Ok, I really do try to see the upside in things. But sometimes a bunch of “look at the upside” moments come crashing down all at once, at the perfectly wrong time and it gets a bit ***ahem*** challenging to not scream at the top of one’s lungs and throw yourself down on the ground screaming like a 2 years old!!
So for those who have followed my blog/shop for the past few months, you know that over the down-season I remodeled my shop. The goal (although there were small delays along the way) was to get it all pretty-pretty in time for the high-season which begins the end of November but really picks up the second week of December (now). Lots of work but so worth it.
About 3 weeks ago, someone rented one of the two vacant shops above me, which is great because the space has been abandoned for over 7 years. The more businesses there are near me, the more foot traffic I have. It’s a win-win. BUT my building (excluding my newly renovated space below) is in desperate need of a total overhaul. The structure has been an all-inclusive resort for termites for years and so the new tenant really has their work cut out for them to get the place inhabitable. How this impacts me? Part of their floor is my ceiling so that meant ripping out a part of my ceiling, my wall and my entry to do their repairs. This started last week.
Ok, ok, ok, in the long run, this benefits me because it makes my space safer and more structurally sound. So I bit the bullet and had a moment of sadness watching my newly constructed wall and displays come down. I figured ok, we still (at that point) have a week until the start of my high-high season – Christmas week.
Well, as with all things in Costa Rica, this “little” project is taking longer than anticipated and has turned into a cluster-fuck because the more they tore back the surface of the building the more it was apparent that this building is in a state of impending disaster. It’s a miracle it’s still standing and that it withstood the 7.6 earthquake we had 2 years ago!! We discovered that the roof was not even being help up by any support beams, the beams were like cotton candy – completely devoured by termites. So that needed be fixed. Then as they tore up the floor, more and more problems became apparent.
As of yesterday evening it looked like they had put enough band-aids on the project to at least be able to secure things a little bit. That’s the good part. So as the pounding, sanding, pounding, pounding, pounding continued allllll daayyyyy loonnng — and all sorts of debris is coming down like the sky is falling, I’m thinking ok, in a few more days they’ll be done and I’ll at the very least be able to clean up and re-install the vibe in my store for Christmas shoppers.
Dream on Tricia.
So I get word last night that the landlord has also rented the shop directly above me. Which again, in the long run is great news for me. The bad news is, that they plan to start their reconstruction today or tomorrow. Which means completely gutting the place, ripping out the floor (my ceiling) on the other side of my shop and redoing the entire four walls of the structure. Ok ok ok….again, I realize long-term this is a good thing for me. Yes, it will make my place safer, having tenants above brings more people. Blah. Blah! BLAH!
SEVEN DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS!?!?
So I’ve resorted to pulling almost all my goodies out of the store and putting them on a table in front of the shop. Sigh. I’m hoping that the portion of my shop directly at the entrance will be done today (wishing again!). At least then I can at least get a portion of the shop put back together. But what does that matter if the other half is all gutted and they’re constructing it — thus dust and dirt flying everywhere, hammering, sawing, etc.?!?
I’m trying not to get too frustrated because let’s face it, what can I do?? I tried talking to the landlord about maybe waiting at least until after Christmas (although the season just gets busier after that!) but I guess money talks — renting the place after all this time. We had such a bad season last year because of the horrific weather on the east coast of the U.S. and Canada (where the bulk of our high season travelers are from). All the flight cancellations caused us to have about a 1/4 of the season we’d normally have. I was really looking forward to recouping from that disaster last year, this year.
So fine, that’s where things are with that.
Compound that with the fact that I was supposed to move into a new house 2 weeks ago. The new house is still not ready to move in. Which means that not only am I trying to not get ulcers over this shop situation, I am also now stressing out about moving during Christmas and New Year’s week. ((Take a deep breath, ok, exhale))
They say when everything seems to be going wrong, it’s because everything is about to be going really well. Yay…..I’ll try to drum up some enthusiasm over that bit of hopefulness!!
Sigh.
******** Psstttt….A follow-up this is posted here.**********
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