moving.

please forgive the awkward delivery - its been an awkward few months …

i guess it was in october - late october. we had just decided to move our retail store from carson street into our warehouse 3 blocks away. i had asked the landlord if the warehouse would ever be up for sale (maybe we could buy it or at least entertain the idea) ...he said no. 

we hired a marching band and had a big parade from our old space to our new space. it was cold and rained like hell. it was still fun but in retrospect - an omen. the following tuesday, our landlord stopped by to tell us that they had sold the whole city block. our warehouse and a few other larger buildings were going to be demolished for new condos. more importantly, we had to move. 

nothing against our landlord - they are decent and fair and allowed us to grow in their space with little input or issue. i feel some communication could have saved our store but i dont have time to cry about it - i gotta search for a new home and one we could buy so something like this would never happen again. we only had a couple months. in this short time i want to buy a building, move a warehouse, schedule to fly in specialists to set up presses, to install the dryer, to do...well crap that we cant (or at least that we shouldnt)...and in a space that we dont own yet. 

the search begins. we posted to instagram that we were looking for a new space and it honestly felt like all of pittsburgh responded in support. tons of messages and many realtors and ideas and old churches and "you guys should...."'s and visits and disappointments and so much. so so much. 

i dont want to leave the south side. this neighborhood has been so good to us. we started in a basement in our house on 20th. we started our family here. i know everyone. they know me. i quickly learned that this neighborhood, one that was created by warehouses and people working in them - had none left. 

i spend the next 2 months with the weight of making sure i was taking care of the future for my family, 15 employees, and whatever the hell else i piled on myself. spent every minute online and riding around in and outside the city - looking at every possible space that existed, mapping neighborhoods, checking layouts, feeling it all out. a few years ago i had talked to some folks at RE360 about this beat up beast of a building on warrington ave. it needed a new roof and all the windows were gone - i called them to see if it was still on the market. not only was it but they had tenants in it who had just left. i made an appointment to see it immediately. 

it was a mess. 
and that is being kind. 

they had put a new roof on it - the rest of it was piles of trash and neglect. years of sitting unattended...unloved. it was dark and downright spooky. my kids were terrified of it. no light , weird levels, with half-assed walls, strange remnants of squatting, deep piles of dust and dirt. oh, and porn. layers of porn. everywhere. 

this is it. 

a month or so of back and forth with RE360 and since we didnt have the time to secure financing - they agreed to a lease-to-own option. on Jan 20th 2017 we got the keys to the building. on Jan 20th we started clearing everything. for the next 3 months, we tore out walls, dirt, garbage, and layers of porn...balanced running the business in one area of the city and planning for its future in another - demolition, planning, dislocated shoulders, mounds of worry, and a overwhelming feeling of a bulldozed push forward. i think we filled 9 dumpsters - the big ones - and thats AFTER recycling every bit of metal that we took out.

good bones and a new roof, other than that, the whole thing needed to be scrapped and built back up. april and may were spent simultaneously bashing things apart and with architects and engineers and permits and plumbers and contractors and electricians and trucks and dumpsters and so much city code you wouldnt believe it...planning how to put it all back together. 

 im still deep in this but i can feel the whole thing moving forward - slowly, sludgenly.

things ive learned: 
all buildings are for sale. even if it says lease - its for sale. 
pittsburgh has your back.