pleasantlyfurious's Profile

Oh - I feel like I'm looking back at myself three years ago with the opportunity to yell "Don't Do It!!!"

Three years ago when we were shopping for our first home we somehow wound up looking at this mixed-use building in a transitional neighborhood with a pizza-shop like space on the ground floor and an apartment upstairs. On a whim we thought - let's do it and open a coffee shop/vegetarian cafe!

The renovations alone took up the majority of our business loan - and now we've been open for two years and are only beginning to break even on a regular basis. Don't get me wrong. We love it, the neighborhood loves it, we have a solid group of regular customers and are always seeing new people walk through the door - we've been very lucky as a new business (especially in this economy), but when I look back I realize that we didn't fully understand what we getting into. It's been a rough rough two years since we opened (not the mention the year of preparation).

We've had to scrape by on very little money (and our situation is pretty unique - we inherited a lot of the equipment needed to run the cafe, I was able to keep my full time job so that we could have an income when the cafe wasn't bringing anything in, our business loan was small and the payments are manageable, and the business doesn't pay rent since we pay the mortgage out of our personal expenses). It's been a bare bones three years in terms of any discretionary spending and free time (and the cafe is only open 60 hours a week! - I can't imagine longer hours).

On the other hand - if we were making enough to live on through the cafe, we'd be living our dream life - so we may stick it out another couple years and see how it goes. So, if it's something you really really want - go for it. I just wish I'd known how hard it was going to be when we started out.

All I want to know is where I can get one of those fake wall socket place so I can stash my fake pearls and $1 bills!

If ease is your only concern you could use the "As Seen On TV" stuff - but I'm not sure how it would turn out.

http://www.asseenontv.com/prod-pages/easy_crown_molding.html

I LOVE coke and it breaks my heart every time I hear yet another story about how socially irresponsible they can be. Between conservation issues, murdering union organizers, and health concerns...I had to give it up. But oh how I miss it.

I hope this room belongs to a *very* big girl - note the lingerie on the chair ;)