Well, there’s a very exciting development on the salon management front. Co-owner Dan Schillecihas returned from his tour of duty in Iraq. He returned July 3, then took a well-earned vacation to Fiji before coming back for good and getting into the swing of things. It’s so great to have him here again.

We both just went to a great meeting with John Pohlen of Salon Equipment International. We went through each piece of furniture again; now all the rough sketches will go on the computer, then the shop drawings will be done for us to look at and make any changes before our custom pieces are built. All of the pieces will be made out of plyboo (laminated bamboo plywood), since I want a green salon. All the countertops, and the manicuring tabletops, are glass. I feel like everything is coming together now. Dan’s also finally seen the site, and he’s very happy with it.

Regarding the permit, it should come very, very soon. We had to make one more change to the plans for the city. Because of the outdoor patio on the roof, the city required us to add an extra staircase as an emergency exit. It caused us to lose some space on the second floor, but luckily it doesn’t affect the service area. Essentially, it just shrunk my and Nadine’s offices.

The only thing we’re waiting for now is for the city to ensure that none of our neighbors have an objection to our building location. Basically the city sends out letters to all of our neighbors, and they have 15 days in which to respond if they have a problem. I think everything should be OK with our building, and we should have the permit really soon.