Inside Flat Majic During and After Remodel

The inside of the store, before, during, and after the minor re-model (face-lift)

On September 15, 2002, we changed it again. We purchased and installed a 21 foot bookcase along the wall opposite the cash counter. It's five feet tall, with five shelves (including the top and bottom) and is lighted along its entire length. It's anchored to the wall in six places with spacers created from 2x4 and 1x4 material. It's beautiful. When my camera is replaced I'll get some new photos for these pages.

The following photos are what the store looked like inside, after we had made room for the new fixtures. We gave the two glass showcases to our local AA Intergroup for some of their archive stuff, and on the last Sunday in June, some guys from the Easy Does It hall came down and helped move them. We really appreciate the help because I couldn't have lifted them myself having had surgery at the end of March for multiple cervical fusions. On Monday, at about 3:30pm, the truck arrived with our new furniture. Fortunately, the driver was able to off-load it without my help. Then Mary and I put the store back together. We were here until about 11:00pm that night. We were tired, but it came together. Luckily, with the 4th of July later than week, we both had a day off to recuperate from the long hours.


When we got done, there was a big empty spot in the store. We had removed all the merchandise from the displays and placed it in various places around the store - mostly behind where these pictures were taken from. This is that empty space looking in just from the left of the front door.	That same empty place from the rear of the store, adjacent to the bookcase that's visible at the rear of the store, on the left of the photo at the left.

Yet another view, from the front door.	Now when you walk in the front door, this is what you see, except for the card rack at the back and left of this photo. It's gone away as well. In it's place is a spinner rack holding Blue Mountain Arts all occasion cards, birthday cards, and short soft-cover books of an inspirational nature.

Here's another view. One thing you may notice is that at the left here, there's a small wicker baker's rack we're using as a book shelf. Directly behind that is the glass gondola that used to be in the front of the store.	And we have a spiral t-shirt hanger now. It's a lot nicer to display all the t-shirts without stuffing them through holes in the grid-wall and making an opaque wall of the grid. This is from the rear of the store near the hall leading to the back door.

We have some more to do. I mentioned a grid wall. It was put up as a free standing unit to create a wall behind which was a fridge and microwave. I'm using that space now for my computer where I work on these web pages. We will be changing the usage of the grid to be more efficient and allow us to keep a greater variety of inventory without "cramming" it wherever it will fit. The store's energy flows now, is more open, more inviting. It's bright and clear inside. Just like we want ourselves to be. I'm still working on me, though. Just when I get rid of one layer of crud there's another layer underneath that seems even uglier than the first. But like I've heard them say, "Time takes time."