#49 • Nov 4th - Save the date
A limited open house from 5-8PM. Putting together what gets shipped to the store.
You are reading 3Bits & Change, Joseph's email about building a direct to consumer business on the internet. Today’s email was written to a bad station Alexa chose, again.
Good morning,
I was hoping I could write a happy note today to say the contractor wrapped up their portion of the project over the weekend. It is not so. One of the subs picked up a check on Friday and promised to be done Monday morning. As of Monday the space was exactly as it was on Friday - zero progress was completed on what was promised.
I had a sequenced plan. It was a great plan. Really. Now? It’ll need to adjust. Who is to say what is good and bad? We’ll adjust.
Mark the calendars. November 4th 5-8PM. A limited Open House.
While we won’t likely be ready to be open to the public we’re going to host a small gathering at the shop on Nov 4th. Think bubbles, light snacks and some Japanese knives on demo. Come give the shop a preview in whatever state it’s in that evening. :) It’ll be for close friends and cheerleaders of this project. You’re invited, +1.
If you can make it, great. If not. Great. We’ll catch you next time. Come for 5 minutes or more. No pressure. Hit reply to RSVP to give me a sense of the size of the crowd. I’ll reply with the address. (That reminds me, there is a location page to build for the website too).
Standby for info on some sort of an opening event after the dust has settled and we’re open to the public.
Bit #1 • A kit of parts has been ordered
We don’t know the days things will move. Yet, we know the sequence of the build. The sharpening equipment will move first. We’ll get one of those lift gate trucks and strap the equipment to the wall.
The sound box for the vacuums is the first build. I have most of those parts in storage. The rest of the parts are scheduled to show up today.
By sometime on Thursday the cabinets and the islands will arrive at the shop. Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll show up in the morning. They’ll all need assembly.
The countertops are TBD. There is no assurance they will ever be available. :) There is no timeline offered for when word of their arrival will be available either. Creativity will likely be part of solving for a countertop in the nearterm.
The cabinet pulls are on the way, along with other bathroom bits. The order says it’ll ship in 5 different shipments over the coming month. OK. Sounds like mini adventure.
Bit #2 • Demo knives
They’ve arrived!
I’ve only opened the top of the boxes. The plan is to do an unboxing video for each of the knives. The internet loves content like that.
It’d really be much better to shoot those videos in the new store vs. my kitchen or on the workbench or floor. So, we’re going to wait. But, it’s eating me up ot have them just sitting there. :)
Follow our Tik account to follow along on the build out as well as the unboxings. Vivront on TikTok
Bit #3 • Design
I went looking for some interior design help in late September. I have relatively specific direction and vision for the space and brand. However, I worry about finishing the last, say, ~20% of the look and feel.
Greg shared an intro to Erinn and I’m so glad he did. We’re going to wrap the space in a custom branded look/feel in the coming weeks. Wish us luck. We only just started last Wednesday shortly after I hit send on the last issue. Yet, the collaboration is strong so far.
When we’re done with this sprint we’ll have a French named knife store with (largely) Japanese knives, run by a German dude in Minnetonka, MN. And it turns out that’s not as crazy as it sounds.
While Erinn and I were standing in the space with painters painting, a drywall sander kicking up dust and a mudder mudding I was describing what I was going for. Erinn turned and tilted her head at one point during my myandering mess of words, shifted her weight to one side and with a smirk asked if I know what Japandi style was. Nope!
"Japandi design is the combination of Scandinavian functionality and Japanese rustic minimalism to create a feeling of art, nature, and simplicity." -Leni Calas
“This Fusion creates the perfect blend of function and form, focusing on clean lines, bright spaces and light colors.” -Ashley Knierim
That is exactly what I’m looking for! Yes, that! Now I have words for it and a design community to reference. Fantastic.
All that’s left is the doing.
Sum
Contractors are doing contractor things. There will be lots of assembly in the next two weeks. The knives have arrived. The design process turned really positive. There is not word on when the countertops will be available.
Save the date on November 4th! Join us for a small gathering at the shop (with or without countertop). We’ll check out some knives and you can share your perspective on what we can build, make, or service out of the shop going into the holiday season.
Change
Our subscriber list for The Emily grew the most it’s grown in a single week last week. Remember, this is the set-it-and-forget-it subscription product. It’s available in 3, 6 and 9 month chunks. Go get it! We’ll simply ship you packaging when it’s time for your sharpening. Easy.
The number of print pieces required to open a store is overwhelming. It’s all do-able. In some oddly comforting way it’s also a finite number of items but a much larger project than I budgeted for. So, I’ve been hanging around with my designer hat on quite a bit in the last week.
On Your Way
I walked into a Whole Foods on Sunday to get a birthday cake for our youngest and was held up at squash point. You know how they put some of the season’s top produce in the entryway? It was that. I grabbed an acorn squash and a butternut squash and placed them in the cart. My wife asked what I was going to do with them. I was not sure at the time, however, our dinner menu was born. It was so good!
May you also enjoy a full force harvest meal again soon. Afterall, it is harvest time!
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Order kitchen knives sharpened or give the gift of sharp at Vivront.com.
Roast. With a little butter. Some acorn love.
Cheers to you for this hustle. 👏👏👏