calling all DONATIONS

as you are turning over your wardrobe from summer to fall-- bring your DONATIONS to salvation army every saturday from 9am-4pm at 3610 n. elm street [salvation army SELECT].

your donations are helping us help others.

news + record article

follow the link to the news + record to read up on an article written on august 30th!

build process week of 8.31-9.4

dry-walling has begun! the front of the store's walls has been complete and it looks like they moved down some electrical outlets that were placed in the middle of the wall towards the bottom. now they won't interfere with the mural that will be placed along the back wall where the cash wrap will be placed. the only thing i have a question on- is the drop ceiling in the middle. it appears as if they only dry-walled the sides but the ceiling is still at its original 12' not the 11' it is supposed to be-- i'll have to check on that tomorrow.

meanwhile...here are some pictures of the store:

view from store's entrance

view from side entrance

tomorrow we have a meeting with the new store committee of the salvation army. the purpose of this meeting is to get the managerial duties started in order to have the store up and running by mid october. i will also update them in terms of the construction process, budget, exterior signage [because we need to get that approved before we can order the sign], and the long term schedule.

build process week of 8.24-8.28

i stopped by the store today to check on the progress of construction- and i was very excited to see that the wall has been demolished! just by knocking down two portions of the wall- it completely opens up the space. all the framing is complete and passed inspection today. drywall is expected to start the end of this week or the beginning of next. the secondary drop down ceiling has also been installed.

view of front of store from store's entrance
note:: the wall that separated the two leased spaces have been removed! :)

newly paved ramp at the drop off area

children's section

dressing rooms

the wall in the backroom that has finally been removed!

build me up buttercup... build process week of 8.17-8.21

matt and i visited the site earlier this morning to check in with the process of te construction and talk with the contractor on site. as of now- they are framing the interior walls for the dressing rooms, bathrooms, office, and lounge. it is very exciting to see it all come together. we are going back to site early next week to take some more pictures and talk with the contractor on a more finalized schedule of their work so we know when we can come in and start installing our fixtures.

matt and i have been working on flyers and a temporary sign to be placed on the road sign by the store to start informing the public of the new store opening. [graphic will come later.] we are also in the process of putting a schedule together for us so we know when each stage of the project will be complete. more of that later to come...

entrance looking left

entrance looking center by the bathrooms and dressing rooms

entrance looking center where the cash rap will be placed

entrance looking right where the children's section will be plus the women's section that will be placed where the wall will be demolished

dressing room framing

bathroom framing

back entrance for the donation drop off from the interior

standing by the back entrance looking towards the front of the store

standing in the back looking towards the office and lounge

back entrance for the donation drop off

median for possible placement of donation drop off sign

FINAL drawings

yesterday marked the last day of classes and the end of PHASE 1- design complete! the images below explain our design of the sales floor and back room. the back of the house is an area that we will be working on a little bit more by collaborating with the existing manager at the lee street location to ensure an efficient working space. so now PHASE 2 begins....

store axonometric view

view from entrance-- cash wrap

view of women's and children's section from entrance

view of children's section

view of entrance and women's section from cash wrap

view of men's section from cash wrap

working up a storm

debbie and i have been hard at work this week preparing for final presentations next tuesday. we are also busy getting our boards ready to print so that the salvation army can use them this weekend during a donation drive at the grasshoppers game.

this axon view shows the entire store where the renderings will focus mainly on the sales floor.

update on schedule!

as thesis is coming to the end [yay!] we are preparing for our final presentation and completing our presentation drawings for our review on july 28th. matt and i have been busy this week deciding on color and material applications for the store as well as details for the store fixtures. we are planning to have our presentation boards completed and printed by this saturday because the salvation army is having an event at the greensboro grasshoppers baseball game this saturday and we wanted to have the boards there to promote the new store.


last friday we had a meeting with salvation army in which we discussed the project schedule from now until the opening so we had a better idea as to what our fall was going to look like since matt and i are planning on seeing this project to the end. we are currently waiting on approval for the budget from the salvation army headquarters so we can go ahead and tell our contractor to proceed with the construction. we hope to receive approval within the next week and have the design sent to the city with their approval. within the next couple weeks-we hope to have the construction up and running and lasting for around 5 weeks. then for the next 4 weeks- we will be detailing the interior: painting, merchandising...etc and this is when matt and i will be building the built in fixtures that will be placed along the wall and in the middle of the sales floor. then we are shooting to have a soft opening sometime in the beginning of october and grand opening in mid october-- yay! cross your fingers all goes according to plan....

gate city signs meeting

as we get closer and closer to the opening date- we realized we need to step outside of the store walls and consider the exterior signage for the building. matt and i had a meeting with gate city signs today to discuss our ideas and some of the options we have for signage. even though the name of the store isn't completely decided yet- we can still move forward with gathering options. as of now- the name that we are leaning towards is the salvation army SELECT store.

during our meeting with jim from gate city signs- we were able to show him our design ideas and discuss our options according to our designs. he was extremely helpful and very informative about the directions we could take- all depending on budget [of course!]. the first thing we needed to check on is the exterior signage guidelines established by the building's leasing company. some places only allow signage with a raceway [which is a strip in which is attached to the building and then attached to the letters] or just have the channel letters applied directly to the facade. we also have the option of having some or all of the sign be lit up during the night.

we discussed a lot about the main sign [ideas shown below] but we also discussed the secondary sign to direct donors to the donation center. jim suggested the idea of not placing the donation center sign on the front of the building but rather placed in the ground so it doesn't take away from the main sign.

we will meet with them again soon-- but first things first....we need a name!!

budget meeting

Yesterday morning Debbie,Suzanne and I meet with Major Egan and Ivan at the Center for Hope, to discuss the quote that Bob Isner had prepared for our plans thus far. All things seem in order to begin construction. We discussed having The Salvation Army contact directly the suppliers that Bob works with to see if they could reduce the costs of these materials for the cause. We contacted Bob this morning to ask him to e-mail this information to us. Also Ivan is contacting several members of the board to acquire donations of goods or services. Debbie and I are preparing a budget for the Major so he may acquire the necessary funds. So far so good, with a few more signatures we should be ready for ground breaking.