In less than a week, The Homestead will be open. My stomach just did numerous flips typing that. I have moments of pure exhilaration and excitement as I see all that we have accomplished in such a short amount of time and on such an incredibly tight budget (if I can even say that...really there was no budget/money to begin with so its all glory to God on that one. I also have moments of total panic ~ the whole "what were we THINKING taking this on?" But those moments don't happen often and when they do they are quickly dispelled when I remember that really each step has been laid out before us to get to this point and although Mike has continued to look for work, in this economy ~ in his profession, it just hasn't happened.
So The Homestead has happened. And its great...
(our own shop sign is still to come...)
Although we started this venture only 3 months ago, it really started 12 years ago when Mike and I got married. We have always dreamed of this. We planned for this. We spent hours on long car rides discussing business plans, driving to little towns to look at abandoned building to restore for the shop but always coming up short on executing the plan.
Which in retrospect was how it was meant to be. The hours of writing business plans gave us a clear vision for what we hope will work and won't work for us as a family. The years of penny pinching and thrify-ness has allowed us to maximize everything to its fullest and get creative in making some quick money (gotta love Craigslist and Ebay) to buy what we have needed.
So this time next week Mike and I will be shop owners. The Homestead, which cannot be summed up in just one word, is a place to get baked goods and a plate lunch each day. There will be bluegrass shows (our first one is scheduled for Saturday June 4th), homesteading classes (summer ones are already enrolling) and events (a homeschool mom's breakfast is on the calendar thus far.) We will sell local artisan crafts and Kentucky Proud food products as well as grass fed beef from the farm we are located on and a few antiques here and there.
Canaan will make marshmallows from the kitchen (his business is booming!) and Ezra has hopes for a cookie company called "Ezra's Famous Cookies"...we may need to change that one. Famous Amos may not be too happy about the similarity. For now, Otto enjoys trying out his new walking ability around these beautiful hardwood floors.
**the kitchen and other side of the shop are near completion. When they are done, I'll post pics of the finished space. Here are a few more photos if you'd like to take a look.
Furthermore, we're trying to get on this whole social media bandwagon, so if you want to find us on Facebook and "like" us ~ that would be great ~ and tell your friends about us. We can use the word of mouth marketing. Here is a link for that page.
And of course our website can be found here.
Ok...the plugs are offically done.