Paid and done with !

Judy at the Water Authority help me see how the city works in Orange Beach. For the city to tell me they had no idea about these fees , well is just an out and out lie. And for our Landlord to not tell me about these fees was also deceitful. Maybe he forgot about these fees or maybe he didn't realize how they worked. But in his defense , he gave us a great deal on our rent for the next 3 years. This great rate will make up the difference. So now it's done and construction starts tomorrow. Hope to get pictures, so check back. We're off to Mobile for the day to spend more money ! Oh boy ! Get to buy insurance too ! Oh I'm so excited .....

It's a new week

I've moved on. I'll go talk to Judy at the Orange Beach Water Authority tomorrow and give her all my money, then continue on with this dream. As therapy , I tell everyone I do business with, how unfair it is that no one tells you about the astronomical in-pact fees they have here in Orange Beach until you go to have your water turned on. At this point is is very hard to back out of your plans even if you have no idea where the money will come from . I think it's bad business for the city to treat it's tax payers this way. I worked hard today, Cleaning used equipment,moving money around, paying bills and making plans to spend more money. The more I get done , the more I think to do. I really feel I need to develop a filling system before we open the doors. Keeping things on the computer is hard for me. I tend to forget where I put them. This is going to have to be Scott's job. I feel good about today. I feel good about the Dancing Cup Cafe. Soon we will be up and running !

Orange Beach is a mercenary municipality, and we go to an auction

$12,000.00 Water Impact Fee! are you f@#%^&g kidding! Rhonda is crying, curled up into a fetal position on the couch, I'm counting out what is left of my savings (I'll have $1600.00 left for the next 4 months trailer rent) and this start up is costing us $60,000, about $10,000 more than than we have. F#!k!

We got our permit to start construction !

It's been a long hard road but now we move forward ! Today we got our permit from the city of Orange Beach , Al. To start the construction of Dancing Cup Cafe ! There were so many times I never thought this day would come. There were days when I wasn't sure I wanted this day to come ! But now that it's here , I am so excited. I can not wait to be putting pictures up the concrete being hammered up, the walls going up and cabinets being built. Scott and I went to Thomasville for Mother's day this weekend. While there, we stopped by General Sheetmetal Of Thomasville and were invited to watch Virgel cut out our Dancing Cup Cafe sign. It's the most beautiful sign ever ! It feels so good to be having fun with the creation of our coffee shop. Like I said too many times , this has been a long hard road. I know there is still so much work to be done but for today , all is good !

Some days are easy

Today all I have done is answer the phone and make calls. The city of Orange Beach would call me, tell me what they needed, then I called the contractors ,told them and they took care of business. Easy day ! Oh yeah, I had to pick tile for the shop. Both choices were pretty ugly so it was easy. I'm not paying for the flooring so I guess being given any choices is nice. In the retail part of our place there will be rugs to hide the floor and in the kitchen it won't mater. It's just a floor. As long as the health inspector likes it, I like it. Tomorrow Scott and I will be making a trip to Low's for a sink,mixer, and maybe a water heater. Also we will be going by Coffee Headz to see if Kathy has any extra equipment I need. Talked to her on the phone the other day and she said she had enough equipment to supply a whole coffee shop ! Wish I had found her 3 weeks ago ! Things are looking good ! Although we are still unsure where we will be living in the next few months. Oh well, we'll be somewhere.

We go to an auction

Babs, (Rhonda's mom) was headed to an auction and had seen some items that she thought we might want for the cafe. We drove up to Thomasville and stayed the night there, then onto to Selma, Al to do some bidding. We did a little sight seeing of historic Selma on the way. Once there Rhonda successfully bid on a peanut display rack, (we'll display chip bags) and a table w/four cafe style chairs.

Permits

We turned in the application for the Baldwin County Health Permit. $150 for turning in the application and another $150 ( a yearly fee ! ) for a full serves restaurant permit. But the good news is ,even after taking a quick look at the plans he Did Not Laugh at me ! I was so nerves... Not sure why but I was.All Kip said about our plans is we need to move the mop sink( he wants it outside, our plumber wants it inside) and we are not sure the dumpster pad has a drain. Scott seemed to be bothered by the mop sink and I was more concerned about the dumpster drain . Guess we got all the worries covered ! On the way home we stopped at the electric company and paid the $1780 deposit ! To have the electricity turned on. I had planned on stopping at Foley Restaurant and Kitchen Supply store to see about buying more equipment but I had spent all my little Brian could spend in one day. Next is the City of Orange Beach Permits. I hope to get them to the city tomorrow.These fees don't have to be paid until they are excepted. We stopped at Coffee Heads, a local coffee shop just to check things out. It was so intimidating ! They had all new beautiful equipment. They're coffee was good, not great. It was a cute place. I hope ours will be a place with a lot of character and great coffee and great food. The prices at the Coffee Heads were high ! $5 milk shake, $4.50 smoothie, $1.75 for reg.drip coffee. I'm afraid our prices will have to be just as high. When we got home today we had newly born kittens waiting for us. Well, they are hidden from us under the kitchen cabinets. We don't know how many are what they look like. I'm going to try to write on this blog more often. It's been too hard the last few weeks because every time we moved forward we would meet with someone and would be set back at least two steps. I'm not sure even now that we are making any progress.......all I am sure of is that I am spending a lot of money.