Tiki Tan - The Long-Awaited Update

Ok. So everyone has been waiting for an update on Tiki Tan. Well, we think everyone has been waiting on one. And if you haven't, oh well, you're getting one.

So, its been a couple of weeks since we posted last about the new venture, and things are going good. We took a little time off of doing major construction projects and started just doing little things that needed done around the salon. And also setting up our prices, the new computer system (well, the old system reworked and set up right for a change), getting credit cards set-up, making sure things are running smoothly, getting all the beds running right and so on and so forth.

But, in the meantime, we've still been doing things, and we figured that we'd show everyone some of the stuff that we can show you. Pictures of the computer screen and our credit card machine aren't very interesting.

Now though, we are getting back into the swing of construction. We are going to finish the floor around the new counter (the plywood went down today), the Formica on the countertop (getting done on Sunday) and eventually the tiki hut roof (Tiki Todd's project in the coming weeks). We are wanting to get as much as we can finished up soon so we can start feeling like the place is done and we can start some of our marketing plans. Dale is designing our logo (still) and we'll start doing more with that once we get it.

On a business front, its going great. We've had several huge days and there are a lot of people coming in that stopped coming after the last owners pissed them off. Plus, we're getting into the busy season (prom time) and that is picking up business. So we are really happy and excited. We've had some of the biggest days in the last six months and they are getting bigger and bigger each day. So we think its working.

So enjoy some new pictures.

We cut up some of the left over bamboo pieces and used them as trim.

We also used some of the spare bamboo pieces and cut them up to make new numbers on the doors. Everyone seems to like them and it keeps with the theme.

We finally got our new, cheap sink and faucet installed. Huge improvement over the one that was there before. We're going to get the full bathroom done soon, but at least we've got a sink and counter now.

We've added chairs to all of the rooms now, so people can sit. Sitting is something so underrated.

Mommy & Me

So Tuesday after I enjoyed my first snow for a little while and learned not to eat the yellow snow....well I decided that since I couldn't eat the yellow snow then I probably shouldn't make the yellow snow either. In hind sight this was a bad decision and it ended up leading to mommy and me having an accident in the house.

Since I wasn't making yellow snow outside I decided that I probably needed to make some yellow marks in the house, this was really a bad idea! I seem to be having more and more of these bad ideas lately, especially since my parents keep leaving me home alone all day. So I made my yellow marks on the recliner just where I wanted them and I would have been just fine had I not decided to stay right there and sniff around. While I was sniffing mommy came around the corner and caught me. She started yelling at me and I knew I was busted so I quickly decided that running would be the best idea.....and this is where my already bad decision turned even worse. When mommy caught me she drug me over to the recliner and was ready to punish me, being the great puppy (who is almost a year old now) I decided that one more tug to get away was needed. Well mommy was mad and had a tight grip on the collar and when I tugged the collar flew off, which would not have been so bad had the collar not flown directly into her face. I was scared at this point because I knew I was really going to be in a lot of trouble. I sat back and waited for my punishment.

Mommy was sitting on the floor now holding her head, I wasn't really sure what to do. Then I really got scared when mommy moved her hand away from her head and there was blood everywhere. Mommy seemed to stay pretty calm..I was kind of freaking out and not sure what I should do. I followed mommy into the bathroom where she tried to stop the bleeding and to see exactly what had happened. We then saw where she had a pretty big cut above her right eye. I was pretty sure at this point that she was going to need stitches and I wasn't sure how I was going to get a hold of Daddy because he had already left for work. Mommy thought she was going to be ok, but I could tell that she was in a lot of pain. I kept telling her that she needed to call Daddy and tell him. She really didn't want to bother him at work but I think she realized she may need stitches and it would be a little difficult for her to do that and go to work all day.

I finally convinced her to call Daddy and tell him what happpened. I was relieved to hear that he was going to come home and take Mommy to the doctor. Sure enough the doctor put 4 stitches in her and gave her a tetnis shot, since it was my collar that had cut her. Daddy brought her back home and told her that she had to rest all day, she was not allowed to go to work. So I got to spend the rest of the day with mommy, although she wasn't too much fun because her head was really hurting her.

So the rest of the week I got to watch while her eye got black and blue and her arm got really really sore from the tetnis shot. I have tried to be a good dog and I will really try hard to not leave my yellow marks in the house anymore. As you can see in the picture above her eye is getting much better, only a little bruising and yellowing now. And mommy tells me that she gets to go in tomorrow and get her stitches out. She seems excited to get them out. I hope she doesn't end up with too big of scar because she will always remember that I was being a bad puppy...it may be hard to live this one down.

Well that is all from me for now (until I get in trouble again..haha).

Brutus

What's This White Stuff???

Here I am. Back for another blog. My parents said they haven’t had a lot of time lately to do a lot of writing on here and people have been wanting to read something… so they paid me to do it. They paid me in biscuits, but they paid me anyway.

And, I’ve also spent a lot of time in my cage as of late (my parents say they are busy and always look tired… so I guess they are telling the truth). So I’ve had a lot of time to think about what I wanted to write.

Then, I woke up on Tuesday morning and it all came to me from heaven. Yep, I was whining and wanted outside… for good reason. I’m only 11 months old and for the first time, I got to see something new. Something cool. Well, something COLD.

Dad let me outside and there is was… this white powdery stuff. All over the ground. Where I normally pee and poop… there was this white stuff. I ran around in it, I jumped around in it. I rolled around in it. I even got a running start and slid across the patio in it while trying to get my ball.

Then, the best part of it. I could eat it. And it was good. It was cold. It felt good on my tummy. And it was all over the yard. It was like a huge buffet. How lucky can I be.

So dad let me stay out in it playing, rolling around, even peeing and pooping in it some of it (not where I was eating it).

But then, just a couple of hours later… its all gone. I know I didn’t eat it all, but it was all gone.

I don’t know much about what it was. I heard them say “snow” and mommy was all excited. But then it was gone. And I was back to the same of green and yellow yard.

Maybe one day I’ll see it again. But until I do, I’ll sit in my cage and dream about it all day long… while drinking my water.

A Year Later

Well, contrary to what some people wanted to believe… me and Jennell were able to make it one whole year (some people will know exactly what I’m talking about).

It was Jan. 19, 2008 that Jennell and I were fortunate enough to have all of our friends and family down here in Concord for our wedding. It was a great night that I know both me and Jennell think about quite often. Of course, with the way our 2008 went, had we known then what we know now, the wedding might have looked a little different, but it was still a great night.

And 2008 was an interesting year. I left my job at 51 Sports, Jennell took a job at IAA and then left it, and we started two new businesses, in 2 Dudes Designs and Tiki Tan. And we got Brutus, which is like a job in itself. So it was a stressful year for sure.

And like any year of any marriage, there were some tough times, but there were far far far more good ones than tough ones.

So to celebrate our first year of marriage being done, we spent a lot of time with a lot of friends.

On Saturday night, our friends Wendy and Doug took us out. But first, they gave us a couple of anniversary gifts. We got a bottle of vodka (for JT) and an awesome Seahawks blanket that Wendy made (for Jennell, even though Wendy said she was looking to make an Ohio State one as well if she found the fabric).


So we went to downtown Charlotte (that was a big trip for them) to a place called Rock Bottom Brewery. And it was good. There was brick oven pizza, solid nachos, pasta and Hawaiian chicken. And plenty of brew to go around. Then, we headed to The Flying Saucer bar in the University area for a couple of more drinks and a couple of Woodchuck Ciders and Pear Ciders. And good thing there was one of those touch-screen bar games there. We played that for HOURS while drinking. It was a great night.

Sunday, we spent the day at the track with the Stroupes. Then, they took us out to Carrabas for our anniversary. They also gave us a very nice card and a cool little figurine. Then, they came back to Tiki Tan to see how it was progressing. The boys were asking all weekend what Tiki Tan looked like and how much they want to run the logo on their racecars. That should be cool once it gets done (come’on Dale).

So on Monday, our actual anniversary… we didn’t do anything! Ha! Well, we were planning to go out to eat, but decided to postpone it since we had eaten out the two nights before with our friends. So Sticky Fingers… we’re coming one of these nights.

We did exchange cards and gifts… kinda. We each gave our cards and Jennell gave me her gift to me… a couple of awesome Wii games that we played the rest of the night. She thought it was a lame present… but I loved it. If it is something we can enjoy together, then I liked it.

My present, well, it was supposed to be done before Monday night. Then maybe on Monday. Then, it got pushed back to Tuesday and Jennell finally got it on Wednesday. It’s a framed print that features our first dance photo in the middle, with a copy of our vows on each side above pictures of each other while the vows were being read. Its got a three-dimensional look to it. It really came out even better than I thought it would. I was happy with it and Jennell loved it.


We also got our frozen wedding cake out of the freezer and had some of it. Ok, so it wasn’t as good as a year ago, but I was still pretty good. And even better, we freed up all kinds of room in the garage freezer. *see Jeremy above enjoying his cake. He loves his cake.*

So we had a great anniversary, especially considering as busy as we’ve been lately.

There will be many more to come. And each one will continue to prove more and more people wrong. And we’ll be laughing together the whole way.

A Tiki Break: FOOTBALL SUCKS

Just giving everyone a little bit of a break from the Tiki Tan stuff. Even though it looks awesome and Jennell has been doing a hell of a job at keeping everyone updated, I thought I would just share a little bit of hardships through all of this Tiki Tan business.

Everyone knows... our household is football crazy. Well, Jennell didn't have the best years, with Washington State being a college football embarrassment and the Seahawks being only slightly better than that in the NFL. Her fantasy football team... well, they made it all year long, just skating by!

Well, Jeremy's teams were pretty good. Ohio State went 10-2 and ended with a huge win over Michigan. Ball State ended the year 12-0 and ranked in the top-15 in the AP poll. The Panthers were 12-4 and highly considered one of the two best teams in the NFL. And his fantasy team was always near the top of the standings.

Then... the wheels fell off. As Nate from Washington said... I might need to be on suicide watch after the last couple weeks.

First, the finals of the fantasy football season ended with Jeremy's team losing the championship by .4 points. Yeah, not even one full point. 0.4 points is 4 yards rushing or 4 yards receiving. Or one extra catch by a receiver.

Then, BAll State coughs up a big loss in the MAC Championship game. Then, Ohio State goes and loses yet another BCS game, this time to Texas. So more people can now make fun of Ohio State even more for losing another BCS game. Then, BAll State goes out and really chokes in their bowl game, losing about 140-14. It wasn't that bad, but might as well have been. Then, the biggest disappointment... the Panthers lose AT HOME to the crappy Cardinals. So in one week, all three of my favorite teams lost and i turned off two of the three games before they were even over in favor of playing Rock Band.

Needless to say, Greg Jennings (the Packers receiver who caught one pass for 2 yards in a meaningless game that cost Jeremy his fantasy championship), Colt McCoy (Texas QB), the entire Ball State team (choke) and Jake Delhomme (choke) won't be on my Christmas card list next year.

GOD I HATE FOOTBALL!!!!!

Still Working

Yes, we are still working in the salon and as usual all projects take twice as long as anticipated. The salon was open Saturday until 6 pm so Jeremy and I both went in in the morning figuring we could get a good portion of our weekend projects done by 6 or a little after.....well lets just say we spent 5 hours there on Sunday even after staying until 8 on Saturday night trying to get it done.

For the weekend we wanted to get the three remaining beds cleaned and ready to use, three beds needed new bulbs which we got on Friday and really wanted to at least get started on the bamboo.

We can officially say we know all the ins and outs of the tanning beds now. We can tell you where every little secret fan or compartment that collects dust and filth is. Seems like each time we would start on another bed we would find something else and have to go back to the other beds. It is really disappointing that the previous owner had no maintenance or cleaning habits. The beds really were disgusting and luckily the customers did not see what we saw when we took them all apart becuase they would not be tanning there. We have spent so much time cleaning every nook and cranny that the beds almost look new.

I swear every time you turn around you find more dust mites or dust bunnies....I don't think we will ever get rid of all of them. The dust and filth is really frustrating, not sure how anyone could spend that amount of money on equipment and then not take care of it.

Below are a couple of pictures of the beds and some of the layers of dirt. Some of the fans were almost solid with dirt...it really is amazing the beds were still working properly.

We had three beds that were way over due on new bulbs and let me tell you those are not cheap bulbs...and I was a little nervous and afraid we were going to break one. But we replaced all of them with no incidents.

All the acrylic tops and bottoms had to be cleaned and polished...boy that was a project in itself. But that stuff cleans up really nice and looks like new once you buff out any scratches. I am not sure my arms can take much more wax on--wax off though.

Jeremy got started on the bamboo and was pleasantly surprised that it installed fairly easy with some screws. It makes the front counter look so good....now if our formica would just come in we could have the counter done.

We decided that putting the bamboo half way up the walls in the entry way would look really good too. Jeremy was able to get about half of the bamboo up this weekend. And we both really like it.

So although it seems to be going slow and taking a lot more work than we thought it would, things are really starting to look good and come together. The place is really starting to look more like a place that would called Tiki Tan. We are getting a little tired of spending every waking moment there fixing and cleaning things, but we are both still very excited about the potential here.

**Special Note** Brutus is not enjoying us having the tanning salon so far. He is spending way too much time alone and man is he ever full of energy and wanting to play when we get home. He just does not understand why we have to be gone so much and then so tired when we get home.

Re-Opening

Monday, January 5th was our scheduled reopen and so reopen we did, with only half the salon painted and only three beds cleaned and ready to go.

Jeremy and I went in early to rehang doors on the three rooms that we had ready. We kind of figured the customers might want doors and handles that locked..haha.

Oh and naturally we didn't have any phone or internet because the previous owner went ahead and had everything disconnected and with the holidays the earliest the phone company could come out and turn things back on is Friday. No phone means no Credit Card machine and surprisingly the computer system for the tanning beds didn't work either and it is kind of hard to get fixed without phone lines or the internet. Luckily we were still able to turn the beds on with the remote timer system and we had to go old school and keep lots of spreadsheets with info on them. Again why would anything be easy or work right.




This is the biggest and fanciest bed that we have. It is really pretty nice, built in fans and radio.








Throughout the week Wendy would come in when she had time and help me paint trim around the doors and the floor. I was a little unsure of the yellow color that we picked for the hallways until we got the brown done, now I really like it. Nice contrast.

Jeremy also worked on getting the other three rooms with beds in them painted throughout the week. By Friday night he had them done and we were ready to clean the beds and change bulbs in three of the beds becuase again the previous owner had not maintained things as she should have. We also got our delivery of bamboo at the end of the week, so stay tuned for bed cleaning (some great pics), bulbs changing and bamboo installation.........

Tiki Tan Day 4

It is now Sunday and the painting continues....not exactly where we expected to be the day before we are scheduled to reopen. Thankfully the Stroupes have offered to help again today, and Tiki Todd is still hanging in there and helping every day. Everyone is starting to get tired of painting.

Yesterday we put Zach and Nick on the task of painting all the doors dark brown and as everything that didn't really go as planned. They painted for 3 hours and were only able to really get a couple of doors done. They were trying really hard just for some reason the doors did not want to cover with paint, they kept streaking and I think the boys were getting frustrated. So they politely commented that the next day they would like to paint some big areas like walls. Their wish was granted...we had them paint the two biggest walls in the front of the salon, little did they know those walls were going to take three coats of paint. Not sure which was worse, the doors that wouldn't paint or the three coats of yellow..haha.



"Nick do you think I have enough paint on this wall yet?"



"Zach I don't know....can you tell where I have painted? I am lost in all this yellow."

"Not sure what was wrong with the boys painting these doors or why JT couldnt get the sprayer to work....things seem to be going just fine for me."

Well after Saturday night and the unsuccessful door painting Mike and Jeremy decided to give the sprayer another try. After all we only needed to paint 11 doors. Between the two of them and some helpful advice from the hardware store right across the street, they were able to get the sprayer working good enough to do the doors. Mike ended up spending the entire day spraying doors and his shoes.

After getting a couple of the rooms painted Camie and I decided to start trying to get the beds clean, again we are supposed to reopen tomorrow so guess we better have a couple of beds ready.

"Come on Camie, you can do it, just lay in here and you can see all the filth!"




"Camie I think we are supposed to be cleaning, not taking a rest. I know we are all tired and sick of painting and cleaning, but really we still have a lot of work left to do."

So at the end of day 4 we had almost half of the salon painted, doors done and three rooms with beds cleaned and ready to be used. Guess that will have to work for the reopening. Stay tuned for more Tanning Salon fun.......

Tiki Tan Day 3

Yeah it is only the start of day 3 and we are already tired of painting. We make our morning trip to Lowe's to buy more paint and supplies....yeah the first day we bought all the gallons of flat paint they had and apparently the delivery truck doesn't come by there because every day since they have still been out. We have switched to Eggshell paint which we will most likely end up buying them out of at the rate we are going.

It is Saturday so The Stroupes are racing at Lowes for Winter Heat, which gives Jeremy a good excuse to get out of a little painting. He went back and forth to the track helping the boys and watching their races, although I will admit he really wasn't gone too much and probably made up for any missed painting later.

We did get a small glimpse of hope today.....when I started painting the first tanning room with the blue color that we had picked I was happily surprised that it seemed to be covering just fine with only one coat. What a relief.....let me tell you I was excited. As soon as Jeremy got back and I shared the good news we quickly starting changing our painting plans.....we really needed to paint more walls blue and less yellow. Which in the end really turned out well.

Once racing was done at Lowe's Stroupes and Dale came over to show off their painting talents....I think they may have been a little timid but they did a great job. Now Dale...he is like super painter, he took to the back wall and before we all knew it he was done with a nice blue wall. Not sure if he is for hire, but if you are looking for some help painting I would give him a call. I think his rates go down if you are a single female mid to late 30's.....haha.

We decided to put some blue in the front area...turned out really nice.


The original plan was to have a whole wall in each tanning room yellow, but since it was taking two coats and the blue only one....we opted for less then half a wall in yellow.

Tiki Tan Day 2

With the first day complete and a little more sleep we were ready to start the 2nd day of our fun. We still had no idea what we were in for.....the previous owners had the whole place painting in this really boring beige color, so we figured spend a little money on some paint to really liven the place up and improve it. Little did we know how much work this was going to be. I mean really we have painted some rooms in our house and that wasn't so bad, so how hard could it be. Plus Jeremy had done his research and bought a sprayer that didn't cost too much and was supposed to be decent.

As you can see, very plain and boring color for a tanning salon.

So we arrived earlier Friday morning to start the painting. We had bought our 15 gallons of paint, which we hoped would be enough and our sprayer....we were ready to tackle the painting. Well thats when things really started to go down hill. The sprayer was not working....it would spray really thick then really thin...not spray at all....or over spray onto everything in its path. Some of these problems we were expecting, but hoped we could get the thing figured out enough to cut down on our painting time and labor. Of course we would not get so lucky.....so reluctantly we broke out the rollers and took to the walls.....and yes things continued to get worse.

Wendy and I enjoying the physical labor...haha.

After a few sections of yellow on the walls we realized that this yellow was not goign to cover well enough with just one coat of paint, fantastic the work load just doubled, as well as our paint order. We hadn't bought nearly enough.

After about 8 hours of painting and two coats we were done with the hallway, great that only left 3/4 of salon to paint. We quickly realized this project of just painting was going to take waaayyy longer than planned.

Tiki Todd was the smart one...he stayed up front to continue working on the front counter area. He added some nice trim pieces and finished everything up so it is was just awaiting its formica top. Don't worry though, once Todd gets done with the counter we have plenty of rollers and paint that need done.

Tiki Tan Day 1

So for those of you who may be living under a rock...not really a bad idea...anyways I think I may have had a temporary loss of sanity and some how convinced Jeremy that we needed to take over a tanning salon that is just a few minutes from our house. Not really sure if we are entrepreneur's or just gluttens for punishment. And not really sure what Jeremy was thinking trusting me on this one and thinking it was a good idea too.....but either way we are now the proud owners of Tiki Tan with 6 tanning beds and 1 spray booth.



Since we finalized things with the previous owners on Decemeber 31st and needed to do some upgrades and improvements while also not closing the salon for too many days since clients had already paid for tanning, we again thought this through and decided that we would close the salon from Dec 31st and reopen on Jan 5. Who in their right mind would think you could get all this done in a matter of 4 days....and in case you are wondering...no you can't get it all done and we are still painting!

So the first day we had our friend Doug come and start on building us a new front counter desk area because it desperately needed something. Did I mention that Day 1 was Jan 1st....yes the day after our great New Years party where we didn't go to bed until about 3:30. Well Doug was smart and knew that we had a long day of work so he got to bed early and was ready to roll first thing in the morning. Needless to say Jeremy and I were just a little tired..and I seemed to have a terrible headache.


After Jeremy tore out the old counter we consulted with our General Contrator Doug and his always helpful assistant Wendy(not sure he really thinks she helps..haha) and decided that to properly build the new counter we needed to tear out this small section of wood flooring (really no idea why they had the section of flooring behind their counter) and also a couple rows of tiles.



Here I am supervising to make sure that Doug knows which tile to stop on...haha. Actually I was unable to help at this point because the loud hammering and chiseling was not helping out my unexplainable headache.




After a long day of hard work we have the base for our new counter area. It turned out great and is much more functional for the salon. Doug with the assistance of Todd did a great job.

Stay tuned for Day 2.........

We Are Still Alive

Yeah, we are still here even though it may seem like we have dropped off the face of the earth since we have not posted anything since before Christmas. Well we have had a very busy few weeks.

We headed out to Ohio on Christmas Eve to spend the holiday with Troiano's. (I really thought or hoped we were going to Ohio to see snow for Christmas, but no such luck! Guess it all went to Washington instead) Anyways we had a wonderful time in Ohio even without any snow. I can say I have officially met all the family now...and let me tell you it wasn't nearly as bad as Jeremy and Sandy thought it would be on me. There certainly were a lot of people and I probably couldn't remember half of the names....but it was nice to meet everyone.

Game Night is a tradition when Jeremy and Todd and are in town, so Friday night after Christmas we treated the family to Wii (since I had gotten one for Christmas and Jeremy and Todd had both given me games). Amy wasn't quite sure at first, she seemed a little intimidated, but by the end of the night she was laughing and enjoying it along with everyone.


Jennell and Steph doing some crazy dance moves from Ravin Rabbids (the most bizarre yet fun games)



Sandy and Amy getting ready to dance....they both look a little unsure.

We also went and watched Marley and Me while were there....I will just say we all cried, even John. I think Sandy and I pretty much bawled for the last 30 minutes or more. Seriously we all know what it going to happen do they really have to drag it out for sooooo long. It was a great movie though and some of the dogs and things Marley did really reminded us of our wonderful Brutus..haha.

We headed home from Ohio on Sunday...since we weren't getting any snow. Just a little rain and lots of wind.

Next came New Year's Eve....we had decided to invite all our friends to our house to ring in the new year, needless to say we didn't think this all through so we had only a couple of days to unpack, do laundry, clean the house, get food and stuff ready for the party....oh and finalize all the paperwork and details on the tanning salon (if you have no idea what I am talking about you soon will in another post coming soon). So we had a very busy few days, but things worked out well and all our friends seemed to have a great time or at least I am guessing the ones that stayed until 2:30 or 3 were enjoying themselves...haha. It really was great to have all our friends (well almost all our friends....wemoore :-) that are so special to us here to celebrate the New Year with us.



Scott Z, Nick and Camie Stroupe are trying to show us how to be a "Rock Band". And yes there was even some singing compliments of Danny and Jeremy.

Ok, so that is my brief summary of Christmas and New Year's.....no I am not the writer of the family so that is all you are getting out of me...haha.

Stayed tuned for "Tiki Tan"

And enjoy these "dancing" You Tube videos.