Week 4: day 2 - Installation part 1

So today my brother and I were at Rice&Strand by 8:30. We loaded up my car with accessories and the Unique Deliveries came and loaded up the vans, then we met them in Ogden and then the fun began...

Colonial Court

 We had to park on the street (including the delivery vans... so we got to carry everything all the way up to the entrance...

Me by the sign... I felt a little silly taking the picture

The sofas and the desk boxes were too big to get through the doors so I got to go to town with the Stanley Knife (which I bought during Tiny House Model making) and open everything. It was crazy getting everything in there and then making sure the coasters were still on the bottom of the chairs etc. We had to take the stretchers off the game tables so they could fit through the doors so we got to take those off and put them back on.  The trees were delivered too, it was fun to see everything that there was all together.

Lounge/Game room ... it was empty when we got there

I should have taken pictures of the crazy cardboard and packing material mess that was by the front door... which we then had to drag to the road and load up in the delivery van... not so glamorous.

Today was super tiring... a very 'behind the scenes' of Interior Design for sure. -We did what needed to be done... and we will be back there first thing tomorrow morning to make sure everything is put together and then get everything in the right places. Of course the art will ship tomorrow so that will have to wait but most things are there and ready to be arranged. Super excited to see everything come together but I know it is going to be a crazy couple of hours to make it happen.

On a side note...Colonial Court is just west of the Ogden Temple. They have fences with greenery woven in to block the view of the construction there. It looks like they are demolishing the parking structure right now.

Week 4: Day 1

No work today as it is Memorial Day. Click Here for some history of the day. One of my favorite poems is referenced on the site. It was written in reference to WW1:

We celebrated Memorial Day by having a bunch of our extended family over for lunch, and spending some quality time together. :)

Tomorrow is the long awaited installation of Colonial Court! Should be a crazy day. I need to be to work a half hour early, but then I should head back to Ogden.

Week 3: Day 5 - Half way through!

So I realized that today marked the half way point of my Internship at Rice&Strand! So crazy, I kept thinking that it was only the second week. Perhaps because this week was just one crazy day after another - with LOTS of furniture put together in the process.

Today was long. We spent most of the day putting together the game tables which match the stools, and a couple of book shelves. We ended up staying until 6 to make sure that it was all put together and the warehouse organized.

Today I found some blue and white wall paper and ordered some memo samples for my Boss's client. I also got to meet the area Rep for Gift Craft. She is super nice. My Boss ordered some accessories for the Parade of Homes house they are pretty sweet, I am excited to see it all come together.

Today was another day of firsts. Today was the first day since I started my internship where I sold someone something that wasn't in connection with any order or job for the other designers! A lady came in as we were finishing building something. It was just the two of us in the showroom so I went to help her. She was looking to redecorate and picked out two large glass vases and a floral arrangement. So I sold them to her! Woot! She is also interested in ordering some of the stools that we put together for Colonial Court but wanted to go home and think about that. I hope she comes back soon! The best part is that anything I sell I get commission on! The vases were on sale so I will only be getting 10% of the sale. But hey I am super excited!

So crazy story today... remember my darling baby birds.. well today they flew the nest. I was a little sad not to have them above our door anymore. Then towards the end of the day right after the lady left, I heard a bird chirping. It sounded like it was coming from inside the showroom but I hadn't seen any birds so I didn't think much of it. The a little bit later when my Boss came back, she heard it too and said that this wouldn't be the first time they had birds fly into the showroom. (Today we had the doors open all day) Well I kept hearing it and thought if there is a bird in there I have to find it and take it out right away, because it is a holiday weekend and it might not survive if I left it. So I went and got the ladder and was looking all over - even under the couches... then I was standing on the ladder and heard a small noise that sounded like dripping or something and looked down at the coffee table in the middle of the accessories. Here is what I saw...

Spot the baby bird...

My poor baby bird had somehow gotten in between the glass balls. So I grabbed the whole bowl and took it outside, moved a couple of the balls and the bird was able to fly away. I think it was a good thing that we would go look at the nest and talk to the birds every day so it wasn't freaked out by the sight/sound of us. We all had a good laugh about it. As I disinfected the bowl and balls.

So now I am free for the weekend. I am spending most of it down in Provo and then a family day on Monday. Then Tuesday I may be going into work early so I can help with the delivery by loading up my car with accessories, then I will meet our designer in Ogden and help with the install of Colonial Court! So exciting!

Week 3: Day 4

One brave baby bird on the edge of the nest

I have to start this post about by talking about my baby birds. They are darling. Mom and Dad bird were singing to them from a near by tree trying to coax them out of the nest. I don't think the babies are ready to leave the nest yet. I just hope that when they do that they all make it! I would be super sad if any of them got hurt!

Today we totally rocked the whole building furniture thing. I think my fingers may fall off at the end of the week... but we made great progress today and really only have a few more things to put together. That will be great then we won't have to work over the weekend or come in on Monday. I am looking forward to the holiday weekend!

I made a good number of phone calls today - mainly to reps. Also I was able to get a hold of a client to set an install date for the blinds I ordered and was able to call the installer in St. George to arrange the install. Hopefully that is able to go through.

We also got a couple of boxes from IMAX so more of the accessories are here for Colonial Court.
Some more RM CoCo fabric came today too. That is destined to become pillows. It is always fun when deliveries come. It is so fun to open the boxes - basically it is like Christmas every day!

Oh! We had a guy from Artistic (a custom framing store in Midvale) come and bring us some catalogs. I was just down there last Friday picking up some frame samples. I love the catalogs he brought - they showcased some local artists and their works that we could order prints of... but my favorite part was that we could have the picture printed on canvas, brushed aluminum, acrylic, art paper or ... bamboo! The different applications looked amazing!

In other news I finished the India part of 'Eat, Pray, Love'. Tomorrow I get to start reading about her adventure in Indonesia (I hope she throws some Indonesian words in there). I love summer because I let myself read books (other than textbooks). I usually don't let myself read during the school year because I find it hard to justify spending time reading when there are so many other things to accomplish... and that once I find a  good book - it can consume me for long periods of time. Other books on my list to read this summer are - The Chronicles of Narnia ( I read 1 and 2 last summer), the rest of the Books of Bayern (River Secrets is the next one), The Hunger Games, Three Cups of Tea, and I may need to read The Sunflower again... I love that book! Mm I LOVE reading!

Tomorrow I hope to accomplish - finding a blue and white wall covering for my Boss's client's bathroom, finishing putting together the rest of the furniture and clean everything up... and figure out my plans for the weekend!

Week 3: Day 3

Today's weather was in a word.... gorgeous. I am loving the sun shine! I started the day off by placing an order for some tables. Then got straight to work putting more side tables together.... I think between us we put together 7 tables today. Needless to say I am super tired!

The tables we put together today - notice the dolly and more boxes that I hauled up the driveway

You know the old adage that says do something every day that scares you, or learn something new every day or try something new every day... well today for the first time in my life I . . . jumped in a dumpster. Okay let me explain... it wasn't a real dumpster as it is a 'cardboard only' bin. Naturally when we put together the furniture we have to put the packaging somewhere. Unfortunately the real dumpster is full, and I really needed to get at least the boxes taken care of. Our 'cardboard only' was getting full so there was no way around it - I had to jump in and crush it down so I could get more boxes in. I did that twice today. Oh yeah, I am living on the edge : p All the styrofoam is getting piled up on the sides of the warehouse. So that makes it a fun game to try and move around in there too!

Another exciting event today was that our Kalalou order came! They have some very interesting products. My favorites are the objects made out of recycled glass. Here's a picture of most what came today:

I love the bright colors of Kalalou products! (notice the boxes in the back ground - yes  they were all flattened by yours truly and taken to the 'Cardboard Only' dumpster)

The floral candle holders are made of concrete, the penguins are carved wood and the interesting tall objects can be vases or flip them over and voila you have a candle holder! Other highlights from today were: hearing back from out new rep for Lorts. She is going to get the prices I needed for me. :) Also I used the credit card machine twice today! I was on my own the last little bit and I closed everything up today. Here was my view from the front desk... as much as I love summer - road works can be soo annoying!

Construction across the street

So all in all a very satisfying day - sun, very productive, good times. I also discovered that there are in fact 4 baby birds above the front door. I have started referring to them as 'my babies'. They really are cute now. Although my Boss has given them a deadline - she wants to redo the foliage above the door this weekend - although my guess is that if they are still in the nest she will let them stay.

As I was pushing another load of boxes up the driveway (I will have to take a picture of it so you can see how steep it is!) I was thinking about the objectives of the internship and what I was learning. Then it just kind of hit me that I was grateful for the experience and really I was there to 'do what needed to be done'. So  that is my new motto: Do what needs to be done.

Week 3: Day 2

I have to say that this weather is a bit ridiculous! Let's see, it is almost June and we are still getting crazy rain. Now I don't mind a bit of warm rain now and again but really when the visibility is bad, and there are two accidents on the way to work (thankfully I was not involved in any) I really think this needs to stop!

So once I made it to work I got to check on everything and clean up the showroom. After putting everything together lately, there were styrofoam bits all over - so vacuuming was in order. I cleaned up a little bit, put away the material books in the Materials Library, went around and turned on all the lamps, checked the ceiling for leaks, and manned the front desk until my boss came back from delivering the wall paper. Then... (thankfully the rain had stopped)... I drove down to VUZ in Draper for the Sherwin-Williams Faux Finish Open House. The ceiling in the main dining area was painted blue with white clouds. There was at least five different faux finishes in the Restaurant. Amazing really. Other finishing touches included vintage bread pans (apparently they were used to bake bread for the soldiers in WW2) and an Austrian Wine press from the 1800's. One of my favorite rooms was the reception/entry. The ceiling was amazing and the glass wall behind the reception desk was bright and beautiful. We were allowed to roam the restaurant, then there was a presentation on the Sherwin-Williams line on faux finishes. It was presented by Ed (edsherwin.blogspot.com)

Afterwards, I made it back to R&S, had a quick lunch (at VUZ they had fruit and a few finger foods - I didn't eat much as I don't care for mussels, and really wasn't feeling shrimp cocktail either) and then was back to answering the phone, cleaning things up, and picking the 'perfect' fabric to match a sample a client brought in. The color was in between a burgundy and a maroon, but I managed to find one that goes well with it. Hopefully she likes it too!

I was able to make some phone calls. I am trying to track down some pricing for a furniture line that we haven't ordered from in years. Our old rep is no longer with the company... so the search continues.

And of course, I put together a couple of cocktail tables. Tomorrow I will need to get on putting things together.... t-minus 1 week until installation!

ps. I saw our resident baby birds today. There are still three of them, and they are much cuter now. Pretty sure they are actually European Robins... not house Sparrows. Dad sat right outside and sang to us for a while. :)

Week 3: Day 1

Busy day!

Between us we put together 6 stools and a cocktail table. By the end of the week I am going to be a pro at putting together furniture... everything from the delivery last week has to be put together and ready for next Tuesday. It is going to be a challenge that's for sure!

I placed an order for blinds for our client's house in St. George, they faxed us back a confirmation page so it looks like we should be able to get the blonds and have them installed in about 3 weeks.

Today we had the correct fabric for a client's headboard delivered. Then we took both bolts of fabric to the upholsterer's to get started on those. The second headboard is going to be used in the home we are decorating for the Parade of Homes.Today we started planning out what we are doing for the Parade of Homes. Picking out furniture, bed spread and pillows, fabric, wall paper, and art. I am excited to see that all come together!

We had a few people come to the showroom just to look around. A couple of times I was sitting on the floor all tangled up in putting together a stool - not the most flattering position to be in, but what to do? I had a designer call ahead about a certain RM CoCo book that we had, so I got to search the material library until I found it. She came in and borrowed it. Tomorrow I should be placing an order for her. I actually really like placing the orders. It's fun to talk to people across the country. Oh that reminded me, we had three pieces of furniture delivered by Ideal Transport. Their driver is from North Carolina - so he had a really fun accent!

Tomorrow I am going to the showroom like normal but at 11am I am going to an open house in Draper for Faux finishes sponsored by Sherwin-Williams again so I am super excited about that!