Location, Location, Location

I know it has been a while since I've written. It has been a busy summer with moving and trying to figure out the business. I was becoming disheartened because I had no leads at all for a place to put my store, until this week when they all magically appeared at once. I now have 3 prospective locations all between 3rd and 4th South downtown. I am putting all of my energy into making sure one of these places turns into GreenSleeves because I can't imagine waiting any longer to get this thing started! If I do get one of the 3 locations I am scouting it will still take until later summer, early fall, to get any of them up and running, but finding a location is the first step and I am happy just having something to look forward to. Not much else to comment on at this time but I will keep new updates posted frequently on this site. Hopefully...

Clothes Galore

The past week or so I have been in the process of moving out of the dorms at the University of Utah and in doing so I have come to realize that I have nearly all the inventory I need for my store. I have been storing the clothing in boxes and bags for 4 or 5 months now and hadn't really noticed the amount of merchandise I was acquiring. Even though there was a 4 foot pile that was taking over my living space I hadn't quite realized exactly how many clothes I had until yesterday when I moved them all out of my room and into the living area. Wow! I'll have to post some pictures later because most of the living room is swallowed by my boxes and bags. The roommates must be none too happy.

Hopefully I will get a location soon so I can finally put all of these clothes to good use!

Great news

Remember that studio apartment I wrote about in an earlier post? Yeah...it's mine! I am feeling a kind of excitement I have never felt before. It is almost as if my whole life has changed and I'm a new person. Who would have thought that one rather insignificant (in the whole scheme of things) life alteration could make such a difference in my happiness. I think this feeling stems from the fact that even though I've been living "out of the house" for upwards of 2 years, I really haven't been in the sense of independence. My first time out on my own I was living in my mom's condo with some roommates and not my mom, it didn't really feel like I had left home at all, and the whole experience drove me crazy. After a year in that situation I moved into the dorms and well, let's just say I am not a dorm person. I haven't connected with anyone in my building and it's probably because they all seem so far from what I am that it hasn't been worth trying. Being in the dorms has also made me feel even less independent than when I was living in the condo. I don't feel like an adult here at all. I'm always having to report to someone and the roommate thing is awful. I guess I just must not be a people person.

Thus, having my own apartment is a dream come true. I have been having a hard time sleeping at night, ever since I found out the place was mine, thinking about how I will decorate it, what I will cook in my kitchen, where I will put the furniture, it is also so exciting! In fact, I have already gotten started on my interior design stuff and I don't even move in until May 1st...

My first design purchase was this print from Etsy seller Hidenseek




I cannot get over how darling it is, I think it will be a real conversation starter when people come into my place. Don't you think?

Well...that is all I have time for now so I will write more about my new place as things develop.


P.S. I looked at a building for the store on Friday, it was really beautiful but alas it was far too expensive. The quest continues.

The Horror House

This past Saturday my dad and I checked out a house up by the University of Utah. I knew it needed some work from the pictures included in the listing but I never imagined that in needed to be bulldozed and rebuilt...

When I arrived at the house I wasn't impressed. The outside was covered in icky blue shingles and had red paint on the trim. The shingles were crooked and it made the house look like it would fall down in a storm. I kept an optimistic eye hoping that the inside would fare better. When the Realtor arrived she took me inside and we were both in shock. There was junk everywhere. Old records, a bottle of ketchup, pieces of the ceiling had fallen off and were on the floor. The stairs were metal and seemed like they were made to be a crude ladder.

There was a hole in the floor and several in the ceiling. I climbed up the stairs carefully and walked around the top floor. The carpet was filthy and there was a carton of rotting soy milk laying upon an old desk in what I assumed was the master bedroom. As I walked I had to be careful not to fall through the holes or to cut myself on debris. In one of the rooms there was a door leading out to nothing. It seems that the owner had removed a deck and replaced it with an ugly, slanted roof. It seemed that the owner must have been a vampire because they had removed the front porch and turned it into an entry way with small windows that didn't let in enough light and covered a beautiful bay window so that it served no purpose. I couldn't imagine how a property in such a beautiful location, surrounded by beautiful homes could be so depressing and disgusting. The whole thing just gave me bad vibes.

Needless to say, we turned it down. The Realtor did not seem at all surprised, in fact she mentioned several times that if they were going to get anyone to take this off the owner's hands they would have to bulldoze the house and sell the property by itself. If even a Realtor, who's job it is to find the good in even the dankest property, thought it was unsaleable then who was I to think any different. Maybe a home renovating show could take on the daunting task of fixing it up, but whoever was going to do it, it wasn't going to be me.

Now my search continues...I have less than a month before I have to move out of my currently living space and I really hope something happens soon. Wish me luck! I'll keep updating as new developments arise.

It's been a while

Man, it's been a while. I was sick with pneumonia this past week, which sucked. Anyway, I'm back and doing better. I guess I should give an update regarding the store location situation since it has been over a week...

My dad and I are looking for a house to use as both a store location and as a place for me to live. We came upon this idea when we were looking at a retail space for lease close to the University of Utah and realized the rent was so high that we might as well put that money towards a house. It would solve the need for a store location and a living location. I love hitting two birds with one stone.

It would make my life so much easier to be able to live and work in the same building. My ideal house would be close to a major street or shopping district, have an interesting exterior (in both color and design), a large front window (for inventory display), bamboo flooring, interesting architecture, a lot of natural light, white walls (I want to be able to paint them myself with little fuss, and a full, finished basement (for me to live in).

I don't really expect the place I find to have all of those things but a girl can dream right? I think the biggest things I will need to keep an eye out for are the location of the house (of course), the amount of parking available and a big front window (no one will even know it is a store unless I can display it to the outside world).

Anyway...my dad and I are going to be looking at a few places later this week and I'll make sure to fill you in if anything exciting happens. Cross your fingers.

Searching for something new in more ways than one

It turned out that in the end the retail space that I had pined over did not happen. When I found out, I was upset, but I think I had already prepared myself subconsciously to be disappointed because, I didn't think it was the end of the world. I guess that all along I had the sneaking suspicion that the Worthington building space would never happen...and it didn't.

I have started my search a new and so far have found two prospective locations that would probably be even better than the Worthington building in both size and price. I suppose I must have been so focused on the one space that I totally blocked out other, better options completely from my view. So is life I suppose. I think it is in the nature of humankind to set our hearts on something so intently that sometimes we forget all else. Maybe I have learned my lesson.

On another note...I have been searching for a studio apartment in downtown SLC for the past few weeks and I think I have finally found one that is both affordable and adorable. I'm not going to mention the name of the place here because if I do end up moving there I would rather not have stalkers if you know what I mean...but I will post some pictures.

Cute right? I think the (obvious) problem with studio apartments is the fact that your bed is in the middle of the living room. However, there are ways around this. I was browsing the net and found some great ideas for living in a small space. Like this one from Apartment Therapy, Laura was a semifinalist in Apartment Therapy's "Smallest Coolest Apartment" contest and I just love what she did with her space! Although she lives in a studio apartment she was able to use design to make it seem far larger, and her bed area much more private.

I think if I end up getting a studio I'm going to do something like that with it but probably in different colors. Let me know what you think and make sure to check out Apartment Therapy!

Venting a little excess heat

Disclaimer: I'm going to go ahead and say that this post is a tad bit bratty. Please forgive me, I need to vent.

Green Sleeves was steadily gaining speed. I had collected start up inventory, a website, and my mom began working on the logo. However, it seems that my progress has been halted. I am ready to move forward but unfortunately Salt Lake City isn't ready for me.

My problem: I can't secure a location. It's not that I don't have a place in mind, in fact that might be precisely the problem, I have the exact place in mind. There is even an opening in my dream location but so far there is no confirmation on whether or not I can get into the space. It has been upwards of a month now, and Green Sleeves is still homeless.

My major frustration is with the Broker, who promised to update me daily. I haven't heard from him in a week and whenever I call him, it's the same story.

"Blah blah because of this blah this and this
have to wait until next week blah blah blah
nothing new blah blah not this week blah."

All I want is a definitive answer, yes or no. He gives me hope one day and then shuts it down the next. I almost gave up altogether when he told me that the larger space that I was initially led to believe was open was actually not and the smaller one next to it was. Ugh!

I suppose I could look elsewhere but I don't want elsewhere, I want there. There is perfect. It's an up and coming urban mecca with kitschy shops and a record store. I can't imagine anywhere better. As I told the broker during our first conversation, the moment I thought up my business I knew I wanted it to be there. I can't stop daydreaming about painting the walls and decorating making it my own, making it Green Sleeves.