Restoration Day #5

Greetings beady friends, and thanks for checking in.  June, Wendy, and I spent the majority of  Tuesday through Thursday cleaning the 5 seed bead cases.  As we go along, we are are cleaning, relabeling where needed, and culling some unpopular or duplicate beads colors.  Our goal is to move all the "orphan beads" or "new beads tubes" into their rightful places. We are also planning to update our colors.  On Monday the 3 of us are making an overnight road trip to our seed bead supplier to check out the latest colors, and beef-up our selection.  We know, thanks to Margo's years of accumulating beads,  we've had a great seed bead selection all along. But we think we can make it even more current, and so we head West, to an undisclosed location.   

I still feel overwhelmed by the work ahead of me for the insurance claim. I have got to document all the damage, and provide "supporting evidence" which means get quotes or provide receipts for replacement costs.  I have to find out what is available and what I will need to substitute with a different item.  This particularly refers to our counters and displays - which were custom refurbished for me, and so are not available to purchase.   
It was seeming like a huge unscalable mountain, until yesterday. I woke up on Friday and just felt like diving in.  I spent the day making measurements of my furniture, and taking photos of everything that is damaged. A lot of it is pitting from glass flying at high speeds.  That is not the easiest thing to photograph.  I got myself a notebook, a binder, tape measure, camera and an external storage drive for all my documenting. I brought home my huge folder of receipts.  So after writing this post, I'll be documenting, documenting, documenting.  Now you know....I'd rather be beading.  

Documenting Damaged Stuff

We are getting a sense of the timeline for re-opening.  We need new glass windows, new metal window frames, dry wall repair, painting, and new carpet throughout.  The painting is last, and is minor.  But the window frames must go in before the windows, and the windows must go in before the carpet. Laying the carpet is a big deal, because EVERYTHING must be moved - including the bead cases full of beads.  We plan to open as soon as the carpet is laid.  We are anticipating that we will be closed for 3 more weeks.  As we get firmer dates I will let you know.  

I am sorry for your frustration while we area closed.   I realize for some customers it is an inconvenience.  But for other customers the situation is more dire.  If you are in need of beads for ceremonial or business purposes please contact me by email at julia@poppybeads.com and I will try to help you get what you need.  

Saying Goodbye to Jasmine

In the midst of all this mess, I had to say goodbye to our dear cat who passed on Thursday night.  It is the first time I have lost a pet and she was very dear to me and my family.   I am trying to stay upbeat.  June and Wendy have a great "can do" attitude and that really helps me.  I know intellectually that everything is fine, and will be fine.  But I do not like the way this feels.    I think the opportunity to go pick more colors will fire us up  and  remind us how wonderful it will all be when we re-open.  That is some energy we can really use.  

Some of the things you can look forward to when we re-open are: 

Easy to read "bead maps" for customer use

New bead colors

Delicas in size 15's

New customer loyalty/discount plan

Price breaks for large quantity purchases

Til then....

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...