tube you want.  So you can bet, in some ways, we will be a new and improved Poppyfield - even though we were pretty new (and pretty great) before all this.  

A lot of our furniture was damaged, including the counter display set up. So we will be documenting with photos and getting price quotes for replacements. We don't mind opening without furniture or windows.   We are sure you won't mind bearing with us as we get back in gear.  I know from our first time around...GET THE BEADERS THEIR BEADS, and everything will be just fine.  So that's our plan. ASAP.  

Until then...