I am SO BAD at updating you guys about The Found Cottage. Some of you may not even know that I own a store with two other amazingly creative people [Lisa & Abby] here in West Michigan. Well, I do & our year anniversary is coming up this January 14th. This year has been a wild ride! Owning a store is a dream come true for me, but having a brick and mortar is one of the hardest & most challenging things you can do. For us it was all good problems which I’m so thankful for. We were far busier than we could ever dream of, we grew too quickly, & we for sure outgrew our building quicker than we could have ever imagined. That is why we are moving! Not even a year into our journey & an opportunity came up to get a much larger space that happened to be right next door to our current location & so we snatched it up really quickly & this week Saturday [December 31st] we are closing the doors on our current location & re-opening on our one year anniversary in two weeks. What I haven’t really been sharing with you guys is that every waking moment that I haven’t been at home, working, or here blogging, I’ve been at the new store getting it ready to open. It’s been so busy! The store was in pretty bad shape when we got it a month ago, so we have been preparing for opening day. It always gets worse before it gets better right? I wanted to share a tiny glimpse at the process &  what it looked like today in all the craziness as we started to move things in as we are under construction so that you guys could be a part of this journey with us…

So here was where we started when the ceilings were beginning to be painted…

& after the ceilings were painted…

& after the walls were painted, carpet removed, ceilings painted, & the floors being worked on…

We are in the process of building displays throughout the entire store which is being done by a lot of helping hands. It involves the building, the painting, the staining, the cleaning, the moving, the prepping, the planning, & everything in between. It is a long process that kind of looks like a complete mess in the middle, but we know at the end it will look amazing. We have been doing this all while keeping the other location open which has presented it’s challenges, but we can’t stand to be closed ever because we love having our little shop available for people to visit. This coming week will start the two week last minute stretch where all of this starts coming together  & going from a functional mess to an actual store. I can’t wait to bring in all of our merchandise & to style the store!! So this is post one of three before we open. This is the beginning…

I am one for wanting to show the “after” of things. The moments that are pretty and perfect, but it doesn’t seem right in this situation because this whole process is a huge part of who we are. We are do-ers, DIY-ers, creators, makers & this is a huge part of our store. So here is the beginning.. the start to our new location & I can’t wait to share the journey with you guys! Stay tuned for parts 2 & 3 coming the next two weeks before we open our doors! I can’t wait to share the pretty updates & even the outside of the building when we are closer. If you are local, we would love to see you on the 14th for our grand opening! We just started an event page for the grand opening [here] that we will be posting to as well. Thank you guys so much for stopping by the blog today, for supporting our dreams, & for cheering us on. It means so much! xx