Key change

The remodel project has obviously taken up most of my time for the last few weeks. It is hard, physical work with occasional bouts of focused problem solving. We tug and move and haul things around and then spend 10 minutes discussing the problems: how DO we build solid partition walls under these conditions or secure that much plywood in this little truck so that we can get back from Home Depot or create an arch that can be plastered or...? But we are finally starting to see an actual room now - even without the new floor in yet - and probably only have 2 more weeks to a fully livable space.

Despite the fact that the remodel is so involving, there are other events and activities happening even in our little corner of the world. And last night brought me one of my favorite types of experiences - a true, head-tilting, brain modifying, big key change perspective shift.

As you can tell, I really love perspective shift moments. I suspect that is just part of my Edens heritage. Although the official motto on the Edens crest is "If there be prudence" (we don't know what that really means, either) the de facto motto, that Baba was given many years ago now, is "We see things differently". Because that has always been such a strong identity trait for me, moments or events that highlight a "different seeing" for me get stored away as small memory treats or treasures. Sometimes I just spread them out on the table to look at the twinkle. And last night will definitely be added to that hoard.

Last night, HTH and I attended the first benefit where our company was a corporate sponsor. I'm not sure if reading that makes your head tilt - like mine does when something doesn't make sense - or your nose wrinkle - like my friend CRS in the same circumstance. Most people have some physical reaction to moments when they hear something that doesn't quite fit with their world view. But, world views aside, it actually happened.

Limbs for Kids is a Phoenix based charity that started because the now-President saw a kid envy his brothers running around a mall play area while he sat in a wheel chair. Paul went home and started figuring out how to get prosthetic limbs to the kids who couldn't afford to get them otherwise. He is even currently matching all donations, dollar for dollar, from his personal funds.

The charity's VP/Treasurer is one of our regular business contacts, and the cause is clearly a good one, so when he asked us to sponsor a table for their Casino Night, we were happy to do so. We were not, I have to admit, as happy about the thought of attending Casino Night. But we did. We took the chips that our tickets provided us and walked around to find the table we sponsored and then we settled in to play. It seemed logical and I didn't think much of it until the table workers found out that we were the business owners that sponsored the table. The looks on their faces reminded me of what I used to think when I heard the words "corporate sponsor" and how HTH and I are CLEARLY NOT THAT! But, as the sign on the table reminded us, we actually are that as well.

I knew a songwriter once that built a key change into every song he wrote. It was such a strange thing that I had to ask him why he did it. He said that any emotion the song brought up would intensify when the key changed. Since he mostly wrote church music, he said it made the congregants cry.

Perspective shifts moments act like key changes for me - they compress the emotional content of several days or weeks into one moment. My words have not yet caught up to my feelings, so I'm not entirely sure what last night's cognitve dissonance means. But I can honestly say that being part owner of a business has been the source of more shifts in my thinking than anything else I've ever done. HTH says that every day is a new thing - and he is right - but the key change moments remind me that my new normal is a very, very different place than where I lived a year ago.

The joys of small business ownership

The "transcript" below is exactly how my phone call with HTH started this morning.


(Phone rings)
Me: Hey, Baby.
HTH: Hey, Babe. How's it going?
Me: I've 3 minutes til my next conference call, but everything is looking pretty good. How about you?
HTH: I just called to tell you that I dropped {new employee}E off at Grace's to do the work there and I'm heading off to McDonald's to do that compressor change out. At this moment, we are making money in 2 places at one time!
Me: Whoo-hoo!
...conversation continues....

We are SO excited about this, but I can't imagine ANYONE else caring nearly as much. I guess that is one of the joys of owning a small business - it really is OUR business and nobody else's....
And, yes, we're kinda demented, but at least we have a good time with it! ;)

Just another little customer

In all my Lighten Up frenzy (which includes, of course, the COUNTDOWN TO PART TIME OR QUITTING!), I've not posted much about the business that is allowing (or possibly "needing" is the right word) me to quit my current day job. But I have one little quick story (as I vainly try to wind down from this very long day) that will give some small insight into that side of things.

HTH, as you all know, is quite the business man. He is technically proficient, a good communicator, and the kind of guy who sees possibilities every time someone else says that it can't be done. These are all extremely good traits in a technical service business. So, he picked up a new customer this week. They have 3 locations in the valley, but the one right by our house had been having a beer problem for 3 years. HTH fixed it in about 4 hours. (Yeah, he is just like that.) The regional manager was so pleased that he was bragging about the work to his local Hensley tech. Now Hensley wants contact information to recommend HTH to their customers.

So, that sounds all well and good, right? One good customer leads to another and all of that. Just normal business operations, you know.... Until you realize exactly who Hensley represents here in the Valley of the Sun. Yep. This Hensley's for you! DANG! Did I marry well or what?!?

Visible signs of progress

Over the holidays, we made a few changes around here. The workshop is now finished (pics below). Efforts are starting to clear the old shop out and turn it into HTH's office. And since we now have a TV in the old office - to accomodate teenage desires to have food in front of the TV and our wish to occasionally have access to a TV ourselves - I have been moving my personal business stuff out of the official office and turning my "work" office into my only office space.

These are things that have been in our heads for a while. They are, in fact, related to our idea of building a master bath and laundry room on this house. But, for a lot of reasons, that idea has not really made it as far as actual plans - much less to the stage of making changes. Yet here we are. Making changes that fit the master, long-term plan. It just reminds me that life has a momentum all it's own and, while I can nudge that momentum a bit one way or another, I can't stop it. So, ready or not, here it comes!


This is the MawMaw picture. She has requested this picture about a dozen times over the last 11 years. Admittedly, this is not the prettiest time of year for the house. The trees are all bare. The wind and rain that finally left the area last night have created piles of wet leaves everywhere. But the sky is blue today and the light is pretty. So, here it is. The siding is the same color as the wall on the left of the next picture. Hard to tell here....
This is drywall day, known to the uneffected as Friday, January 4. To the two guys in this picture, it meant at least 1 day of very sore muscles. Without the drywall lift (see the supports just behind HTH?), this probably would've been a 4 man job. Gotta love technology! BTW, in the wall on the left just behind HTH, you can see where the original gate connected (see pic 3 in this post ). The new wall is about 12 feet back.
And now to the details. One of the technical challenges of this space was to make it flexible enough for all of the weather and work conditions that are coming our way. HTH wanted "a wall that can disappear". As I mentioned before, this banner is our solution for the time being. However, it was suspended from nails before. NOW, it is run on a cable with curtain hooks - just like a very heavy, stiff shower curtain. Cool, huh?

These doors (the absolute bane of my painting existence) came from a construction lots store. It is the construction industry version of Overstock or Big Lots. They even came with this nice looking hardware. And, yes, before you ask, the paint between the doors really is the same paint as on the wall below. Since the doors are darker, it looks much lighter here...

This is partially just to show paint color and partially excitement over the fact that it is DONE. Those trigrams are a lot trickier than they look.

Other than the masonite top for the 9 ft work bench, all that is left to be done - construction wise - is putting the shelves in this section. After that, we can start on the next bit of fun - sorting the old shop into the new storage spaces so that we can start work on HTH's office!

A little review of work on the shop

So, here is a bit of the work on the shop that has been done. This is wall that is closest to the street. We have a primer coat up and - guess what! - we're painting it grey!
For Dylan's Christmas present to his dad, he recruited Donovan for artistic advice. The yin yang is part of Colin's business logo, so the boys put that on the wall above the monster bench.

This picture had to be included because, as you can see, Dylan actually smiled for it! There are more pics of the shop work and Christmas stuff to post, but I have to go clean the house and handle some business stuff before I'm allowed to post again. Just wanted to let you all know that I'm still here! And I've recovered from my post Christmas cold well enough to write. More later!

While I was out

Me being gone all last week had no effect, of course, on the pace of progress around here. Because HTH has his dad working with him for the winter (like most sane people, HTH's dad is not in the valley during the summer!) work moves at a pace that looks like double HTH time! So, when I came back from the UK, this is what the workspace looked like.

This picture is taken from just slightly in front of this one. You can also see the doors that enclose the original open shelves that eventually went in here





And here is the view back towards the street. This workbench is, as you can see, already getting quite a bit of use. You would not believe how heavy and just plain awkward those refrigeration "decks" are that you can see on the bench there.



Here you can see that the Dr. is in. We call that rolling table to the left the deck "trauma center". It is exactly the same height as the bench that holds decks until they are ready for work and it includes places for everything that HTH needs to work on these decks. Just after I took this picture of him soldering the compressor, he looked up and said "You know, maybe soldering on this little wooden stool is not a good plan!"



And last, but not least, here is the supervisor. She works for peanuts - literally - or ginger snaps. Or a bite of apple. or pear. Whatever. She isn't picky. The banner behind her acts as a movable wall between the workspace and the back yard (it has to be that way for the deck repair process), so there is effectively a doorway just past the bench there. She checks in regularly and sniffs all new boxes.

Building (for) the business

As most of you know, my handsome and talented husband (does that make him HTH?) started a business about 9 months ago. Although the events that precipitated this change seemed sudden, it had been a long time coming. He had been worked in low temperature refrigeration for 16 years at a local small business. As the GM, he was aware of a number of market opportunities that the company was not addressing. So, when the owner of the company made HTH an unacceptable career change offer, he got HTH's 2 weeks notice instead of acceptance. HTH saw an empty space that could be usefully filled, so he started out to fill it.

The foundation period was, by far, the slowest part. We had much to discuss about the "what" and "how" of the new business. We had systems to build that could support all of the weight that we hoped to be putting onto this yet-to-be realized structure.

The business design also changed a bit at this stage. We found that market was not ready for some services that we planned. Other opportunities appeared out of nowhere that offered a new direction that, with some trepidation, we took.

We've had a lot of help getting the walls up. V&B have been great "been there, done that" resources. Although our businesses are totally different, some things just don't change. For that, we've been truly grateful! We've had conversations about business theory and accounting with Ommi and Baba. We've had countless friends weigh in on logo designs. HTH's Dad, JD, has stepped in recently to lend a hand while HTH has been recovering from eye surgery. The last few months would not have been possible without him.

Although there have been a number of celebratory moments along the way, the last few weeks have been marked by several milestones. We sent out our 100th invoice. We're very close to the dollar target that we set as "the end of the start up phase". We've made it through the anticipated slow season and found that there is still money to be made - even in the lean months of January and February.


We've also hit a tangible milestone, which is quite unusual in a service business. It even mirrors the status of our business. HTH outgrew the available storage space. He needs easy access to far too many parts to work from our current shop. For the last month or so, jobs permitting, he and JD have been building a space designed to support the needs of this business.

It struck me that we finally had a visual for what has been happening these last 9 months. So here it is - a small change in the world, but a big change for us. A work in progress, but self supporting. Our own little construction project - in drywall and in services.