The new and improved front door view. 

MK and I scraped all of the front windows yesterday. You would not believe what an emotional moment it was to finally see into our new baby.  Here MK is Windexing for her life!

Just a reminder of how HIDEOUS the place was before we got out hands on it..... we start to merchandise tomorrow evening, so you'll see a drastic change sometime late tomorrow evening. Stay tuned!

The floor to ceiling window shelving units were installed yesterday. I can't wait to see them with all of the glass shelves installed and full of merch!

Live blogging from the new shop.... computer, register and Internet all up and running. What a feeling!
Everything is covered in dust, yuck, will it ever come clean?

We just got home form GCT, it's 11:30pm, and the doors behind the cash wrap are installed and lookin' fine. It's so weird to see it progressing almost hour by hour now. WE OPEN ON MONDAY! it's crazy!!!!!!! We have  a lot of work to do.

Domes...

I know , I know, domes are played out  but they work so well.  I made this  today and I am thinking there will be more of these little babies to come. A wax seal and antique (1920's) silver metal ribbon, what's not to like!

Here is the finished truck. They turned out fantastic and that's thanks to Douglas's sweet paint job. I bet you didn't know that Douglas painted cars in high school... well he did and it shows here.

The lights are on! All of the lighting is done and the chandelier worked exactly as we had thought. In fact it looks even better. I can't wait for the the windows to be scraped so we can get a clear visual, now we have to imagine what it's going to look like in full view. It's a good thing we both have faith and creative minds.

This was last year (bottom).... and on top, is this year. Boy what a difference a year can make. 

We are working non stop to put all of the finishing touches on the new shop. Displays are being finalized, products are being priced and the workmen are coming in the morning to finish installing the doors, window units and baseboards in preparation for the opening. 

It's getting very exciting around here!

The three of us took a trip to Toys R' Us in Queens today to buy 3 of these Tonka dump trucks. Douglas worked his magic on them and I'll show you tomorrow how they will be transformed into fantastic displays for our children's collection.

Transformation

This was the floor... and this is the floor now. What a difference a little tile and a lot of hard work can do.

Mud Job...

This may seem like a boring picture but to Doug and I it was the most exciting thing we had seen in a long time. This is the "mud job" that is basically a sub floor before they lay the tile. The floor was in terrible shape with many elevation changes to deal with and it had caused a GREAT deal of stress in our lives. The good news is that the floor guy was able to do a wonderful job of leveling it out... Next the tile!

Busy, Busy....

This about says it all. I will post more later in the week because things are rocking now!

The cash wrap is look'n good. This is a little gift for MK, since she has dreamed of a proper place to store her menagerie of tape, pens, scissors and paperclips along with a wrapping station. The French oak finish is stunning in person!

Today I wanted to share the most important person in the GCT project (plus all of our other ventures) and that is the "blackjack dealer" and my partner Douglas.

Douglas is the one who works tirelessly on the finances. As you can imagine it's not the most fun and for the most part it's THE most stressful piece of the pie. Douglas works very, very hard to make sure Noodle and I, along with all of our employees and vendors are taken care of. It's been a very difficult time lately and he has done a fantastic job juggling everything to ensure a smooth opening of GCT.

The picture is my two guys relaxing in Mexico last year. Please raise a big 'ol margarita glass to Douglas... he is the best!

These are the French Oak doors in the workshop. They have yet to be finished but I can already see that they are going to be beautiful.

So after a very relaxing weekend in the country we stopped by GCT to see the new ceiling. Of course it hasn't been taped and finished yet but you get the picture.
Douglas and I are getting very excited because we can finally start to see what it's going to look like finished!

Good news, kinda... We passed the ceiling inspection so it can be enclosed next week but (and here comes a big NYC but), in order to have a usable closet it's going to cost another 3200$. This closet is the size of a double door refrigerator. Why so much you ask? Well, it has to have it's own sprinkler head and emergency lighting system.

Is it worth it?

I hear all the time "people don't use journals anymore", well I am here to tell you that's not true. Cursive sells more journals than I ever would of thought possible. Everything from these lovely, limited edition, scene printed beauties to crackled leather from England. I believe all creative people carry a journal in one form or another. I do not go anywhere with out mine and sometimes I have 2 or 3 going at the same time. GCT will be well stocked on journlas!

We visited our cabinet maker yesterday, he is conveniently located in our building, to check in on the custom fixtures. This is a 3'x5' table with storage on both sides, when you have limited space as we all do in NYC you have to use ever available square inch. The venetian is going over this table.

BAGS!!!!!!! I am so excited to finally have our own shopping bags. Nothing is more chic in my opinion than Kraft combined with white gloss` TRES!

Here you see our fantastic Architect and friend, Ward, and our Contractor extraordinaire, Pat, discussing the multitude of ceiling issues. Keep your fingers crossed but I think we are passing the ceiling inspection this week, so that means we can install the new ceiling and I can stop thinking about all of those pipes and wires. Out of site and out of mind!

Here is a sneak peek at the plans for the shop... we had to make a few changes to accommodate Union labor issues but this is pretty much what GCT will look like.

Because we are in Grand Central Terminal, (yes Terminal, don't refer to it as Station or you will get a sideways look form those in the know~ which happened to me!) this is in our ceiling. Why so many pipes you ask? well no one really knows. It kind of freaks me out to see all of this above my head and I can't wait to get the new ceiling up so I can forget about all of this.

This pretty much sums up the state of GCT at the moment!

This beautiful Venetian chandelier is soon to be rehung in Cursive. It's a fantastic opalescent blue/ white that is going to make a statement!

Figuring out the lighting budget for the renovation has been one of the biggest challenges. Thank god for Lighting by Gregory which is the best resource for lighting in NYC, although this beauty didn't come from them, all of the other lighting did.