We set new records for highest daily sales at $588.42 and four days straight with over 100 customers. I thought sure we would go over $600 for the first time, but it didn't happen. Intellitec set up a tent and brought in a BBQ and had their students invite their families to hang out with them for dinner. They typically come down and spend about $40 a night, right before we close. That would have put us over the hump, but it just wasn't meant to be...
I believe we are going to close for the 4th of July. All of the area businesses are closed, and there will be no one here. The biggest fireworks display in the city is at Memorial Park, which is two blocks down the street. I think I will come over and open from about 6:00pm to 9:30 or so and see what happens. If nothing else, we will be able to watch the fireworks out our front window!
Gotta head over to the rental house and work there until 1:00 am or so...
Everybody have a good night, and don't forget to stop by tomorrow to see Jeff Caylor live!
JD
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Air Conditioning
I can't remember if I mentioned it or not, but we have had a horrible time with temperature control. First of all, our HVAC contractor deleted the supply air in the back room, and the supply and return air in the bar area. Those areas have drywall ceilings instead of ceiling grid, per health code. Our contractor did not feel like climbing up on top of the ceiling to work, so they skipped those items. We have a very large commercial refrigerator and a commercial freezer, along with a cooktop and a convection oven in the back room. With zero air flow, it would get over 90 degrees back there with all of the heat generating components.
Secondly, we have three roof top units for our space. One is fairly new, but two are over 15 years old and seize up all of the time (pretty much daily).
The solutions:
I had our HVAC contractor come back and install an AC supply in the backroom, and an AC supply over the bar area. Both areas are open to the cafe, so no returns were necessary. It has made a huge difference!
After having an AC technician here everyday and sometimes twice a day for a week, our property manager has decided to replace two of our RTU's! They will be installed tomorrow morning! Woo Hoo! No more working in the absurd heat!
Gotta run,
JD
Secondly, we have three roof top units for our space. One is fairly new, but two are over 15 years old and seize up all of the time (pretty much daily).
The solutions:
I had our HVAC contractor come back and install an AC supply in the backroom, and an AC supply over the bar area. Both areas are open to the cafe, so no returns were necessary. It has made a huge difference!
After having an AC technician here everyday and sometimes twice a day for a week, our property manager has decided to replace two of our RTU's! They will be installed tomorrow morning! Woo Hoo! No more working in the absurd heat!
Gotta run,
JD
Directions to Nemo's
For those of you who need to know...
We are located at the intersection of Pikes Peak Ave and Printers Parkway, just a couple of blocks east of Memorial Park.
Here is a mapquest map:
And here is an aerial view:
Don't forget... Jeff Caylor is playing here tomorrow night!
We are located at the intersection of Pikes Peak Ave and Printers Parkway, just a couple of blocks east of Memorial Park.
Here is a mapquest map:
And here is an aerial view:
Don't forget... Jeff Caylor is playing here tomorrow night!
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Nautilus Photography
I have received an overwhelming number of inquiries about my photography studio. People have seen my portrait and wedding work and want to schedule appointments. Tracy and I had planned to wait until Nemo's is stabilized, but we need to move on the photography work, as it is Senior Portrait season!
I threw together a quick business card and ordered them just now. I used a photo from my friends' wedding (I did their wedding photography). This was just a quick 10 minute effort in Photoshop. I'll do better cards later, but just wanted to have something to distribute now...
I haven't slept nearly enough in the last several days, so I'm going to bed. It is only 11:30pm! That is awesome! I will be able to get 7 hour so sleep tonight!
We had some severe weather here tonight and the news/radio reported tornado sightings at Bijou and Union, and also at Platte and Circle. Bijou and Union is one block to the north west of us, and Circle and Platte is two blocks to the north east. I don't know if there were two tornadoes, or if different witnesses saw the same funnel cloud and gave different locations for it. Either way, it was very, very close to the shop. I was kind of hoping it would take out the rental house so I wouldn't have to finish the remodel or go through the efforts of selling it... Isn't insurance great? NOT! State Farm would have figured out a way to stick it to us, and we would wind up with no house, no equity, and would probably still have to pay off the loan. Oh well,
Good night!
JD
I threw together a quick business card and ordered them just now. I used a photo from my friends' wedding (I did their wedding photography). This was just a quick 10 minute effort in Photoshop. I'll do better cards later, but just wanted to have something to distribute now...
I haven't slept nearly enough in the last several days, so I'm going to bed. It is only 11:30pm! That is awesome! I will be able to get 7 hour so sleep tonight!
We had some severe weather here tonight and the news/radio reported tornado sightings at Bijou and Union, and also at Platte and Circle. Bijou and Union is one block to the north west of us, and Circle and Platte is two blocks to the north east. I don't know if there were two tornadoes, or if different witnesses saw the same funnel cloud and gave different locations for it. Either way, it was very, very close to the shop. I was kind of hoping it would take out the rental house so I wouldn't have to finish the remodel or go through the efforts of selling it... Isn't insurance great? NOT! State Farm would have figured out a way to stick it to us, and we would wind up with no house, no equity, and would probably still have to pay off the loan. Oh well,
Good night!
JD
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Digital editing time lapse
A great deal of my 'photography' talents are my ability to use Photoshop well. I take a lot of pride in what I've learned over the years (self taught).
I saw this video of a time lapse creation of a realistic portrait in Photoshop. Take a look if you have seven minutes to kill and want to be mesmerized!
I saw this video of a time lapse creation of a realistic portrait in Photoshop. Take a look if you have seven minutes to kill and want to be mesmerized!
Busy, Busy, Busy...
Well, I have to admit, our life is pretty much hoppin' right now. There are times in my life when I thought I was busy... I would love to be that 'busy' again, even if for just a couple of days!
We did find some time for some fun lately. We taught the 4 year old class for Sunday school at church Saturday night. Sunday was my birthday and we had a nice day. We went to the movies with Josh, Jonah, and Ethan and saw Fantastic 4, went to dinner at the Olive Garden with Tracy's parents, then relaxed at home. I took the boys to the zoo Monday. Sooo... we are making time to have some quality time with the kids. That is essential, regardless of whatever else we are doing.
As for the rental house, I cut out the copper water lines in the downstairs bathroom (all the sheet rock has been removed). I fabricated new lines and installed them. I completed 29 (22 the other day and seven more today) solder joints on the copper and did not have a single leak! I'm very proud of that! The room was always a 'rough' finish before, and the ceiling was never sheet rocked. In the past, the electrical was stapled to the under side of the floor joists. I would not be able to sheet rock the ceiling as is. Today, I cut all of the lines, installed junction boxes up in the floor joists, drilled holes, and ran new electrical up there. I also moved the bathroom light switch from the utility side of the room to the bath side. That will allow me to put up a new wall between the furnace/hot water heater and the bathroom. I also added a couple of electrical outlets. The idiots before us 'grabbed' power from where ever... There are four different circuits supplying power to the light and electrical outlets in this bathroom. I know this is a no brainer, but I would encourage everyone to use a multimeter and voltage proximity tester prior to doing this kind of work. The people who don't are professional electricians (who lick their fingers and touch live 120v wires to see if they are live or not), and complete morons who kill themselves or burn their house down trying to do some simple electrical work. I fall somewhere in the middle. Since I use a meter, I have never been shocked, and I know enough about electrical work (including code requirements) to not burn the place down.
I am closing the store now (financial data is downloading from POS to our financial software right now). When I'm done here, I'm going to the rental house to begin framing the new wall and the shower stall. What is more fun than shooting a framing nail gun??? I can't think of too many things.
As for the shop, it has been a good two day start. Yesterday was over $500 and over 100 customers, and today set new records with $580.62 in sales and 137 customers. Both data points are new highs! Woo Hoo!
What's that?? You ask when we sleep?? Oh, we don't do that...
I'll try getting some sleep in August when the house is done.
Gotta run.
JD
We did find some time for some fun lately. We taught the 4 year old class for Sunday school at church Saturday night. Sunday was my birthday and we had a nice day. We went to the movies with Josh, Jonah, and Ethan and saw Fantastic 4, went to dinner at the Olive Garden with Tracy's parents, then relaxed at home. I took the boys to the zoo Monday. Sooo... we are making time to have some quality time with the kids. That is essential, regardless of whatever else we are doing.
As for the rental house, I cut out the copper water lines in the downstairs bathroom (all the sheet rock has been removed). I fabricated new lines and installed them. I completed 29 (22 the other day and seven more today) solder joints on the copper and did not have a single leak! I'm very proud of that! The room was always a 'rough' finish before, and the ceiling was never sheet rocked. In the past, the electrical was stapled to the under side of the floor joists. I would not be able to sheet rock the ceiling as is. Today, I cut all of the lines, installed junction boxes up in the floor joists, drilled holes, and ran new electrical up there. I also moved the bathroom light switch from the utility side of the room to the bath side. That will allow me to put up a new wall between the furnace/hot water heater and the bathroom. I also added a couple of electrical outlets. The idiots before us 'grabbed' power from where ever... There are four different circuits supplying power to the light and electrical outlets in this bathroom. I know this is a no brainer, but I would encourage everyone to use a multimeter and voltage proximity tester prior to doing this kind of work. The people who don't are professional electricians (who lick their fingers and touch live 120v wires to see if they are live or not), and complete morons who kill themselves or burn their house down trying to do some simple electrical work. I fall somewhere in the middle. Since I use a meter, I have never been shocked, and I know enough about electrical work (including code requirements) to not burn the place down.
I am closing the store now (financial data is downloading from POS to our financial software right now). When I'm done here, I'm going to the rental house to begin framing the new wall and the shower stall. What is more fun than shooting a framing nail gun??? I can't think of too many things.
As for the shop, it has been a good two day start. Yesterday was over $500 and over 100 customers, and today set new records with $580.62 in sales and 137 customers. Both data points are new highs! Woo Hoo!
What's that?? You ask when we sleep?? Oh, we don't do that...
I'll try getting some sleep in August when the house is done.
Gotta run.
JD
Friday, June 22, 2007
Another Long Day...
I got to bed at about 1:00am last night, up at 7:00am. Did some laundry and loaded the dish washer... Got the kids breakfast and ready for VBS and dropped them off at the church at 9:00. I then went to the shop and traded the car for my truck (and helped out in the shop for a little while) I then went to Home Depot and bought framing lumber and a new shower door. I dropped those supplies off at the rental house and turned on the sprinkler system in the back. I then went back to the church and picked up the kids, and dropped them off at the shop. I went back to the rental house and tore out the downstairs bathroom. That included disconnecting the water lines to the toilet and sink, removing those fixtures, and tearing all the drywall off the walls. I'm down to bare studs, so I can now rough in the plumbing and electrical for my remodel. Once that is complete, I'll start framing the new shower enclosure, as well as a new wall that will separate the bathroom from the utility room (laundry, hot water heater, furnace).
I also measured the downstairs rooms (Bedroom 1, bedroom 2, bedroom 3, living room) for carpet, although Lumber Liquidators has engineered hardwood flooring on sale for 78 cents a square foot. Home Depot charges $6.03 per yard for carpet install, plus $3.95 per sq yard for pad, and approx $7.00 per sq yard for the carpet. That works out to about $1.90 per sq ft for carpet and installation. I'm leaning towards doing the entire downstairs with the engineered wood flooring instead, as it is about 40% of the cost of carpet.
I then went home at 3:15 to shower, and got to the shop at 4:00pm. I worked until close at 8:00pm, then finished closing duties, along with the financials at about 9:00. I then built some spreadsheets and organized 8 weeks worth of credit sales receipts, store close reports, and merchant services settlement reports. That took a long time, but it is all organized now!
It's 12:40am, so I'm more than ready to head home and get some sleep before the boys come and get me at 6:30 or 7:00.
As for sales today, we finally slid behind last weeks performance a little (keep in mind, Intellitec is on Summer break this week - 1000 people gone...). Our Mon-Thur performance this week is $67 less than last week's Mon-Thur sales. All things considered, I think that is pretty good! We keep seeing new customers come in and either say they didn't know we were here, or said someone had told them about us and came to check us out. Growth is good, unless you are talking about warts or something.
Gotta go home and go to bed...
JD
I also measured the downstairs rooms (Bedroom 1, bedroom 2, bedroom 3, living room) for carpet, although Lumber Liquidators has engineered hardwood flooring on sale for 78 cents a square foot. Home Depot charges $6.03 per yard for carpet install, plus $3.95 per sq yard for pad, and approx $7.00 per sq yard for the carpet. That works out to about $1.90 per sq ft for carpet and installation. I'm leaning towards doing the entire downstairs with the engineered wood flooring instead, as it is about 40% of the cost of carpet.
I then went home at 3:15 to shower, and got to the shop at 4:00pm. I worked until close at 8:00pm, then finished closing duties, along with the financials at about 9:00. I then built some spreadsheets and organized 8 weeks worth of credit sales receipts, store close reports, and merchant services settlement reports. That took a long time, but it is all organized now!
It's 12:40am, so I'm more than ready to head home and get some sleep before the boys come and get me at 6:30 or 7:00.
As for sales today, we finally slid behind last weeks performance a little (keep in mind, Intellitec is on Summer break this week - 1000 people gone...). Our Mon-Thur performance this week is $67 less than last week's Mon-Thur sales. All things considered, I think that is pretty good! We keep seeing new customers come in and either say they didn't know we were here, or said someone had told them about us and came to check us out. Growth is good, unless you are talking about warts or something.
Gotta go home and go to bed...
JD
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