“You didn’t have a choice in that,” I said.
“Good,” they both said.
CHAPTER 27
“So! How did the appointments go today?” Lindy asked.
“Really well, actually. The one I’m going to go with for the loft is ten thousand dollars cheaper than I was expecting. So, we can put that extra toward renovating the business,” I said.
“Yeah, that was a lot more than I thought it was going to be,” she said.
“I know. Eighty thousand is a steep renovation, but I understand why. The electrical has to be updated throughout the entire place, and the outlets have to be replaced. But, she’s got someone on her team to do the interior finishing as well. So, we won’t be stuck painting walls and shit after shelling out eighty grand.”
“Which is nice,” Lindy said. “But it also means we have to solidify what we want the inside to look like.”
“That’s fine. We’ve got som
e time to do that,” I said.
“Tell me about the contractor that’s doing the loft. What did he say?” she asked.
“It’ll take about fifty grand to do everything, which is fine. I’ve got that money. The electrics are an issue, but the plumbing isn’t. Which doesn’t shock me since the electrics for the business are rough, too. The bulk of the price goes toward having to put in a new door and build an outside access staircase. It’ll have to be enclosed so it’s safe and up to code, so that’s about twenty thousand dollars alone,” I said.
“Yikes. Will you have enough money to furnish the place?” she asked.
“Oh, yeah. The tips have been great at the bar recently, and there’s no reason why I have to purchase everything new. The mattress and couches need to be new because that’s gross, but the kitchen appliances and the washer and dryer? Nah.”
“I’m glad things went well. Did you hire the contractor on the spot?”
“I did. We got to talking about how I wanted to keep the space very open-concept, so it saved me on building walls. His team will start at the end of next week once he hears from the inspector on what exactly has to happen with the place.”
“Emma, this thing will be up and running in less than two months on this time schedule,” she said.
“I know. It’s exciting, isn’t it?” I asked.
Lindy and I were sitting on her couch and daydreaming about how our lives were about to change. We had the schedules set with the contractors; we had plans in motion; we had no debt to speak of for this adventure, and we were in talks with the manufacturers. Lindy and I were sending over some of her designs for the manufacturing plants to test out, just to make sure they could play on our field. I wanted Lindy’s designs to get out there. I wanted her to be able to build something outside of this shop. Her designs were way too good to fall by the wayside.
“Did you get all of those designs off to the manufacturing plants?” I asked.
“I did. I like your idea of test-driving them all. Giving them a good mix of easy and hard to see who will fit best with us,” Lindy said.
“If we can have two that will partner with us for decent prices, that’ll be the best. That way, if something happens to one manufacturer, we aren’t completely shit out of luck,” I said.
“What do we want to do about accessories?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, we’ve got all the big stuff, but there are smaller accessories, too. Earrings and necklaces. You know, shit women buy and wear to all the biker rallies to make themselves look nice.”
“Shit. I hadn’t thought about that,” I said.
“Some people in town make their own jewelry. Nice shit, too. Maybe that could be something we could outsource. Take a small profit off whatever they sell in our store?”
“Then we wouldn’t have to worry about tracking down yet another manufacturer. Lindy, you should’ve gone to school for this shit.”
“Eh, I hated school. I’m much better at doing things like this.”
“You mean pulling shit out of thin air?” I asked.