Sign approval

We met with the sign company today and this is the final copy of what the sign will look like on the store. It will take up to 6 weeks before the actual sign is up. They first have to get permits from the city and then once the city approves it, it can take 3-4 weeks for them to make the sign and hang it.

Unpacking the toys!!!

Today Erick started unpacking all of the toys that we have already bought. We bought out the remaining inventory from the people that we bought all of the sales counters and shelving from. We are so grateful to them for all of the help that they are giving us. They came today to help Erick unpack and set up. It was so neat to see the store today. I could actually start to envision what it will look like when it is filled with toys. Groovy girls display
I stood on a ladder to take this picture. You get a really good view of the store from up there.

The kids are looking at these pictures and keep saying "is that what dad's store looks like?" "AWESOME"

Color!!!

We finally have color on the walls. The red still needs another coat, but we are almost done!!! The next step will be hanging the shelves on the walls.

Painting

Wednesday night we painted the primer on the walls.

Hopefully thursday we will get the color painted on the walls. They will be painted red, yellow and blue to match the sales counter. Erick painted the top panels and I painted the bottom panels. After 12 years of marriage we finally bought a ladder.The walls before primer

Hanging up the walls

Today we started hanging the wallboard's up on the walls. This is what we will hang the shelves on. It is so nice to finally get them put up. What you see here is the bottom layer. There will be another layer on top of this one so it will go up about an inch from the ceiling. Then they will be painted in primary colors to match the floor and the sales counters.
This is a view of the store from the backroom.
You can't tell from this picture, but Erick has been working hard today.Luke is working hard today too. He loves coming to the store with daddy.

Moving day

On July 31st we moved all of our fixtures into the store. We rented a uhaul truck to move everything in. On one of the trips to the store another driver flagged Erick down and told him that the back of the uhaul was open. This load had all 3 of the big sales counters that are in the pictures below. One of them was sitting on top of the tow dolly that they used to load it. It was an absolute miracle that nothing fell out of the truck. Our prayers were definitely answered.

The dream begins

The dream of owning our own toy store is finally a reality. We got the keys to our new store on July 30, 2008. This is the beginning of Sams Toybox.