Spring Goals: the Store’s Exterior

It is always exciting to me when we undertake an exterior aspect of the store. Don’t get me wrong, the interior is exciting too (the whole thing is exciting to me!), but the outside of the store adds an aspect of immediate visibility to the general public. We can work for weeks on the inside of the store, and then we work on one exterior project for 2 hours, and I get a dozen comments from people that have driven by and taken notice. Well, it is now the season for exterior work! It is time to give the good people of Glen Aubrey something to look at as they pass our store.

We have a lot of goals lined up for the outside of the store this summer, and we hope they all add up to us being completely finished with the exterior before the weather cools. Naturally, I think that all of these goals are achievable. My heart and mind tell me that there is no reason why they shouldn’t be… but experience tells me that I should work hard and not take it for granted that these goals will come to fruition in a timely manner.

So, without further delay, here is the summer schedule for the exterior of the store:

1) Finish clearing the yard around the store. We already did the large majority of it, but there is still an old tree to cut up as well as a scrap metal pile and wood pile to make go away.

2) Cut the window and door holes in the Tyvek.

3) Build the deck for the front of the store. This will be where people enter and come up to the ice cream window. I plan on starting to dig holes for the posts for this in the next week or two.

4) Finish the roof. We still have to put up the new metal roof on the front side of the store (the back is finished) and then we have to put up the ridge vent and gable trim. I get the feeling that this would have been nice to finish it all at once instead of trying to remember this year exactly what we were doing. Alas, mother nature denied our request late last fall.

5) Put gravel down in front of the deck for the parking lot. Actually, we will need to fill in and roll out the hills and valleys first, but you get the idea. We plan to put a parking area of crushed stone in front of the store.

6) Put up the siding (board and batten) on the exterior of the store. She’s gonna look nice.

7) Paint/stain the board and batten.

8) Stand in our new driveway looking at the exterior of the store and feel a sense of accomplishment.

9) Go get ice cream.

There you have it. If we can do all of those things, the outside of the store will really be shaping up. We are excited to make it happen. If you see us out working, don’t hesitate to stop in and say hi or give us a honk with your horn as you pass by. We may not see who it is, but we’ll still wave.