OOF!

You wouldn't believe the crazy weekend I just went through...Everyone here is so exhausted, and with reason! We all spent the weekend packing and stacking and taping and hauling an entire store. You think moving a home is hard? Try a store with 2400 sq ft of inventory (paper is HEAVY) and furniture. The Candiac store furniture is beautiful - all very solid wood display units and a huge round reception counter. All this filled a large 30ft trailer twice - we had to make 2 trips and it took a lot of measuring and humming and hawing to fit the pieces like a puzzle in order to avoid a 3rd trip! On top of that, my brother André and his wife Hélène each showed up with their extended vans and a trailer and filled those. I had already done 3 trips with my CRV filled to the max. Keith, David & I went in on Saturday to pack the balance of the inventory and Keith spent the day taking every display unit apart in order to move them. David did all the computers and electronics - packing them and labelling everything. We worked until 8pm and went home for pizza & bed - totally wiped. We wanted to get a real early start on Sunday morning, but the landlord wouldn't show up with the key to let us in until 10:15 (he made us wait on Saturday too...) What a jerk! Still, with a absolutely marvelous team of devoted employees, friends and family - we managed to empty the store and leave it clean and spotless by 7PM. Of course, then we had to unpack everything in Granby - so no one went to bed early last night. While we were busy on the Candiac side, my sister Claire along with our employees Marie & Danielle stayed behind in Granby to prep for the furniture coming in. They worked just as hard on their side and throughout all this, the store was open to the public same as usual and full of customers.

Both Claire & I are so grateful to all our helpers who spent all their weekend helping us out. Keith, David, Jacques, Jean & Norm (the spouses of our employees), Mike (Rebecca's fiancée), Etienne, André & Hélène, and even my nephew Daniel who came to help out for a few hours. Without them, I am sure that I would still be shuffling boxes around tonight .

When I walked into the store in Granby this morning, it looked like a storage compartment - with all that furniture in the way, but by the end of the day, it started to look like a store again, and a nice store. Only the very best from all 3 stores. The rest is for sale! I am so relieved that this part of the sad saga is over. All our inventory, all our furniture has been recouped. Now we have a beautiful store brimming with inventory, and ready to rock 'n roll!

Things are coming together - it's not over, there are more hurdles in the way, but so far, we are clearing them all one by one. Tomorrow is another day...