Ketchup

Oh me on my, how the time does fly
The time and the river keep rolling on by

Ironic how the more we do the less we seem to write about it. Much has happened during the past...has it really almost been two weeks? We'll do our best to get you caught up on all that's transpired. Since we last gave entry we had an opportunity to meet face to face with our potential landlord. The meeting was short but polite and gave each party the chance to get a feeling for the other's needs and desires. We felt particularly good about the meeting given that the landlord sweetened the deal once again by offering us additional concessions in the forthcoming lease- concessions we neither asked for nor expected. While we did not succeed in legally locking up the space for 30 days as we had previously hoped we were able to obtain keys to the building so that we could complete an accurate design and construction audit while the lease is still being drafted. Essentially what we need to do at this point is to formulate a detailed financial inventory for the purpose of knowing exactly how much capital it's going to take to transform the space into "the cafe."
Feeling as though our potential careers were only a few weeks from fruition we decided to make the most of our weekend and get our of town for a few days so we could think creatively about the final touches of our concept. Central Oregon was the obvious destination in our minds as it is an area we have enjoyed many times over in the past though have been unable to visit as much as we would like. Our "weekend"turned into a five night stay as we found little reason to return to Portland given we were unable to schedule any workers for the space until the middle of this past week. As usual the cabin restored us, and made us as eager as ever to begin working long days and nights in the pursuit of attaining our dream.
Our first few days spent working on our design and construction audits quickly introduced us to some of the difficulties and expenses one can incur when attempting to collaborate with other professionals. After spending so many months living, working, and talking about the restaurant with one another, it has been difficult getting used to the idea of tailoring certain parts of the design process to the schedules of others. We learned very quickly that we're going to have to rely on our creativity in order to make the most of our limited design budget. This weekend a family friend who happens to be a commercial real estate attorney is going to read thru our lease draft and give us feedback on how the language of the lease could be change to ensure us legal protection.
We hope that by the end of next week we will know whether or not the deal we shook on with the landlord will materialize. Once again we are faced with the cold truth that any verbal agreement that we have come to during the last five weeks of negotiation means nothing unless we can get in put into writing. It is difficult to convey how taxing this can be emotionally to know that there is nocertainty whatsoever that our hard work and future will pan out the way we've imagined. Though it's been a trying process at times it has also provided many opportunities for learning and currently we both feel optimistic about all of our future possibilities and hope that our positive attitudes and karma will assist us in the following days. That being said, be sure to check back in with us as the optimism does seem to come and go...