The Marble Falls Massage Therapy Center was born on June 3rd, 2011. This is the day we celebrate as the Grand Opening/Birthday of this business. The weeks leading up to this date were filled with anticipation and anxiety which I hope to describe as accurately as possible here. This blog post will serve several purposes; 1) to honor the hard work my friends and family put in to help make my dream a reality, 2) to document the trial-and-error we experienced in hopes of helping other Massage Therapists set up their dream practice, and finally 3) to elevate my status to "Blogger" and join the likes of Allissa Haines, Kelli Wise, and Laura Allen all of whom I had the privilege of meeting with at the AMTA National Convention last weekend in Portland, Oregon.
After viewing a handful of empty retail spaces that were up for lease, I found the one! 800 some odd square feet of awesome. For years I have been doodling the same basic layout on every scrap of paper I had; reception area, small retail space, room for 3-4 treatment rooms, separate laundry/supply area, restrooms in the back. And this doodle came with some other requirements; located off of a main road, easy to give directions, quiet neighbors, and close to a handful of good eateries for some lunchtime variety.
I had toured other vacant units in the days prior. Some were too small, most were too big. Some had an odd layout that required you to pass through one treatment room to get to another. Some had other hiccups like zero flexibility on painting/decorating even if you signed a 5 year lease. The day Lynette, my leasing agent, showed me unit 207 in the China Kitchen building it was like she had found my doodles and built me exactly what I was looking for. It was perfect! Well, aside from needing electricity and new carpet- it was perfect! (Did anyone pick up that I said I toured the unit with no electricity. Ding! Ding! Ding! You got it. I signed a two year lease having only seen the interior rooms by illuminated cell phone lighting.) Trial-and-error recommendation: don't do that! But I was excited so I quickly signed the lease and called the Chamber of Commerce to schedule a ribbon cutting.
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| May 23rd: Picking Up The Keys |
First Impressions? It is very purple at this stage. What is hard to notice in the video is the discrepancies in the wall textures. Some of the walls are orange peel texture, some are smooth, some even change depth about half way through. This will not be a paint, hang up pretty pictures, and call it done adventure.
May 25th: The expert/boyfriend has now trained me to "mud". Mudding a wall fills in holes, indentations, and uneven textures. You put the mud on, you take the mud off, you repeat a million and a half times. Also, mud is heavy. View the video below to see a day's progress in the mudding department as well as the unpacking and playing with IKEA department (which do you think is more fun?)
May 26th: A lot more mudding going on. Apparently some walls needed second and third coats to gain approval from my expert. About this time is when I began questioning the importance of consistent wall texture. This was a lot of work and I was sure 1 out of 100 people (maybe 1,000) would even notice if we slacked on the mudding. My problem was I was living with one person who would definitely notice! So we continue. Mud on, mud off.
May 27th: The end is in sight! The end of mudding, anyways... This signals the beginning of sanding, priming, and painting. Again, all of this work and soreness so that, if you do it right, no one knows that you did any of it. You may notice the dark blue play pen in the middle of the chaos. This was done in an attempt to entertain our 7 month old so we could get a few extra hours of work in during the evening hours. He was entertained alright. He liked to throw all of his toys over the edge so that you could gather them for him to throw over the edge again. That game was second only to his never ending desire to tear an escape hole through the mesh sides of the play pen.
May 30th: Sanding complete, first coat of primer. It is going to take a lot to cover that purple.
May 31: (3 days remaining) It is starting to become crunch time. First coat of the sand color is up on the far wall. A lot of the furniture is getting assembled at this time. When your arms get tired from painting you can grab a screwdriver and put some chairs together and when your hands get tired from that you can go back to painting.
June 1st: It is starting to take shape and not a moment too soon!
June 3rd: Ready for the Grand Opening!
Before & After Video (with Music!!)
The workshop area as of the ribbon cutting.
Our design has changed a lot since then. Reception is now in the corner the videos are being shot from. The next phase in our development is the great expansion this fall. We will be adding two treatment rooms to the workshop space, tripling our availability to our clients!
We hope you enjoyed our recap of the days just before the grand opening! A million thanks to everyone who helped make this ribbon cutting a success. To Lynette Morrison my leasing agent, TJM Properties and their incredible staff, Kathy Daniels at the Marble Falls Chamber, to all of the new clients that have walked through our doors in the past 4 months, and most of all to my wonderful boyfriend for putting in the extra hours and for being so supportive in this business venture. I could not have done it without you!
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